I have a 2004 Sedan without Bose stereo. I plan on upgrading my front speakes to components and regular 6.5 in the rear doors and a 10 inch subwoofer and adding 2 different amps offcourse.
Will it sound good with the stock headunit or not?
ANd would it sound better it I had the bose head unit?

Any info would be appreciated..thanks

 

Don't install the bose if you don't already have it. Doing that is like breaking all your fingers when you've already broken your arm.

It will sound fine with the stock head unit if done properly, which includes possibly needing an EQ. Lots of people say they like the sound just fine without an EQ, others say it needs one. It's all about your ears and what you like.

I'd also suggest doing a [search] because the questions of Bose/not-bose using stock HU/not using stock HU, how to hook it all up, whether to use an EQ, JL CleanSweep, LOC or PAC AOEM-NIS2 have all been covered before with lots of excellent feedback.

Good luck!

 

What you're planning on doing can be made to sound very good - your biggest challenge is the amp-OEM HU integration.

What amps are you planning on using, and are you doing this yourself, or are you having it done? (If the latter, where/by who?)

 

I have the Bose Headunit. I tried to do exactly what your about to do. I put 6.5 comp. speakers along with a 12"sub. a 4ch amp and a audio control lc6 unit so i was able to run my amps...etc.. Depending on how your ears are. Mine are ****. After I did that whole set up I was so disappointed on how it sounded. It sounded better stock. The only real difference was it had more bass. But sounded like crap. I was going to get a JL cleansweep to clean it up a bit but i went a different route. I took it all out and now I have the Audiobug and i wish i never touched my stock system. Now, it is in serious construction and i am spending in excess of $7000 just to make sure that my system sounds not good but excellent. I have had many systems throughout my life and I usually keepem simple, but quality, and usually pretty expensive. For my G... I'm gonna get me some tunes that'll be pretty sick. The first thing...is a headunit. The headunit makes the system. I really don't care what anyone else says. U can have a (good) system with your stock headunit. I would say it is between fair and good stock. But if you really want your system to sound right, you need to change your headunit. Save your money and get a headunit first. And that's all i Have to say...LOL

 

Sigh. Aside from telling everyone how **** you are and how much money you spend, there isn't much hard data in here. The LC6 was un-needed, for one thing. The HU has a preamp output. It may be balanced, but it's preamp, and it's flat, and it's full-range. I've used the LC6, and the Soundgate/Navone LOCHVA, and they are not needed in this application. Maybe an LOCB - maybe (depending on the amp - and we don't know what you used, nor your speakers either).

It's true that aftermarket HU's can sound better than stock HUs. That doesn't mean that serious upgrades can't be made with the stock HU. The HU makes the system? Hm. It's a link.

Any upgrade that sounded worse than stock was done incorrectly, and possibly incompetently - I don't care what anyone else says.

At my shop we do OEM HU upgrades all the time, and offer a 30-day money-back, no-hidden-holdback-charges guarantee - if it doesn't fulfill your expectations, we refund all your money and return the whole thing to stock.

But make sure you work with a shop that understands audio and electronics and OEM systems.

 

Sorry. I am not questioning your intelligence nor am i a stereo store owner and i don't work at one. Nor do eat sleep or shiet stereo, but......I didn't say you couldn't make upgrades or serious upgrades with the stock H/U. I said that it wouldn't sound right unless you did. Now your gonna tell me that you build or have built systems that have retained the stock headunit and sound so great that "you" yourself would have one of these systems without changing the H/U?...I don't think so. But I am sure you have built and I have heard some systems sound great with the stock unit ,but as soon as the stock unit is changed and the rest of the equipment is still the same with no modifications those same exact systems now sound 10X better...A link...Yea the missing one......That's all.

 

El duderino...where are you located, i have some questions about a set up in my new 6mt. thinking of just doing a sub and amp and keeping all else the same, or seeing if i replace the whole bose completely. i've got a jl10w7, jl500/1 amp, also an xtant3300c amp, jl vr600- cs 6 inch components, and an eclipse head unit, but i was thinking of just doing the jl sub and amp, and just selling the rest of my equipment...or do you think i should use all of my equipment and do away with the bose system. by the way will the eclipse look right aesthetically speaking?

 

My 2 channel amp for my sub will be KENWOOD-300W CLASS AB..and for my 4 channel amp i am going with a ROCKFORD FOSGATE-PUNCH 1200W.
for the front components I am going with ROCKFORD 2 WAY SPEAKERS(350 WATTS PEAK) and for the rear doors just normal ROCKFORD SPEAKERS. = )

 

Well, I don't know which Eclipse you have... many of them were black and looked clean, but the last few years they've gotten a bit more wacky looking...

You bought it, so you would be the ultimate arbiter of esthetics. : )

Does the 3300 have the balanced input card? If not, get it somewhere, and it should take the OEM HU output directly if you want it to.

Personally, I'd sell your components and get new ones, but they are far better than the OEM parts. If you like how they sound, I'd put them all in there.

I'm in Portland, OR.
www.avincar.com