I just upgraded my sound system yet again. Allow me first to state what I had before. I had a Kenwood Excellon head unit with iPod connection which directly powered the dash speakers (45 watts per channel), the in dash speakers were entry level units. a 200 watt amp that powered the mid speakers, The mid speakers were Kenwood Excellon, and I had a 300 watt MTX sub behind the driver seat. All in all a pretty good setup.

I got a Kenwood Excellon amp at a good deal. I was a 4 channel 1200 watt (thats right, 300 per channel). I then got some Roqueford Prime component speakers which I installed in the front doors. I previously ran the sub off the rear amp, but my head unit has a sub output. So I ran new RCA cables to drive all that stuff. The in dash speakers I left in place, but they are disconnected. I am now running the door speakers and the mid speakers. The rear hatch is disconnected for now, though at some later date I may run them off my old 200 watt unit.

The result? Wow! I never previously realized it, but I think the front and rear channels have the sub frequencies filtered out, cause I get more kick out of the sub running it off the dedicated sub channel. It sounds cleaner and clearer. Door mounted speakers alone get more sound to you, major improvement in the mid range. And the peak volume output. Man it can get loud thats for sure.

 

I did it 5 years ago. my car stereo was stolen and now new owners engoy.

 

Here are some pictures of the door speakers



I realized too late that I couldn't put the tweeter on the driver side in the same place as I did on the passenger side. Still sounds and looks good.

 

All speakers had common wire and I had to rewire all 8 speakers. To have good base install subwoofer under rear sofa and put amplifier somwere in rear end

 

Yeah, the stock system terrible. If you replace the stock head unit, the speakers wires have to be replaced to get any kind of decent sound due to that common ground issue. Its also a good idea to bypass the rear speaker controls.