I have a 07 Sport and have been planning on doing some audio upgrading. I have already put in a 10" JL subwoofer in sealed enclosure powered by an Alpine 450 Mono amp. This really has spotlighted the lack of clarity from my stock components. I am planning on getting the Focal A1 entry components with an Alpine 450 4 channel amp (70x4). The key is that I want to keep the factory head unit at this time. Now for my questions:

1. Will I be able to keep the rear stock speakers active with this set-up? Would they be powered by the factory head since the 70x4 would blow them out? Is it even worth keeping them active?

2. Is this upgrade worth doing without replacing the head unit? In other words, will I be getting a very good upgrade in sound by doing the Focals with an amp without upgrading the head unit?

Thanks so much for your thoughts on this before I plunk down $800 for the pair of Focal comps and an amp.
Gregg

 

ok quick and dirty answer:
I would plan on replacing the factory deck. although it would be possible to keep the factory deck, use a 4ch line output convertor,the rear channels feeding the sub, the front channels feeding the focals, and the rears still powered off of the factory deck. But IMO the sound quality would not be as good as if you were using an aftermaket deck with high voltage dedicated line outs. a simple way to describe the difference in sound quality think about the difference between using a Ipod adapter verses the AUX input. If you would like a more detailed explanation or more info PM me

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. I wish I could get the factory head replaced at this time, but with the cost of the metra dash kit at $100 plus head unit and install I just couldn't afford it now. Do you think that replacing the head unit should be what I do this year and all the amp/speaker stuff should be after that next year?
Thanks again for all of your help,
Gregg

 

If it was me, I'd replace the h/u first then upgrade the speakers and amps. The OEM h/u with speaker level outputs and a line level converter isn't that great for audio quality compared to an aftermarket h/u with a line level output.

You could always wait a little longer and replace everything at once. Focal's are awesome speakers, but you can also get speakers that aren't half bad for less than $800 a pair. They're not going to be as awesome as a set of $800 Focals, but they'll be an upgrade from the OEM speakers.