[Drivesthebeast]

Well, as I mentioned in my other thread about having a 98 Civic Si now as a DD to keep the km's off the Escape as much as possible, the Sony Xplod deck that was in the car when I bought it, was completely whipped after a using it a few days, and less and less of it functioning properly.

I had it replaced with a JVC KD-R330 deck while down in Brantford, which cost me $135 taxes and installation included. Yeah, it's a pretty basic or stripped down unit from what is available these days, and I'm sure I could have gotten a better deal with an open-box special or something from one of the Big Boxes here in Ottawa, but I like supporting the independent shops like Audio Vibe (which I have done for over 15 years actually).

The AM/FM radio works just fine, the CD player works and sounds great, and there are actually a LOT of user selectable features for the settings on this deck, even with it being a cheapie one. The amp and preamp in it has plenty of guts (20w rms @ 4 ohms, 1%THD, CEA certified, with a peak of 50w x4 available on tap) and it's more than enough to drive the tired old paper and foam speakers that are still in the car.

The factory tweeters actually sound fantastic on this deck, with a pretty large sound stage and crisp, clear mids and highs being fed to them by the 330. The woofers in the doors however sound tired, and are muddy/distorted sounding with deeper or harder hitting bass, and the same can be said (even more so) for the stock 6x9's in the rear shelf. I know it's not really the deck that's making this distortion, as the JVC Arsenal HU in my dad's F-150 Supercrew can drive his factory 6x8's no problem, with a lot of punch. At least, I hope it's not the deck that's distorting, and I'm pretty confident it's not, as I have the setting for the internal amp on the deck set to low gain, as to not allow too much power to go to the stock speakers.

I am thinking about just replacing the stock 6.5" woofers in the doors, retaining the factory wiring, tweeter, and crossover (if there is one), and replacing the stock 6x9's with some aftermarket ones, and call it a day. I know I can get a set of 6x9's from Factory Direct for $25-$50 brand new, in the box still, and I could just get some 6.5" coaxials and disable or cut the wires to the onboard tweeter in them to get more bass and cleaner sound than the stock drivers.

I am also thinking about replacing only the stock 6x9's so that the treble is more matched/equal to the treble coming from the component set in the front, and using the internal HPF in the deck and driving the fronts and rears just off of it for now , and getting either a self-powered 8" Bazooka (one of the good ones with the 250w class D monoblock built in), or a single 10" in a sealed box with a small amp, and call it a day.

I'm tempted to change the 6x9's first, and see how I make out with them off the head unit first, as I have been in small cars with only 6x9's before that were quite loud, and played adequate bass for what they are.

Any suggestions? I'm looking to get the stereo updated for as economical a route as I can, now that I've already spent money to replace the head unit, and I still have to buy either 2, or a matched set of 4 tires for the warmer weather (2 of my 4 Barum's are still fine for at least one more year).

L8tz!