Well, I bought some 4-way Pioneer 6x8 and 6.5" speakers from sounddomain.com the other day. These speakers are made for Ford/Mazda cars.

 

Do you still have the factory radio? I personally love my 6disc indash changer. I just bought some new speakers (see post above), and I plan on keeping the factory radio.

 

I feel ya mnkyboy!! I want to replace my stock system, but I want to keep my stock head unit. Unless of course there is a better, aftermarket 6 disc in dash changer. By the way, how do the Pioneer's sound? I don't know exactly which brand to go with. Thanks in advance!

 

Well, I just ordered them form sounddomain.com. I listened to them at BestBuy, and they sounded great. I have owned Pioneer speakers before, and they give you the best bang for your buck, IMO. All four speakers cost $98 shipped. Sounddomain.com pricematched them from etronics.com.

If you are looking at the Pioneers, make sure you get the 4-way 6x8. I noticed a big difference between the 3-way and 4-way.

 

pr5owner did replace his deck. However, me, Sir Nuke, arl240 and several others have lept the stock deck and have been very happy. Search for posts by Sir Nuke on his install, he did a really nice amp/new speakers/sub setup. I did an amp/small powered sub deal but haven't replaced the factory speakers (yet). Search on space saving bass or wOOx for my comments. The stock deck is fine, but is definitely lacking in power. An external amp really helps out here. The stock speakers sound 100 times better with more power, but you will still do better replacing them.

Dale.

 

haha no, i got the base model stereo system, and i riped eveyrthing out like the day i got the car. i sold the HU to some guy in hawaii (through ebay)

 

How much power does the stock HU have anyway? I just plan on replacing the factory speakers first. That will make a difference.

You said Sir Nuke has a thread about his setup? I have to try and find it. I didnt know you could setup an amp with the stock HU.

 

I believe some bench tests were done that show a max output of 14 watts per channel, with serious distortion kicking in at about 10 watts (making the other 4 watts basically unuseable speaker killing "power")

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I just plan on replacing the factory speakers first. That will make a difference.

To an extent, yes. But you would get a much better bump in sound quality and output by simply using an amplifier on the stock speakers. Best, of course, is an amp AND new speakers. You might notice better clarity with new speakers alone, but the volume level will still be about the same. And if you crank the stock head unit into those distortion level above 10 watts or so, you'll fry even the best speakers.

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You said Sir Nuke has a thread about his setup? I have to try and find it. I didnt know you could setup an amp with the stock HU.

You certainly can have a great setup with the stock deck as the source. Some amplifiers will accept the speaker wires as inputs. The other route is a line-out converter (LOC) which converts the speaker leads into RCA's, allowing hookup to nearly any amplifier. It has been done with great success by many people.

~HH

 

Is it possible to know when you reached those 10watts by looking at the volume level indicator? Meaning, has anyone analyzed the watts at each volume indicator level?

 

Not sure - but that would be good information to have, huh?

But basically, all you need to know is that when the speakers start to distort and sound like crapola, you've reached the limits of the head unit's useable power. Same holds true for 10 watts from the internal amplifier of decks, and 2000 watt outboard amps. The consequences of overdriving any amplifier is distortion - which kills speakers.

As long as you don't hear the music breaking up and sounding like garbage, you're pretty safe.

~HH

 

YEP YEP YEP...I got the stock 6 disc changer...and wanted to keep it....I did a bit of research and talk to a real Pro about what I could do to get what I wanted out of my system. I kept the stock head unit....installed an Alpine 5 channel amp ( 40 w/channel RMS X 4 and 120 w RMS for the sub)....I replaced all the door speakers with rockford fosgates, 5 X 7's in the front and 6 1/2's in the rear doors.... oh yeah....the mounting depth IS only 2 1/2" for the front and you can easily mount something as deep as 4 inches in the rear doors..and the window would never hit it. I did some experiments back there and took a lot of measurements. I also put a JL Audio 10W0 powerwedge sub in the back. The amp accepts speaker level inputs and the system rocks.

best off....when some scum bag looks in the car to see if he wants to jack my system...all he sees is the stinkin stock deck....and not much of a call for those....

:{D

 

I replaced my factory speakers too. I went to a local Circuit City, planning on getting either Infinity's or Alpine's, and they had some of last years MTX's sitting there. They were priced at half of what the other brands were, so I decided to give them a try. When the salesman rang them up, they were reduced even further...... so I got a pair of 5x7's and a pair of 6 1/2's for $42 and change out the door! I know that the MTX's arent quite as good as Infinity, but they sound a hell of a lot better than the muddy stock speakers, and for $42, I couldn't go wrong. Considering I was ready to blow $200, it turned out really well. Now for the amp and sub to the factory 6 disc.......

I am going to post some picts of some vintage audio stuff I had in my garage, some of the audio nuts might like to see this stuff.

 

Sir Nuke, do you have any detailed info on your amp setup posted anywhere? How is the amp connected to your stock unit? If you could lead me to this info, or PM, that would be great. Thanks