I have been a car audio sales associate for 3 yrs now, and I install sometimes when they need help, hope to go fully to install soon cause I'm about fed up with dealing with the public all the time.

Stock speakers plain suck 95% of the time. Paper cones, cheap foam surrounds, ack! The best thing you can do if you don't want to take up space with a sub is to get a decent headunit with a good eq like a higher end pioneer, kenwood, alpine, eclipse, etc... what ever you like. Then replace both the front and rear speakers. I have components in the from and rear, but if you just want to replace them with stock size speakers, it is a lot simpler. The reason most people loose bass when replacing factory speakers is because they spent all that money for a new headunit and speakers, but installed it shotty. Expecially speaker installs, leaving gaps and places for air to get through makes your door speaker free air, and you wont get a good bass response. Please do yourself a favor, and buy the Dynamat door kits, It's a thick tar matting with a aluminum looking finish on the other side. Use this square piece to push into the empty speaker hole keeping the sheet whole. So you will make a cup as deep as you can go(until you hit the back of the door). Then Install your speakers, put silicone around the back lip of them if you arent getting a good enough fit. That is gonna sound ok, but if you want to listen to your music in a high quality at higher volumes where the headunit's power cuts out, just add a 4 channel amp. not a cheezy "1000w" amp, but a good quality MTX, Alpine, Rockford, etc... If you buy a cheezy deck or cheezy speakers or a cheezy amp or cheezy wiring or cheezy install you will get a cheezy sound, so do yourself a favor and do it right the first time. If this isnt gonna do you good enough, add a 5 channel amp instead of a 4 channel, and bridge the 5th sub channel to one 10 or 12 inch sub in a sealed enclosure. Or you could get a seperate 2 channel amp dedicated for the sub, but if your not into this shit that much, just get a 5 channel orion or some other good 5 channel and it will eliminate some hastle and a lot of space. You could even mount the amp under your passenger seat or on the back of the sub box if you go that way. If you do add an amp, make sure you run new thicker gauge speaker wire to all the factory speakers, replacing the factory wiring and upping the ammount of power you can send to your speakers. If you do it right, just replacement speaker, headunit, a 4 channel amp, good wiring, dynamat the doors, and tuned correctly would sound real good. BTW, if you do want to go with a 5 channel amp and add the sub, then do yourself another favor and get a high end headunit with 3 sets of preouts. One for fronts, rears, and sub... That way you will be able to utilize the balence and fades correctly...

Hope this helps,
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Brad Rickard
98 GS HRC Stage V (nuff said)