I have the factory Bose stereo system and I'm looking for some ideas. I want a good sounding system for once...I haven't had a working stereo in my Camaro yet and my old truck had a "high school special" so to speak. I listen to rock and some of the new stuff (rap, etc) so I would like to have subs, but nothing drastic. I'm not much of a car audio buff, so any/all the recommendations are appreciated. I want quality pieces, not necessarily the best and would prefer to not spend over $700 for speakers, sub(s), and amp. I have two good, but maybe a year or two old head units that I would prefer to use to keep costs down, but any recommendations on HUs would be appreciated as well.

 

i'd go with a kenwood hu....
and some jl speakers

 

I would avoid JL purely because of price.

What heads do you have lying around? Any of them have preouts? If one or more do I would go this route to save money for the meantime. It’s a pretty easy upgrade down the road and much less costly than buying one ok set of speakers and then replacing them with a good set in a month or two.

Are you interested in running 4x6s and 6x9s (stock locations) or do you want to upgrade to kicks? Cost will be about the same if you build the enclosures yourself (not that hard but somewhat time-consuming) and kicks will sound a ton better.

Does the $700 cover all materials? I just build a box for a friend and it ended up costing him about $100 in materials for wood, wire, etc. MDF is around $20 a sheet (4x8), wire to power the amp costly unless you buy online (expect around $60), you need RCAs (another $20), screws, glue, etc. If you’re doing kicks tack on another $50-100 for supplies depending on what you already own (respirator, resin, mat/cloth, and brushes).

Are you going to be upgrading your speakers and your subs with this money or just your subs? I think you’re better off focusing on one or the other this time around to cut costs. This will let you buy better quality equipment and will spread the cost out some. If your speakers are OK right now (aka not blown) then I would invest in subs + amp for the time being and upgrade your speakers when you have additional funds. You will get a much better outcome this way.

 

How good?
I'm going to agree with gummie on every thing, but the order if you split things up. If you really want 'good' sounding go the way of kicks and spend $300.00 or so on a set of 6.5 comps and a smallish amp for them, say 75x2. Run that till the next step, subs and amp.
If you don't need something that sounds 'that' good, keeping the stock locations will save you allot, meanly because it limits your speaker choses.