2nd gen to 3rd gen to another 2nd gen RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE

Considering I have the cheapest stock head unit the speaker difference is substantial. Did the same with my 3rd gen stock head unit. I only wish I could use the thumb drive, with 25 cd's on it, in this 2nd gen like I did in my 3rd gen. Back to old school burning cd's again. The real difference is with digital music. The radio stations are always sub-par for quality. I anticipate maybe adding a better head unit and, possibly, an amp and sub but for my minimal truck use I am very happy with these speakers. The key is being patient and finding the Kickers on sale. The week after I paid $59 for the 6x9's they were back up to $110. This is the cheapest way to improve sound. In fact I may not ever do anything with the head unit.

 

Thanks, for that info. I’d like a small upgrade, but don’t wanna mess with the head unit.

 

The Subaru/Kicker tweeters are the most expensive part of the upgrade. They are generally $95 for the pair at Subaru dealers, ebay or Amazon. They are excellent speakers however you may find a cheaper quality brand on crutchfield.com. When I bought the first pair 4 years ago I found the cheapest price online and took that to my local Subaru dealer and they price matched. The pair I just bought were found brand new for $70 on facebook marketplace. That was just a rare find.

 

The head unit on my 2012 has an auxiliary port which is evidently just a USB charging port because I’ve never got anything to connect to the preamp.
I’ve been using the Bluetooth from my phone, which I keep plugged in the charger port.

It’s pretty convenient if you set up several long programs. Like I have a program for a 10 minute drive program for a 30 minute drive and a program for a 1 Hour Dr. and a program for an indefinite drive that shuffles 300 things over and over again.

But I wish it had a dedicated wire.