2007 REF Sound Issue

[Clmont]

I picked up an 07 1500 SLT with the common REF radio. The front speakers sound great, but you can barely hear the rear ones. Only way to hear them is by turning the fader full to the rear and crank the volume up.

I'm assuming it's an amp problem. Do I have a defective head unit or are there separate amps for front and rear?

 

[justin13703]

No there aren't any separate amps for yours. Either your back speakers are blown or the radio is messed up. My guess is the radio.

 

[Clmont]

No there aren't any separate amps for yours. Either your back speakers are blown or the radio is messed up. My guess is the radio.

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to remove one of the rear speakers to check them before trying to replace the head unit. I doubt both rear speakers went out since they both sound exactly the same.

It's strange. If you play the fronts at let's say level 15, they sound good, but hardly anything from the rears. If you play just the rear, you have to crank up the level way up to make them sound the same as the front. It's like the fader function of e head unit is screwed up. I probably should upgrade to a double din with all the bells and whistles since they are pretty cheap nowadays, but I don't use e truck that much to justify. I did that to a 2006 I used to have as a DD and threw away the REF....now I need one.

 

[Clmont]

BTW, what other OEM radios are plug and play. I found a RES on eBay pretty cheap.

 

[justin13703]

Your factory radio has the half circle shaped pieces on each side from the knobs. So you would have to get one like that unless you want to buy a new dash panel. The res radio may plug in but it won't physically fit in there.

Oh and by the way, to do a double din you would need to get a new dash panel as well, from a truck with the factory navigation system.

 

[MADDOG]

And those double DIN center stack panels run anywhere from $100 to $150 last time I looked.

I did this very same upgrade, using a "leftover" OEM REC/NAV 6 disk CD/Navigation unit.