jacefla

aftermarket head unit/deck (sony double din)
aftermarket door speakers (alpine)

all i can say is wow
honestly, this upgrade would be all that "most" people would be satisfied with (but this is when shit gets deep)
now that i taste a little bit of heaven im starting to get greedy/spoiled
now im looking to replace the stock sub and adding an amp or bypassing it and getting an amp pushing two 10's in a box
guys.... tell me your experiences with sound upgrades!!!!
first two things to do to are too upgrade are door speakers and head unit

jacefla

guys... our sound system is very outdated 99-03+(3rd gen)
first thing you wanna do is get aftermarket head unit and replace those cheap paper cone door speakers
thats all ive done so far and wow, what a difference it makes
now i have aux, bt, usb, eq, and a bunch of sound settings with a cleaner signal and more watts to power my alpines and rear sub. and it makes the car look nicer/more modern on the inside (bye-bye cassette player)
the new head unit really makes the rear sub bump..
next upgrade is either an amp to power two subs in a box
just a stock sub replacement (no amp)
a 5 channel amp to power the 4 door speakers (alpine 80watt rms, 240 watt peak) and the stock sub
a 5 channel amp to power the 4 door speakers (alpine 80watt rms, 240 watt peak) and 2 woofers in a box in trunk...
any suggestions?

MidoriTL

Being an audio installer, my suggestion is to go with alpine 5 channel and get some decent sub/subs depending on what you want as far as bass is concerned. I have one 12 in mine and love it and it's not to over powering for the door speakers. The type s door speakers will sound pretty good on a amp just make sure to tune it correctly is all.

jacefla

ok, so you have an alpine 5 channel amp pushing aftermarket door speakers and a 12 inch sub where the old stock sub used to be? or did you bypass that trunk sub area and run it to a 12 inch sub in a box in the trunk?

MidoriTL

aftermarket box in trunk, the factory sub is designed to be a free air woofer, nothing will sound good in the factory location other than a new factory sub

fsttyms1

No highs no lows must be Bloz...

jacefla

maybe it was good for its time but i recently replaced the door speakers with some alpines 6 1/2 and 2 weeks later replaced the entire head unit (what a bitch) with a sony double din.. bt, aux, usb, more watts, nicer looking, cleaner source, eq settings, etc.. lol., what a difference.. i only use the usb which is the best connection anyways.. all my songs are ripped to a usb stick and i just plug that bad boy in....or u could use pandora or spotify via bt....i would say its 3 times better than stock system.. cleaner... i have highs now and base drops nice... next upgrade is a 5 channel amp to power my 4 alpine door speakers and subs in a box/trunk....completely by-passing stock sub/amp with aftermarket

murky

What models? Lets see a picture.

Do you have Nav?

fsttyms1

It wasnt even good at the time. The single best thing i ever with the stereo was dump the stock Headunit. The ability to play MP3s, Cds, Sat radio etc.. The stereo sounded 10x better. Then once i upgraded the speakers it was on a whole new level.

ernesto1924

iTrader: (1)

I'm in Silverspring Maryland and I need assistance installing a double din in mi 3rd gen non-nav TL, I would pay for the labor!!!

SykVSyx

I have looked at a couple of free air sub options from Kicker and Alpine, was thinking to just replace the stock sub with an 8" FA sub.

Thoughts?

Kris9884

I'm kinda in the same boat. I bought the car with an aftermarket HU already installed but my factory sub doesn't work. I'd like to replace it with a another free air sub in the same spot to keep the trunk space free. Yes, we all know it wont sound as good as a boxed sub but I'm not into pounding bass, just well rounded music. For instance, I have an 8" JL sub and 250 watt AMP in my G37 and I have it set to about mid way of its full capability and its PERFECT for my taste.

Has anyone used an aftermarket sub in the OEM spot? Probably have to make a new base for it to mount on and dynamat the deck to keep it from rattling everything but, should be fine yeah?

TCfromPhilly

Can you get the steering wheel controls to work with after market head units?

ProfessorFunk

Yes. I used this: PAC SWI-CP5 - Pac-Audio.com Product Details

Station

I currently upgraded my sound on my 03 tl-s that came with aftermarket Head unit and stock speakers. Wanted to upgrade the sound without breaking the bank so I recently upgraded speakers with Polk 6.5" db651(love Polk audio) and they fit like a glove with the included adapters. Its night and day how much better it sounds.

If your like me and have an aftermarket Head unit in your car the stock sub is most likely not working unless you or someone else has hooked it up by tapping into the bose eq.

To fix this I tapped into the bose eq behind the nav unit by connecting a single rca cable to the white sub out on my head unit, splicing the cable, and tapping into pin 3 (blu/grn wire bass+) and pin 10 (orn/blu bass-) on the bose eq and now the stock sub works. I did order a line level booster for the sub because my head unit only outputs 2v on the sub out so it isn't very loud.

Thinking about doing a write up on it but I don't have a lot of time to do so. If you guys need help I'll include some photos on how to get it working.

Also, If you want to put an aftermarket sub in the stock location you will need an amp to run it because the stock sub is .5 ohms. The stock amp is 100w (peak) and it will be underpowered.

For those looking to spend some $$$ and upgrade the whole thing here is what I did in my 99 tlp (love these cars)
I replaced the headunit with single din Panasonic, 4 component 5.25 polk audio @4ohms (wish I got the 6.5" but didn't know they would fit at the time) drilled holes in the doors for the tweaters, 2 Polk audio 12" @2ohms in the trunk, dynamatted the whole trunk and the inside of the doors (and behind speakers). Speakers wired with 12g monster cable, amps wired with 2g JL audio wire that went to a 3farad capacitor then split to 4g for the amps. 1000w boss audio 4channel for speakers and 1500w monoblock boss audio for the subs. Boss audio over rates their power figures but the sound quality is on point and for the price you can't go wrong.

The system sounded amazing but too much bass for my taste now that I am older. Did get some rattle on the rear deck but every thing else was minimal with the dynamat.

Darksyne

Is it possible to plug and play better door speakers and rear sub while keeping the stock head unit and dash?

Station

I apologise for the late reply. You could upgrade the speakers with the stock headunit but I wouldn't upgrade the stock subwoofer because the amp puts out 100w peak to the sub that's at .5ohms. Most aftermarket subwoofers are 4ohms which would make the amp put out 12.5w peak according to ohms law. If you could find a subwoofer that was 2ohms it could put out 25w but it probably wouldn't provide the sound you are looking for as it would be underpowered. If your really looking to keep the stock sub location get a shallow mount sub and a separate amp. I believe people have put a shallow mount 8"(I think) pioneer sub in our cars with a custom bracket made from mdf and an external amp. Search the forums and you should come across the old thread.