Sorry, I just have to weigh in!
First off, I have not yet by-passed my amp...yet! Having the car for more than 4 hours might help.
That said when I bought my Audi, I thought it would be awesome to have my new Alpine deck running through my active speakers (individually amplified). It sounded horrid. There was so much distortion and noise at even moderate power that I broke down after 4 days and paid my stereo shop to remove each speaker and rewire it. SO MUCH BETTER. Double amplification is like putting a megaphone up to a stereo. Even a top line unit would sound terrible.
Had the same expierience with my dads 92 SHO. (Having forgotten, I tried with the Audi.)
D. :
