Is this possible?

First of all, I don't really like the way aftermarket headunits look. and second I really couldn't care less about Bass (in the common sense). I just want to be able to play my music really loud and it not sound like a stock stereo turned up (all distorted and horrible sounding) I'm looking at doing infinity perfect series door speakers (with tweeters in their stock location on my '96 civic ex) and perfect series three way 6/9's. with one decent amp powering all of them.

My question is, would the stock headunit hinder me ALOT?
and would it be deafeningly imbalanced between highs and lows because i don't have subs?
Also, what exactly am I looking for in an amp to do such a thing?

I am good with the go parts of the car, but i know about nothing for the show parts so any help would be appreciated.

It will hinder you GREATLY. Here's why. For one, the stock HU is only 25wx4 channels. 25w is pretty crappy, and especially for those speakers you'd like to get. Sure it will sound better than the stock speakers, but the db level of them will be less which means it'll require more volume to make them just as loud. Keep in mind you are already pushing the wattage limits of the stock HU which is why you hear distortion, or clipping. This is why you'd need or want an external 4-channel amp. Ok, you have a 100w amp built into your stock HU to provide the power to all 4 speakers. 25wx4 to be exact. Look at the space that amplifier is in. Now look at the space say a 40wx4 (or 160w total @ 4ohms) has the amp components in. Much bigger, right? It's all about capacitor size inside the amp also that makes a big differance. You can't fit much size of ones in the stock HU. So this is why an after market one is better, it'll have the pre-outs to accomidate an external amp, as well as have a beefier internal amp to start out with. My Alpine HU I have has a 50wx4 challen amp, opposed to the 25wx4 that my stock HU I replaced had.

Hope that makes some sense to you. :)

that makes sense, i was just hoping i could run the stock HU to an amp and go from there. here a way i could do that? I just like the way the stock HU looks, i'm not really into flashy lights and stuff like on aftermarket ones.

And i'm not totally set on those speakers, i just remember my friend having Kappa's back when they first came out and they sounded spectacular. so i'm open to anything. I just want louder music without the "bump" but still with enough bass to make it sound good from the stock HU. is there ANY way that is possible? or am I just doomed to have a stock stereo forever? I'M REALLY opposed to an aftermarket HU. so I guess it's either stock HU better everything else (if that is possible) or nothing I guess.

you can use the stock HU if you want but its still always going to be 25x4. Most of the decks you look at now are like 50wx4 or even more. So getting new speakers will help with the stock deck and im sure you will be fine with that. If you arent, its all in the HU.

-Bryan

you can get a speaker level converter, (high impedence converter) which will convert the HU speaker outputs into RCA outputs, for a 4 channel amp. I have one, and would sell it to you, cheap ($5 + shipping). I bought it for mine, until I found out my amp has High lmpedence inputs on it for the subwoofer I have in the rear, so I never used it. still have the instructions, and little 6 ft RCA cables I bought for it. supposedly you just cut the wires from your headunit that go to the speakers, tap them into the converter, then run a ground wire that's on the converter to a ground on your car, and then run the RCA's to you amp, and there you go. It just converts the signals, and lets you control the gain for each speaker, and you still have control at your stock HU, but you have the full use of your AMP. Apparently it takes a bit of tuning to get it perfect, but once you have it set, you don't ever have to touch it.