Okay.....I've NEVER modded a stereo before. Well, almost never. I did put a cheap Sony cassette deck in my '81 red K car but that whole K car experience is something better left forgotten.

My S2000 has an Alpine CDA-7876 "60 watts x 4" 27 watts rms head,
Kenwood xr600 front speakers
Polk 403 Lucid rear speakers
JL Audio Stealthbox and JL Audio 250 watt amp.

I'm pretty happy but I'd like "clearer" loud audio. Amp time? Better speaker time? Both? Scrap the Alpine head and get an Alpine amp-less head?

Most of my listening, believe it or not, is country: Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Sara Evans, Nora Jones..(okay she's not country)...

All two cents worth welcome!

 

You don't have a hardware problem, you have a software problem.


That sounds like a pretty good setup, but I don't know anything about your Kenwood speakers. I think more power to the fronts would help. You should have pre-outs on your HU, so you should be able to add an amp for more power and keep your HU. Maybe swap out your amp for a 500.5

I'm sure the experts will chime in.

 

Barry, a 4 channel amp and new door speakers would be best.

Diamond Audio and Focal's for the doors would the way to go

 

barry,

i'd say the music you listen to makes it even harder to design a system for, since it's heavy on clear crisp vocals. Since you already have aftermarket speakers, I would amp first. You should notice an improvement, if it's still not enough, then better speakers.

If you bought speakers first, you would end up wanting to amp them anyway. Aftermarket speakers like the Focal or Diamond really need a good amp to drive them efficiently, for example most of the Focals are rated from 70-100 watts RMS, while you obviously don't have to drive them that hard getting close to the number is better IMHO.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lucid
[B]Barry, a 4 channel amp and new door speakers would be best.

 

I agree with Woodson. I'm currently running this amp with Focal utopias in the doors and bostons in the rear with a WLAURENT sub in the back. This is all powered by the JL 500.5 and I'm very please with the sound quality. I also know that Tifosi Red is also running this amp. I'm sure there are many others on this site running this amp.

 

I think those are pretty mediocre speakers all around. Top quality sound will require better. A little more power is also not a bad option and may be required depending upon the speakers you go with.

 

Definitely get an amp for the fronts first. You might just be happy with the same speakers powered by an amp. In case you're not, you can always change them later. Better speakers with no amp might even sound worst than what you have now.