Originally Posted by Chromeshadow

I just completed "stage one" of my upgrade of my 2012 Shaker 500.
The Shaker 500 is a pretty crappy system imho. It has weak base and very little presence.

I wanted to keep the stock head and the stock look as much as possible. I removed the stock amp located on the drivers side panel to the left of the dash. I replaced this with a 200W Sony XM-4S. I am driving the amp with coax cables hooked to the rear speakers. I installed the Shelby Kicker 8" subs in the doors to replace the factory subs. I replaced the factory 6x8 speakers with Pioneers.

This made a huge improvement in the sound. While it does not have the level of base that will make your ears bleed like a good set of subs, It has really good base and good clean mids and highs. I may hook the other 2 channels to the 6x8s in the doors, but I want to drive it for a while before I make any other decisions.