I installed my Kappa Perfects 6.1 about a week ago, and quickly found out that they distort at higher volumes. Both highs and lows distort for anything above 30ish on the stock headunit. I'm assuming this is because of lack of (clean) power? I'm planning on buying the alpine 9855 w/o an amp, and hoping for the best. What experiences have you guys had with ur component systems with the stock head.

thanks-

 

i don't think that just changing the speakers will GET RID of distortion. an aftermarket headunit will cut it down alot.

and the sound get cleaner and more chrisp when you feed the power it wants

 

Well I would highly suggest you replace your stock HU. Honestly you should have replaced the HU first then your speakers.

The stock system is completely junk. You can have the best speakers on the market but they aren't going to do you any good what-so-ever because you feeding them a bad signal.

Bad signal in = bad sound out

 

I tried it for a few minutes when I was playing around with my install, just to test what I had been telling people. I think it sounded pretty bad. Like darkknight said, junk in = junk out.

Also, it doesn't sound like you are amplifying your speakers from your description. My understanding was that the stock head unit can't put out nearly enough power for the Perfect 6.1's to operate properly, and that under powering these speakers could be almost as bad as overpowering them.

 

From the Advisor on Crutchfield.com:

"It's better to overpower a speaker than to underpower it

 

Considering the speakers need a minimum of 50wrms to sound decent, not only will putting a new headunit do nothing for you, youll be out money. If you want nice sounding speakers, youll need a new headunit and a new amp.

 

I did the same thing with the kappa perfect component set in my old car. I had the alpine 9835 and tried to run them off of that and it sounded horrible. Distorting when I turned it up. I bought an amp and sent them each 100w @ 4ohms and it sounded incredible

P.S. How did the perfects fit in the s2000? I am thinking of buying them again... do they need a spacer?

 

Yeah you'll need a spacer.

 

Do you know how big???? 3/4? 1"?

 

3/4 mdf is plenty.