Understandably, I got fed up with the crappy stock stereo and have now upgraded.

I have:

HU Alpine CDA-9831R
Fronts: Velocity 6.5 components
Rears: Rockford Fosgate T152C

this is a vast improvement over the stock system, but I am still not entirely satisfied. I find that when I turn the volume up above 23 (out of a max of 35) the sound starts to distort.

The HU is 4x50 watts so the speakers should cope alright with this.

Will the distortion be cured by the addition of an amplifier? What difference will this make?

 

You probably shouldn't be running that many speakers off of the stock deck power, which is realistically 4x18 I would guess. You should get an external amp.

 

Amp. Definitely. The Alpine is an improvement but that 50x4 is probably peak, not RMS. My Alpine CDA-9835 is 4x26 RMS I think. I didn't find glory until I upgraded to an amp.

-JD

 

You shouldn't even be asking this question, you should be buying the amp! Get it!