for some people, yes, absolutely it is too complicated - putting together a good system requires a reasonable understanding of how components work together, and the environment in which they will be working
tuning it and operating it is beyond many, especially when you get into decks with EQs - far too often people start tweaking the controls, without regard to what it is doing, and end up just wrecking the sound, and then being frustrated, and blaming it on the gear
the key to this whole overdrive/underdrive thing, is not to choose a high power speaker in the first place, in an effort to make things sound better - that is the single biggest mistake i see people make - they run right out and buy some good speakers, because that is the less expensive, and less involved way to "upgrade" the system, but fail to understand component matching - then, they find are in a position where they have actually made things worse, and have to continue swapping out gear, and spending more money
the factory speakers really aren't that bad - but, they can only handle a few watts - change to a high power deck, and you run into trouble - add an amp, and you have the same problem
most often, especially with the stock units, the deck is the real fall down point, but too often people don't want to change that out, and are stuck with less than optimal sound no matter what they do
swap out the speakers only, and if you choose wrong, and choose ones that needs a lot of power to drive them, the stock system may not work well with the new speakers
as an installer, you've seen both ends of the spectrum, and understand component matching - have fun - play around - there are a lot of good combinations out there
i'm finally getting close to what i want
