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I have been torn back and forth with whether or not to keep the factory system, or go back to a complete aftermarket setup. In my last Vet, I put in a complete aftermarket DVD system, but I am leaning more towards the stock look on my new one. Its an 02 Z06. I have narrowed down a few parts, i.e. the PAC AOEM-VET1 to add an amp/sub and the PIE GM10-AUX/PIE COR-HAR to add an Aux input (for Sirius)...
But, the one thing I can't find is whether or not I can simply replace the stock speakers with aftermarket ones.
This isn't a question about size, as I know what will fit and/or how to get what to fit in the doors and rear area.
What I want to know is if I can swap the factory speakers out with better ones, using the factory head unit and amp. On my old C5, the amp seemed to be integrated into the speakers, so if I remove them will I even be able to get power into the replacements? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
to get the best sound you need to replace the headunit, you can get good sound with keeping the headunit and replacing the amp and speakers but you're still dealing with a 'not so great' source.
you can replace the stock speakers (including the 8" sub) with new ones if you get the pac (or soundgate) bose interface like you have stated. This will need an amp though. if you just want to replace the speakers... i.e:no amp, then you are limited to switching out only the twiddler and the rear speakers. The 8" will have to stay if you want any bass since the h/u only sends higher frequency signals to the leads that go to the twiddlers.
Last edited by scott_fx; Jan 23, 2006 at 11:00 PM.
Scott, if I used the AOEM-VET1 to add a sub in the rear, and replaced the front speakers and rear speakers with better ones, couldn't I eliminate the 8" sub in the front (i.e. be getting enough bass from the additional sub in the back) or replace it with another 2 or 3 way before the crossover occurs?
I think the main problem with the 8" is that they are individually amplified (at like a 1.5 ohm load or something lame) and if you were to just replace them while retaining a stock HU you would not have a means of powering the new speakers. Save yourself a bit of time and save a few extra $'s and just replace the whole set up you will be happy with it (can almost guarantee better sound than the blose) You could just eliminate the 8's all together but your front sound stage would suffer greatly with only the 3.5's playing from around (guessing) 1k hz and up. You would lack a lot of male vocals and many instruments in your front stage and force your sub and/or rear speakers to work pretty hard trying to fill the gap.
yeah if you get a soundgate or aoem-vet1 (i'm almost possitive) that it sends a full signal to the rca outputs. then just scrap the bose speakers completely, get a sub and 2-way component system up front and you'll be happy with the improvement.
wait after reading that....you are planning on amping the components right?
What I am asking is, if there is any way I can use the stock line for the 8'' speaker before the crossover has taken place (same for the 3.5 too I guess) Basically I would like to 'combine' the signals and add my own component system, and use its crossover but still use th bose amp. I know its not the 'best' sound, but will it work?...
oh...
no.. you can't. if you even tried to take the signal from after the bose and and wire to a sub the level would be so low it would be difficult to hear. The amp is pushing the bose sub which is 1.5 ohms. if you put a 4 ohm component system you are reducing the power output; of the amp, by over 2.5x (i think my math is right here... ) but regardless it'll be taken down a lot. you'd be cranking up the h/u to max and getting a bunch of distortion and sub-bose sound quality.