Okay, stereo gurus... I am thinking of upgrading my front speakers only (thinking about ditching the rears).

I am looking for cleaner sound, but not necessarily something to go really loud with. I typically never turn the stock unit beyond 20.

I took the doors apart and the stock speakers are pretty crappy. I think the speakers in my daughter's leapfrog stuffed animal might be better quality.

Am I going to be okay driving upgraded speakers with the stock headunit?

I've seen some killer deals on some focal 165 vslims...

I might upgrade the headunit at some point down the line.

 

Why not just put the leapfrog speakers in the front doors? :rotfl:

 

Don't joke, I almost did it.

 

Depending on the power requirements of the new speakers, you may have to turn it up past 20. When I put the Boston Acoustics in my car I found that I tended to max out the volume in order to get what I wanted out of it.
My 1996 Mustang came with better speakers than the WRX or the STi.
Yep, I did that for a year with the WRX before I installed my Alpine deck and 6 months on the STi before I installed the same deck.
The second you upgrade the head unit, you will see just how crappy the stock speakers are. The better bang for the buck is to start with the upgraded speakers.

 

long story short, you won't damage a speaker by underpowering it. (if this was true, speakers would explode when you turned the volume down.) Make sure you set em to 80hz or so. And don't raise the bass level on the head unit. If you hear distortion, turn it down.


focals aren't efficient compared to factory speakers... you might find you dont like them as much. (Until they get real power)

Great speakers though. I have the 6.5 Utopias in mine.

 

I always liked infinitys myself, i have some in my garage i still need to install but i hate taking off door panels cause i always end up breaking some of those stupid pop tabs...

 

Maybe its time for a stereo install day.

The secret to pop tabs... is holding each side and pulling with a quick jerk, not trying to work them out.

and buying spares because you're still going to break a few

 

ive been thinking about doing the same, upgrading the fronts, and maybe the rears later( my car came with the upgraded stereo stuff from subaru), but i wanna keep the stock deck.. bump for more info

 

Focals are a nice choice. I just got Focal 130CA and 130A's. I will be putting them after I get an amp and a nice headunit. You can run components off the stock headunit and no amp but they won't be nearly as good as they should be.

 

im gonna be replacing my 4 speakers here soon. im flying blind though. no clue what im doing / looking for or how to replace.
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Ford falcon gtho phase iii picture

 

I don't know if I read right, but you plan on running aftermarket speakers on the headunit? Are you going to use an amp to power these speakers on just head unit power? I can tell you I ran aftermarket speakers (3 way pioneers) on stock headunit (no amp) and it wasn't pretty.

 

how much power can/does the stock 6 cd changer head unit pump out? would i be able to run like 160watt speakers? cuz thats what i was looking at

 

Shameless plug, but I have two sets of DLS Sweden speaker for sale Focal is probably the best speaker maker on the market, if you've ever heard their home audio line (JM Lab), its totally killer and they use the same speakers. I ran a set of three ways for fronts (seperate tweeter, mid, bass w/ three way crossover) and cancelled out the rears, soooooooo sweet. Probably do the same in my next car, I miss my Focals .

 

It most likely puts out 14 watts per channel peak, 8 watts nominal I'm guessing. What 160 watt speakers are you looking at???

 

its been a while since i checked but they were sony xplods, red for teh bling factor, even tho no1 can see them and they were cheap! i guess im still flirting with the idea, id rather get sum more useful info before i do anything