Gregfarz and other stereo gurus: HELP!

[PlatinumWRX]

My g/f and I just picked her up a 2001 Sentra SE 2.0
It's a sweet car with 16" wheels, spoiler, 2.0L DOHC engine, nice interior appts and a seven speaker CD-player. Here's the thing: The stereo has front components, rear coaxs, and a sub and for all intensive purposes is the SAME stereo in my sister's SE-R, but...

IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAP!!!!

The dealer say the amp may be blown, I think it is adjusted poorly for cross over and gain.
Does anyone know where they hide the amp in the new Sentras and what would cause the following symptoms?
-Radio sound horrible all the way around, turn it up and it breaks up
-CD player sounds good, but does has any bass, specially for an 8" open air sub on the rear deck.

I checked to see if the sub was operational, and it was vibrating, but not much.

Thanks in advance for our help, guys.

-Jim

[GregFarz78]

Wow sentras have an 8" free air sub in the rear deck? Interesting...

When you say the radio sounds like crap do you mean lots of static or just bad quality sound? Does the head unit have an eq or adjustment for bass/treble? Sounds like stock stereo system woes Just like in the rex you turn the radio up and those crappy paper cone speakers will distort. Radio stations are crappy sound to begin with nothing you can do to improve the quality of that. But cd's should sound great if they dont something is wrong. I'm not sure where that amp is hidden but I'd try looking behind the trunk carpeting they usually hide them in the corner of the trunk. Try playing with the gain and if it has a low pass filter adjustment set that around 80-120hz. Is there any way you can see if that sub is paper cone also? If budget permits replace the stock speakers (fronts first) that will offer some improvement in sound.

[RaCinWRX]

Also try checking all the wire connections.

--RaCinWRX