987.2 ASK amp and speaker upgrade - questions

Hi all, I'm considering doing a bare bones bang for the buck upgrade on my gen2 cayman with sound package plus and PCM . I actually don't mind PCM , so I don't want to replace the head unit - and trying to keep the cost as low as possible. Here's what I'm considering - Focal 165 a3 3-way components - replace all 3 of the stock front speakers. Rockford Punch 300X2 - this is a 100x2 RMS amp to power the 3-ways. Has high-level speaker inputs - which brings me to my question... Does the head unit in the gen2 just send fl/fr/rr/lr full range to the amp? If so, I'm planning on leaving the rear speakers unpowered, and just power the 3-ways in the front. Could I then just use the front 2 full range inputs to the new amp, then pick one of the speaker wires going to the doors to go to the crossovers for the Focals, and leave that wiring intact? Would need new wire from the crossovers to all 3 speakers on each side. Also I think I need mounting rings for the 6.5" to mount in the 7" hole. If the head unit sends the three door speakers separately... that would be a problem because I'd need something to sum up the signal to send to the 3-way components. Perhaps an LC6i or cleansweep with signal summing. Anyway, if anyone knows the answer to the question about what the PCM head unit sends to the ASK amp in a gen2 cayman , I would appreciate it. If I end up needing a cleansweep or LC6i thats ok, but I'd like to know about it. It might make the bang for the buck not worth it. Thanks for any advice,

I had that same setup - 2009 with Sound Package Plus. The factory amp under the passenger seat powers 7 channels - the front tweeter/mids, the door woofers, the rears, and the center channel. Those are really nice speakers, but I would totally suggest you upgrade the headunit before you put Focals in. The signal out of the factory headunit is really garbage (even worse when going through the factory amp), and the Focals just would not give you the sound you are looking for (or what they are capable of). The stock speakers are actually relatively decent. But if you really wanted to, I guess you could run the new 3 ways off of 2 amplified channels (as opposed to the 4 the current speakers are getting). You could just 'intercept' the speaker level outputs from the headunit for the fronts (to the inputs of your new 2 channel), and that would actually leave you the rears, center, and the woofer channels still powered from the factory amp.

The components have passive crossovers so I'd just run all 3 on each side off 1 channel of the new amp. I'd leave the rears and center channel unpowered. I gather from the other threads I've read that PCM 3 actually has low-level outputs that masquerade as speaker-level outputs that go to the ASK amp. So I'd just grab the fronts from PCM under the seat run those into the new amp, remove the stock amp completely, put the passive crossovers under the seat with the amp, and hook the crossover outputs right up to the stock speaker wires that go from the stock amp. Then I can put the components into the stock locations and use the stock wires and take as little apart as possible. As far as PCM being a bad source, it might be. The double DIN units are expensive though, and honestly kind of an eyesore. I'll give this a shot and see where we're at afterwards. Where did you put your tweeters, in the stock location? Or in the door panels?

Thanks for all the info. If the crossovers are in the doors I'll probably run new wires from the amp to the doors, but re-use the wire into the dash for the tweeters. Hopefully they aren't buried in the dash somewhere. Will update with results.

I've got the jl amp and the focal 3-ways and install scheduled for next Tuesday at soundscape in Plano. They are going to put the amp in the battery compartment in the frunk and intercept the low level outputs behind the head unit. Then run new speaker wire to the doors and tweeters. They said the crossovers could go under the passenger seat. If I add another jl amp for a sub they said there would be space for it also in the frunk. The JL XD amps are hilariously small. Will update after install.

Just got back from the shop with the car, install was successful they made baffles to mount the 6.5" woofers in the stock 8" spot. The other 4 speakers fit in the stock locations. The Amp and crossovers are in the frunk under the little battery tray. It sounds good! Definitely less bass-heavy than an aftermarket system with a sub, but the mid-bass and up is solid. It plays loud enough that I can't hear the engine at all on the highway if I turn it up. In other words - plenty loud. This is with PCM 3.0 still as the source unit playing 320kbit/sec mp3's. Definitely worth the $500 this gear cost me.