factory radio with aftermarket amp?

so i just bought my 08, and i love the radio. the door speakers are great, and the radio will do. the only thing i dont like is the bass.

 

my question is, is there any way to add an amp to the factory radio? if it matters, i dont have dual climate control.

You can either get a JL cleansweep or a new head unit. Since you have manual climate control, its cheap to add a new head unit. The EQ in the factory head unit is terrible. You can add nav that way too

aftermarket head unit is the best way to go. i had my amp hooked up to my rear speakers with the stock deck. it worked but its messy and you cant reall use the deck to control the amp..only lasted a week then i got the double din dash kit and went all out with 2 amps,reaplaced all stock speakers with alpine type r's and a kicker sub in the trunk.. best thing ive ever done with my money.

If there is some reason you just need to do this you can always either get an amp with speaker level inputs or get line level converters to hook up to an amp.

I had this http://www.crutchfield.com/p_777B8PT/Sound-Ordnance-B-8PT.html

in my 09 forester under the seat, it added a lot of low end to the overall sound. It's a cheaper alternative then buying a HU and you'll see a significant improvement. The bass is clean and tight, you'll feel the bass and it will shake your mirrors, believe it or not. But don't expect it to shake the other persons car. Read the reviews on the site and you'll see how much people love this thing.

 

I'm actually thinking of buying one for our Legacy, the harman kardon needs a little help in the bass dept.

Does that fit under the 5th gen seats with all the crap down there? Also, how do you wire it in?

I don't have it installed in my Legacy. I had it in my 09 Forester. Though, I assume it would fit under the driver seat of the Legacy (which is how I had it in the fozzie). The sub has high and low inputs. If you're connecting to a factory radio, you could just tap into the left and right speaker channels (front or rear), before the amp (for Harman Kardon systems with amps).

 

You would also need to find the remote cable that's plugged into the radio to tap into, so that it can turn on the sub/amp when the radio goes on. Though if you have the Harman Kardon amp under the passenger side, I'm sure it has a remote cable and you could tap into it from there. Same thing for the speakers, which would mean that you wouldn't even have to remove the radio for install.

 

The sub also has a signal turn on feature, (turns the amp on when it detects music signal) but I needed to have the volume way up for it turn on. So I suggest tapping into the remote signal. Crutchfields tech support was able to tell me which cable it was.

 

Other than that, you need to wire power to the battery and ground. Crutchfield sends the sub with a cable kit for all of your connecting needs.

 

The sub also has a wired remote control, so you can adjust accordingly. If you have an aftermarket radio, then you would use the low end inputs (rca).

Just get an aftermarket head unit and be done with it. You can find a double din with dvd playback around $235.00. i just installed one like this in my customer's car and he loves it.http://http://www.amazon.com/JVC-DVD-CD-USB-Receiver-Screen-KWAV60/dp/B0079LGKC0 . But if you want to talk through the head unit get the same head unit but with the bluetooth option. model jvc kw-av60bt

Just get an aftermarket head unit and be done with it. You can find a double din with dvd playback around $235.00. i just installed one like this in my customer's car and he loves it: http://www.amazon.com/JVC-DVD-CD-USB-Receiver-Screen-KWAV60/dp/B0079LGKC0. But if you want to talk through the head unit get the same head unit but with the bluetooth option. model jvc kw-av60bt

 

^^^Fixed yo link dogg!