And do you honestly want to hear everything your girlfriend's saying anyway?

 

b0mbrman how does your system do that? Does it use a sensor? wouldnt the outside noise trigger it?
In most of my american suvs, when the cabin noise starts to get louder the volume rises.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mbitton
[B]b0mbrman how does your system do that? Does it use a sensor? wouldnt the outside noise trigger it?

 

As one Yankee fan to another GET THE LUCID REARS!!! and you will not need to amp at all. You will not believe how much a difference there is. You will be able to drive at 80 and with the top down still hear the music. Good Luck , LETS GO YANKS!!!!

 

Yes, but with the amp, you can drive at 80 and not be able to hear the wind

 

So, what effect would one get from just adding a relatively inexpensive amp (eg: Alpine F240 or maybe Eclipse PA5422) to an otherwise stock system?

I'd like to keep the stock HU right now, because it seems I can control a Phatbox hard drive with it, but I'd like to get some extra pizzazz out of the sound.

If I upgrade the head unit (I was looking at Alpine CDA-9815) I lose the dash controls and the interface with the Phatbox.

 

Not much, unless you upgrade the speakers as well. The stock speakers, even in the 02/03 cars, are only 20W. The stock HU is probably already providing them that much power.

 

An amp would be an improvement only if you also change the door speakers. The stock speakers are for very low power and could easily sound worse with an amp.

You wont lose the dash controls with a CDA-9815. I have a 9813 and the dash controls work great with Modifry's DCI that you can buy through Lucid.