[abk]

Ensounded folks, after having gleaned the essence of ICE and all the ICing that happens in this section of TBHP am baited to seek your opinions on 2 areas
(a) Headunit (should be able to read USB thumb drives; ipod compatiblity not required)
(b) Front stock speakers replacement (should I afterall?)

Background:

1. Car is Santro Xing (2007), in a small town in Assam. The car is used sparingly and whatever little it is used is used for short trips by my folks.
2. My folks are not bent upon having a good sound system on car. Only when I go home on vacation, once or twice a year, I take it out on longer drives (~300 km each way or more). I drive half the time the rest half seated at the back. So I need "decent" sound quality evenly spread both at the front and at the back.
3. The car currently has Kenwood HU (guess KDC-MP333) that needs replacement because the current HU developed a problem 4-5 months after the car was bought: It would refuse to eject CDs. As a result have to press the eject button & quickly take the face plate off and pull the CD out by a pair of forceps! I took it to a local repair shop in vain. Even if the HU gets repaired I would still like to change it. Not much rhyme or reason. Guess, I have been ICE bitten
4. The front speakers are stock & sound "okayish".
5. Pioneer 6x9 co-axials installed on the rear tray (not sure of the model no. but I chose 220W to 300W while buying them from NOIDA for Rs. 2600/- couple of years ago)
6. Am quite happy with the current sound quality specially the punch of bass from the rear co-axials. I do not need more bass as the car is primarily meant for use by my folks.
7. Type of music i will listen to in that car: Hindi movie songs (all kinds but mainly 90s and beyond), ghazals, a bit of rock & roll, Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel etc and my new found love for western classical.

Flexibility & Constraints:

1. Budget for the HU Rs 5~6k; Front speakers/components: ~2K (10-20% upside ok)
2. No plans whatsoever to put in an amplifier or a sub-woofer in the future.
3. No need for bill & warranty as I can't think of any authorised service centres of reputed brands around my hometown.
4. Don't need flashy stuff (fear of getting burgled - my OHC HU was burgled in my hometown)
5. No cutting/drilling etc for the components; must be direct replacement of the stock speakers. Installation of Speakers/components should be relatively easy as I will not have the benefit of expert installers in my hometown
6. I can pick both the headunit & speakers/components from Europe or have them ordered from the US if there are compelling reasons to buy them from outside India.

Question:
Please advise if replacing the front stock speakers with appropriate speakers/components will improve the sound quality/clarity significantly.

Observation:
I can sense that am probably enticing the sound gurus here to tempt me with a plethora of upgrades, just not the HU & the front speakers!

Note:
I posted this on a less relevant thread & consequently, received just one advice. Therefore, posting it here (albeit - requirements added) in anticipation of more responses

[live2drive]

Originally Posted by abk

Ensounded folks, after having gleaned the essence of ICE and all the ICing that happens in this section of TBHP am baited to seek your opinions on 2 areas
(a) Headunit (should be able to read USB thumb drives; ipod compatiblity not required)
(b) Front stock speakers replacement (should I afterall?)
...

abk, as per your budget, the setup should be like:
A kenwood 5039 HU : around 5K in grey. Decent HU with 2 pre-outs.
Jbl components 608c in the front. But then you'l have to do some modifications to the door to install the comps. Cost around 3.5K in grey.