ok gents now that Im getting older(30), I dont need the 2-12" subs and the 2,000 wats of power like I did when i was in my 20's, so shortly after I bought my truck, I upgraded the speakers and they definetly sound much better, but I still dont think its loud enough??? would it be worth it to insatll an amp to supply the 4 speakers with more power with a factory head unit?/ I dont want changethe head unit as I think its suffficent enough fo me in my old age!!

 

If your speakers will take more power, they will sound better and should get a little louder. A stock headunit is probably 25-55watts per channel. If your speakers want 65-100watts then an amp would certainly help.

 

I answered this question in the SD forum but I'll provide a revised answer. While ReAX is correct the HU will probably provide about 25-55 watts per channel thats a max wattage. What is important to take note of is the RMS rating or the sustained power rating of the head unit. It's very likely that the head unit can only output 25-55 watts for very short ammounts of time, but will generally only output 10-15 watts of sustained power per channel.

Yes, adding a 4 channel amp will make a difference on your doors speakers. That being said, a new head unit would probably make a bigger difference in sound quality. IMO the factory head units just don't sound that good.

You could easily pick up some used equipment on the cheap off of criagslist. The people who are into car audio are constantly upgrading and selling some nice stuff.

 

hehe I bought my whole system on craigs except the headunit at first I wanted to stay stock also.

I got a bluetooth eclipse for $180.00 for the price of bluetooth addon in some cases. Wma and usb also helped justifiy it and the $50.00 I got back selling the old one (craigs) made it cheap. NOTE you will lose the 6 disk changer as well and I will sell that for another 50 so the headunit cost me $80.00 bucks.

Having control over frequency's and dedicated rca for front middle and bass with control for bass and even a remote for the back seat were all pluses I could not ignore. Bluetooth for safty being a big part as it is used for buissness sometimes by my girlfriend.

A word about speakers on craigs:
I bought three sets and two were just fine but the third had been mounted wrong and one basket was bent. Bent baskets are unfixable. Look closely and make sure they are straight and move coil up and down and listen a blown coil makes noise.

Amps:
I bought two and one was cooked. I had it installed and ripping it out to send back to Arizona sucked lol. Although I still saved a bit of mula.
Meet at a store like Best Buy and test the amp right there before exchangeing money they charge a small fee for this.

I saved alot of money shopping on craigs but I wasted alot not knowing these things till later...

Back to the question.
These guys are right about amps being needed, 25 watts peak or rms is not enough by any means. No headunit can power aftermarket speakers well.
I am running 150 watts rms into a 60 watt rms door speaker (Focal A1 6.5 components) and it's clean as hell at half volume and pounds like crazy.
When I had the same speakers running off the old headunit it was really tinny and disappointing.

Pics in gallery

 

I just installed a Pioneer F90BT and I'm amazed how much better the sound quality is over the stock CD-6. I had a 4-channel amp installed and the stock head unit still didn't perform. Just something to think about...