I am thinking of buying a new head unit for my 04 WRX, because the stock system sounds like **** and I really dont care for a 6 disc changer. My question is for those of you who only changed the head unit. Did it make that big of a difference? Would you do it again?

 

Yes it makes a difference. But I guess it also depends on the deck you get. If you can tweak the sound enough, you can improve the sound. The stock speakers are pretty bad. If you only listen to normal cd audio, then you should probably just get new speakers and maybe an amp. I personally can't live without an mp3 cd player. I had one in my previous car and within two weeks of getting my '04 wrx, I yanked out the stocker and put in the Alpine 9813. The sound quality is deffinately better and the volume can be turned up louder. I'm going to replace the speakers this week sometime too.

As a last tip, it all depends on how into audio you are. Some people dont care to upgrade as much as others. I'm a big music fan so I like to have a nice setup to listen to....

 

I just installed an Alpine CDA-9807 in my 2004 OBS. It sounds way better than stock, has a lot of great fetures (AM/FM/CD/MP3/XM, etc., etc.) and looks really good - it's a close match for the trim color. It also illuminates in blue which goes well with my grey interior. I was specifically looking for a head unit that had a clean functional design and this unit worked well.

 

a little more than just the deck.. but it helped A LOT

i haven't tried the built in amp in the 9815.. but running the stock front speakers off the F357 made a HUGE difference..... they still suck compared to the Boston Pros I put in later..but it was night and day over the stock deck/amp ...

the x-over and seperate sub helped too of course....

 

Yes, I upgraded my head unit first in my car. It cleans things up a tad, but Subaru's speaker material is very cheap. Actually most carmakers skimp on the material for the speakers. The Headunit can muster more sound out of those speakers too. But those are the only 2 benifits you'll notice right away.

But you'll notice the speakers will probably die real fast like my friends did (I didn't have mine in for long to see if I had the same case).

Unfortunately, replacing the speakers doesn't help much either since the headunits are so underpowered. Your best bet is to replace speakers AND headunit. Don't skimp on the headunit!!! But you can get some cheap speakers (even just fron t speakers) and notice MUCHO improvment.

Plus, I can't live without MP3 either! Alpine CDA-9815 (upgraded from a CDA-7894 MP3 player)!!!