Replaced front speakers with component set - sound is worse

[vignesh]

wow, the head unit powers the rest of the 4 speakers and the tweeters. Any one know the rms rating for the stock amplifier

[cruzinbill]

Originally Posted by vignesh

Just to be clear, The front door speakers are powered by the stock amplifier right. The rest of the speakers in the car, the two speakers and tweeters on the dash and the rear speakers are all being powered by the head unit?. Right now i am running jbl p66s speakers in the doors and infinity reference speakers on the dash. The jbl's are 2ohms and have 55 watt rms. Does the stock amplifier have enough juice to power the jbl speakers?

I am thinking of getting the alpine power pack to boost the head unit's power output. the alpine power pack is good in that it can be tucked away behind the head unit, a much cleaner install.

Correct headunit drives all but door speakers. It may be enough power, you would just have to give it a try.

Also, last time I checked the power pack doesn't work unless you have an alpine HU.



Nvm the KTP-445U works with any HU now. I would say do that if you have an fr-s and ditch the factory amp.
To go a step further pick up that and a minidsp and control your whole frontstage, it would stay clean and sound good.

[vignesh]

My brz already comes with pioneer avic 930bt installed. Does it really need a digital sound processor? would that change the sound quality a lot, because the cheapest one that i am able to find is jl audio cl441dsp clean sweep.

[cruzinbill]

Originally Posted by vignesh

My brz already comes with pioneer avic 930bt installed. Does it really need a digital sound processor? would that change the sound quality a lot, because the cheapest one that i am able to find is jl audio cl441dsp clean sweep.

clean sweep only de-eqs. if you have the pioneer, you can hook up the amp and try out the auto-eq. it may be good enough for you.


minidsp is ~100$ but you prolly wont need it after doing autoeq, its good enough for most.

[m.wood0213]

Polk's are my favorite neutral speaker but I was afraid of this because the factory setup is so complex. Aftermarket is going to be hard to improve over stock.

[PatrickSAN]

Originally Posted by m.wood0213

Polk's are my favorite neutral speaker but I was afraid of this because the factory setup is so complex. Aftermarket is going to be hard to improve over stock.

It really isn't Subaru did not design the car for optimal audio- just look at the rear speaker selection!

A good setup- either good 3.5 coaxials in the dash with the bass limited and good 6.5" midranges or coaxials in the doors OR a nice 6.5" component setup and you are far ahead of what Subaru put in the car.

[ecko04]

Originally Posted by m.wood0213

Polk's are my favorite neutral speaker but I was afraid of this because the factory setup is so complex. Aftermarket is going to be hard to improve over stock.

I went with Polk 3.5" coaxial in the dash & rear with bass blockers. Also replaced the door speakers with Polk components and placed the Polk tweeter in the factory location. Added an amp & the sound improvement over stock is amazing.

[m.wood0213]

Originally Posted by ecko04

I went with Polk 3.5" coaxial in the dash & rear with bass blockers. Also replaced the door speakers with Polk components and placed the Polk tweeter in the factory location. Added an amp & the sound improvement over stock is amazing.

thats a lot of work for an improvement over stock. stock sounds good enough for me.

[PatrickSAN]

Originally Posted by m.wood0213

thats a lot of work for an improvement over stock. stock sounds good enough for me.

Even without the amp that would be a huge step up.

[KBRZee]

After reading that the OEM plus system leaves all the factory speakers, except the tweeters, in place but changes the amplifier and adds a subwoofer. I decided to change out the factory amp. FYI, the factory amplifier only powers the door speakers. The head unit powers the tiny dash and rear speakers. The factory amp, located in the trunk, is the apparent culprit for the boomy sound of the BRZ. I never heard the stereo in the FRS but I suspect it may be similar. Anyway, the amplifier harness is the same as the head unit and therefore the Metra 70-1761 harness can be used to avoid cutting into the factory wires. However the configuration of the pins are completely different. After reading the Service Manual (page 322), I reconfigured the pins. Basically the 6 pin connector supplies the ground and power to the amplifier while the 10 pin connector has the amplifier input, output and remote turn on. I disconnected the factory amp and hooked up an old Sony Xplod amp I had laying around and the sound is way better. The cheap boomy sound is gone. Before I had to turn the bass all the way down on the equalizer and it still sounded boomy and muddy. I'm assuming the factory amplifier has a bass booster. Now the bass sounds clean. I'm thinking about buying a Kicker DX125.2. If anybody has any knowledge of this amp, your input would be appreciated.
I uploaded pictures of the harness after reconfiguring the pins. The white and gray wires are the input and the green and purple wires are the output. The blue wire is the amplifier turn on.