I have a few questions on replacing my factory speakers/amp/head unit....

I've been driving this car for far too long with the majority of my speakers blown, and I cant deal with it anymore. I guess I'd just like to replace the speakers, but I dont want them to be so underpowered as to sound like ***. I'm not ruling out a amp/head unit, but just want to see what kinda options I have.

Car is a 94 Formula with the CD/EQ/10 speaker system. This is not the Bose or Monsoon system.

The head unit drives the following speakers:
6.5" drivers and tweeters in the front doors (4ohm)
4" drivers (10 ohm) and tweeters (8 ohm) in the hatch

There is a small amp (~4"x5"x1.5") located under the 6" sub in the passenger side sail panel. The amp drives both subs (3.2 ohm). I have no idea how many watts it is--doesnt say...

I've already replaced the subs with 2 JL 6" subs (4 ohm)....
I'm going to replace the front components with Infinitys

Now for my ?'s:
Will my measly factory amp have sufficient power to drive the JL's? They claim to need a minimum of 30 watts RMS.

Since I already have an amp, can I cut off the connector going into it, and wire the F/R +/- speaker inputs into a new amp and have that amp drive the subs, and possibly the front components. I'd have to relocate the amp, but that isnt a problem. And I'd need something to convert speaker wires to RCA preamps, right?

The local audio place tells me no, and is recommending 2 amps (a mono? amp for the subs and another amp for the front components). Sorta seems like overkill, but I dont know. They were talking $1000 out the door for the two amps (JL 200x1 and 200x2, I think?!?) a new Pioneer 1.5 DIN HU, clarion 4" full range speakers for the hatch (told me to leave the factory tweeters back there) and all the associated goodies, including the thingy to keep my steering wheel radio controls. I could probably talk them down $100-150....but thats still alot...

Any suggestions? Assuming I had say, $600 to work with (not including the $$ for the infinitys and JL's), what would you do? Is that a good deal? I'd be tackling this install myself....

Any advice would be apperciated!!!

 

you have couple options my car is 93 ta same setup i am conserding doing this i dont think the subs no matter what kind you out in there it wount sound right i installed for years alarms and audio mostly bmws and other high end cars.i did one years ago with a stealth box in the drivers side rear it had a 10w3 in it and like a 200w mono amp it had damm good bass.now heres what i am conserding i replaceed the door spakers with boston 6.5 comp. set i am gona put a nother comp set in the sail and in the rear. Get a 5ch amp alpine memphis something good. if you get a 5 chanell you can run the front buy there self run the sail and the rear in 2 ohm stereo and the sub off the 5th what kind of hu are you thinkng of getting like mp3 etc or real high tech you can get a deacent kennwood excelon off ebay for like 180.00 and the amp 350.00 but youll be very happy the stelth boxes are on ebay for like 50 with no sub were a re you located

 

I wanted to avoid going the sub/box route, although I know that would likely sound best.

Can I use the speaker wires going into the factory amp to connect to a 4 channel amp? Or do I need some sort of speaker wire > RCA adapter? Then run the fronts and sail subs off that? That would probably mess up my fader control, but I dont think I'd care.

I'm in Ohio...

 

do you want more bass or do you want louder and clear sound if you the sail subs you want them to get a seperate chanell of the amp the need to receeve a low freq. like 80hz you could run the front and rear of the front chanll of the ampwhich would not sound too bad you could reuse the wiring at the plug for the amp as for the front you could run two pairs of wires behid the hu and when you put you after arkey radio in you just hook up you connection there real easy am i loosingyou i have a tendsy to do that to ppl

 

I think I followed that....I just want a little louder, clean sound. Bass isnt my primary concern.

What your saying is I'd want 2 x 2 channel amps, one with a low frequency (I think thats a mono amp?) and another for the other speakers. But I could go with the existing wiring for the sub amp, then tap into the HU wires for the front speakers?

So, my idea to use a 100 x 4 watt amp to run the front components and subs, using the existing amp wires probably isnt going to work because the subs need to be a low frequencey?

I just want better sound for cheap!!! I'd rather spend my money on a cam/valvetrain or suspension mods than 2 amps, a new HU and all the associated extras. But, I've already got the front doors apart to install my component speakers, so if I'm going to do anything like this, now's the time....

 

ok so you can get a 4x100 watt amp youll need on with high level inputs sice you want too keep the factory cd player what you can do is most amps have have two crossovers in them so the front input can be set at like 100hz you can use thoes 2 channels too run the front doors and the rear and the rear channell two the subs wire it up mono 2ohm set the crossover at 70hz .you can put your doors back togther as you can get the font and rear wires behind the head unit and hook up you speakers wires you should have the wiring in the tech manual

 

So your saying I can run the front speakers (mids and tweets) and the rear speakers (mids and tweets) and the subs off 1 amp?