Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Factory Premium Sound?

I just bought a 95 SE. The speakers say Premium Sound on them... What does the premium sound tag mean in terms of the stereo? also, the drivers door speaker has a slight rattle to it. How easy is it to replace and what should I replace it with? I don't have a lot of money right now and I was thinking of just staying with the factory equip. -Tim

Premium Sound means that the car has an external amp powering the speakers. It is located behind the glovebox. As far as speakers are concerned, you could easily buy a pair of new 6x8's from a local store that sells car audio, but make sure you get a decent brand. You could just put a better pair in the front doors and leave the rears alone. It will sound better, but the weakest part of the system is the head unit. You need to remove the door panels to replace the speakers. There's an article on how to do this on the main site.

Make sure that the speakers you choose are fairly efficient. The power from the factory amp is weak. If you plain on adding a better head unit, or after market amp. Get seakers that a little more power hungry. You will sacrifice some sound quality in the begining. But the pay off will be greater in the end. There are not many 6"x8" speakers to choose from. Most aftermarket speakers will sound better tham the "premium sound" speakers. AS alpineracer pointed out the biggest difference is the factory amp.

Stock speakers are available as well, if you want to keep your system stock and extremely inexpensive.

You say the power from the amp is weak...any idea on actual power from it? I'm not big into spending a lot of money on this, so would factory speakers be a waste of my time? Besides the one speaker that has a little rattle, I think it sounds pretty good.

The three biggest improvements you can make on a budget are the following. (in no particular order)

1. New head unit with stock speakers ($150-200)

2. Stock HU with aftermarket speakers ($100.00 to 150.00)

3. Powered subwoofer (200-250)

Of the three, the sub will make the biggest overall difference in SQ, the other two will both be noticeable upgrades with most people being split on which one is better.

The stock amp probably puts out in the vicinity of 8-12 watts per channel.

You say the stock amp only puts out 8-12 watts per channel, will that be enough to power better speakers? and how much wattage should one go for in a new HU?

Most of the new HUs will put out 18-22 watts RMS per channel.

12 watts would probably be enough to drive some new coaxials to decent levels.

The problem with the stock speakers is their low end output. There just isn't much midbass/bass there lower than 100 hz. They actually have good midrange and their highs are also slightly lacking.

My stock speakers rattled because the screws were loose. You may want to check that out for a cheap fix.

Most aftermarket head units all put out about the same amount of power, 18-25w rms, with the difference between any of them not too noticable for pure loudness.

The stereo was the first thing to go on my Contour. It was just unacceptable. I used the stock spaeakers with in my setup for about 8 months and was impressed overall for the money I spent. You can do quite a bit to help the sound quality for only a little amount of money.

Set up a plan for what you want to end up with, even if you cannot afford the best or all of it now.

Aaron