What I can compare is any economy vehicle that has a base stereo compared to an uplevel or aftermarket stereo...
Which means my Cobalt stock stereo which had no features, paper speakers, no power, only bass and treble adjustments.
Then the upgraded radio I installed from a LT that had MP3 and offered bass, mid, treble adjustments...it was an improvement (in terms of adjustability, but not power/clarity).
Then the upgrade to my Pioneer double DIN, Boston Acoustics speakers all around, and an amp/sub setup. Much improvement over factory.
No different than any other factory system in an economy car. The Cobalt SS offered the Pioneer setup...it wasn't great, but a much better factory system than the LS/LT offered.
My basis is on the majority of cars like that...and the fact that aftermarket is always going to be better than factory (as long as you have money to spend).
The exceptions might be Bowers & Wilkins, Bang & Olufsen, Bose (although I don't like Bose anything because it's more an illusion than actual quality), Lexicon, Mark Levinson, ELS.
Those are some of the TOP END OEM audio manufacturers for cars such as Jag, Aston, Infiniti, Acura, etc.
But you know...after over 12 years of messing with car stereos and factory systems I know nothing...granted I'm not a professional installer and I don't deal with them all the time, but I've worked on enough cars (of mine and friends) to know a thing or two.
And if you would like to know how great some of them are...come on over, you can watch a movie in my home theater with my B&W setup...I didn't spend the $3000 for my receiver/speakers/sub just because they're pretty to look at. I'm a little bit of an audiophile (on a budget).
But, you are correct, I don't have a Sonic yet, I've only test driven a couple and played with the radio for a few minutes here and there...haven't dealt with it day after day yet. Still doesn't change some of the facts.
that's what she said
