I did my 95's stereo in just about every way of wrong, and here's how:
I used an old Sony head unit with an honest-to-goodness CD TRAY that ejects the WHOLE TRAY, if you can believe the cave man technology. The concept was that instead of using a read-ahead buffer, the mechanical tray "clamps" the CD to the inner suspension along with the laser. Anyway, it doesn't skip, and it's really old, but still plays MP3 CD's. I like that it has both low-pass and high-pass filters, so I can tell it not to send low frequency signals to my six, that's right SIX stock speaker locations. I can cut it at either 75 Hz or 125 Hz, and right now I'm using 125. I can change the colors of the display, too. I use red at night and something I can actually see during the day. It has RCA outs for a subwoofer, and I ain't no rapper, but I gots to have me some bass. It also has pre-amp outputs for external amplification, which I do not use, because this head unit does the basic -above 125 Hz rockin' for me. It has other doo-dads, too, like a built-in seven band EQ with presets (for the amateurs) or a customizable and storable one that I set up. It also has loudness for those quiet camp nights where bass and treble are boosted, and some space-age setting that makes the sound more "high in the cabin" sounding-like, which I find completely annoying and leave off. It also has an aux input that connects with RCA jacks on the back that I use to leave a mini jack laying around to connect a phone or laptop or whatever gadgets you kids are using to orbit the sun with these days. It has a remote; very limited usefulness. It cost a lot of money over ten years ago and that's why I still have it. You can blow it away, feature-wise by spending $99 today, so go for it, Junior.
I'm using all six of my stock speaker locations. The Gen 2's don't have those fancy sail panel tweeters, and the hell if I care, my hearing's going, probably. Too many shotgun blasts and concerts. I can't even remember what brand the speakers are, whatever Crutchfield had for cheap, like Kicker or JBL or something. They're not Altec-Lansing Voice Of The Highway-level stuff. As if that's still a thing. Sound deadening? The only thing around "In My Day" was DynaMat, and the HELL if I'm spending that kind of money; let them sounds bounce off the metal and shit.
I spent $99, again with Crutchfield, and got me a nifty 8" self-powered bandpass sub box. I can set the gain level, cut-off and phase, but I just set and forget it and control the level with that old, fancy head unit of mine. I have the head unit set to 125 Hz for the low-pass on the RCA-outs to the sub, then set the cut-off on the sub to slightly higher than that. Is that a good way to do it? You should know by this point I'm not the person to ask. I point the open end of the sub into the back corner of the cargo area, again, just because I want to. The thing takes up some room, but not like a dual 12" cabinet, not even close. It makes my Devo Easy Listening Disc sound just right. That's not true, I can't stand that one.
Do I know what I'm doing? Sort of. Not really. But whose stereo did we listen to on night 5 of the Utah trip? Mine. Why? Because I'm just a dick like that and pretty much made it the option you shouldn't say no to. At least nobody did, for long, when I could hear them, which I probably can't anyway.
John B.