DarrenDriven

I've been weighing my choices, and at this point I am leaning towards keeping my factory head unit and adding amps, upgrading speakers and adding an iPod controller. This is mainly for resale purposes, as well as not having to hassle with the on-dash controls and making them work on an aftermarket deck.

Has anyone out there done an audio overhaul while keeping the stock deck? If so, can you tell me what you did and also how satisfied you are with the results. Thanks.

Reckon

Get ready for everyone to tell you that the HU is the first thing that needs to be replaced as well as there being aftermarket parts that will enable you to keep the DCI with very little work.

Other than that, hope it works out for you. I upgraded my HU first (without the DCI mod) and am loving it. Gave a good bit more life to my speakers (which are still stock from everything I can see).

DarrenDriven

Yeah, I am aware that 99% of people upgrade the head unit, but I'm hoping that the people who post here are the ones who kept it.

One of my concerns is that there doesn't seem to be a reasonable way of keeping the dash controls fully functional. The programmable type of adapters have some kind of annoying delay issues, and the other options seem to either lose a little functionability or cost an arm and a leg.

I basically want to know if anyone has used the stock head unit in combination with a line-level converter, or line-level inputs on an amp, and are satisfied with the results.

I'm not looking for an audiophile experience, just music that I can turn up and hear at 60MPH with the top down!

Reckon

I hear ya...but keep in mind two things:

1 - A good head unit with the stock speakers will help you hear at 60 mph. My new HU (Alpine iDA x303, 18W RMS) and stock speakers work very well at 60 mph (my daily driving speed) with the top down!!

2 - the Modifry DCI, from what I have read, is easy to install (even easier if you get an Alpine HU since you can also purchase the adapter so that no splicing is needed) and affordable. The DCI adapter is $90 and the Alpine plug and play harness is another $25. I haven't read too much on it giving alot of folks issues or problems (but occasional ones do occur).

I do wish you the best of luck on what you want to do. Sounds like a good idea, but from my experience with electronics, the HU is the first thing you should look at, especially if you want to upgrade your speakers and add an amp. What year do you own? I hear the AP2's have worse stock equipment than the AP1's as well.

ace123

I have a couple of buddies who did this. For systems under ~$500 it can make sense depending on your goals.

Two big questions for you:
1) How much money are you looking to spend when all is said and done?
2) What are your goals for the system: are you a bass-head, do you like to hear music reproduced the way it was recorded, or do you just want more volume?

If you just want more volume, you would probably be happy with the stock HU as you're thinking, assuming you're ok with it the sound not being as clean or precise. If you've budgeted over ~$750 for your system though, I'd get a HU anyway.

If you don't fit that category (just want volume), you'll probably need a HU to be satisfied with the result, and you want Modifry's DCI which is around $100. But bass sounds like garbage from a factory HU, and clarity is just not there. Amplifying factory sound into great speakers will make it clear your stock deck is of low relative quality. That is unless you just want volume, in which case it probably won't much matter to you.
______

I don't understand your concern about resale though. Assuming you use a wiring harness for the radio, you can swap your HU back to the stock one in less time and with less effort than the door speakers, and you can sell it and recover some of your investment.

And FYI, both of my buddies have since bought new HUs.

DarrenDriven

You guys both have excellent points. I'm not new to this... I've done full system upgrades in past vehicles, but I am new to trying to keep a factory head unit. It's just something different, a new challenge, I guess.

I can always try to make the factory head unit work and if all fails then I can replace it. Just wanted to see if anyone would speak up for the stock system, but it doesn't sound like anyone has upgraded everything else and kept the HU.

As far as resale goes, I have done this enough times to realize that I just get lazy when I sell a car and I never swap things back to stock. I think that having the stock electronics is a bonus when selling... although I have a turbo kit and a few other mods, so maybe I am just being silly!

Budget? I would like to keep it as cheap as possible (I have like 5 amps laying around, etc), so I'm thinking an iPod adapter, new door speakers running off of one amp and possibly a couple of 6.5" mid-woofer separates mounted behind the headrests in the rollbars, running off of the other half of a four-channel amp or maybe a second amp.

And yes, my car is an AP2 and the stereo is HORRIBLE. I have a 2000 Chevy Tracker as a beater and the stock stereo in that is 10x better. Unbelievable. What was Honda thinking?

ace123

Oh, so you've done this before, and you're looking to do this because you have most of the equipment laying around--that makes sense.

Assuming you can feed them >50WRMS, the PPI speakers get great reviews as a bang-for-the-buck component set for the front if you don't have 6.5s.

As for rear fill, that always gets mixed reviews here. I personally am not going to bother, but many people swear by the S-pods (if that's what they're called). You might want to look at them and see if it's worth your time or money to mount speakers there. Again though, they'd just give volume in mono.
Modifry has made some roll bar speakers, but his kit is $150 for the car. IIRC he took some Tang speakers and came up with a mounting kit/system/whatever to make them work. The small size is a big issue.

Anyways, best of luck on this one--let us know if it turns out well or not!

DarrenDriven

I don't have any 6.5s sitting around, so thanks for the PPI recommendation.

Yeah, the rear fill seems a bit tricky... and I think that if I get a good quality 6.5" woofer separate (without the tweets) and mount those in the rollbars then I would keep the soundstage ahead of me. I can build some pods myself, but maybe I will look into buying some.

I still would like to hear from any S2K owner who is running the stock HU with an amp, to hear his/her opinion.

takeshi

Modirfy's DCI is far more than "reasonable" IMO. I've never had delay issues with it. You actually gain some functionality that isn't there in stock form.

It does seem odd to be stock-fixated if you've already gone FI. Seems a bit late IMO...

It's pretty easy to swap back to stock if you go with an Alpine HU and Modifry's PnP harness. 15 minutes and a Philips head screwdriver are all you need.

Personally, I wouldn't consider a stock HU a plus in a used S if I was shopping.

2big4aS2000

doing car audio for 20+ years, and have installed in dozens of s2000's, first thing to replace is radio!, then sound deaden the doors and upgrade speakers, you will always get better and loud sound out of an amp, so a 4 channel amp - 2 channels to the doors, and bridge the remaining to a sub - you could build a system like this for $600-$700 in parts,