Andrie

Anyone run their stock speakers with an aftermarket amp? If you do, what kind of results do you see? Especially for AP2? Do you guys run a passive crossover to separate the twitter?

SIchodelic

Get new speakers

oem speakers are so bad

Andrie

You are such a big help

No offense, we all have our needs. I much rather spend most of the money for car performance and enjoyment on the track. But I would like to hear music too, even with the top down. However, I'm trying to find cheapest solution that I can stand. Not you, but I.

riegerm3

A speaker swap is not going to help with loudness.
I would like to know as well. I read on this forum that the OEM speakers actually sounded good with a higher power driving them, but I haven't actually heard them in person to say for myself. I would like to keep it as cheap and light as possible while still being able to hear music without the top on.

SIchodelic

ok, I'll try to be more serious with your question then

What headunit are you running? stock? aftermarket?

What is the rated RMS power of OEM speakers?

The reason I ask because Alpine has a power add on that you can hook up to the back of your HU and it provides something like 40w/channel which should be more than enough to drive OEM speakers

What kind of music do you listen to mostly?

and yes, we all have different needs/wants when it comes to our car. Sorry I was so hasty in my reply
The reason why I was so quick to recommend new speakers is because the car is so loud inside the cabin, nice speakers do a really good job of reducing the ambient wind noises etc, from my personal experience

I have some nice components in my door, and the sound difference is worlds apart from stock.
best of luck with your decision!

dwight

I installed my Alpine IDA-X305S with the stock AP2 speakers for a short while. I saw a new head unit in my dash. I don't use Twitter.

...
In all seriousness, look at your post and make sure you're clear with your question before criticizing people who are trying to help. In addition, the frequently recommended db6501's only cost about $110 and are rated at 100W RMS/300W peak. Compared to the price of a head unit or amp, that shouldn't be a deal breaker.

As for your crossover question, you don't need to do anything. The tweeters have built in passive high pass filters.

For the most part, I don't know what you are trying to figure out. If your initial post included what you felt the problem was, that would help guide others in their attempts to help you. Based on the 2nd post, it seems that you mostly (or only) care about volume. I didn't max out the volume with both either head unit while on the stock speakers, so I can't give any information about that.

I don't know the what the maximum output of the stock head unit is. It isn't printed on it. The stock speakers have 20W printed on the back. If the output of the stock head unit is significantly less than 20W RMS, then a different head unit with a greater power rating would allow you to get more volume. Most aftermarket head units can output about 16-20W.

However, it sounds like you want to keep the stock head unit and speakers, but you want to add an amp in between. You could drive the stock speakers harder with an amp, but at some point, they will overheat. Yes, they will sound horrible if you drive them that hard, but they sound pretty bad as is, which apparently isn't a concern of yours. In addition, you'll need to make sure you pick an amp that can handle speaker level output because the stock head unit doesn't have have pre-amp output. At the risk of displeasing you, I feel obligated to mention that the signal quality coming out of the stock head unit isn't the best. Running it through an amp will only highlight this feature. As a result, I'm not sure if anyone who was willing to spend the money to install an amp on a S2000 would do so without also replacing the head unit, but the world is vast and there are many strange people, so maybe, just maybe, someone has.

dwight

Sound is very subjective. I'll say that perhaps the stock speakers did sound slightly better after I swapped my stock head unit for my iDA-X305S, but I can't attribute that to more power. I imagine that improved signal quality would play a greater role to that improvement. However, I would like to reiterate that any improvement in the sound from the stock speakers is minuscule compared to the sound improvement from a cheap pair of aftermarket component speakers. In addition, if you want to drive your speakers with an amp, you'll notice that 20W limitation of the stock speakers very quickly.

Andrie

I bought the car with a sony head unit in it. I'm not looking for sound quality. Been there, done that. I pretty much gave up and realize that to get a good sound, it is much better to listen music at home.

sichodelic, thanks for getting back and not get insulted. I didn't mean to offend, thus a smiley face. I did poke a little fun at it, meant as a joke. Sometime it is hard to see the tone of the conversation through the internet. I must say, I'm a pretty straight forward person and don't like to sugar coat anything.

dwight, the world indeed has many strange people. Me myself can not understand people who spends boat load of money for a good audio system in an S2000. I think they got the wrong car. But to each of their own. That's why ice cream comes in different taste. We don't all eat vanilla ice cream.

dwight

As I said, you could setup an amp with your Sony headunit, but the stock speakers can't handle much power.

If you want the cheapest solution, I imagine that it would be something like:
Cheap two channel amplifier:
http://www.amazon.com/BOSS-CW150-CHA...dp/B001RNNWZY/

Two-way speakers: (but really should get the component ones instead. They can handle more power)
http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Sli...dp/B000P0NJPS/

If you install 2-way speakers and leave the stock tweeters in, you'll want to splice a resistor (2~10 ohm?) to the existing tweeter so you don't overdrive it and so you don't get too much high-end. You could either do two 1 ohms in series or two 10 ohms in parallel for 5 ohm, or just one 10 ohm each to do that.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062291
Using two-way speakers is kinda convoluted, all to save about the price of a tank of gas.

I agree that the S2000 isn't the best car for sound. After changing the head unit and speakers, I still prefer listening to music in my RSX-S with it's stock audio. A lot of it probably has to do with the difference in ambient noise.

CASTRO

I'll chime in.

I used stock speakers for a bit but did allready have an aftermarket H/U. I installed my system in pieces so Alpine 9886 HU was allready in and decided that like yourself, needed more volume so I transfered over my JL Audio 300/2 amp. (Yeah I know, overkill for stock) I had some Alpine type R component crossovers which I left over and installed those to split the signals from the amp to the tweeter/speaker just for some insurance and also crossovered it from the deck at 80hz or higher to keep them away from too much bass. IMO, it was okay and sounded crystal clear but I always had a fear of blowing them since the amp did run them so hard. Sorry I had to add that I added the Alpine crossovers before, but always felt it would clean up the sound a bit and well, I allready had them lol. I eventually changed out the stock speaker for a cheapo 2-way later and now I changed out the entire thing for a brand new pair of Alpine Type-R components.

For stock speakers, they weren't bad. IMO they hit harder than the 2-way cheapo JVC speakers I put in at one point but maybe it was due to being on the limit of power handling.