I've just spent an entertaining day outside (I like this stuff) fitting a new car radio in prep for a dreaded travelling job driving for two months along it seems all the motorways in England.
The original Grundig stereo in the car (Skoda Octy) wasn't that bad (great cassette!) but there were some features I needed in the replacement like MP3 and iPod playback, so I plumped for a cheap Kenwood CD thing from the local Halfords "Half Price Sale".
And to do the upgrade job "er properly, brother" I had some fancy 'component' speakers left in the garage (woofers, tweeter and a crossover) removed from a previous amplified car (I was young...), so in they went (long job) replacing the original speakers in the front doors. Had to find somewhere ingenious for the crossover modules.
Now, I still had the original radio in there while fitting those speakers, and as a goodbye test to that old thing, I decided to see if the components made any discernable difference. Er, nope. In fact worse. A lot worse. Muddy distorted bass, barely any treble. Oooo. Poor old stereo is clipping - it just don't have the oompfh.
So, I wandered over to an American supplier of these high quality but understandably low efficiency speakers and read "Just replace your original speakers with these. You'll honestly be amazed by the difference!". Yup. That's US marketting for ya. The shop keepers must keep baseball bats handy for defence from their returning customers.
Anyway, with trepidation (that is, praying that I won't need to eventually install hundreds of watts of amplification in the back of the car) I installed the new stereo.
It powered up and played a MP3. It sounded fine. Music as expected. Hey, the sun is shining. Beer... ;-)
I could have just left the stock speakers in there and just swapped in the head unit. The job that non-DIY folk would hand over Halfords £25 to just expertly unclip ISO leads and fit their new toy.
I'm just thinking that with this car (and presumably similar in the VW/Audi group) that wouldn't have been a satifactory experience either. With the new head unit a short stab of bass would have pulverised those old high efficiency OEM speakers.
And in a similar situation, that experience would have been a return trip for some to Halfords, to select and have new speakers fitted. Anyone know what their staff response and typical costs incurred to sort that out? Profitable?