Has anyone out there managed to make the stock deck sound great? If so, what did you do to it? I was thinking of just swapping out the amp and speakers, and I guess what I'm asking is if it's worth the bother???

i replaced my stock stereo ( still have stock speakers) and i noticed a big difference... i don't think stock 6 disk cd changer any good
sergei

The stock system can be made to sound pretty decent with the installation of an amp or upgrading the speakers. Better yet, both. You can always upgrade the head unit later.

If you look hard enough, you can find audiophile geeks out there that would be happy to have a project like upgrading a stock system. I had a friend in Austin that owned an a/v repair store, and he would routinely take Alpines/Kenwoods/etc and upgrade the internal components for better noise control or add balanced outputs, whatever.

It was a welcome change for him, compared to the same old amp repairs every day.

If I remember correctly, a common audiophile upgrade is to replace electrolytic capacitors in the audio path with polyester or Tantalum caps, since poly won't smear the signal as much as other types will.. search the web. There's info out there.

-=RB