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Anybody Have A Sound System With Stock Headunit?


Noahkk19

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I remember making a thread a loooooooooong time ago seeing what I can do with a limited amount of money $300...But was advised I wouldn't really get that great of a quality if I were to leave my stock head unit in with getting pretty cheap components for a system...

Well since I have a job and a nice girl to help, haha, my price range has multiplied a few times...And I'm really personally not looking to try to get a new headunit, I'm not too fond on the looks of aftermarket headunits, but before I got started on brain storming I was wondering if anyone was brave enough to leave their stock head unit in and able to integrate their system to it well... :)

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I remember making a thread a loooooooooong time ago seeing what I can do with a limited amount of money $300...But was advised I wouldn't really get that great of a quality if I were to leave my stock head unit in with getting pretty cheap components for a system...

Well since I have a job and a nice girl to help, haha, my price range has multiplied a few times...And I'm really personally not looking to try to get a new headunit, I'm not too fond on the looks of aftermarket headunits, but before I got started on brain storming I was wondering if anyone was brave enough to leave their stock head unit in and able to integrate their system to it well... :)

Stock HU is fine unless you want to make a competition system, even then...I'm assuming, I've only dealt with other car manufacturers, figure Volvo also wouldn't have a problem.

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You might look at the JL Audio Clean Sweep, http://www.jlaudio.com/press/CleanSweep05.html

Thats going to cost a lot more then an Alpine and a din pocket.

Also the previous statement about "competition"... huh??? I think of aftermarket headunits as the easy alternative to getting preout signals... I by no means am looking for a SQ/SPL contest. Deffinetly go aftermarket, just get something with class. Alpine is my brand of choice, but thats personal preference.

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Thats going to cost a lot more then an Alpine and a din pocket.

Also the previous statement about "competition"... huh??? I think of aftermarket headunits as the easy alternative to getting preout signals... I by no means am looking for a SQ/SPL contest. Deffinetly go aftermarket, just get something with class. Alpine is my brand of choice, but thats personal preference.

I just picked up a slightly used 9835 for mad cheap at my local stereo shop. It has way more features than the Sc-816 and I can hook up my ipod to it. I am curious though as to how the speakers will sound with a little more power running to them.

Eric

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You can, and instead of a clean sweep, just build or buy one of those 4ch addapters I have on my site. cheap and actually pretty clean outputs, only 1v, but still better than any line level conversion. (although the cleansweep is pretty freakin nice)

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if u keep stock hu and add no amp, find some speakers that will provide good bass. esp since no subwoofer is added.

if u want to power the speakers with an amp while maintaining the stock hu, then follow anthony's instructions. simple enough. i had that for about 2 yrs b4 i went with an aftermarket hu. stick the amp somewhere out of sight..and u can hook up just about any speaker. only prob i had was the front door wiring. i just used the stock wires for that.

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In my last car which was a Civic I had a high/ low converter to run an amp and sub combo. That sounded "alright" but not great, by any means in that car. After an idiot in a 300z totaled my car I got the Vo'...same setup on stock deck sounded much more precise and boomy then the stock Civic deck. Now mind you after I got an Alpine head unit in my Civic it was a like 10x better, not saying that the Volvo deck is good enough but it is a good deck as it is, an aftermarket deck would probably raise it from a 6 to a 10 on a "teh isht" scale. :)

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:) ok after reading this I am convinced that I can puill off a stock HU set up..when im not drunk i'll be able to ask better questions and learn better...soooo tomorrow i'll be able to get a further better idea of what the hell im lookin for,....cant wait to have a system in my car :)

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Thats going to cost a lot more then an Alpine and a din pocket.

Also the previous statement about "competition"... huh??? I think of aftermarket headunits as the easy alternative to getting preout signals... I by no means am looking for a SQ/SPL contest. Deffinetly go aftermarket, just get something with class. Alpine is my brand of choice, but thats personal preference.

I think that the JL Clean Sweep is a bit of overkill for this application. I'd go out and get Anthony's amp to rca converter and run the rca's back to the amp. Your best bet however would be to just get a new headunit with a higher preamp voltage. Brand does not necessarily matter, just pick something that you like with a nice preamp.

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Noah, easy solution...i had a system on my OEM for a while, installed myself. I got a low pass filter/adapter made by DEI I think it is called. Costs $15. Tap into the rear deck speaker wire on the back of the OEM HU with that, and now you have filtered subwoofer output behind your OEM headunit. Run your RCA cable to the trunk to connect to your amplifier. Run your battery cable to the trunk to power the amp, and of course find a good ground. Then, all you need is a decent box and sub and amp, and you'll have "decent" sound coming out.....

Mine sounded good enough for me, and now that I switched to aftermarket, it sounds much better, but not saying that I was not happy with the sound from the OEM....

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its all relative my man...

depend son your taste.

in some senses, its like asking, can i build a bad jerk car but keep the stock suspension, tires and wheels?

well, sure, you CAN, and if you arenot into that great of performance, you will be fine with 300 horsepower and stock tires and rims and suspension..

but for some, who desire greater handling and control, they would want to swap those out as well...

similar thing, to me, using the stock headunit to do a system, is like placing a big bottleneck to sound quality right from the beginning, and i would never do it...of course the JL clean sweep is nice, but its also pricey, and IMO is designed specifically cfor those cars that cannot take a aftermarket headunit easily...i.e. mazda rx8...

b

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Well if I can be convinced that the car won't look ugly, I wouldn't mind getting a HU if it's not too costly...Mind you I had a friend pay around $650 total for a system in his 95 850glt and he put a new HU in, and I didn't take too much fancy to it, it's actually the same one that's in my temp. truck...I just don't like all the space that's missing when a HU is installed

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