How to swap out speakers

BP15 said:

Nice Info bro. I am going to start looking at speakers to improve my sound

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went with these for my 2014 ram non alpine setup quad cab and they sound great imo front doors Kicker 41DSC654,dash Kicker 41KSC354 and rear doors Kicker-40CS6934 went to crutchfield had a pleasant experience with staff and they sent me everything i needed to do the install myself good luck with your search

I just installed new kicker 6x9s all around and spaced the front with a nut.



I lived with the spacer in the front for a week and finally decided to seal it and see how it would sound because the rear definitely pounded harder than the front. So I went to Home Depot and bought some foam weather stripping and closed the gap up and secured it with electrical tape.





Now the front pounds just as hard and my feet love it! I have no sub but this is enough for me running off of a 85 watts x 4 head unit. That gaps definitely makes a difference. Close it up!




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Wanted to say a quick thanks for this thread. Followed it this weekend and installed jbl's throughout the truck. The 938's fit without spacers.

Great write up. Thank you!

I bought the 1/2" spacers from home depot, about 89 cents a pack which comes with 2, then measured and marked the 1/3" line on them. Took a dremel with a cutting wheel and cut them down to size.




And here's a top view of the speaker with spacers installed


Now I know some audio expert people are probably going to chime in and say that there's a problem with my setup and that is that there's a gap between the speaker and mount. Yes for proper channeling of the speakers bass, this is a bad thing. I have yet come up with a way to enclose the area as there are no 1/3" thick ring spacers available that I know of and I haven't gotten around to making my own yet. I tried out a baffle today made by Boom Mat and was really unhappy with it and the baffle completely encloses the speaker and when I did a test run on the first speaker I installed one to, I lost almost all bass to that speaker. So I advise against anything that completely encloses the back of the speaker.

Alright, this concludes my DIY for now. I hope these helps everyone that is looking into doing up their own speaker system and answers a lot of questions you may have.

Please if you have any questions about anything dealing with the installs, feel free to ask me or post in or make a new thread in the audio section and everyone that has done a swap will do their best to answer your questions.

Also, for those of you with regular cabs and/or alpine systems, if you would like to add to this DIY please contact me and give me all the needed info/ pictures. I'd like to make this DIY as helpful as possible and I cannot do that without your help since there are different cabs and oem setups. Things I'd really like to add are center dash speaker, headliner speakers (if anyone has done them), and the rear speakers in a regular cab.

So please enjoy, I hope this helps, and let me know if theres any corrections I need to make and what I need to add.

Also, if you are also wanting to swap in a new head unit, I'd like to refer you to a DIY by 0212353 (JJ)...Click here[/QUOTE]

I agreed with most of your write-up, until this front speaker setup...

Yikes! This is real bad, not only for sound quality that must be horrible but also for the life of these poor drivers, that will not be very long.

What you need is this:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?...f48ce8f9e1cea47ee37cfdf3a24dfdd8o0&ajaxhist=0

They come in different depth from 1/8" to 1 inch. Many companies produce MDF spacers, but you can even do them yourself.

The proper way to do it, when you remove the door panels, is to mount the spacer alone, cover the door panel (inside of exterior and around the spacer going under the inside door panel, with Dynamat. Then, remove the screws and install the speaker. I am not saying that sound is not going to come from your setup, but since the driver has obviously no back pressure, it can't be sounding better than the original.

Here is what I did.

Awesome write up! One question. Did anyone notice a decrease in volume with the new speakers? It seems clear the the alpine system uses 2 ohm speakers. Does the base non-alpine system use 4 ohm speakers from the factory?

wha head unit do you have with your speakers

Did you have to replace the head unit or does the stock 3 inch uconnect touch screen work with new speakers and subs?

Yesterday I replaced all 4 of the stock 6x9 speakers in my 2013 Ram R/T with RA4 (Alpine) radio. To be clear, this install was on a standard cab Ram. For all 4 I used a plugin extension that plugged into the existing factory speaker connections. Metra 72-6514 Speaker Harness for Select Chrysler/Dodge Vehicles from Amazon.
These are the speakers I got. Infinity Kappa 693.11i 6x9, peak 330 watts each and RMS 110 watts each. These are fine since I'm using the stock RA4 radio and stock amp. Note the huge magnets... that played a roll in how they mounted in the doors.


Summary of install follows.
REARS
Stock setup on rear


This was fairly straightforward. I used 4 1/4" nuts as spacers, redrilled holes that would not line up, secured them and sealed the edges.


DOORS
This took some effort to install.
Stock speaker setup of doors.


Stock speaker removed (photo of other door)


Note the speaker polarity. same on all 4 stock speakers.


This harness clip was popped out and relocated out of the speaker well.


Tool I used for the next step. Loud as hell but it really made quick efficient work of the cutting.


Due to the large magnets of the Infinity Kappa speakers, I had to cut this area a little. Cringe if you must but the window rolls up and down no different than before.


Speaker wiring harness was relocated to here.


After the cutting was complete.


Mounted speakers before sealing edges. I used 1/4" MDF spacers bought from Amazon and added four 1/8" nuts as additional spacing. Note the relocated speaker connector outside in the lower left of the photo.


Finished the sealing used some old SecondSkin sound deadoning mat I've had for years. Super sticky on the back with a heavy foil on top. Sealed the gaps nicely.


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The finished setup sounds awesome and compliments the modest Dual TBX-10 subwoofer I installed previously.

2016 Quad cab with 6 speakers and Uconnect 5.0 Kicker tip

Hi all,

Thought I'd share what I learned/did with my Ram 1500 Quad cab SL with UConnect 5.0 radio, 6 speakers (2 dash in parallel with 2 door 6x9, and 2 rear).

I replaced the dash with Kicker 41KSC354 3-1/2" 2-Way Speakers from Cruthfield, Item #20641KS354. They were a drop in replacement and have silk dome tweeters. Sound great, albeit LOTS of treble.

For the front doors, I purchased Kicker 41KSC694 6" x 9" 2-way Speakers, Item #20641KS694. They were listed for the rear doors, but I was able to install them in the front location.

I had originally planned to use/modify the "Universal Speaker Lift rings 6"x9"", Item #134SB69, but they were too thick.

What I did was remove the Kicker 1/4" spacer on the front of the 6x9 and moved it to the back of the speaker. The spacer is glued to the front of the speaker, but came off very easily. No damage to the speaker surrounds. I used the OEM screws.

The rear supplied speaker harness worked with the front speakers.

They sound amazing, but there is LOTS of treble. I have the head unit -5 on treble, and it's still bright!


The speaker with the front spacer removed.



A side view of the relocated spacer on the back of the speaker, ready for installation.


A rear view of the relocated spacer on the back of speaker, ready for installation.

This gives me some hope for replacing my speakers in my truck, which are a bit blown. Compliments of my 13 year old niece and her new iPhone her grandmother bought her. Thanks mom!

Is it possible to add subs without modifying the rear too much? I was told I could just stick them in the rear-storage under the seat but I don't think that would work real well. I listen to a lot of Heavy Metal (5FDP / Disturbed / SOAD / Trivium etc...) I love my bass.

BinaryData said:

This gives me some hope for replacing my speakers in my truck, which are a bit blown. Compliments of my 13 year old niece and her new iPhone her grandmother bought her. Thanks mom! [emoji14]

Is it possible to add subs without modifying the rear too much? I was told I could just stick them in the rear-storage under the seat but I don't think that would work real well. I listen to a lot of Heavy Metal (5FDP / Disturbed / SOAD / Trivium etc...) I love my bass.

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If you're not looking for anything crazy high quality, I have this in my truck: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ0YEKI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Jjo2BbPWARKQH
I power it with a Pioneer 750watt amp (way overkill for this sub) I had laying around from when I was younger and it hits surprisingly hard. The box is formed to fit in the smaller underseat storage however I had to take the storage lid off to make it fit.

I listen to all of the music you mentioned and for me its perfect.

Hemi395 said:

If you're not looking for anything crazy high quality, I have this in my truck: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ0YEKI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Jjo2BbPWARKQH
I power it with a Pioneer 750watt amp (way overkill for this sub) I had laying around from when I was younger and it hits surprisingly hard. The box is formed to fit in the smaller underseat storage however I had to take the storage lid off to make it fit.

I listen to all of the music you mentioned and for me its perfect.

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Dude. Dope. Do you have just one, or do you have two? I honestly, don't use the storage for much. I'm actually working on a couple mods for my truck. How's the sound quality with it under the seat? I was thinking it might sound muffled or vibrate people who are sitting on the seat.

BinaryData said:

Dude. Dope. Do you have just one, or do you have two? I honestly, don't use the storage for much. I'm actually working on a couple mods for my truck. How's the sound quality with it under the seat? I was thinking it might sound muffled or vibrate people who are sitting on the seat.

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Only one, I put the amplifier in the middle and still have the passenger side for storage but I don't see a reason why you couldn't do 2. I think the one sounds great for what it is. I've had some high end subs in the past that would rattle dishes in the neighbors house but I was 20 then lol. Now I just want some more bass and this works perfectly for that.

Hemi395 said:

Only one, I put the amplifier in the middle and still have the passenger side for storage but I don't see a reason why you couldn't do 2. I think the one sounds great for what it is. I've had some high end subs in the past that would rattle dishes in the neighbors house but I was 20 then lol. Now I just want some more bass and this works perfectly for that.

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I'm sold. It's pretty cheap too. I'll probably pick it up, and put it in my storage unit until I can finish buying the rest of the speakers, amp, and new deck.

Sorry for the double post! I didn't read every post but where the hell did you guys buy your speakers at?! I'm trying to find a new deck for my 09 1500 too, but Amazon's search feature needs to be revamped, and badly.

Edit:

Building my Christmas Shopping List for family, so they know what the hell I want. I'm having trouble finding the Kicker KS35s, got an alternative?

Just to let you know, I've always had stock stereos, never had any specialty systems. Considering I've owned 3 cars since I was 16...

Very nice write up and lots of good suggestions!

Holly Blurry Pictures Batman!! I got a headache trying to look at those......