[V1LE SS]

I'm just curious as to if adding an amp to the stock speakers instead of running off the head unit for power would help gain any form of better sound out of these 1ss non bose speakers? Have grown to be not so fond of the stock speakers especially after hearing how the 2ss bose sounds, apologize if this is commonly asked, still new to the whole speaker and car audio subject.

[Msquared]

Just to be clear, the "head unit" is really the radio module behind the dash, to the outside of the glovebox. In our 1SS 1LEs, the power for the speakers comes from that module. An amp will help a little bit, mainly in terms of allowing the system to play louder without lots of distortion. I don't think the sound quality is going to improve a lot, because you aren't removing anything from the stock chain: you'd be taking the speaker-level signal from the radio module and running them into the hi-level inputs of an amp.

I think you'd gain significant sound quality if you add some DSP, an EQ function, and active crossovers for the front speakers. An affordable and easy-button way to do that is with the Kicker KEY180.4 (or the newer one is the KEY200.4). It does all those things. Even if you keep the stock speakers, you could use it with its biamp function to actively cross over the dash and door speakers and then leave the rear speakers unamplified. The only downer on this installation is that you'd want to pull out the dash speakers and remove the high-pass capacitors on them so they don't interfere with the active crossover function.

The next step in sound quality is to replace at least the dash and door speakers with something better. Here's a thread I started that shows how I approached an audio upgrade in my 2020. Yours is a little different: as a 2018 it has the MOST data protocol and you have more options for digital interfaces if you really want to get serious about all this. Or you can stay minimalist like I did.

[V1LE SS]

Appreciate the response, with how minimal I know about car audio, I guess my main way would probably be buy a decent set of front speakers and whatever channel
Amp I would need and go from there. Not looking to spend crazy money on parts but I definitely need some improvement over the stock 1ss system.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by V1LE SS

Appreciate the response, with how minimal I know about car audio, I guess my main way would probably be buy a decent set of front speakers and whatever channel
Amp I would need and go from there. Not looking to spend crazy money on parts but I definitely need some improvement over the stock 1ss system.

That was more or less my approach, too: simple, light, and not crazy expensive. I splurged somewhat on speakers (although one could splurge a lot more!), but mitigated that by only upgrading the four front speakers. I don't see the need for "rear fill" and I don't use the rear speakers at all. And I knew I didn't want subs because good ones are expensive, heavy, and require a good amp (more money and weight).

It's important to understand that the four front speakers (2.5s in the dash and 6x9s in the door) function from the factory as a single pair of component speakers for just two front channels. The dash speakers are like separate tweeter/mids (referred to as "twiddlers" these days), and the doors are your woofers. The cheapo 68mF capacitors on the dash speakers are high-pass filters and serve as a poor-man's passive crossover. The rear speakers are two-way (sort of) coax speakers, but they don't get a full signal. The stock system commits all its sins of omission - missing lots of detail and frequency extremese - rather than commission (like painful distortion or frequency dips).

By just upgrading speakers, I got a lot more frequency extension (both bass and treble) and a lot more detail. This was still using the stock signal from the radio module and the cheap capacitors as crossovers. What I didn't have was a solid soundstage and imaging, and the sound wasn't very uniform across the frequency range. Adding the amp with integrated DSP, EQ, and active crossover allowed me to ditch the stock passive crossover, time-align the drivers properly, and improve the flatness of the response curve - all automagically.

I don't miss a sub at all, and this system plays plenty loud for my needs. A lot of replacement speaker systems for the front will spec a traditional component set with woofers in the door and a 1" tweeter for the dash. This isn't optimal. A small tweeter would prefer to be placed on the front pillar so you're getting the primary soundwave first instead of reflections. The drop-in "twiddlers" I used from AF are specifically designed for that type of corner dash location, where you will hear the reflection of the sound off the windshield and pillar. There are a few of them available, and Kenwood has a set at a much lower price point than the Audiofrogs I used. You'll give up some refinement, some volume level (they aren't as senstive), and a fair amount of bass extension compared to the speakers I used. But they will still be a big step up from stock if you add the amp I used. OTOH, if you install that amp and the Kenwoods and then decide you need a sub, then you would have been better off just going with the Audiofrog set I used, IMO. All in, I was still only in about $800ish for the components, not including cables and installation supplies.

[WhyUMad1LE]

I ran the AP4-GM61 to a Mosconi amp with Audiofrog speakers in the OEM sizes. It sounds beautiful but could use a 12” sub to round things out. IIRC the AP4 was $300, the speakers were $700, and the amp was $500 (not including wiring).

To complete the system, a 12” JL stealthbox would be $1000 and the amp for that around $300. I forget how much a box of soundskins cost me to insulate the trunk floor. And this still doesn’t include a DSP. So not a cheap solution!

If you don’t want to spend much you can keep the factory amplification and try replacing the dash speakers with Audiofrog, Hybrid Audio or Morel 2.5”. I wouldn’t bother with the door speakers.

[NotFast]

Originally Posted by WhyUMad1LE

I ran the AP4-GM61 to a Mosconi amp with Audiofrog speakers in the OEM sizes. It sounds beautiful but could use a 12” sub though. IIRC the AP4 was $300, the speakers were $700, and the amp was $500 (not including wiring).

If you don’t want to spend much you can keep the factory amplification and try replacing the dash speakers with Audiofrog, Hybrid Audio or Morel 2.5” speakers.

That was going to be my question to you guys: would simply replacing the speakers help much? My LT1 is a lease and I'm not interested in sinking TOO much into it (and my DIY skills are 'moderate').

[WhyUMad1LE]

Originally Posted by NotFast

That was going to be my question to you guys: would simply replacing the speakers help much? My LT1 is a lease and I'm not interested in sinking TOO much into it (and my DIY skills are 'moderate').

On a budget? Try replacing the dash speakers by the windshield. You'll hear more detail in the music. There is a metra wiring harness that should make it easy. You may need to run bass blockers however.

If I were to do this again I would have just added a stealthbox to the stock speaker setup. About $1500 all in, but nice and simple.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by WhyUMad1LE

On a budget? Try replacing the dash speakers by the windshield. You'll hear more detail in the music. There is a metra wiring harness that should make it easy. You may need to run bass blockers however.

I agree, as far as that goes. My first step was just replacing the dash speakers with the Audiofrog GS25s, and it definitely helped with the detail, but didn't fully blend well with the stock door speakers. One likely cause is that the GS25s seem considerably more sensitive than the cheap factory speakers. But also see below about crossover frequency.

Last summer there was no Metra adapter for this, so research carefully. I took the factory connector and its capacitor off of each speaker and made it into an adapter harness so I could plug into the other end of the factory connecter and not cut any wires. Alternatively, you could cut the factory connector off the speaker wires and use spades, but you'll need to include some form of capacitor (the "bass blocker" being discussed above) because it's not good to send the 2.5" speakers a full-range signal. I would look for something in the range of 140-200uF capacitance, which will extend the signal to these speakers to something like 200-300Hz. In my opinion the little 68uF caps the factory used result in too high a crossover point for the GS25, and they will blend with the door speakers better with the lower crossover point. I vaguely recall that Crutchfield and/or Best buy sold some with 144uF.