Stereo Upgrade Question

[23109VC]

I have a 2000 base.

the head unit is the factory CDR220 unit. I have speakers in the dash, doors, and also the former owner added rear speakers in the storage areas taht are to the rear /side of each seat.

Honestly, the sound quality coming out of the rear speakers is not all that great. I have no idea exactly how it is wired in, but I have used the fader feature and faded them out, and they don't really add a whole lot of sound/fullness/richness when they are on or off.

I find the front dash/door speakers provide most of what I can hear.

I have also noticed that the knob on the stereo that controls what CD track is playing is screwed up. that right knob, which you twist to advance from one track to the next on a CD - it has osmethin gwrong with it, and when I twist it, sometimes it goes the wrong way, doens't do anything, or does more than I try. LIke I rotate it one click to the right, to skip tracks, and instead it reverses tracks, or sometimes it advances two tracks...

i only use the CD player now, however, because I don't have an ipod interface. once i got that working, i would use the IPOD exclusively, and that defective knob wouldnt' really be an issue. although i'll have to buy the ipod connecter cable, and route it through teh back of the stereo... there are several threads here detailing how to do that.

another option i've considered is to just replace the stereo with something half way decent - nothing extravagant..but in the 2-300 range. i believe some of these newer esystmes have front mounted aux inputs so I could use a cheapy cable and just plug the ipod right into the front of the stereo... that would avoid having to muck up my car with some weird mount system and run a cable around the back... i could just put the ipod on the passenger seat or in teh cubby and let the wire run up to the stereo.. wouldn't look as clean when i'm driving - but when i park, and pull it all out - it would look clean.

my big question is this - i have very little knowledge on stereos...and I have no idea how this head unit stacks up to other stuff out there for sale now that is in teh pice range i'm considering. i know i don't want to spend $500+ on a head unit.... but i can see spending a couple hundred. maybe 300 max. for that price, i don't know if i'll just wind up with someting no better than the stanrdard head unit i have in terms of sound quality, power, etc... or if it would be twice as good and it woudl sound better.

i suspect that the stock head unit doens't have a lot of power b/c the rear speakers don't sound that loud...and i'm guessing there isn't much power pushign them and maybe an aftermarket head unit would send more power to them and it would be better.

so i can just buy the ipod wire and spend about $50-100 on that, maybea mount...

or i can spend a few hundred and get a new head unit that woudl make plugging in my ipod easier via a cheaper front mount aux cable...

woudl I get a lot better sounding music/cleaner sound, more power form a 2-300 aftermarket head unit or would that pice range give me somethign no better than what's in teh car already? (aside from my knob being on the fritz, the rest of the radio seems okay..although i've noticed my FM reception seems crappy, maybe an antenna wire came undone??)

[23109VC]

while home for lunch I checked those rear speakers. there are two on each side.

MB Quartz. they said someting like pro titanium on them. they wre in the car when my dad bought it - so they were installed around 2001ish..... so they are an older speaker...

they do add sound, don't get me wrong, it's just that if you turn them off, the stereo still sounds loud/good enough. to me, they add something, but if I had paid big money to add these things, I would have been let down...

[JCherrytree]

I've had a similar situation. I've replaced the factory dash units with 4 1/2 Boston Acoustics and a Kenwood w/ USB in the glove. The same will go in the rear storage. The issue is that there is only so much room in a small car. 4 1/2" will only put out so much. Remove the dash covers to see if the factory paper cones are there. I spent about $800 for the front dash and radio. Rear is for a later date.

[boxs2000]

For what you want to spend, the best bang for your buck is a new head unit. The factory is garbage, but the speakers are actually decent. You said base boxster, but you should still have the factory amplifier in the front truck correct? if so change the head unit (deck) and add the rear speakers in the rear storage and you will notice a dramatic difference.

[mikedivincent]

What is the recommendation for the rear speakers?

Any installation pics or guides?

How do you get the wires to them?

[Dave S.]

I agree, it sounds like a new head unit would be a good start, then maybe a speaker upgrade.
You'll find that there are a lot of good head units designed to not only connect to, but fully operate your iPod for the $200-300 price range you would consider.

Go to www.cartoys.com and/or www.crutchfield.com and you find all kinds of information. Alpine even makes a head unit that doesn't have a CD in it anymore and only uses the radio or iPod.

Dave S.

[KevinH1990]

I started with a speaker upgrade and then added a six channel amp from a 996. Here's my upgrade path:

1. Added rear speaker - I used the Harvey/PNP kit that you can find on eBay.
2. Replaced dash speakers with Infinity Kappas
3. Found a six-channel amp on eBay and replaced the stock 4-channel amp
4. Swapped the CDR-220 for a Traffic Pro. I don't think this made much of change in the sound quality since the Traffic Pro is very similar to the CDR-220. The reason I made this change was that the Traffic Pros were on sale and the net cost was relatively low after I resold the CDR-220. My CDR-220 was having cosmetic issues due to peeling buttons.

Mike - Here is a good tutorial on installing the rear speakers: http://www.pelicanparts.com//techarticles/box_rear_speakers/box_rear_speakers.htm