I upgraded all my speakers in my 2014 Ram 1500 crew cab. I have the base audio (no Alpine) and the big Uconnect Touchscreen.
After reading what many did on this forum, I decided on installing the KSC35 coaxials in the dash, KSS65 components in the doors and KSC69 coaxials in the rear doors. I also put the Kicker Custom Sub enclosure under the driver's side rear seat.
The first thing I did was replace the dash speakers and put in the sub. With just that upgrade, I thought the difference in the sound was a huge improvement. The stock dash speakers sounded muddy in comparison and the sub added a much needed kick in the low end.
The next thing I did was replace the rear doors with the 6" x 9" coaxials. Again, great improvement. The reason I went with a 2-way versus a 3-way in the back was I wanted to keep more of the mid stage in the front and I was hoping the 2-ways might give me a little more mid bass. I think for me, that is exactly what I got with the KSC69. It's very nice sounding speaker.
The last thing I did was to replace the stock 6" x 9" in the front doors with 6 1/2" components, KSS65. I used a Scosche adapter to make the conversion. The thinking behind swapping out the 6" x 9" to 6 1/2" was to fill out the mids. Maybe I might have lost a tiny amount of bass in these doors, but with the sub and the 6" x 9" in back, there is still plenty of bass.
If you check with Crutchfield, they will say these speakers do not fit in the front doors. I can definitely say, they do fit, but it is extremely tight. I ended up having to trim a little of the tweeter retainer ring and file a tiny bit of the speaker plastic housing on the door panel to get them in. Not too bad, but you might have to do a little adjusting to get them in.
After everything was done, I listened to the whole set-up quite a bit. Overall, it sounded really good. The quality of the 6 1/2" components is obvious. They sound great. Almost too great. To me, it seemed like there was too much high end with the dash speakers and the components combined up front. Even with the tweeter attenuation turned all the way down to 0db, it still sounded a little too bright for my liking. So, what I ended up doing was taking out the KSC35 that were in the dash and putting the 1 3/4" tweeter from the 6 1/2" components in the dash instead. This seems ideal now. I have the tweeter attenuation a midway at + 4 1/2db and they sound great. The tweeters from these components are really high quality.
I ended up with two less speakers, but for me, that was the sweet spot for the sound quality to my ears. I didn't do anything with the speaker leads that powered the 3 1/2" coaxials. I wasn't sure if I could add them to powering the components or not. If anyone knows if that can be done or if it would make any difference, let me know.
I have a brand new set of KSC35 3 1/2" coaxials for the dash left over. If anyone is interested in them, shoot me a PM. As I said, before I did all the other upgrades, they sounded great. A huge improvement over the stock crap.
Really happy with the quality of the sound upgrade. I only ever used Kicker many, many years ago for a small sub. Never used their speakers, but they know what they are doing. The sound is very good.
The only thing that I would consider doing in the future would be the plug and play amp upgrade for the head unit. The Mopar branded Kicker Amp. Has anyone added this? Curious what it would do for the sound. I don't want to decrease the prominence of the sub, but if it added better quality sound without doing that, it might be worthwhile. I would be interested in hearing if anyone put one in and what it did for the sound.
Thanks guys. Just wanted to share my experience.
After reading what many did on this forum, I decided on installing the KSC35 coaxials in the dash, KSS65 components in the doors and KSC69 coaxials in the rear doors. I also put the Kicker Custom Sub enclosure under the driver's side rear seat.
The first thing I did was replace the dash speakers and put in the sub. With just that upgrade, I thought the difference in the sound was a huge improvement. The stock dash speakers sounded muddy in comparison and the sub added a much needed kick in the low end.
The next thing I did was replace the rear doors with the 6" x 9" coaxials. Again, great improvement. The reason I went with a 2-way versus a 3-way in the back was I wanted to keep more of the mid stage in the front and I was hoping the 2-ways might give me a little more mid bass. I think for me, that is exactly what I got with the KSC69. It's very nice sounding speaker.
The last thing I did was to replace the stock 6" x 9" in the front doors with 6 1/2" components, KSS65. I used a Scosche adapter to make the conversion. The thinking behind swapping out the 6" x 9" to 6 1/2" was to fill out the mids. Maybe I might have lost a tiny amount of bass in these doors, but with the sub and the 6" x 9" in back, there is still plenty of bass.
If you check with Crutchfield, they will say these speakers do not fit in the front doors. I can definitely say, they do fit, but it is extremely tight. I ended up having to trim a little of the tweeter retainer ring and file a tiny bit of the speaker plastic housing on the door panel to get them in. Not too bad, but you might have to do a little adjusting to get them in.
After everything was done, I listened to the whole set-up quite a bit. Overall, it sounded really good. The quality of the 6 1/2" components is obvious. They sound great. Almost too great. To me, it seemed like there was too much high end with the dash speakers and the components combined up front. Even with the tweeter attenuation turned all the way down to 0db, it still sounded a little too bright for my liking. So, what I ended up doing was taking out the KSC35 that were in the dash and putting the 1 3/4" tweeter from the 6 1/2" components in the dash instead. This seems ideal now. I have the tweeter attenuation a midway at + 4 1/2db and they sound great. The tweeters from these components are really high quality.
I ended up with two less speakers, but for me, that was the sweet spot for the sound quality to my ears. I didn't do anything with the speaker leads that powered the 3 1/2" coaxials. I wasn't sure if I could add them to powering the components or not. If anyone knows if that can be done or if it would make any difference, let me know.
I have a brand new set of KSC35 3 1/2" coaxials for the dash left over. If anyone is interested in them, shoot me a PM. As I said, before I did all the other upgrades, they sounded great. A huge improvement over the stock crap.
Really happy with the quality of the sound upgrade. I only ever used Kicker many, many years ago for a small sub. Never used their speakers, but they know what they are doing. The sound is very good.
The only thing that I would consider doing in the future would be the plug and play amp upgrade for the head unit. The Mopar branded Kicker Amp. Has anyone added this? Curious what it would do for the sound. I don't want to decrease the prominence of the sub, but if it added better quality sound without doing that, it might be worthwhile. I would be interested in hearing if anyone put one in and what it did for the sound.
Thanks guys. Just wanted to share my experience.
