Sound System on 2003 Question????

[andrew66]

Just bought a new 2003 Xterra SE the other day. Like the truck and am happy with the purchase. Just curious though about the sound system.
Its the 300 watt 6 speaker/sub Rockford Fosgate. I know its a built in amp on the head unit but you would think that 300 watts would blow the doors off or at least sound very loud and clear. I was just very dissapointed on how loud this thing is. Sounds better playing CD'S but I guess I was expecting better power. My last car had a alpine with a seperate 100 watt amp and it blows this thing away. Anyway anyone else notice this and what solutions are there other than replacing the whole system.

[andrew66]

No one have any comments or suggestions about this?

[ChuckH]

Rockford only makes the amplifier in the Xterra system, and it's not a noteable effort on RF's part. The rest is made by either Clarion or Panasonic and is the same stuff you get in the regular system. THe 300 watts is a peak output and the RMS output is probably more like 150 watts, 75 of which probably go to the subwoofer. Now, this power is sent to paper speakers and I believe it's done at 3 ohms instead of 4 or some weird thing like that. As far as the upgrade path goes, I'm not sure what's involved with the Rockford setup. I would think you could just disconnect the Rockford amplifier and then add in your own amps and then replace the speakers? You might check out XOC, as I know there are lots of people there that have modified the system.

[jmak]

I Changed my entire system. I used an Alpine Audio/video head unit, MB Quart seperate componant speakers in the stock locations and a JL 10W7 for the Sub. Sounds great will last much longer and it's all hidden in stock locations so there is not a great threat from theft.

[OffroadX]

Might try looking through previous discussions in the the "Radios and GPS" section