Hi all, I'm new to this forum, I've been reading a lot, now time to share.
I have a 2008 Mazda B2300 regular cab.
Factory sound system ain't what got me to buy that truck...
Its my daily driver, I sit in that truck close to 3 hours a day.
I enjoy pretty much any music but listen to a lot of lounge, electro, trap if i feel like it.
I wouldn't listen to anything but local radio before my upgrade because it sounded so bad it would get me angry...
I felt like keeping the stock head unit for the look, i like it clean & simple, no christmas lights going off when you turn it on, it came with a cd/mp3 player and auxiliary in.
So here is where I started.
I got an alpine ktp-445u amp easily installed behind the glove box to drive a pair of alpine spr-68. I moved the stock front speaker to the back, they are slightly different with a bigger magnet.
The rear speaker are driven from the head unit, more power wouldn't wake them up anyway, they are badly held in place behind their grill, which are held in a flimsy cardboard pannel. The speaker move around more than it creates sound. Try pushing them against the rear pannel and you hear the difference, next project is to brace them solidly.
The spr-68 performed ok untill I used Second Skin sound deadener on the doors. It did quite a difference on the mids and bass.
But at this point if I raised the volume a very annoying resonance would happen around 120 hertz.
Time for a woofer.
I looked around and got a JL 6w3v3 and an alpine mrv-m250.
I built a sealed box, wired everything, Voila !
No more hertz peak, in that small room the sub does an impressive job despite its size.
I have the High pass filter set at 120 hertz for the front speaker, (choices were 60, 80 or 120), the way the amp is built still let the lower frequencies through but muffled, I tought something was wrong with it but I feel like it helps to blend in with the sub.
The small sub box still allows me to raise / lower the arm rest at any seat position. The seat all the way back still leaves some room for the sub too.
Pics !

 

Nice system, I would still recommend a head unit upgrade, aftermarket amps and speakers is an improvement, but the biggest improvement comes from signal processing. That happens at the head unit.

 

Turn the treble up. Crisp highs sound clean.

 

I do have the trebble set around 3/4, flat sounds like 1/4 to me... Have you a similar setup ?
When using the auxiliary in plug I don't feel like the head unit is tweaking much the signal, compared to reading a CD or playing radio. Is that possible ?