Story:
Radio stopped working a few weeks ago (everything stock/04 Monte SS.) Brought it into the shop (specializes in Car Audio/Video) on Monday to have it checked out. Was told my head unit had died and had to get a new deck. I did so. They said they had to bypass the factory amp to do so. OK, great.

Got in the car and was at first happy to hear music again in my car. Then turned it up and realized it sounded like crap...almost like a boom box was sitting in my back seat. No distortion...just poor (unless I cranked it - then obviously some popping.) I was hoping I could just get a fix to make it sound like it did when the head unit was working. I turned it up...messed with the controls...still not happy.

Went back in and was told I could get an aftermarket amp and new speakers and would be happy. Politely declined...I'm willing to spend some money but would rather do it myself to save a few bucks. I am on a bit of a budget right now - but am just looking for a short term fix as I have two long road trips coming up in the next month. Eventually I would like to get some nice speakers and a sub - but don't want to go cheap when I do so I'm going to hold off until I have the money to burn for higher quality.

The deck is only giving out 50W per speaker...so here is my birage of questions.

What would be the best way to go? New speakers? I was happy with them when the factory head unit was working. Can I just buy an aftermarket amp and install it to the aftermarket deck/factory speakers? I understand eventually I'll probably blow the factory speakers...but like I said - I just need this to hold over for a few months.

Would appreciate any and all advice! Thanks in advance

 

In reality, your head unit is only giving out 22 watts per speaker

You can certainly amp your factory speakers, but obviously you'll have to be carefull about overpowering them. Aftermarket amps have a gain setting that you'll need to learn how to set properly so you don't send the factory speakers way too much power.

I actually had my factory door speakers amped for a couple weeks while I was trying to pick out a new set and it sounded fine. Better than factory I would say. I didn't blow them either.

If you were happy with the factory system and didn't/don't want to upgrade much, you could get a small 50 watt RMS x 4 amp and just stick with it for good. That would be plenty of power for the factory speakers. Don't even look at max ratings; they're 100% useless and mean absolutely nothing in real life. RMS ratings are what you should care about.

 

That shop doesn't know what they're talking about because you don't have to bypass the factory amp to run an aftermarket deck, first and foremost. Second, you might be having issues because the factory speakers are 2 ohms and the amp in the deck is meant to run at 4 ohms so the deck might not be liking that too much.

To answer your question:

Yes, buying new speakers would be the best way to go, not only will the sound improvement be noticeable but they will be the right impedance for your deck too.

Yes, you can get an amp to run your factory speakers but IMO that would be a waste of money since the factory speakers aren't built to handle much power and don't sound that great (especially compared to a decent aftermarket speaker) to begin with. Not to mention the difficulty you'll likely have finding one that puts out such little power @ 2 ohms per channel. Meaning the factory speakers are rated low, I'd be surprised if they could take 50 watts rms....but since they're 2 ohms you gotta pay attention to your amp specs because if you buy an amp that does 50 x 4 @ 4 ohms that probably won't work too well since your speakers are 2 ohms, if you were to hook that amp up to your factory speakers it'll be giving the speakers between 75-100 watts rms @ 2 ohms.

I guarantee you the amp in your head unit along with the DSP features built in to it will sound way better than your stock setup did once you get some aftermarket speakers, that would be my suggestion. And if you go that route, might as well buy what you really want cause it makes no sense to buy speakers twice.

 

I think I'm just going to go with all new speakers for now...through my research and advice here it looks like thats the best way to go.

Thanks for the advice guys I really appreciate it