I am looking at replacing my stock head unit with a CD player that plays mp3s. I dont want to replace the speakers or add subs or amps right now, if at all. My question is this. How many watts is the stock system. It sounds decent, and I wouldnt want to replace a 100 and some watt system with a head unit that pushes 22 watts per channel. Is it worth it to replace the stock unit, and will it be more powerful, less powerful, or no change?

 

22 watts RMS is a whole lot more then a 100 watt PEAK 'system'

 

Yeah, I know that, but watt is the RMS for the 6 speaker Mitsu factory system?

 

prolly 15 watts per speaker. Just a guess . But it really does not matter, spend $250 on almost any aftermarket hu and you will get more volume / maybe a little bit better sound. (without replacing speakers etc)

 

Yes leonard shelby is right. I replaced my stock HU with a Pioneer unit, before replacing the whole system, and it sounded better and worked fine. Get the Mitsu harness (metra or other) and it's a piece of cake. I also moved down the radio then. Now I have a three gauge panel up there.

 

The stock head unit is made by Matsushi-ta * and is not particularly powerful, but then again it isn't so weak as to be useless. I've never seen any official power specifications published. Any of the higher power replacement units made by the major manufacturers will be an improvement, but I have to say -- having replaced all my components recently -- that the factory speakers are truly wretched and need to be changed out at the first possible opportunity.

*had to hyphenate because of this board's automatic censoring of the letters 6 through 9