Well, with such a great response on my "Spoiler?" thread, I just had to post another question =)

The mods I'm looking at for the immediate term are Rick's console cover, and some sort of stereo upgrade.

I already have a 120watt amp lying around, and I was considering doing a simple stereo upgrade in the short term. My question is this: Does anyone know how the stock deck stacks up in terms of simple CD-playing quality? I know that the stock speakers suck, and that the power output of the deck is low, but if I ran it into the amp and replaced the speakers in the car with some good 2-ways, do ya think it would put out a good enough sound that I wouldn't have to replace the deck itself? (would save me the cost of a new deck, plus the custom wiring harness to activate the driver controls.)

Thanks in advance for your help =)

paulb

 

I've been thinking of doing the same thing. Maybe a better place for this thread would be electronics?

 

I think a good pair of speakers and an amp is the way to go. You can always swap out the head unit later if you are not satisfied.

 

First thing I did was to swap out the speakers with Boston Acoustic's Rally 620's mids and tweeters. Big improvement over the stock speakers. I then swapped out the deck with an Ecplipse from my other car, even bigger improvement. I'm currently working on adding my two amplifiers and an Audio Control EQX crossover/equalizer. I don't have a sub solution yet, but am putting the amp in there. I have a JL Audio 10W3 just waiting to be installed, but need a custom box - waiting for JL Audio to make a stealth box for the car. I don't want to take out my spare tire, and my amps are going in the trunk well. I've already made panels for the trunk well and plan to add a fan or two to cool the amps.

This message should be posted in the electronics forum if you want more responses.

 

See my webpage for my install...

If you only do around-town driving, the stock head is likely to be just fine for you, but if you do any normal amount of highay driving with the top down, I think you'll find (as most here have) that the stock unit is just too lacking in power. Replacing the speakers is a given...they just suck outright.

So, you have a few choices...
1) Replace the head unit, no amp. this was my choice, and I'm quite satisfied with it so far...I now have 19W RMS (50W peak) and that's more than adequate for top-down driving for me.
2) Keep stock head, add an amp. Audiophiles will shun you, but it IS a convertible, so sound quality won't make TOO much difference.
3) Replace stock head and add an amp. For the real enthusiast (or deaf), this gives you just about everything, but it takes more time, of course.

If you decide to replace the stock head and want to keep the dash controls, you have several choices again, but I'll list the two major ones...
1) See my webpage for ordering your own PAC SWI-3 and how to install/program it. (cost, about $50)
2) Order Pinky's pre-wired harness for plug-and-play (cost, $150)

Enjoy!