Having the Harmon Kardon system in my vehicle, the overall sound to me was disappointing. I have upgraded nearly every factory system in cars I have owned throughout the years, in this case I thought I would start by add a sub and then evaluate the sound and see if I want to go further (replacing front stage/add another amp/DSP, etc.) with the upgrades.
So far, I added a subwoofer (JL 12W6v3 - I already had this sub, it's a little much for the current set-up I would say a 10" would suffice, but to each his own) amp - Arc Audio 1100.1 (again, I had this from a previous build - 600 W RMS at 2 ohms) and a Line Out Converter (LC2i), so it was a simple install. I removed the factory sub to make a amp rack on the existing location mounts for the factory sub (My requirement was not to "drill" any holes in the car). I have a box with the sub in it, I did talk to the installer about concealing the sub in the back, after much discussion, the only way would be to lose the spare tire/tools or build something on the sides...not really desirable and with the box back there I can always just take it out if need be. My other thought on the sub box is to get it wrapped in black leather and have red stitching to match my interior??
Results - still tuning it, but what a dramatic improvement to the sound stage, the low end just glues it all together and it sounds much better, now this is no "reference" system, but for a big improvement, the sub does help out a lot. (sorry the photos sideways!)
Curious if anyone else has done any aftermarket stereo upgrades?
So far, I added a subwoofer (JL 12W6v3 - I already had this sub, it's a little much for the current set-up I would say a 10" would suffice, but to each his own) amp - Arc Audio 1100.1 (again, I had this from a previous build - 600 W RMS at 2 ohms) and a Line Out Converter (LC2i), so it was a simple install. I removed the factory sub to make a amp rack on the existing location mounts for the factory sub (My requirement was not to "drill" any holes in the car). I have a box with the sub in it, I did talk to the installer about concealing the sub in the back, after much discussion, the only way would be to lose the spare tire/tools or build something on the sides...not really desirable and with the box back there I can always just take it out if need be. My other thought on the sub box is to get it wrapped in black leather and have red stitching to match my interior??
Results - still tuning it, but what a dramatic improvement to the sound stage, the low end just glues it all together and it sounds much better, now this is no "reference" system, but for a big improvement, the sub does help out a lot. (sorry the photos sideways!)
Curious if anyone else has done any aftermarket stereo upgrades?
