Amp question w/factory non-jbl headunit

Okay let me start by saying I have a 2018 TRD Pro, Second I don’t know a lot about car audio. I have read majority of the threads and have learned a lot. I know what sounds good to me and the factory system gets very muddy trying to listen to lyrics. I made the decision to swap out the factory fronts for components and a JL audio stealthbox. The question is the 5 channel amp. I have multiple Car Audio installers telling me I need a DSP or a very expensive amp. Is this true or can I just use an amp with speaker level inputs?

 

You can use an amp with speaker level inputs. Anything from speaker level input will suck IMO, even DSP. but sure get better sound than stock. DSP is a bs term in this case, as the head unit will take digital convert to analog, amp the signal and pipe it out. Let’s call this a dirty signal as the amp is not very good.
Speaker level amp will try to clean the dirty amped signal, and re-amplify it. (Sub optimal)
DSP will take the dirty signal, convert it to digital, clean it, convert back to analog, amp it cleanly. (Again sub optimal).

Both cases your trying to clean a bad signal, just with different methods. Neither will be as good as fixing the source no matter how much you spend. best option is to take the digital or pre-amped analogue signal and pass that through a good amp. But you can’t do that with the stock headunit, not without modifying it anyway.

DSP (depending on a ton of factors, since it means different things to different manufacturers) will usually do a better job, but your in a car (terrible acoustics) and starting with bad signal, I wouldn’t waste the money on anything expensive, not unless you’re going to change the head unit. Or you’re a very knowledgeable audio person and can spend hours or days setting up a good DSP to be perfect for you.

 

So you would suggest changing the headunit?

 

If you are going to spend a lot of money, yes. It’s silly not to. My suggestion would be to change the speakers first, see how you like it. If you don’t like it, you haven’t lost anything, as you’ll keep them when you add an amp and headunit, and won’t need to get into the doors again, so no doubling up on the install time / hastle.

 

I did this. It made a lot of difference.