Is my stock head unit hurting my sound quality?

[Madeinoregon]

Recently had a JL stealthbox and JL 5 channel amp installed in my 2019 Silverado. Waiting to install the hertz speakers until the door chime module arrives. I’m starting to wonder if running all this off my stock head unit is detrimental to the sound quality. Am I just amplifying a bad signal?

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[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Am I just amplifying a bad signal?

How does it sound right now? Alot of people are opting to keep the OEM radios because of the complexity of replacing them. Most have had great results with quality LOCs on signal duty.

 

[Madeinoregon]

LOCs? The sub sounds great at lower volumes but when I start to push it it seems to get a bit muddy and distorted. I guess I just expected the w3 to be tighter and cleaner sounding. It could be that I’m used to my 12” type-r in the back of my jeep and I’m pushing that little 10 too hard, but it seems like it’s happy just dirty if that makes sense haha. It could also be that I don’t have the speakers in yet and when I get some quality low end from the speakers things will tighten up. It could also be that the stealth box is right beside me inside my center console so the close proximity could make it so I’m hearing more undesirable things. I plan to upgrade the head unit someday just to get more eq/sub control and such but was going to wait a while for that. I play electric guitar and know that every little piece in the signal chain can have an affect on your sound so I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t leaving a bunch of sound quality on the table by running the factory head unit.

 

[Clifff150 10+ year member]

Line out converters. You can go very cheap or spend quite a bit to be able to tweak almost everything. No experience with the w3 but I’d say it’s likely getting a dirty signal. How is your sub amp getting signal?

 

[Madeinoregon]

I just had a shop handle the install as I don’t have a lot of knowledge of car audio so I’m not sure how it is hooked up. I just looked at the receipt for the install and I don’t see any kind of interface/module for the stereo. I do see a metra axdsplgl9 which I thought was just for door chimes but maybe that’s the overall interface as well. I’m still waiting for that to come in so they can install that and the speakers so maybe they did some kind of jerry rigged work around to get me by for now until then and that’s why it sounds off.

 

[Firewalker]

https://axxessinterfaces.com/product/AXDSPL-GL9

That is what that metra is you talked about. They call it a "DSP Lite".