Recommended audio upgrades with 2013 Ram 1500 Outdoorsman...

Hi All,

New Ram owner here. I should be taking delivery of this in a day or two:



It has the larger screen with back up camera. Navigation is being added (was worth the $ to me to have it activated):



What I would like to do is keep the head unit in the truck and replaced the 6 speakers with aftermarket. Rears would be 2 or 3 way and I would put tweeters in the dash and woofers in the door. Then some kind of subwoofer under the rear seat.

This is coming out of my current HHR which is being retired with the Ram coming in. The subwoofer is a bass worx box with 2 x 10" Infinity subs in it. The amp is a Kenwood running in 2 driver mode so a weird way to wire a sub:




I plan to use the amp to drive the 6 speakers (hopefully drive the tweeters and mids with a cross over or something) and then get a proper monoblock amp for the subwoofer or perhaps a subwoofer box with the built in amplifier.

Would this work? Does the headunit in this truck allow for this sort of thing with the required preouts?

Any suggestions for speakers which have worked well for some of you? Same for the subwoofer set up. Recommendations or model #s?

Thanks in advance for the help.

This is an interesting option. This is a specific enclosure from Bassworx. I guess I could take my 2 Infinity drivers from my existing enclosure and use them in this one:

Truck Specific: - Bassworx

http://www.bassworx.com/images/enclosures/RAMQ210_angle_1-SELECT.jpg



I wonder if that gives a decent bass response?

Zoodles95 said:

This is an interesting option. This is a specific enclosure from Bassworx. I guess I could take my 2 Infinity drivers from my existing enclosure and use them in this one:

Truck Specific: - Bassworx

http://www.bassworx.com/images/enclosures/RAMQ210_angle_1-SELECT.jpg



I wonder if that gives a decent bass response?

Click to expand...

depends on what your subs require for air space

What about amplifying a 2 sub setup? Is this typically done with a monoblock amp or something in 2 channel mode like I am presently doing?

Zoodles95 said:

What about amplifying a 2 sub setup? Is this typically done with a monoblock amp or something in 2 channel mode like I am presently doing?

Click to expand...

It would normally depend on if the two subs are sharing the same airspace inside the box or if there are two separate chambers. Subs are usually wired together and driven by a single amp channel like a monoblock or a bridged two channel.

My suggestion is to ditch the amp. Rated at 35x4 in 4 ohm or 50x4 in 2 ohm. Unless you find 2 ohm speakers. I think many infinity, jbl and some polk speakers are 2.3 ohm. You will need a line out converter to tap into your factory stereo output. You might even need resistors depending on your system.

Or you could find a 5 channel amp with speaker level inputs that puts out 75x4 and 500x1. https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_100369_Pioneer-GM-D9605.html

Which model subs are those?

Here's my take on it. First off figure out how many speakers are being used in your setup, what type of sound stage do you want. then find an LOC, high input amp(not sure if this would be an option depending on how many speakers are being used) or processor. From how it sounds you will be running a 6 channel setup. Fronts, rears, & two subs. The guys on the forum will give you a lot of useful info as long as we now what direction you want to go in.

Thanks for the responses; much appreciated.

The drivers in my current bassworx box are Infinitys (not sure of the model number). I will pull one out soon and take a pic of it. If I can reuse these drivers in that bassworx box made for the Ram then that would be great. Otherwise I could follow what others have done here.

My thought was to replace all of the drivers that came with the truck. Replace the 6x9 in the rear doors with an aftermarket alternative recommended from here. Door speakers would be replaced with a bass or bass plus midrange alternative. Then the dash speakers would be replaced by tweeters. This is similar to what I did with my HHR. I replaced all the factory drivers with aftermarket. Ideally I would use a dedicated amp to drive these speakers instead of the factory head unit.

Then either use the same bridged amp I have now in 2 channel mode to drive the subs or a new amp.

I guess I need to see what others here have done using the same factory uconnect unit but have upgraded the system around it.

You could just leave the rear speakers factory and spend your money where you will hear it more. If you did that, then consider bridging your current amp to the front door components.

Do you have a budget in mind?

No budget yet. I guess ideally about 1000 if I can reuse my sub drivers and the amp. Interesting thought about using the amp on the front abd letting the factory head unit just drive the rear door speakers. Then I would be out for a mono or hard core 2 channel amp for the subs.

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Would you go with tweeters in the dash and bass midrange in the front doors? I did that in the hhr and it works well.

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Ya, I would try that first. If you don't like it then you can put them in the sail panel. I would wire the subs together as a mono load to whatever amp you get.