After Market Audio Upgrades

Alpine makes great car audio gear, as does MTX. They range in price from: - about $150 (entry level subwoofer) to $500 (Good quality subwoofer). - $100 (entry level pair of speakers) to $300 (Good quality pair of speakers) - Thousands of dollars each/pair (for high-end competition gear). (Your car has a pair of 61/2" speakers in the front and pair of 6"X9" speakers in the rear) The stock deck will not likely be able to power the speakers adequately, which is actually harder on the speaker(s) than over-powering them. Rather than switching out the deck, though it is possible with: a deck mounting kit (either double-din or single-din), wiring harness, a new deck, plus installation and misc parts used in doing so (approx. $300+, depending on the level of deck you purchase), it is advisable to get a Line Level Converter (if you pay even close to the same $ for one of these as you would have paid for the aftermarket deck, you should have a REALLY good unit and possibly lower installation fees). Line level converters (simply put) tap into the factory speaker wires, and convert the signals into a line level input that can be used for an aftermarket amplifiers. The best options in your case would be something as such: Option 1 (Without Sub) This set-up would have good bass response and great overall sound quality: 1 - A 2 channel line level converter. 2 - A 4 channel audio amplifier. 3 - 1 pair of 61/2" speakers for the front, (if you don't want to give up any trunk space, to a subwoofer and box to put it in, get as high powered/quality as you can afford). Note: The 1" tweeters (usually found on, or near the "A-pillar") don't need to be replaced, but may need capacitors placed in-line to remove lower frequency sound, which may damage them. 4 - 1 pair of 6"X9"s, (again, if you don't want to give up any trunk space, to a subwoofer and box to put it in, get as high powered/quality as you can afford). 5 - Installation (wiring) kit for the amplifier 6 - (Optional) - 1 Farad capacitor - Equalizes voltage used by the amplifier. Better on the amp, and most notably, better on your vehicle's battery and charging system. Price (Best Guess) - Lower quality $700, higher quality $1500, BEST (competition level quality) $5000+ Option 2 (With Sub) This set-up would have optimized bass response and still great overall sound quality 1 - A 4 channel line level converter. 2 - A 4 channel audio amplifier. 3 - A Mono amplifier (for sub) 4 - 1 pair of 61/2" speakers for the front. Note: The 1" tweeters (usually found on, or near the "A-pillar") don't need to be replaced, but may need capacitors placed in-line to remove lower frequency sound, which may damage them. 5 - 1 pair of 6"X9"s. 6 - Subwoofer and box (Note: smaller subs 10" (and some 12") typically do a better job producing high-frequency bass (like a kick drum in Rock/Alternative bands), and larger subs (15"-18" or larger) typically do a better job with low-frequency bass (like a fog horn, or a horn on a cruise ship). Therefore, depending on your taste in music, different subs will be better suited to your set-up. 7 - Installation (wiring) kit for the amplifiers 8 - (Optional) - 1 Farad capacitor - Equalizes voltage used by the amplifier. Better on the amp, and most notably, better on your vehicle's battery and charging system. Price (Best Guess) - Lower quality $1100, higher quality $2000, BEST (competition level quality) $7000+ Feel free to contact me with any other questions. For more information try out these sites: http://www.metraonline.com/products.aspx http://www.mtx.com/index2.cfm http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en http://www.installdr.com Hope this helped, Jay

I agree with Jay. In my country, you could get a good set of sound system (with sub) for 1500 US$ to 2000 US$!!