[Jorge1SS]

Accidentally posted this in the main forum on accident, so I will post it in here as it is the correct sub-forum. So, What’s up guys, so I recently bought door speakers for my car and I replaced them with the stock ones and they sound just about the same if not (surprisingly) A little worse in terms of bass and overall loudness/SQ. So my main question is; has anybody replaced the amp for speakers only? I DO NOT want to add a sub and tap into the battery, I have seen on some forums of people replacing the amp but they replaced it with the purpose of also installing a sub which is not what I want to do. So if anybody has, please let me know what amp you guys use or recommend for only powering the speakers. Thanks.

[Msquared]

I answered your post in the other forum, but I'll paste it in here, too:

I think your SS should have a factory amp in the trunk, whereas my 1SS 1LE came with no separate amp (the speakers were powered straight from the radio unit behind the dash to the right of the glove box). However, my stereo upgrades may still be interesting for you because I also definitely did not want to add a sub. Feel free to ask me any questions over in that thread.

[Aaron07]

To make sure a few of the basics are covered, did you match the impedance of your new speakers to the stock ones? Are they wired correctly? (polarity?)

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by Aaron07

To make sure a few of the basics are covered, did you match the impedance of your new speakers to the stock ones? Are they wired correctly? (polarity?)

The stock speakers in my car were 4-ohm, and I am betting yours are too. I think it's only the Bose speakers that are 2-0hm. The Audiofrogs I used are also nominally 4-ohm speakers. If you still have your stock speakers, you can put an ohm meter across their terminals and verify (mine tested at around 3.6-ohms). This is fairly important when using the factory amplification, but if you install an aftermarket amp then you just need speakers impedances that work within the amp's specs (and each other). Yes, you need to make sure you have the polarities correct on all your speakers.

[keep_hope_alive]

I posted this in your general section post but it makes sense to have it here.

It is very common for a direct speaker swap to sound worse. The primary reason is the lack of seals. A speaker in the door needs to seal against the door panel as well as the door metal. Isolation of front and rear sound waves is vital and the door panel is the front of the "enclosure". The second reason is a mis-match of efficiency and the third reason is the addition of a tweeter down low.

The lack of seals robs bass response, the efficiency mis-match results in lower output, and the low tweeter hurts SQ.

As suggested in the build log link, you can get small amplifier power packs to quickly boost power output. This can be located at the factory amp, it's a small boost in output.

I picked up schematics for the factory radio and wiring from ACDelcoTDS and just paid for a 3-day subscription. Any polarity wiring mis-match will cause problems as well.