My 2002 blazer has stock speakers which are not bose units. It has a radio which I believe is out of a 2004 blazer. I want to replace it with an aftermarket head unit, just a cheap $100 one which has a clock, AM/FM, and an Ipod hookup. I heard that these headunits can make your system sound worse because they send too much power to your speakers. Does anyone have any opinions on this? Also, any thoughts on good headunits for the money?

 

Check out Pioneer, Good head units, good price, go to amazon and look around.
As for too much power, I have not had that problem before. So i would not worry about that too much.

 

wouldnt worry about it too much. but like stated above, i would say the same. i just put a pioneer in my 98 with all stock speakers and added an amp with a 10" JL Audio sub. sounds good enough for now and i can still crank it up pretty good.

 

I both agree and disagree with it depending on the person who's using it.

I agree when it comes to a person who always turns the bass and treble all the way up and then cranks the volume, only to complain it sounds like crap. There's two reasons why that's going to happen and it will apply to aftermarket speakers too. First, anytime you turn up any bass or treble adjustment you're asking the amplifier to output more power. For every 3dB you boost the bass for example, the amplifier is going to try to output double the power at the same volume level. So say at a volume setting of 25 the output is 10 watts with a zero setting on the bass. Let's say you turn the bass up 3dB, with the volume setting still at 25 the amplifier will now be trying to output 20 watts of power. That's a problem since the average aftermarket HU has about a 20wrms rating per channel. If you turn the bass all the way up to say 9dB of boost it will be trying to output 80 watts of power at the same volume level. All that's going to do is cause severe amounts of distortion as the amp in the HU will NEVER be able to output more than it's rated. Second, the factory speakers have very low compliance and excursion (xmax) compared to aftermarket speakers. It doesn't take as much power to get them moving as it does the aftermarket offerings and it doesn't take as much power to bottom out the voice coil on the back plate of the motor. That's how and why cones, surrounds and voice coils break on these already very weak factory speakers. You take an already more powerful signal, combine that with maxing out the output by turning the bass up and it's a recipe for disaster. The severe signal distortion along with harmonic distortion from the speaker's cone, surround, etc. being stressed can make the sound quite horrible.

I disagree though that just because it's an aftermarket HU that it's instantly going to make the already crappy factory speakers sound worse. If a person is responsible with the EQ adjustments and the volume **** then it won't sound any worse than it did with the factory HU. Normally it will sound better as there is a little more power to drive the speakers with which will allow them to get a little louder before the signal distorts and things like the bass level not dropping out with the volume being turned up.

It really doesn't matter much though as the factory speakers in these trucks don't last real long anyway. They'll need replaced sooner or later and when they do this whole conversation will be irrelevant. Or at least the parts that apply to the factory speakers.