Hi I have a 1999 v70 wagon. I love it but the sterio is sub-par. What would be a better choice, a new amp/deck or new speakers? What Im asiing is, what is the bottleneck of the bone stock sterio in my vehicle? The deck is big and replacement seems like it would cost an arm and a leg. Thanks.

 

Well for starters how much do you have to spend?

I would suggest a nice Single DIN headunit like a Pioneer or an Alpine and then get some nice speakers to go along with them. And if you want to bump up your speakers some more add a 4 or 6 channel amp to them.

 

x2....Volvo stock decks are......lacking......But, the speakers are halfway decent. Because Volvos have a ginormous 2 DIN spot for the deck, another alternative to a 4 or 6 channel amp is a 10 or 12 band EQ. Off the bat, it'll suplement the stock speakers with another 200 watts...which is about all they can handel. If you need more....then replace and amp like S70 mentioned. But by then you'll probably want a subwoofer too so....the EQ is a cheap and easy stepping stone.

 

The SINGLE biggest improvment that can be made is speakers. If you are unhappy with the sound of your system then replacing the radio and adding an amp to your stock speakers won't help as much as just replacing the speakers.

With that being said if you aren't going to add an amp make sure you go with speakers that have a higher sensitivity rating (above 90db) so that the stock radio can still power them to play louder. I'd also recommend going with coaxials instead of components if you aren't going to add an amp.

Of course if you replace everything you'll get even better results.

 

I disagree...speakers may vary in their quality but one thing holds true....it's really hard to screw up the design of speaker to the point that it won't sound better on a different amp. The head unit is the brain of your system....if it's only capable of peaking out at 7 or 8 watts (RMS) and your speakers are speced out at 12 watts (RMS) then it stands to reason that the speakers sound like crap because they don't have enough juice to play with. Also....if you're going to keep the stock deck, sensitivity rating means nothing. stock decks don't push enough to benifit from high end speakers.

The simple truth is that to get the sound you want, eventually you need replace it all.....in the mean time, The logical step is to replace the HU becasue the HU will at least push the stock speakers to their full potential.