What to replace first? HU or Speakers?

scubiecraig

scubiecraig

New member
I want to upgrade the sound system in my 07 Impreza. Let's just say the head unit is primitive at best. I am not sure if I should upgrade the headunit first, or the speakers. I'm on a tight budget, so opinons are welcome. I already know what pieces I want to put in... I just need to save the money and do them. I plan on purchasing from Crutchfield and doing all the installation myself. I was just curious as to what others have done. I notice the Electronics forum isn't very big. I'm assuming most people spend more of their hard earned green on performance mods. This is primarily staying a daily driver for me.

 
Subs, then a head unit, then the rest of the speakers and what I am working toward. Im slow though, so it may be a nother year or more before I finnish. I did the subs and amp so far.

 
Head unit.

Think of it this way, say you have a tiny truck you want to turn into a monster truck. What do you get first, the big tires, or the bigger engine to turn those huge tires.

I just have a head unit and stock speakers in my car, and the head unit made my setup sound acceptable.

I've also found crutchfield to have wild pricing. Find something you want, and run it through http://www.google.com/prdhp

It will list that item and all the different prices people are selling it for. Who knows, maybe the head unit you want will be a few bucks cheaper on amazon or something, worth taking the two minutes to shop around and save some dough.

 
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Iboc_C64 said:
Subs, then a head unit, then the rest of the speakers and what I am working toward. Im slow though, so it may be a nother year or more before I finnish. I did the subs and amp so far.
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I'm not 100% sure I'm going the sub route though. Is the stock headunit really powerful enough to supply power to a sub? I wouldn't think so.

 
scubiecraig said:
I'm not 100% sure I'm going the sub route though. Is the stock headunit really powerful enough to supply power to a sub? I wouldn't think so.
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If you research it, or happen to know what your doing, nothing is an insurmountable obstacle. FYI, I have never seen a head unit powerful enough to run a subwoofer, that is why they sell amps. JK, Im sure you know that. The stock HU does not support subs or amps, there are no RCA jacks on it. I used an old scoshe FAI3 to splice the rear speakers signal wires in to Line Out RCA jacks. It did not affect the rear speakers output any and I did it using a custom made T harness that I made with a forward and reverse harness that I purchased online in order to avoid splicing the stock harness and ruining it. Then I simply plugged the RCA cable in to the FAI3 at one end and in to the line in jacks on the amplifier. I connected the amplifier remote/sensor wire to ignition power (red wire IIRC) with a switch to turn it on and off. Ran the amp wiring from the battery as you normally would. Then just turn down the bass on the HU and turn up the input sensitivity and bass level on the amp, turn on the low pass filter and your good to go. The Bass won't be as strong as it would be from a stock headunit, but it sounds infinitely better than the stereo without the subs. Its louder and clearer and the stock speakers don't distort as much becuase you will have removed a lot of the bass signal from them at the head unit.

 
As an owner of an '06 WRX TR...I say speakers, then HU. I replaced the HU first in my car...and blew the stock Impreza speakers. The TR has the Impreza sound system, so it has the crappy speakers and single CD HU. You will hate yourself if you replace the HU before the speakers. Crutchfield has mounting kits and adapters for the Impreza speakers. I bumped up one size on the front speakers, and haven't looked back.

 
seph said:
As an owner of an '06 WRX TR...I say speakers, then HU. I replaced the HU first in my car...and blew the stock Impreza speakers. The TR has the Impreza sound system, so it has the crappy speakers and single CD HU. You will hate yourself if you replace the HU before the speakers. Crutchfield has mounting kits and adapters for the Impreza speakers. I bumped up one size on the front speakers, and haven't looked back.
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Thanks for that input. So what size did you go with on the fronts? They normally are 5.25", right? Did you go to 6.5"? What brand did you go with? I'm thinking I'm going with Alpine Type S's... not components, just full range speakers.

 
The truth is both the stock head unit and the stock speakers suck. Either way there's going to be drawbacks. I went HU first only because I wanted an Aux port, but I bought new speakers the next week. A sub would be stupid. Lipstick on a pig.

 
Well I have the premium sound system, so my stereo doesn't super suck, it just sucks. But not as much as a non-premium stereo would suck. Mine came with upgraded speakers, tweeters and a 6 disk CD/CDR/MP3/WMA player.

 
I think headunit is the way to go. I did that with one of my older vehicles and it really did make a huge difference right from the get-go. Then I'll upgrade speaks, and probably power them with an amp at some point. I don't really want thumping bass, but I'm not going to rule out an 8" or 10" sub in the trunk.

This is the headunit I'm looking at. I know it doesn't have a cd player, but I'm ok with only digital. I listen to my iPod mostly anyways.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158DSXS100/Sony-DSX-S100.html

Thanks for all of your input btw guys! I appreciate it!

 
HU, speakers, sub.

I got some Polk speakers off Crutchfield that I absolutely love. Then a Infinity basslink sub/amp thing. Very easy to install, cheap(130), and it sounds really good.

 
No reason to want abnoxious, thumping bass. Its just nice to actually have some bass. The stock system tunes it out in the upper volume ranges. An 8" or 10" should do just fine. Especially if its a decent quality one.

 
If I go with a sub, it will definitely be a JL sub. I had a 12" in the past, and absolutely loved it. I won't go that big this time around though... 8" or 10" max. I'm hoping to pull the trigger on the headunit in the next couple of weeks, but financial flow has been a little lacking lately.

 
I just put a sub and amp I'm mine. 12type r and 400 watt mono amp sounds great to me , eventually I'll replace the speakers

 
Kenwood all the way, but that's just my oppinion. I have never had a kenwood unit die on me and I have owned 4 of them. I also have many friends with Kenwood systems and none of them have ever had an issue either. As an added benifit, in dash Navi units from Kenwood use Garmin software built right.

 
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