Aftermarket deck + stock speakers = what?

[SHO2NV]

I'm thinking about getting a new deck and running all the stock speakers, my box, and amp off of it. I want to do this to get away from the bass depleting stock deck. How will it sound? If it's gonna sound like bung I might just wait till I can replace all the stock speakers. Thanks.

 

[2tochoose]

It should sound alright I just replaced the deck in my 94 still have the factory speakers including the subwoofer and it sounds real nice

 

[NorthernSHO]

I replaced my factory deck with a 200 watt JVC unit and left the factory JBL speakers and subwoofer and I think it sounds pretty good in my 94. For a little added bass I added a 8" bass tube that I had lying around and spliced it into the factory sub amp and it sounds pretty decent.

I'd replace the deck, see what you think, and if you don't like the sound then replace the speakers.

Good luck!

 

[Tillong]

Just a thought, but alot of aftermarket headunits require that the amp powering the cabin speakers be disconnected. My sony head unit over powered the amp in the trunk. If you plug in your new head unit and it doesnt work don't be disappointed get a Ford Premium Amp Bypass kit (or you can splice the wires together yourself if your feeling a tad bored).

Paul

 

[SHO2NV]

Thanks for the help guys, looks like I'll just replace the deck and go from there.

 

[RTStabler51]

John, bypassing the amp will not hurt sound or anything, but yet it will sound much better. In my Gen II I had the amp bypass harness, which you just unplug the two plugs (on each side of the amp), and plug the bypass harness into them. Easy as cake. Might have to go to a speciality stereo shop to get one tho. I doubt best buy has them......

 

[RTStabler51]

Oops, DP

<small>[ June 05, 2002, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: RTStabler51 ]</small>

 

[jcostantino]

Crutchfield sells a bypass harness... I can get the P/N if anyone wants it. Running the speakers off the head unit's amp is 1000x better than using the stock amps.. You'll just have to use a seperate amp to power the sub... you "might" be able to power the sub from the stock sub amp tho..

Jeff

 

[SHO2NV]

Cool, if you can get the PN that'd be great. I already have an amp for the subs, so if the new head unit will power the stock speakers and sound good than that will be sweet. Will it have enough power to run the stock sub?

 

[Ian Macoomb]

jcostantino:
Crutchfield sells a bypass harness... I can get the P/N if anyone wants it. Running the speakers off the head unit's amp is 1000x better than using the stock amps.. You'll just have to use a seperate amp to power the sub... you "might" be able to power the sub from the stock sub amp tho..

Jeff

I disagree. The stock amps put out what 20 watts a channel? I think that's what I read. Now an aftermarket claims to put out 50-60 watts per channel... but at what level of distortion???
That's 50 watts maximum at full volume pumping out heavy distortion. Compared to a real amplifier spec they put out about 13 watts RMS at a reasonable distortion level.

Without increasing the voltage it can't do any better than that into a 4 ohm load. In order to raise the voltage it needs a transformer and most don't have any transformers the last time I checked. Plus there are problems with heat if a headunit were to put out much high power than that. I've been out of the car audio scene for a while but I don't think that they've made any class D headunits yet.

So basically, an aftermarket head, will give you flashy looks, neat gimmicks, maybe mp3 compatibility and possibly worse sound. Upgrading the speakers sounds like a smarter idea to me.

That's my partially educated 2 cents. Take it as you will.

 

[wuzzzer]

In my 93 I had an Alpine CD deck, Rockford Fosgate Punch Power 12", and an Alpine 600 watt mono amp running the sub only. All other speakers were factory.
It sounded good enough for me!

 

[jcostantino]

According to this link at shotimes.com the factory JBL amp is 15 watts RMS per channel. I don't mean to crap on the factory JBL equipment, it serves its purpose over the built in amplification provided in the basic non-JBL radio/tape deck. I had a real hard time getting the factory setup in my 95 to get loud without distorting so I removed all the stock junk and replaced it with brand new speakers and head unit.

My Aiwa CDC-MP3 is 22 watts RMS per channel built in and sounds better and louder than what it replaced plus it has the added benefit of being able to hold 500+ songs on a CD.

I eventually will replace the internal amp of the deck with a 4 channel amp but until then it sounds great but I can't crank it too loud without distorting (I have passive x-overs on the 4 speakers) but it gets plenty loud. It sounds much better than the factory output too.

By the way, Crutchfield's amp bypass harness is catalog # 120705004 and the speaker adapters are 12071023.

Jeff

<small>[ June 09, 2002, 11:46 PM: Message edited by: jcostantino ]</small>

 

[Ian Macoomb]

jcostantino:
According to this link at shotimes.com the factory JBL amp is 15 watts RMS per channel. I don't mean to crap on the factory JBL equipment, it serves its purpose over the built in amplification provided in the basic non-JBL radio/tape deck. I had a real hard time getting the factory setup in my 95 to get loud without distorting so I removed all the stock junk and replaced it with brand new speakers and head unit.

My Aiwa CDC-MP3 is 22 watts RMS per channel built in and sounds better and louder than what it replaced plus it has the added benefit of being able to hold 500+ songs on a CD.

I eventually will replace the internal amp of the deck with a 4 channel amp but until then it sounds great but I can't crank it too loud without distorting (I have passive x-overs on the 4 speakers) but it gets plenty loud. It sounds much better than the factory output too.

By the way, Crutchfield's amp bypass harness is catalog # 120705004 and the speaker adapters are 12071023.

Jeff

I've been told the amp in the Gen III is good for 20x4. Did it get more power? I don't know.

Anyway, don't believe everything the manufacturers state when it comes to headunits. Does Aiwa back it's power statements with the full details like THD, frequency, input voltage etc?