[Shaun543]

I see a lot of back and forth on here in regards to the benefit of audio upgrades and keeping the stock amp. I want to give my take on it.

I have the HiFi (676) option. I swapped out the front door speakers with the Rockford Fosgate T3BMW2. I then replaced the under seat subs with the 2-ohm Earthquakes.

The door speakers were simple and straight forward. My only small complaint was that the harness for the tweeters had a 0 and +3db option, to which Rockford recommended the +3. Because that harness had the two pig tails it added extra wiring tied into the crossover block. It was a little annoying to find a place for that. Not deal breaking at all, just an observation. Other than that, plug and play. I have seen that set-up on line for $600+, Amazon had it for $299.

The Earthquake subs were a little trickier, nothing that anyone doing DIY could not do, just added more than a plug and play situation. First off be sure to order the spacer with the binding posts. The individual subs to not come with them. I do not think they would fit height wise without them, and they also made connections a lot easier. The Earthquakes do not come with an adapter harness, you will have to cut and butt-connect the wires or buy the harness along with subs. I have seen harness on eBay, but were like $20 a piece. For that money I figured it would be better to just cut and splice. Just leave enough wire on the plug to re-attach should you want to go back to factory.

Ok, on to the review. This made a HUGE difference to me in audio quality. I can feel my seat shake now with the under seat sub, and the fronts are much louder and clearer. That being said, I am easily able to hit 80+% on the volume knob, this is where upgrading the amp would come in handy. So my moral of this story is that if you want better audio quality, but don't want to get kicked out of your neighborhood, flip the switch on just some speaker upgrades. But if you are after higher volumes, then an amp upgrade would be needed.

I also run a JL Audio 10" 10W3v3 in a sealed enclosure in my trunk. I LOVE this sub. It is punchy and fast, not boomy and misplaced. The enclosure for this is crazy small, if I remember correctly it is like .6 cu ft or less. So it barely takes up any room at all. With the upgrade of the Earthquake under seat subs the curve is now almost seamless as it actually reproduces the mids I was struggling to get. It sounds great.

I am going to be adding a full new amp set-up. I am going to run 3 smaller amps, all Kicker brand. (1) 4ch for the inside speakers, (2) mono blocks; 1 for JL sub in trunk, 1 for Earthquakes under seat. I am a bit bummed I am going to lose the center channel, but have to sacrifice. My hope is that it doesn't get missed due to all the extra power to everything else. My hurdle with this is how/where to mount the 3 amps without it looking like a high school kids trunk! I'll try and post some pics with what I come up with.