i've owned a 2000, 2001 and now my 2002 SC and my girlfriend has a 2002 XE with the 100 watt factory stereo. i've heard them all and i just spent a long time playing with the stereo controls on my stock 210 watt factory system and i have to complement Nissan for offering it. the key is the fader in my opinion. if you set it up so the fader setting is one click back from the default setting, the back speakers really fill the truck up with sound, whereas the default setting allows the sound in the front to overpower the back speakers, losing this effect of the vehicle being filled with sound. does this make sense to anyone but me?

if it does, try resetting the fader on your 2002 210 watt system as i mentioned and you should notice a big change! the bottom line for me, despite some reports here to the contrary, is that the 210 watt factory SE system kicks ass, even without any mods or upgrades.
x x

I couldn't agree more. That is how I have the fader set up as well.

Also, I am very impressed with the 210 watt stock system. Although, I do notice a huge difference between the radio and the CD output. While a CD palyer is pretty much always going to give you a better sound output, with the X it is a bigger difference than I have ever really noticed in any vehicle. Do you agree?

Regardless, Nissan did a good job with this stock system.

Yeah, I thought I was insane there for awhile but the difference in quality between the radio and the CD player is *much* wider than any other vehicle I've had. Not that that's all that big of a deal since radio out here in Seattle sucks and sucks bad. But it is annoying to have to remember to turn it way down when going from the radio to the CD...