Speaker upgrade questions!

[blackbetty14]

I installed my system in about an hour on this past saturday.

Dash, front and rear doors. Wasn't that bad. The front doors got the 6.5" kickers with adapters and went in with no issues. I ended up drilling all new holes in the speaker to adapter compared to the ones that come pre slotted.

Rear doors went right in and only had to drill 2 new holes for those speakers.

All speakers clear the stock door internals and the door panel/speaker grills. So all in all it was a pretty easy upgrade.

Dashes went right in but are loud as expected. I have set the balance to favor the rears 2-3 adjustments to help balance it out. The speakers are def clearer and handle the louder 20+ on the radio and the base is cleaner. I'm going to look into wiring resistors for the front speakers possibly.

Just for clarification the door speakers (front and rear) are 4 ohm and the Dash 3.5" speakers are 8ohm. They also seem to have some kind of capacitor soldered in right on the speaker at the connection point.

 

[jarzo]

I highly recommend that you change out the 3 dash speakers. HUGE difference if you upgrade. It's easier to upgraded compared to the door speakers.

 

[blackbetty14]

I highly recommend that you change out the 3 dash speakers. HUGE difference if you upgrade. It's easier to upgraded compared to the door speakers.

This thread is about the base system and not the premium alpine system which has 3 dash speakers.

 

[albacore]

I installed my system in about an hour on this past saturday.

Dash, front and rear doors. Wasn't that bad. The front doors got the 6.5" kickers with adapters and went in with no issues. I ended up drilling all new holes in the speaker to adapter compared to the ones that come pre slotted.

Rear doors went right in and only had to drill 2 new holes for those speakers.

All speakers clear the stock door internals and the door panel/speaker grills. So all in all it was a pretty easy upgrade.

Dashes went right in but are loud as expected. I have set the balance to favor the rears 2-3 adjustments to help balance it out. The speakers are def clearer and handle the louder 20+ on the radio and the base is cleaner. I'm going to look into wiring resistors for the front speakers possibly.

Just for clarification the door speakers (front and rear) are 4 ohm and the Dash 3.5" speakers are 8ohm. They also seem to have some kind of capacitor soldered in right on the speaker at the connection point.

After replacing my dash speakers with kicker upgrades, I simply clipped the black wires off that supply the tweeter portion of the speakers. It eliminates those loud, harsh highs bouncing off my windshield. Now I have my stereo balanced correctly, my dash speakers provide mids, and I get plenty of highs from the tweeters in my door speakers. By the way, the front door speakers in the base non- Alpine systems get full range signal. Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[blackbetty14]

Oh man, u cut the wires feeding the tweeters on the dash’s speakers? Ouch.

 

[albacore]

Oh man, u cut the wires feeding the tweeters on the dash’s speakers? Ouch.

It works quite well. Going from eight ohms in the dash to four ohms means they are a lot louder and harsh. Those tweeters end up sounding obnoxious. Besides, with a good set of 6 x 9 three-way speakers in the doors, there are plenty of highs to be had. I've never been a fan of tweeters in the dash. Every system I've ever heard with tweeters in the dash had too many highs, and seemed harsh to my ears.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[blackbetty14]

Understand. Just seems like a hack since the stock front speakers lack tweeters,which is why a aftermarket set makes such a difference even at the same ohm load. Also the front doors are only midrange and lows, the only other highs come From the rear doors besides the dash.

I just swapped out my dash speakers in the 18 Laramie I just got off the lot today. 3 JBL clubs at 3ohm and they made a huge difference. I couldn’t put the kicker 4ohm in as they are too high an ohm load for the alpine system. I will be doing JBL club 6x9 in the rear doors to round out the highs and lows and keep the stock front doors and headliner speakers.

Just saying if you correct for the ohm in aftermarket speakers, most of all your gains will be from the separated tweeter, not the woofer cone.

 

[albacore]

Understand. Just seems like a hack since the stock front speakers lack tweeters,which is why a aftermarket set makes such a difference even at the same ohm load. Also the front doors are only midrange and lows, the only other highs come From the rear doors besides.

Not correct. In the non-Alpine six speaker system, the front doors get full range. My front door 6 x 9 three-way speakers are picking up plenty of crisp highs. It ends up sounding pretty doggone good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[magician]

Not correct. In the non-Alpine six speaker system, the front doors get full range. My front door 6 x 9 three-way speakers are picking up plenty of crisp highs. It ends up sounding pretty doggone good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've done the same with mine, I just simply unhooked the dash speakers. I just installed an Alpine PDR-F150 amp driving Kicker 6x9's in the doors. You have to tune quite a bit to keep the bass in those 6x9's from rattling the crap out of the truck but the sound is way better than stock. I'm still tuning on mine but I'm getting close to what I wanted all along, without those dash speakers.