Hey everyone,

I own a 2004 Supercharged SS and I've been hoping for a while to upgrade my head unit and get some subs. Subs will probably have to come later, but could I proceed with purchasing a head unit and sticking with the factory amp? If so, which aftermarket head unit do you think would be good looking, good fit, and overall, good sound (with the factory speakers, not planning on upgrading those) for my car? I'd like to stay around $150 if I go that route. Or I would possibly be interested in getting a DVD screen/navigation head unit, because that would fit, right? If so, any ideas on what would be best? If I go with a DVD head unit, I'd like to stay between $200 - $350, and stick with good sound quality too If I can't find a good head unit that will run with the factory amp, which route should I go with a different amp? I'm eventually going to buy subs. probably 2 Kicker CVT12's (400w RMS each) and the Kicker ZX750 amp.. So would that amp be able to power the head unit as well? Or could I buy another amp right now to power the head unit, and then the ZX750 later? Would I need multiple channels to power both the head unit and the subs?

I know that there are a TON of questions in that paragraph, but ANY help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

as far as Head Units id look at brands of Alpine, Kenwood and Pioneer. Id look at the models as close to ur price range for maximum abilities. But really the most important things to look for is options like, IPod, bluetooth sat radio etc..

The factory speakers should all sound good still the new HU but trust me it will sound a bit different, it might be a good idea to switch to a new amp for the speakers but if you do that than You will need to upgrade the speakers too

IDK what you mean by the amp powering the HU, But you will need an amp if run subs.

 

and the cycle rolls

don't upgrade an amp,. the deck will give you much more control and you'll feel much more in control of your audio. you might not like the differences. you might, depends on your demands.

 

Thanks guys...

Went to Best Buy the other day and I"m thinking I'll be getting a Pioneer DVD Head Unit for $350.. and I'm just gonna have to let them install it It's going to have to be custom fitted (obviously) for my car, and the whole parking brake wire sounds like a little too much for me haha. And the unit has its own amp in it, so nvm about that.

 

Every HU has power coming out of it(or amp as you say) but that is not what is powering the HU. The Hu is powered directly from the battery as well as any external amp would be as well. An extra wire from the HU to the Amp tells it when to turn on when you turn the HU on.

 

consider doing it your self. it's an easy wire, especily for us. unforuantly you need a 100$ chime unit (can be had much cheaper than bestbuy will charge, maybe even 40$ I saw somebody over on DIYMA.com selling a box of em at 30$ a pop a couple months back.

but the harness is pretty idiot proof. a 6$ pair of crimpers, and 3$ in double ended crimp couplings and you can wire it your self. for wiring it, you take the chime harness, and the harness that comes with your deck and wire green to green, yellow to yellow, so on.

might take some work to get things apart, the dash can be a bitch to get off, but with some common sense and a little explination from us you can easily do it. let me know and i can explain how to remove the dash, or any other memeber would happily tell you, most of us know how to remove it. :p

and that dvd you unit you speak of, is that the avh 3300? you can most likly get it cheaper online. don't buy retail. never buy retail in car audio. i never pay mark ups for my car audio. and when i do, i use the internet, because the mark ups will be much smaller in most cases.

oh, you should first find out if you have a couple things. onstar will change the chime unit you need, and if you have the boss sound system, wiring will be different. their will be RCA's in the back, and wiring will be even easier in that case. since your just plugging your speaker wires in.

 

You could just get a deck and do the amp/subs later but doing so while retaining the stock amp is a waste of money, IMO. Since you have the premium system in your car, your speakers are 2 ohms....a deck is rated to run at 4 ohms so you'd have to either upgrade your speakers too or bypass the decks amp and use the factory one. You could definitely do that but you'd still have the factory speakers and factory amp so the improvement in SQ will be very little, if at all.

The much better option would be to do a deck and speakers at the same time, you will have a dramatic improvement in SQ and volume. That would be my suggestion. Then later on you could add the amp and sub.

As for installation....the install is pretty straight forward, nothing too terribly difficult about it. It'll take some time but I think you'd be better off having it installed at a shop because nothing would suck more than getting halfway done, running into a problem and having to wait for someone to reply on this board to help you out.

 

im gonna be a little off subject here, but does anyone here know if there is any way to use the factory amp out of a new monte/grand prix in my 96 monte?

 

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