[Stegman]

Looking for some general audio advice. Some background first.

My 2007 RTS has suffered the dreaded backlight issue. I've fixed it [termporarily] three times on two separate radios, but it doesn't last. So either I suck at soldering [quite possible], or there's something else going on with my set up.

So I'm toying with the idea of getting an aftermarket head unit. Done a lot of research here and I'm going back on forth about it with pros and cons yadda yadda yadda.

I guess what I want to know is whether an aftermarket head unit run through the factory speakers without the subwoofer will sound better than my broken-ass no backlight ghetto factory set up. Can I get enough bottom end without the subwoofer or is it going to sound tinny and extra crappy? Or the better sound quality from a modern, new head unit overcome any shortcomings with the second-rate speakers and lack of subwoofer?

I'm a bass player, so I dig the extra thump of the subwoofer. I would love to be able to hook it up to the new head unit I was thinking of buying, but I'm thoroughly confused about "bridging" and what that entails in terms of splicing, wiring etc.

What I'm not looking for is any advice about swapping out speakers or adding an amp to power the factory subwoofer or any of that stuff. All that stuff is beyond my desires/abilities. I'm only really interested in adding a new head unit, and I don't want to spend a ton of money having it installed. I'm going DIY so I need to keep it as straightforward as possible.

Thanks in advance.

PS - If someone can give me a general idea how to bypass the rear speakers to instead power the subwoofer, that'd be great. I've read a couple of threads on this already and truly don't understand if it involves hacking into the factory harness or what.

 

[Stegman]

Thanks for the insight, Rollin. After reading your response, I think I framed my original question poorly.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm leaning to getting a new head unit because of the backlight issue, but don't want to do it if sound quality is going to suffer. So my question is really: Will an aftermarket head unit hooked up to the stock speakers without the sub sound worse than the factory set up [lesser head unit but the working sub].

I'm not an audio snob by any means. I always though the OEM stereo set up sounded pretty good even if a little mid-rangey. So I'm pretty easy to please. I just don't want to buy an aftermarket unit and find out that it sounds like a tinny 1972 Pontiac LeMans AM radio because of the lack of a sub.