azoufan

I have a good connection and got 2 sets of Rockfor Fosgate Power 6x8's. I installed them all last night (the guys at the factory must have been laughing their asses off about the thought of people having to replace the rear speakers). Anyway, the sound is 100% better, but still kind of "flat". I've had a few sound systems with amps and they obviously sound a lot different and much tighter / better.

So the question is, how difficult is it to go the amplifier route? I have the factory Shaker 500 deck, factory door subs and the 2 new sets of 6x8's. I don't want to get involved in tearing this all apart again to install crossovers and all that crap, I have never understood how that all works. But the underlying principal is wondering how difficult it all is? Just looking for a simple amp to clean up the sound but leave the factory deck and door subs, but not wanting to get too deep into this. Will it still require crossovers and fuses and probably new door subs, etc. etc. etc.? I don't want to open a can of worms, I just want to get it a little better than where it is today.

Appreciate the input and guidance!

dan06gt

azoufan,

I was in the same boat. I replaced my factory 6x8s and still felt the system was like you said "flat". I went with a replacement head unit (Pioneer AVH-P3200BT) and the PAC C2R-FRD1 wiring harness, and honestly I couldn't be happier. The install was very easy, and the head unit has a equalizer and built in crossovers which allows you to really tweak things to your liking. The big thing for me was the ability to control the level of door subs separate from your 6x8s to get the right amount of bass. The high pass crossover on the 6x8s lets them produce crisp mids and highs without being distorted by bass they can't reproduce any way. So my vote is head unit first. Hope this helps.

azoufan

Yeah, I was wondering that as well. I've had a few stereos stolen in my day, so I'm big on keeping the factory head unit, and was hoping when I first ordered the car that the Shaker 500 head unit would be powerful enough to allow me to have a decent sound system. As with any mod, once you start with a little, you get hooked and go crazy.

For me, I know that I would want a double din unit, and then I would want iPod / mp3 player integration, and then nav, etc. etc. etc. now I'm at $700 - $1200 for a new head unit.

Great feedback on the difference with the sound from the new head unit. I struggle with the thought of buying a new head unit and only getting the new interface or possibly nav, but then still having to buy an amp, then I'm just going down the road of a huge investment in the stereo, which just isn't my priority these days.

I knew I should have never bought those speakers...

dan06gt

azoufan,

I understand that and thought the same thing about keeping the factory head unit, but the more I read about the subject the better solution it seemed to be. I issue with the factory head unit is that it doesn't have any pre-amps out to drive a external amp so your stuck trying to work out something with that. Maybe someone like PAC makes a adapter to give you pre-amps out from your speaker level outputs on the Shaker 500 but it seems that those types of adapters never give the best sound quality.

I paid $350 for my Pioneer AVH-P3200BT new off of Ebay it is double-din, has IPod integration, USB, Blue Tooth, AUX in, touch screen, DVD playback, and you can add NAV for around $200. To me that's a big bang for the buck.

The trouble we get ourselves into with our first mods lol.