I just bought a 2000 Monte Carlo SS Pace Car Edition and noticed the sound system isn't quite to par with my 2002 Monte Carlo SS that has the Premium Sound Package. I see on KBB that the car had the option for a Premium Sound System, but according to the build sheet my 2000 does not have this, but does have "Extended Range Speakers" or something to that effect if I recall correct. My assumption is that the original owner that I bought it from didn't get the sound package. So my question is: What does the Premium Sound Package actually encompass? What is different as far as the radio, speakers, or amp? And is there any way to upgrade the current setup to be similar if not the same as the one in my 2000 Monte Carlo?

If anyone has Part Numbers or links to any of the parts mentioned it would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note; I have noticed online that the amp connections for the 2000/2001 Monte are different than the 2002, so I cant pull part numbers from my car.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

I was exploring a little bit of this topic on my '04 Monte, as I am toying with the idea of using a Monsoon 8 channel amp (from a Grand Am) in my car and a couple minor changes to make it work.

In '04, the audio options were this (and may hold true in other models):
UQ3 - Speaker System, Performance-Enhanced Audio
UW6 - Speaker System 6, Dual F/D Tweet and MWoof, Dual Ext Range Shelf
U62 - Speaker System 4, Dual Coax Front, Dual Coax Package Shelf

Now, here is the break down as I understand each option:
U62 - No amp, audio is fed from radio, straight to speakers. Not sure of the speaker configuration.

UQ3 - Factory amp, 6 channel audio. Four channels in the front (one channel for each tweeter and one for each woofer). One channel for each rear speaker. UQ3 is what may car has, my research was done in a junk yard on a car with the same RPO option and looking at my amps plugs.

UW6 - I have not researched this, but I am guessing it is similar to UQ3, but possibly better speakers and/or better amp.

I recently replaced my rear speakers for a set of Rockford PUNCH P1694 speakers. They work pretty good. I re-wired them to break the channel for the woofer from the rest of the multi-channel features, this is done in case I want to adapt the Monsoon amp. For the moment, I made a custom adapter to go from the Monte's factory rear speaker connector to the Monsoon connector I added to the speakers (all it does is re-connects the channels I separated). The reason for all this, if I decide to go to the Monsoon amp, or do comparison testing, I don't have to take the rear seat out, all the effort is now in the trunk.
I have built a wiring harness to adapt my Monte amp to a Grand Am Monsoon amp (and as for the speakers, I would abandon the original rear speaker wires and use new ones for the Monsoon amp). Pics attached.
Probably way more then you are interested in (most people go after market).

Someone more involved with the stereo configs may have more information then I have on this.

 

Believe it or not GM considers an "Upgraded" stereo anything other than an AM only radio.

 

At one point, now I think it is anything beyond an AM/FM only radio

 

I know what you're saying.

I found this out in the middle of programming a BCM with my Tech 2. One of questions prompted by the program was "Is the vehicle equipped with an upgraded radio?". After scratching my head a minute I looked it up in the factory service manual which says upgraded means "Anything other than an AM only radio". I was surprised since I haven't seen any car with AM only in years. Seems like they should delete that question from the program.

 

Thank you for your reply! This is more info than I expected to get to be honest, and this is a great lead! I really appreciate the info!
I'm trying to find what exactly is the bottle neck in the system, whether it be speakers or the amp, but I'm leaning towards the amp, as it seems the speakers still have more in them to be taken advantage of as far as both high and low end go(at least once you crank the volume in my 2000, something I didn't have to do in my 02 to hear the low end).
Unfortunately I don't have my 02 any more otherwise I would check this myself, but does anyone know, despite different pin sizes, if the wiring on the amp for 02 are the same as the amp for 2000? If so I wouldn't mind buying the amp and corresponding plugs and rewiring the original wires in my 2000 Monte.

Thank you again for the replies and the helpful info thus far!!

 

I believe they are different amps, but not 100% sure. If it helps, I can get you the pin outs for the amps in the different years. It will take me a couple of days. You may also be able to find them doing a google search.

 

That would be awesome. I will still do more research on my own, but the help is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

Sorry about the delay. I can tell you, the amps are different in 00 vs 02. I attached PDFs of the pins out for both years.

 

Not a problem at all. Thank you very much. It does seem like they have very similar wiring, But I'm starting to wonder if the connectors on the head unit connected to the older amp are different than connectors on the newer amp. Does anyone have the UW6 package, previously mentioned by The_Maniac, in their 2000-2005 Monte?
I don't know if they offered the UW6 in 2000 and 2001, but if they did that would make this search easier. If anyone does have that package, could you leave the part # for the amp and rear deck speakers since they are easily accessible? Thank you guys for your help thus far. I cant seem to find part numbers from any packages except the UQ3, and being that I already have that, those seem to be useless.
I am going to try and dig deeper into finding info on the UW6 package to see if that helps my search.
Thanks again!