First off, I'm not some noob when it comes to audio. I have spent hundreds of hours in my HT room tweaking FR's of my speakers and sub's. I have an ear for music and know what sounds natural. I say natural because good is very subjective and all comes down to the ear of the beholder. Sit down in a well designed HT room and most car audio pales in comparison. I am not looking to replicate the end all car audio system. I was merely asking if my Alpines would be a noticeable improvement to justify the added cost of installation. When it comes to audio, and everything else for that matter, there is a diminishing return on investment.
I appreciate the informative replies from those who have donated some sound advice.
ok, heres the jist how aftermarket can sound better and how Bose can sound better:
Bose sounds better:
Researchers sit in the vehicle, after a basic amp, source, and crappy speakers are temp installed, meter it for FR, figure out what to sounds good and will lead to the least number of failures, incorporate a bass curve into it so the bass drops off at louder levels, then they burn that EQ curve on to a DSP chip so that a basic deck, with a $2 chip and $1.50 speakers will sound the best to the average person. Once you swap the deck, amp, or speakers, all that is blown out the window so nothing is expandable or interchangeable other than maybe an aux in or $700 sat tuner from the dealer.
Aftermarket:
Build speakers, radios and amps that can go above a beyond factory speakers in terms of wattages, features, and dynamic headroom, give you the ability to expand, modify and experiment. Theres usually no limits, unless you set them, and they dont care, so much, whats on the other side of the speaker wire (radio or speaker or amp), they are just going to push as close to a full range signal as possible without filters or an EQ (unless turned on) generally playing the best (cleanest signal) with everything at 0