Another Audio Upgrade Question

[jimmy3530]

Hi Everyone:

I spent the weekend reading old posts about how inadequate the 996's audio system is and about what everyone has done about it. As usual, lots of really good info here.

My question is more about audio electronics here and hence the new post. When I bought my car the PO intstalled a new amp in the trunk (Kenwood Excelon KAC-X451) which I am pretty sure is a 4 channel amp and then daisy-chained another amp installed on the rear shelf to drive a 8" subwoofer in the same location. The car is a 2000 996 C4 with door speakers (sub's from what I have gathered on this forum). The HU is stock PCM1 with navigation. Not sure if the stock HAES amp is still present and/or hooked up.

So, I ripped out the rear amp and subwoofer since I wanted the luggage space. I've replaced the stock dash and rear speakers with 4 inch coaxials in hopes for better sound and am currently looking for options for the door speakers which are still stock.

Here are my questions:

1. Since I have 6 speakers now (2 dash, 2 door, 2 rear) do I need to replace the trunk mounted Kenwood 4 channel amp with a 6 channel one? I am not sure how things are wired up yet but wanted to understand the system a little more before I started completely tearing things apart. I'd rather not buy a new amp. Is the stock HAES amp a 6 channel? Why is it so small compared to the massive Kenwood I have taking up valuable real estate in my trunk?

2. Everyone says the rear speakers are for "fill". Am I the only person who actually wants these speakers to produce sound? Currently most of the sound comes for the dash speakers and I find that slightly irritating and would rather have most of the sound come from behind my head. In other cars, one could just use the fader control, but in this car the fader and balance control doesn't seem to work sufficiently well, if at all. Could this be a wiring isse from the PO or a setting on the amp?

3. Do I need to put new subs in the doors or can I just go with regular speakers? I am pretty sure my BMW 323 does not have subs yet its sound system works amazingly well, at least IMHO. I like a lot of bass but I don't want so much that the mirrors vibrate with the music (which I can get the BMW to do with little to no distortion).

The goal is to eventually get rid of the PCM1 for another double din unit with navigation but in the meantime I am just trying to create a system whose sound reflects the quality of the car. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars and still get mediocre sound.

Hopefully the renntech audio gods will tell me what to do.....