I bought an '09 Lancer ES with my bonus about a month ago and finally figured its about time to get a higher-performing system. Its not too shabby as it is stock at the moment, but I listen to quite a bit of heavy metal and I honestly don't think the current speakers allow me to enjoy the music to it's potential, an issue is that I'm in the service so I'm not full of money these days. I guess in the end, I'm looking for something hard-hitting, loud, relatively decent quality, and low-mid price range.

 

Hey, well i installed a new system into my car a little while ago. The only thing i didnt change was the stock head unit because i have the blue tooth and didnt want to mess that up. But in my old cars ive always used kenwood. In my 09 gts i bought the scosche slc4 which converts your speaker wire into RCA outputs to hook up an amp. So i hooked up a 1000watt kenwood amp that i got for $100 brand new, i had existing 12" 600watt each kenwood subwoofers which i payed like $120 for, i got 2 boxes for them for about $60 together. Wired it all up and they hit hard.

So if you're looking to get a reciever definately choose from: Kenwood, Alpine, Pioneer or JVC.
Id recommend crutchfield.com to find out which reciever you like and then shop around for a good price.

As for speakers: Again kenwood or alpine i have had really good experience with

Amp: Kenwood, Alpine (gets a little pricey), MTX, Rockford, or JL. They all make very solid amps.

Subwoofers: Alpine, Rockford, Kicker, MTX, JL and Kenwood. Yet again all have very solid subs in their line up.

Most companies do make packages that you can buy subs and an amp together for a discounted price: I would recomend the "kenwood party pack" for around $200 dollars also rockford fosgate makes one for about $350 all depending on how much punch you want. I listen to a lot of different music rap, metal, post hardcore, etc. Id say my kenwoods provide adequate power, but sometimes it is over powering with metal and some rap. I would try to be in the 350-500 watt amp range for metal.

Depending on what you wanna do (change the receiver etc) let me know because if you are going to connect everything to the factory receiver it can get a little confusing and intimidating, i have posted a wire list for the factory harness but i can definitely help you out if you run into any problems!

 

Thanks man, sounds like you own a bit of stock, or at least work in an audio shop in the hood :P

I did grab a set of 6 1/2" pioneers for the front, thining of looking online for a sub. Due to me living out of my car, I have to limit the amount of trunk space I use for it.