Hey, Just wordering if anybody knows the watt rating on the factory radio on the 1996 firebird. Its the 4 speaker set up. I did a search for this but came up empty. I will be switching out the speakers and will be going with the Pioneer (55 watts RMS & 90db) TSA-1702c 6 3/4" components for the front door and Polk Audio(60 watts RMS & 92 db) Db651 2 way in the rear panels. Just wanted to know if i will see any performance gains switching from stock to a $150 aftermarket head unit (22 - 25 x 4 watts RMS). If the factory head unit is the same wattage then I probaby just leave the stock unit in. I not going to run an amp so that is not a factor.

Thanks

 

I had a '96 Camaro V6 and had the base tock 4 speaker cassette stereo. I swapped over to an Alpine CD player that was either 15x4 or 20x4 and I was VERY dissappointed because it didn't seem to be able to push the stock speakers as well as the stock HU could. I had a friend that had an evern higher powered Kenwood (25x4?) at the time and I traded with him and it was better than the Alpine, but still not as nice sounding as the stock unit.

I actually think that if you do change the HU, go ahead and get a small 4 channel amp to power the new speakers and that will most likely be all you need if you're not interested in adding a sub.