Anarchist718

my cousin is offering me a 5 kicker car stereo system and an alpine amp but would it be an improvement at all to the stock system ?

AMGfan

What does a "5 Kicker car stereo system" include? With regard to aftermarket stereo systems, it all depends on several things:

1. Musical taste and how loud you listen to it
2. How much bass and the type of bass you listen to
3. Are you keeping the stock stereo HU? If not...you will need an addtional sound processor to integrate aftermarket speakers and amps to your stock HU.
4. Budget

For the most part, my wife's C300 audio system is ok for her...she doesn't crank it to 11 and the bass is more than enough for her. The mids and highs have sufficient clarity but the bass needs more extension...so at the very minimum you could get away with adding a smallish sub (1 10") and decent amp (always overpower the sub...you can always rein back the gains).

For me...that is different story. I'd trash the whole setup (like I did on the E55and SL65)...but that is me. They are both all aftermarket and both stealth.

AkaSigFreak

I never noticed your audio set up. Definitely stealth.

Martinsvi

Yes and no. For 60-70% of the people it isnt needed as they wouldnt know the difference and if they did they wouldnt pay for it.
The factory system is good but not great. It should be great.
That being said, I would not put kicker in my benz. I run alpine electronics and Hertz speakers. I did have a requirement to run the factory head(the wife) but other than that it is all aftermarket. Sounds excellent also.

Royce118

Could you all please post pics of your setups? I'm interested in upgrading mine as well.

Martinsvi

Nothing other than the sub canbe seen. I will post pics as soon as it warms up and the snowis gone. The car is covered in snow right now. We dont get snow often and when we do it kind of locks everything down for a few days. I dont run large subs as I listen mostly to jazz and rock. All speakers are in factory locations. Amps are hidden in trunk behind the factory carpet. My car is not a 204, it is a 2-3 chassis so things will be different with yours.

ROCK1965

Can you post pics?

E92-Lighting

personally, i would rather have mods installed over stereo

kevinwithdabenz

stereo upgrade was a great upgrade for me, slight PITA problems such as rattling but yeah. but like someone said everyone has their own taste.

lewylou78

First thing I ever do when I get a new or used car is upgrade the stereo, I need my music sounding its best.

BlackjackM

I'm relatively happy with the way that my base stereo sounds. I have the bass set pretty high up to get any kind of response, and as stated above- it could be better. But it's not bad at all.

Peabody

I think the HK system is great, though it could use a bit more bass response if you're into that. As far as clarity though, definitely as good as you could need for something battling road noise.

Sully

My opinion on the stock system is that the imaging is terrible. The sub bass is lacking in the low end. The highs lack clarity and detail. The stage has a bad listening positioning and there's not much depth.

Audio isn't for everyone and there's a lot of people who are happy with the stock system. I'm not one of them and unfortunately I can't do anything about it while the car is still under warranty.

Peabody

If you're that much of an audio snob, why didn't you opt for the Harmon Kardon stereo package?

Sully

I intended to upgrade the system myself. I already bought a Bit.One for the signal conversion and processing. I wasn't able to do the upgrade since the dealer said that I'd loose my warranty if I did.

I'm also looking for alternate tweeter locations to get better depth and staging.