stock toys, new sound?

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tweety2

Member - Posts: 7

Joined: May 31, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 12:04 PM / IP Logged

My friend and I have the same car, 2006 Pontiac Solstice.

Our cars were ordered with the Monsoon system: amp/sub/4 speakers/2 tweeters. The Monsoon sounded good enough for what I needed in my previous T/As that I thought that it would be worth getting this time again. So much for thought.

My friend pulls up with the stereo pumping and sounding so full and great that I figured that he must have changed out everything. Nope. Just the head unit. Stock set up all around except for the head unit. What gives?

Is it at all possible to provide more power to the speakers without changing the stock head unit? I don't want a new piece in the dash as I am satisfied with what I have to look at and work with. But I DO want that sound. Sheesh. What a sound from his car and all from stock gear. Full, rich, clear, and darn loud sound.

Modding the car to be like GM should have made it!

austincustoms

Copper - Posts: 232

Joined: November 15, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 3:09 PM / IP Logged

I don't know how your friend did it, but your two best options are - a 4 channel amp and 4 new speakers

-or - a 2 channel amp and 2 front speakers powered off the amp, with the two rear powered from the factory HU.

tcss

Silver - Posts: 1,623

Joined: June 07, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 6:19 PM / IP Logged

Haven't done a Solstice but here's what I think has happened. Most Monsoon systems are high level input. My guess is that your friend got an aftermarket head unit that has quite a bit more power then the stock head. The more agressive gain that has resulted you are confusing with superior sound. The question is, how long will his stock amp tolerate the higher power input? An LOC should have been used.

There is no such thing as free installation!

sparkie

Platinum - Posts: 2,061

Joined: November 06, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 7:32 PM / IP Logged

I agree with tcss. All that is happened is the new deck is overdriving the inputs to the factory amp. The amp will take it to a point. If he is in the habit of turning it loud, which happens in most convertibles, something will give sooner or later. I am betting it is the speakers. That won't be covered under warranty. I would suggest a better method is to upgrade the amp to a higher power one. If the amp accepts speaker level inputs all the better. If not you will need a line level adaptor. You should also upgrade the speakers to handle the added power. You can still retain the stock head for appearance or opt to go totally aftermarket with a new raadio and get a increase in sound output. The last option isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for.

sparky

tweety2

Member - Posts: 7

Joined: May 31, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 8:53 PM / IP Logged

Thanks for the input on my question, and thanks for not talking over my head-yet.

I am resisting changing out the stock HU only because it has many features that I doubt come in an all-in-one aftermarket set up. I haven't done any homework on the HU replacement so my opinion may prove false.

Current HU has XM built in. I think. There are 3 different HUs available and the people with XM have the one I have. That's how I jump to that conclusion.

My current unit also has 6 disc in dash as well as MP3, CD, channel, and artist identifiers. The bonus is having nearly endless pages of favorites at my fingers. Not the standard 15 FM 5 AM set up either. I have 4 pages with I think 6 or 8 buttons each. Maybe I can find all this in another head unit but at what cost???

Thanks again for the information. Time to go window shopping!

Oh another thing....

Is it true that if I applied a Sony HU and a Pioneer HU to the same set of speakers that I would get different results? Assuming that both units were the same family of units and similar in price? I don't have any in mind, just an example.

Modding the car to be like GM should have made it!

austincustoms

Copper - Posts: 232

Joined: November 15, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: September 12, 2006 at 9:42 PM / IP Logged

I misread the origional post. I thought he hadn't changed the head.

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stock toys, new sound?

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