Question for those who have replaced the bose amp and speakers
 

and left the stock head unit. I have found a kenwood 5 channel that would work nicely, but I am trying to decide if it is worth the money. will boosting the watss and replacing the speakers actually clean up the factory head unit?

The stock radio is fairly clean.

The Bose blows. Cheap IC amp and some $.99 paper cone speakers. Add shitty EQ, supposedly it sounds awesome? :confused: I must have missed a class on this somewhere. I was under the misconception that you needed some quality parts...oh well.

Re: Question for those who have replaced the bose amp and speakers
 

for you info the headunit is the worst part about the system. The amp and speakers are OK believe it or not

try this before you start tearing your car apart

replace your radio with a nice aftermarket...looking at clean cd signal to noise ratio above 95db

kenwood and alpine are two that are in the 100 which is good

hook the radio to factory wires with metra honda adaptor and see what Im talking about.

if you do that run a seperate amp for more bass

fronts are only for highs and the 6 x9 in rear give good mid bass..all that is missing is lows that will also help with mids

Ive heard the stock speakers with stock amp with alpine radio and seperate 10" sub that sounded great

Who do you think makes the stock radio Lou?

pioneer makes it and they didnt go all out with it

pioneer makes good radios but I guess acura gave them a tight budget to work on

I hooked up my Alpine radio that had 115 db cd signal to noise ratio and when there is a silent part in the playback there was vitually no hiss ..which means the amp is not as bad...

In my rsx I replaced the headunit with a kenwood unit and it was an awesome difference. The difference in this car is I am trying not to lose the functionality of the nav or thumb control.

Well, if you think the Bose sounds fine - keep it. It's horrible to my ear. The phase distortions of their EQ is awful. Like using a $200 Behringer EQ on a $50K speaker rig.

I'll throw a test CD in my car tmw. It has a digital zero (silent) track. I'll see what I hear. I still think the stock radio is fine, if you hook it up right. S/N can be alterned with MANY things.

I honestly thought the bose was fine but just lacked bass. I added a sub and amp and I was fine. The factory system just doesn't get loud enough for me.

You can easily replace the stock amp and all of the speakers and add a sub and you will be good to go. The nice thing about the stock headunit is that the leads from it are low level leads and can go directly into an aftermarket amp via splicing on rca ends to them.

i still have the stock bose amp in my car as a pre-amp.
my amp a rockford 500....

never a problem.... pumping it loud and clear for more than a year

don't ask me how it was done, i just turn the radio on and turn the volume up

I have Infinity 6 1/2's in front and 6x9s in the back of the Civic. So your saying that I can take the speakers/amp out of my Civic and direct-connect into the stock head unit of my 2001 CL-S? SWEET! :D

proaudio your the master :bow: Im just telling my experience and how after I spent on amps and speakers it didnt sound better or at least that much better....much louder but the sound was pretty much the same

In my Benz I installed my Alpine Ivd 900 to the factory Bose amp and factory speakers...it took me two weeks to tune the bass frequency that complimented the speakers and also not to tight so I expanded the bass cause the rear 6.5 subs can only give out mids...the highs were so annoying they're in the negatives and lower frequencies also I messed around with the timing of the sounds

I really hated the CD quality of the stock Pioneer headunit...

its 25 watts peak dont know what is RMS which is enough for voice...if you want the system louder add a 10" sub with 300 watt RmS and change the rear 6x9 to 2 way cheap speakers cause they need high sensitivity and you'll be alright

if you go with great speakers you're gonna need a lot of RMS power to have them work properly and also cables and wires.

Ok guys your killing me.
Has anyone been able to replace the stock head unit and keep Navi and thumb contols?
I have no problem replacing it if I keep the functionality I paid for.

bump

Quite far from it.

There are so many variables involved with this we can't really say for sure. He does want to keep all his factory compatability, and he really needs to keep his factory head unit to do so. If he likes the Bose sound generally, I suggest he just add a sub like you said. If he's not happy with the Bose sound, I think replacing the stock amp/speakers would suit him. It all depends. He'll just have to give up the Navi options if he really wants a better radio (thumb controlls can still be used).

Didn't mean to contradict you directly Lou. I just think the factory radio is decent enough with better components in line after it. He may think otherwise.

:cheers:

so what are some better component sets for not a whole lot? i am looking to just change out the speakers and leave the stock H/U in.

will it sound like the new tl's or better if i get something better?

Yep, PAC makes a unit that integrates I believe. Do a search.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=1498

http://www.tune-town.com/Cars/stuff/steering_wheel.htm