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Whatever you do, unless you have a truly awesome factory car stereo system, you will want to replace that head unit and speakers.
The difference, even using factory mounting locations, can be the difference between night and day. Your mids will have more punch, your highs will be clearer and brighter, and the bass will have that bone deep thump everyone loves. Adding at least one amplified subwoofer will make a huge difference as well. You just can’t get the same bass out of a 7″ woofer as you can out of a 12″ subwoofer.
Amplifiers
Amplifiers are the driving force behind your car stereo system. Skimping in this area is extremely dangerous, not only to your sound quality, but to your speakers as well. An underpowered or cheaply made amplifier is prone to what is known as “clipping”. Without getting too technical, what this does is send a large amount of direct current through your speaker, causing the speaker coil to overheat and melt. This leads to the infamous “blown speaker”.
Coil overheating is the single biggest cause of speaker failure. Putting too large of an amplifier on a speaker can cause the same thing to happen. Always match up your speakers’ power handling ratings to the output of your amplifier. For instance, let’s say you have a 4 channel amplifier that provides 1000 watts total power. That is 250 watts per channel (1000/4), so your speakers should be capable of handling that much power, or you risk blowing them out.
Having a killer car stereo system is something your can be proud of, and dramatically increases your cars coolness factor and resale value, no matter what vehicle it is installed in.
Read the previous post on choosing the best car stereo
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