Stereo upgrade advice

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Phylodog

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I just brought home a 2013 RCSB yesterday. When I bought my 2012 CC I found a thread in which a member replaced the speakers and head unit in a CC and was very pleased so I just copied what he had done and added a Kicker Hideaway under the driver's seat. The improvement was dramatic and probably has a lot to do with why my wife took over the truck and I just bought myself another one lol.

I'm not what would qualify as an audiophile but I do appreciate a good sounding system. I know next to nothing about designing a system, amps, crossovers, etc. or buying components which will play nice together so I'm hoping someone can guide me through an upgrade. I have the Uconnect 5.0 with 5" screen and six speakers. I won't say money is no object since I have lots of expensive mods coming up but I don't mind spending a reasonable amount on it.

My CC has Polk Audio speakers in the dash and front doors, Kickers in the rear doors. The factory stereo does everything I need it to and with the U Connect being tied in to other features of the truck I'm thinking keeping the stock head unit it probably a good idea. With that in mind, what should I be looking at to upgrade?
 

adurm

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I'd suggest a set of hertz components for the doors with the tweeter in the sail panel. Do nothing with the rear speakers. Get a skar 200x4 amp. Run the hertz off the front channel. Bridge the rear to a ported sundown 12sa. Take out the storage tray in the back and put the sub there. That amp may be underpowered for the sub but you get the idea. Amp should fit under the driver's seat if not mount it to the back wall behind the passenger side. Imo.

Disconnect the dash speakers. Let the rear run off the deck.
 

autokraftgt

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I'd suggest a set of hertz components for the doors with the tweeter in the sail panel. Do nothing with the rear speakers. Get a skar 200x4 amp. Run the hertz off the front channel. Bridge the rear to a ported sundown 12sa. Take out the storage tray in the back and put the sub there. That amp may be underpowered for the sub but you get the idea. Amp should fit under the driver's seat if not mount it to the back wall behind the passenger side. Imo.

Disconnect the dash speakers. Let the rear run off the deck.

A prime example of the KISS method. Keep it simple stupid.
The set up adurm suggested will sound really nice. Midbass in the doors will reproduce all mid frequencies, tweeters will take care of all high end frequencies very well, then a nice subwoofer for sub stage duties. The fewer the speakers to reproduce the entire frequency the better....easier to tune too.
 
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Phylodog

Phylodog

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Thank you for the input Adurm. I read it but being as ignorant about audio components as I am it was still over my head. I ordered six infinity speakers and installed them and they sound horrible. The front left speaker has a cracking sound intermittently. I've spoken with Crutchfield and they're all going back. I am going to exchange them for something else, I just need to figure out what to go with.

Unfortunately Crutchfield doesn't seem to carry Hertz speakers so I'll have to use something else. I'm not opposed to trying component speakers but I know nothing about wiring them up or how I would mount the tweeters. Looking at Crutchfield it appears you need crossovers with component speakers, are they pretty straight forward to wire up?

Crutchfield included adapters to mount the round speakers into the 6"x9" opening in the front doors. The speakers didn't come close to sealing up around the adapters so I would like to install 6"x9"s in the doors but from what I can gather there is a window brace behind the speakers so depth is an issue. Does anyone have a suggestion? I'm not opposed to round speakers rather than 6"x9"s but I think it needs to seal to the speaker opening doesn't it?

The rear speakers have the seat belt running right smack in front of them (behind the trim piece). Doesn't seem like a great design but there isn't anything I can do about it either. I'm going to need new speakers for this area as well, any reason not to go with a 6"x9" replacement here?

I'm going to stick with the Kicker Hideaway for my sub to keep things simple, I've been pleased with the one in my crewcab. I'm starting to reconsider keeping the factory head unit but I don't know how many of the stock features I'll have to give up going with an aftermarket. If I keep the factory 5.0 do I need an amp for the door and back speakers or will they run ok off of the 5.0?

Sorry for all of the questions but I'm kind of lost on all of this stuff. Simply swapping speakers worked great in my CC but it didn't pan out this time in my RCSB.
 

stimpy433

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A lot of RC guys run the Kicker OEM upgrade speakers along with the Kicker Hideaway sub and they all say good things about the setup.

Front/Dash = 77KICK28AB
Rear = 77KICK41

Some don't even bother swapping out the rear speakers at all.
 
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quietpeen

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Do these kicker upgrades work with the Alpine system as well?

yes if you get the 77kick42 which has the 6x9's for the doors and the 3 dash speakers
 

00R/T

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A lot of RC guys run the Kicker OEM upgrade speakers along with the Kicker Hideaway sub and they all say good things about the setup.



Front/Dash = 77KICK28AB

Rear = 77KICK41



Some don't even bother swapping out the rear speakers at all.



I can see why this is a popular combo for the RC trucks. My truck replaced a WK with the full kicker upgrade (amp included) and a JL 500/1 driving a 10w6v2. I was very happy with that setup.

When I got my truck Crutchfield had a really good deal on the CS series kickers so I bought the 6.5s for the doors and rear and then a set of KS 3.5s for the dash. I'm running them off the RA4 with no amp. The bass was definitely a weak spot, but a Hideaway took care of that.

I've had a lot of high end systems over the years and this definitely doesn't compare to the best of them. If it was easier to hide an amp in a RC I probably would, and I would have kept my 10w6v2 if I had room for it. But, I think it's good enough and a massive improvement over stock. I'd say it holds up against the $1900 option HK system in my SRT pretty well.
 

sumgruuvz

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Woofersetc has the Hertz Dieci 6x9's and 3.5's. The 6x9's should clear the window rail as the speakers are 3" top mount depth. They also have a number of other things to choose from. I just recently put in the Hertz 3.5's in the dash and they sound fantastic. That's just off of an Alpine HU. I will upgrade to a 5 channel amp eventually to power everything in the truck the way it should be. I bought some JBL 6x9's before I even heard about Hertz. Was a big Kicker fan until I tried something new and took that chance. Glad I did.

Here's a link for them:
http://www.woofersetc.com/
 

ScottFL

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Do these kicker upgrades work with the Alpine system as well?


I looked into this upgrade but the Kicker Mopar upgrades are all 4 Ohm sets, the Alpine runs on 2 Ohms so you will lose some volume. I'm still deciding what to do as 2 Ohms speakers are few and far between.....
 

quietpeen

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I looked into this upgrade but the Kicker Mopar upgrades are all 4 Ohm sets, the Alpine runs on 2 Ohms so you will lose some volume. I'm still deciding what to do as 2 Ohms speakers are few and far between.....

Are you sure the 77kick42 is not 2 ohm? Greygoose could confirm this.
 

ScottFL

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Are you sure the 77kick42 is not 2 ohm? Greygoose could confirm this.

I could never find the specs from Mopar or Kicker, but from doing hours of reading over the net I have seen numerous statements that they are 4 Ohms. If Greygoose can confirm 2 Ohms I will be ordering the 77KICK42 package this evening.
 

adurm

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Phylo, the infinity speakers are 2.3 ohm so the noise you were hearing is likely clipping. The head unit amp is trying to feed more power than its capable causing distortion basically. I used scosche 6x9 adapters that had the 6.5 speaker hole off center. They fit great. If you go component, the tweeter may come with a 3.5 inch adapter so you can put them in the dash holes. Or an angle mount that you can screw to the back of the sail panel by the mirror. Fosgate makes some components that don't have an external crossover. Most others have a small box you mount at the kick panel or the back of the door. Main input goes to the crossover then out to the corresponding speaker. I would get a decent set of components and do nothing with the back speakers. If you do get rear 6x9, opt for a pivoting tweeter to try and angle the highs towards you and past the seat belt.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_575P1675S/Rockford-Fosgate-Punch-P1675-S.html?tp=106
 
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metalmancpa

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A lot of RC guys run the Kicker OEM upgrade speakers along with the Kicker Hideaway sub and they all say good things about the setup.

Front/Dash = 77KICK28AB
Rear = 77KICK41

Some don't even bother swapping out the rear speakers at all.

Here's my upgrade thread - http://www.ramforum.com/f51/audio_upgrade_2014_ram_1500_big_horn_-_looking_some_install_advice-103092/

I decided not to go full audiophile as I have done with past cars. I am in around $1,000 for my upgrade. If you don't amp/rewire/front components/custom sub, the quality of the sound although much better than stock could disappoint. The Kicker sub needs volume whereas full amped upgrade provides a much better sound at lower volumes. The soundstage is narrow versus a full upgrade. It comes down to how much you want/can spend, and what you can live with. Since I opted at this time to keep the wiring stock, I did all plug and play. The sound is adequate, but far from the audiophile sound I'm used to.
 
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