Car Audio Upgrade Options

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bigbluebear

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Messages
10
Hello,

I have a 2013 Nissan Leaf S. It's the base model that didn't come with the upgraded sound package so I have four door speakers plus the stock HU. I'm looking to upgrade my car audio system and would like to spend somewhere between $600-1000. Unsure what that will buy me but for now, I see my options are:

1) add in a new HU and component speakers for the front
2) add in an amp and component speakers for the front while keeping the stock HU. Maybe a sub if budget allows.
3) add in component speakers for the front and rear.

It's normally just me in the car driving to and from work so I'm not too concerned about the sound stage from the rear seats. For this reason, I think my money would be best spent on options 1 or 2. I was hoping for some feedback from those of you that have upgraded your system so that I can find out how good/bad the stock HU is. Is the signal coming out of the stock HU bad so it's important to upgrade the HU or is the signal fine but just doesn't have enough power so an amp would suffice? I really don't care about carplay, etc. So long as there is a USB cord for me to plug in my iphone, I'm happy.

While on the topic if you have recommendations for gear (new or used), I'd be really happy to hear them. For components, I've already purchased Hertz 165.3 since I heard them before and enjoyed them.

TIA!
 
I have a 2013 Leaf S as well and am in the same boat. I've been doing research and so far I'm planning on just replacing the head unit and all four door speakers. I'm not planning any amps or subs, nothing like that, probably won't even do components.

From what I've read, there are multiple harnesses needed for the head unit and you need to do things like solder in voltage regulators, because the backup camera for example, takes 6 volts. And there's other weirdness that has to be addressed, like the stock speakers are 2 ohm. Oh, and don't forget the dash opening isn't a standard double din size so you need to rig up a custom bezel. WTF?

Honestly, I started doing research, saw it looks pretty complicated and lost interest. I would have done it already if it would have been straight forward, but it's not, so I'm putting it off until I have time to do the proper research and planning.
 
Hi Lincoln,

The reasons you stated are the reason that I'm leaning towards keeping the stock HU and just add an amp to power the new components. Just not sure if I'm going to get an amp. The Inifinity basslink seems like a viable option since it's a self powered sub.
 
bigbluebear said:
Hi Lincoln,

The reasons you stated are the reason that I'm leaning towards keeping the stock HU and just add an amp to power the new components. Just not sure if I'm going to get an amp. The Inifinity basslink seems like a viable option since it's a self powered sub.

True, I just personally don't like dealing with line output converters or line level inputs. I may have to end up going that way, because it's looking like that's the easiest solution.
 
Back
Top