hi guys, this audiophile talk of components, cross overs, etc stuff has me confused,

i have an 03 str with the factory alpine premium audio, non nav head unit,

i want to keep the stock head unit, amp and speaker wiring, and upgrade the speakers mostly,

what kind of door speakers should i be looking at? Is there more than one speaker in the doors? I keep reading conflicting information, about there being just one door speaker, or there being a high and mid speakers in each door...
I dont even know what to shop for... Speakers with their own cross overs? Or does the amp have an internal crossover and i just need the right speakers?

I would also like to upgrade to small sub that can be powered by the sub channel from the factory amp that drives the two parcel shelf subs...

Any advice is great, thanks guys...



i

 

Just saw this post, and though I don't know much of anything about the s-type, given the year of your car, you should probably abandon the idea of salvaging the head unit if you expect modern features like bluetooth, satellite, iPod integration, etc. I have a 2003 XKR and am going through this now.

It is do-able, as I had a 1997 XK8 before this car and was able to install all of the aforementioned features without much trouble using an aftermarket modern Alpine head unit. I saved the original radio and swapped it out for the upgraded system when the car got totaled a month ago.

Since you will probably want to swap out the head unit, you can also forget about salvaging the stock CD player as it is so old no modern deck will connect to it. Then again, so what? You probably moved on from CDs a while ago and if you have not yet, you will soon - or be forced to, at least in the car audio realm. But this is largely a good thing.

As for door speakers, I found a set of JBLs on Amazon that fit nicely into the door panels of the XK8. That car did not have the premium stereo installed so there were no tweeters in the dash sockets, only wires leading to nowhere. Since the JBLs had separate tweeters, I needed to get creative with the wiring. Yes, you will need crossovers if you are using speakers with separate tweeters and you will definitely need some kind of crossover if you want an amp installed with a subwoofer, as I had.

I wish I could be of more assistance to you but strange as it seems, even since barely ten years ago the car stereo world has moved into directions not easily adaptable to your current system. That said, you will probably be much more pleased if you bite the bullet and re-vamp the entire system from jump street.

Good luck!