First off, I'm not a hardcore stereo guy. What I mean by that is you won't feel me coming down the street before you see me. I do enjoy my music and I'll 'crank it up' on occasion, but not long enough to cause permanent damage.

All that being said, I've had my F700 installed for all of 4 hours and I love it so far, but I think I could use a bit more power. Driving down the road, I've found I have the volume at about 33-34 in most situations. I'm not sure how this compares to others, but my car is older and probably quite loud. I've discovered once I get beyond 35 on CD/iPod/XM, the speakers get static-y on louder sections. IE drum crash, singer getting loud. I think this is the internal amp maxing out, aka 'clipping?'

If this is clipping, do I have an options except adding an amp? The Pioneer specs say the onboard amp is good for 14 watts RMS and 50 watts peak. My prior head unit, a Pioneer DEH6900 UB) never did this. Could I get around this by adding more efficient speakers? My car is almost 10 years old, so I suspect the speakers could be replaced anyways.

Thanks for the input

mike

Maby you have the wrong wire harness?

Im not sure, But i think when i had my alpine ,it was wired wrong, and it was crazy loud at 15, (i think it only went up to 30 though) and i wouldnt turn it up past 16.

But with the pioneer, Its wired diffrently and i got a better harnes with it (now using the RCA pre outs even for stock speakers going to stock amp) and now i can listen to it maxxed out on volume 62, and it still sounds clean...this only annoys me because I dont have anything less, but eh...oh well

Your music will sound only as good as your weakest link, in this case it is most likely your stock speakers, (and the possibility of a stock amp distorting the signal) but I believe it is your speakers. OEM car speakers, especially older systems (when total watts were about 15-25W per channel your stock speakers just aren't producing the higher power signal your 700 is sending. Upgrade your speakers and I bet your SQ will improve significantly. Unless you plan on upgrading to a 4/channel amp for your speakers you don't need the highest quality model made. Good Luck.

The internal amp is the same power rating as your old deck so make sure you have the loudness turned off and the EQ settings the same as your previous one too