Aftermarket stereo for ION

If you replace the head unit and keep the original speakers, you will not get much improvement. Even replacing the speakers with your current head unit would likely make a big difference (on my old Sunfire, even cheapo replacement speakers were way better than stock, with a stock CD player).

I've seen a few Ions on cardomain that have had aftermarket decks installed. I'm curious as to exactly which stock saturn system you're using. I have the 6 disc in dash changer/cassette player along with the 160W 6 speaker advanced audio system and it sounds really good for a stock system........considering how picky I am about audio that means a lot. The only thing I've bothered to do was to have a single amp and subwoofer tapped into the stock system for that extra low end that was missing. I do plan on eventually replacing everything with a custom competition or at least show level setup but that's a few months or more and several 1000 dollars off.

Charles

Hi Charles,

My ION3 came with the 'AM/FM stereo with CD/cassette player and four coaxial speakers'.

Similary equipped 2004s have 'four coaxial premium speakers'. So there's a difference. Also, the 2004s have 'ETR AM/FM stereo w/CD player, MP3 player, radio data system'.

And all stereos on 2004s have 'improved sound quality and equalization'.

im going to have to disagree with Robert here, of course, you're talking ION and I have a SL2, but I think its safe to assume that the stock speakers in both cars are about the same. Anyway, I replaced the garbage stock tape player with a Pioneer 50x4 (dont remember the exact model number, but if your interested i could dig it up for you) CD/radio player and the difference in sound quality was amazing. Music sounds great now and I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of the speakers considering the genre of music I listen to which generally kills speakers in a month.... and they are still going strong after 2.5 years :)

Thanks for the feedback, Wurm.

Hmmm, mine is 2003 as well, but it sounds like you have a different speaker setup and it's being run off of the amp in the deck so yeah that could very well be the sound quality problem. You don't necessarily have to replace the deck but if you replace the speakers you will want an amp for them since I highly doubt the deck by itself can properly drive aftermarket speakers. Maybe the best route here is to replace the deck first and see how the sound does. It all comes down to how much you can spend and what you really want to do I guess.

Charles

I would have to agree.

Dollar for dollar, money spent on speakers will usually make more of an audible difference than anywhere else. But at a minimum, try to replace the head unit and at least the front speakers at the same time to get the most out of your upgrade.

Lane [ l a n e @ p a i r . c o m ]

I've heard both the standard and the premium system (the premium is what I have in my car). I agree, the premium system is pretty good for a stock setup. The standard speaker system sounds like a clock radio by comparison.

comparison.

hehe there's always the frankenaudio system I had in my 94 SC2. When I bought it I got it with just the basic cassette/stereo but bought the coaxial front/extended range rear speaker package......Saturn's high end speakers at the time. It was ok, but I changed it, I disconnected the deck from all the speakers and tapped in an Audio Control EQX EQ/crossover unit.....if you don't know what that is it's a high end competition level processor that in 94 was $350. Ran that out to a 4 channel amp and tapped the amp into the stock speakers and also had another amp and subs in there. Believe it or not that actually sounded pretty decent. Probably only because of the EQX though lol. I even custom designed the box so that I could remove the spare tire without having to remove any stereo stuff even though the box still took up half the trunk almost.

Charles

You'll need a mount kit, Metra PN# 99-3106, and it's always nice to use a no-cut wire harness as well, to plug into the GM harness, Metra PN# 70-2002. Most install shops should have those kits, but also, a stereo install is really not too difficult. With the help of that kit and harness, you can probably do it yourself. I would recommend the Kenwood KDC-MP522, or if you want more toys, the MP822 or MP922. Sounds great, even with the stock speakers.