[KevinH1990]

You don't need it, because you can power the rear speakers off of the head unit. I made the swap because I found a 6 channel Haes amp on eBay for something like $30. It didn't cost much and the installation is almost plug and play.

I think the sound is a little better, but I really don't have an objective measure of quality. Your double DIN unit may have more power that you can direct to the rear speakers than the Haes amp, so you may not hear any improvement.

I helped my friend install rear speakers in his 02. He is still powering them from a CDR 220 and has not upgraded his dash speakers (I have). We both agree that my system sounds substantially better, but I cannot say how much of the improvement can be attributed to the amp and how much to the dash speakers.

Someday I may tackle the door speakers. I had really modest goals for improvement. If you are an audiophile, you probably need to spend a bit more money than I did. I would say that overall my system sounds almost as good as the stock system in my daughter's 06 Honda Civic EX.

Good luck.