Factory amp vs Kenwood headunit amp?

[superquest 10+ year member]

My son has a 97 Avalon with a factory amp that pushes the 4" component set up in the front and rear doors. I have no idea what the RMS is on the amp but have been told probably no more than 10-15 watts rms per channel. Wouldn't even a factory amp put out a cleaner sound than a aftermarket headunit? The headunit is on the way and is the Kenwood KDC-352U. It has front, rear, and sub pre amp outputs.

So my question is should I bypass the new Kenwood headunit and hook up the factory amp or bypass the factory amp and use the 22 watts rms that the Kenwood headunit provides?

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[naughtyca 10+ year member]

here's what i did on my Bose factory amp, when i replaced my head unit, i changed my 4 door speakers and bought a little 4 channel amp to power the doors, i left the factory amp to run the tweeters on the car.

i also added a sub amp to run the sub.

 

[Beatin' 10+ year member]

factory amp > head unit all day long.

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

will depend on if that factory amp has crossover setting built into it. if your factory amp does have crossover settings built into you wont have a choice.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Realistically, if measured by industry standards, Kenwood and most other head units provide about 15-18 watts RMS per channel, and that's if the voltage is at 14.4 (rarely possible with flimsy factory wiring to the battery as well to the head unit). Having said that, I wouldn't shed any tears over disconnecting a decade old factory amplifier. Of course, getting an aftermarket amplifier is much better.

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

I can almost guarantee that the head units built in amp will be louder and sound better

 

[Beatin' 10+ year member]

I can almost guarantee that the head units built in amp will be louder and sound better

Can I have some of the crack you're smoking? Seems like good stuff......

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

Can I have some of the crack you're smoking? Seems like good stuff......

Please tell me what kind of factory amp (minus some of the newer Bose/Sony/etc systems that come stock in some cars) are worth half a shit. Every stock amp I've replaced has been blown out of the water by a HU's built in amp

 

[Beatin' 10+ year member]

Please tell me what kind of factory amp (minus some of the newer Bose/Sony/etc systems that come stock in some cars) are worth half a shit. Every stock amp I've replaced has been blown out of the water by a HU's built in amp

from what I understand, most factory amps dating all the way back to the early 90's can do 20+ watts rms clean per channel. HU's typically are rated around 15wrms per channel but much higher distortion, around 1-3% THD. So many HU's can only really do 10-15wrms clean. That's weak as fuck.

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

from what I understand' date=' most factory amps dating all the way back to the early 90's can do 20+ watts rms clean per channel. HU's typically are rated around 15wrms per channel but much higher distortion, around 1-3% THD. So many HU's can only really do 10-15wrms clean. That's weak as fuck.

I guess it depends on the vehicle. Like I said, each time I've installed a HU it was a great improvement over the stock amp.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

A factory amp without a step-up power supply will have the same power as a HU. You can only get so much from 12 volts.

The difference is that factory amps usually have crossovers to protect the speakers. That limits how much midbass you can get from the OEM front stage, and it's what drove me to replace mine with aftermarket. When I ran my system directly from the HU I got an overall improvement in SQ but the power level (volume) was the same.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

from what I understand' date=' most factory amps dating all the way back to the early 90's can do 20+ watts rms clean per channel. HU's typically are rated around 15wrms per channel but much higher distortion, around 1-3% THD. So many HU's can only really do 10-15wrms clean. That's weak as fuck.

In the 90s, the sound system would have to be "premium" to give you anything more than 5-10watts RMS, and then they often had bizzare sound enhancing features, like silent bass boosters, bass reducers, etc.

 

[Kingstroker 10+ year member]

wife's '03 G35's factory amped bose system is extremely weak, it's not clear or loud. I pulled one of the tweets out of it the other day because I thought it wasn't working, it was but it looked like something out of a transistor radio. My '05 f250's factory system put it to shame.