I've been doing a lot (LOT) or reading about mobile audio, trying to figure out what woulld be the best setup for my truck without ditching the stock HU (it's the 6CD unit with Sirius built-in).
Here's what I decided on, parts-wise with the emphasis less on quantity of sound, more on quality but with a modest budget.
Using Polk bd650 coaxials - 4
A Rockford 8" sub - P2, 4Ohm in sealed box
An Alpine 4ch amp - MRP-F250
A Profile 2ch amp, to run bridged for the sub - the AP400 one
(the alpine amp has speaker level inputs, I'm told they are ok - was going to use them and use the pre-outs to connect the Profile amp)

Since I bought my stuff, (haven't installed it yet) I've learned that the signal from the stock HU is less than compatible with amplification because of clipping issues. But, I now have all this stuff and I am 100% set on keeping the stock HU - so what are my chances? Will this work out, or have high chances of sounding like crapola? What are my limitations going to be? I'm a bit discouraged at this point.

 

explain the clipping issue please.

as long as the stock head unit has audio out RCA ports you should be fine, if not then you are screwed.

 

my understanding is that most factory HUs begin to clip at low volume levels - this is a problem because the amplifier steps up the power for whatever signal it gets - clipped or not, it gets amplified just the same. The limitation becomes that you can't use the full range on a stock HU while using aftermarket amplification....

If anybody has more insight on this, do chime in - this is just my understanding and it seems logical, but I could be working on mis-information.

 

I have an amp hooked up to my factory HU. I used a LOC converter and hooked it up to the rear speakers, and used the RCA's on the output side of the LOC and connected it to the amp. When I first hooked it up, I had the bass on the head unit turned up, and I messed a sub up in about a weeks time. (I had the same subs in my last truck for about a year before I transfered them into my new truck). Im in the process of getting a aftermarket radio. I cant turn the volume up on the factory HU over half way, after that the bass isn't as crisp which makes me believe its clipping.