[foff667]

Originally Posted by Fasterthanyou

There are only 3 classes of speakers; 1st is the ultra expensive $250 for a pair MB Quart, Focal, etc. 2nd is the plastic/composite with lots of eye candy (everything in Crutchfield catalog and Best Buy), 3rd is the crappy stock paper cone with crappy wiring and weak magnets. Now for the real kicker, all of those will sound darn good at low to moderate sound levels when you get a dedicated amp. The sound quality is only as good as the weakest link. Just like with an engine and the intake/exhaust. In your case, running any speakers with the head units amplifier is going to sound like ass. That's because if anything, the newer "better" speakers will need more power to get the same sound level. And if you don't know this already, the higher the power the lower the sound quality (distortion). So my recommendation is to upgrade to the cheapest "2nd class" speakers you can find, an external 4-channel amplifier of similar class (pioneer, sony, etc.), 2 RCA cables (again 2nd class, none of the ones from radioshack, need to have thick insulation), and 2 line converters that'll convert the 4 speaker outputs from you head unit into an RCA low voltage signal . Trust me on this, you'll be disapointed if you just upgrade the speakers. If you'll be at Matt's Thursday I can bring a catalog to show you how to setup an excellent budget audio system. I used to be big into Audio until I ran into a wall of no more learning. The curve just dropped out from under me and it got boring really fast. I probably spent $1000 on my system 3 years ago, I don't regret it except that I'm torn between listening to the sound system or my engine's music

i went through the same **** when i was young..ive still got a couple of sub boxes in my basement, an mp3 head unit in which i have no car to put it in and several good amps ie rockford fosgate...been there done that, moved on...i would say definitly get an mp3 compatible head unit and maybe a small 2 or 4 channel amp to run some decent aftermarket speakers or just use the new head unit to power them...circuit city offers some really good plug and play connectors to where there is almost no wiring to be done...at least for the head unit.