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How much of an improvement in sound quality would a new Headunit bring to stock speakers? Will there be better highs and lows???

 
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You will notice an improvement (speaking from first-hand experience) if you get a good-quality aftermarket HU.

My Eclipse 5444 was the first change I made to my LX. The improvement was very noticeable.

The "but" is that you probably won't want to stop there. I followed that with new speakers, then went to a sub, and an amp, etc, etc...

So in short, yes you will notice a difference...and it'll probably be enough to make you say, "you know, if I only spent $$$ more...." (grin)

-Flounder

 
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Yes you'll hear a big difference in sound quality. Now there is a small catch...Sometimes you may loose some highs or some lows depending on what brand radio you decide to buy. Every manufacture makes their radios different so expect that. Other than that you could probably just mess with the bass and treble controls to get the sound you want.

 
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It will sound better, but concurrently it will expose the poor quality of the stocks. You'll want to upgrade those, and that's how it all starts......

 
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alright, thanks for the input. I think i'll start with getting a headunit first. What's a good head unit around 200 dollars? Pioneer, Alpine...., etc.

 
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Alpine is very good quality - if you're planning ANY amount of future expansion make sure you get a deck with multiple preamplified outputs.

 
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I'd suggest Alpine or Eclipse.

 
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I looked at the Specs of Alpine and they only have 18 watts RMS per Channel. Pioneers have 22 watts RMS. Is Alpine RMS better or what?

 
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RMS is not the only thing to look at. All that means is that the Pioneer will get a little louder. It says nothing about SQ.

Actually, when it comes down to it, specs are not the only thing to look at.

Not that Pioneer is bad. Just don't go by specs alone.

 
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Go and listen to the HUs before you buy....remember, specs are created by a marketing department.

The highest powered decks that I've seen / heard are the Alpines with "V-Drive". They also want 10-gauge right to the battery on the installation.

Listen to the decks so you can hear where each one starts to crap out and distort. There ARE noticeable tone differences between brands as well.

-Flounder

 
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precisely how are you going to go listen to HU's and know how it will sound in your car? buying a deck based on what i hear in a store would be so friggin weird. go by features, ignore the power because it really won't make a big difference as long as it's around 20W rms (which they almost all are), and pick one that you like the way it looks and functions.

i'm not knocking any brands mentioned. i'd go with a pioneer, alpine, clarion, kenwood (excelon, i don't like regular kwoods) and really wouldn't worry about my choice too much.

 
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Well, I think you can get a sense of the differences if you listen to different HUs in a store. You won't know what it will sound like once you get it in your car, of course, but you will be able to see if one sounds brighter than another, if one has weaker bass, or whatever.

Don't buy a HU (or any other car audio) because it sounds good in the store, but I would say buying a HU because it sounds better than the others in the store wouldn't be bad.

 
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You put it better than I did.

I should have said you'll never know until it's in the car, but you can at least compare them. I went to the shop with an Alpine model in mind, walked out the door with an Eclipse. Either deck would have been great, but the Eclipse had a midrange response that I guessed would sound better for what I was listening to...

If you trust your dealer, ask their opinion based on your listening habits.

-Flounder

 
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I went the other way and got speakers first, still got stock HU....soon fixing that, though. Getting Clarion 6CD, HU, and Sirius. Can't wait to see what happens because the speakers were such an improvement even with the stock HU. The only thing I'm worried about is the features on the HU I picked out, It's a like a new cellphone or some ****, just too much stuff. I'm gonna have to leave the house 20 minutes earlier just to sit in the driveway and learn to push buttons.

 
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on any HU you can balance out anything you think you perceive. if i owned a store, i would turn on the auto EQ's on the decks i wanted to sell tons of, like the SRS WOW feature on kenwoods, i think it's bass engine on alpines, etc. every brand has one. it sounds great at lower volumes, but starts to clip higher up. thankfully, every company makes a deck at different price points. so you can be happy no matter how much you want to spend, depending on what features you want. if someone told me they got rid of their pioneer deck because it didn't have enough bass, i'd think they were a frickin idiot (unless they were referring to the low level RCA's not having enough juice)

 
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If I were a dishonest salesperson I'd crank the EQ too. A reputable dealer shouldn't do that kind of sh*t.