New Alpine head unit (CDA-117ir): need more bass.

[sergei]

I have installed alpine head unit (replacing factory Subaru navigation system) into my STI.
It seems that the new unit (CDA-117ir) weak sauce. There is a hole in low end. If you give it little bit of volume low end comes up, but not at the level I am happy about. The thing is that factory unit sounded better.
I used connectors to hook it up (I hate cutting looms).
So there is adapter from subaru to generic, which connects to Alpine loom. Which means (most likely) that the speakers are in phase.

There could be few issues here: alpine unit is rubbish (their quality went down since my previous purchases many years ago), speakers are rubbish, or both.

I do not want a subwoofer. I want the bass at least at the same level as stock.

I tried both parametric EQ and graphic, and bumped up 60 and 120hz (the 60Hz had no effect on low volume, while 120Hz made it sound boomy but not in good way). I am pretty sure the HPF is off.
There is simply too much mid range (telephone like), I could try and bring whole mid range down....

It sounds like alpine forgot about bass correction at low volumes?

What are my options?

Putting back factory unit is out of the question as I do not plan on learning Japanese (and it does not have USB).

I could upgrade the speakers, what are the recommendations (prefer without cutting/fabrication)?
The car is 2008 STI....