Quoted: With an aftermarket headunit and new speakers (coaxials I presume) you will be fine without an amp. With that being said, an amp will make the system louder, not better but louder. If it sounds like shit preampped, it will sound like louder shit after an amp. System design is as important as system install and sales.
You don't get proper system design at a big box, nor will you get proper install.
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I disagree with that statement. If you take a reference level of say 90dB then yeah, the speaker being driven by a seperate amplifier will sound the same as the speaker being driven by the head unit. In a quiet office for instance and for back ground music a 2 watt amplifier will be sufficient, in a car on the other hand where there is a lot of noise, and considering that many of us like to crank up cool songs that's where the limitations of the head units amplifier will be noticable.
Considering that in almost all cases using the head unit to power the speakers (except for maybe talk radio) the head unit will often run out of steam leaving the listener to try and get more power from the head unit then it can deliver resulting in high distortion levels and compression, that's where the seperate power amp will actually deliver better (less distorted) sound and higher dynamics, at higher levels. I don't think he'd have a subwoofer if he only listened to talk radio at modest levels.
Is an amp necessary, of course not, but he'll be glad he bought it if he does. You don't need a 30rd magazine in an AR, but it's a lot more fun to shoot than a 10 rounder.
Also, the blanket statement that you
can not get proper system design at a big box store is also inaccurate. I'm sure they are capable of installing a 4 channel amp and 4 speakers, there isn't a whole lot of system design going into that. On the other hand, if he wanted a multi-amped, multi-seperate speaker system with a lot of subwoofers then yeah, I probably wouldn't have them do that system. Places like Circuit City and Best Buy don't necessarily have shitty installers that don't know what they are doing, besides they have a reputation to try and uphold.