2023 alpine 9 speaker upgrade question

[Hanover Fiste]

I replaced the 3 Alpine dash speakers with Infinity Reference 3032CFX, and the sound quality was substantially improved (to my ears).

 

[skates15]

I didn't know the doors fit 6.5" speakers. I assumed they were 6x9. Anyome.know if the speakers in the rear headliner are also 3.5" or 2"?

Thanks again for all the good info. I'm liking system 1 which fits my budget.

 

[Riccochet]

I didn't know the doors fit 6.5" speakers. I assumed they were 6x9. Anyome.know if the speakers in the rear headliner are also 3.5" or 2"?

Thanks again for all the good info. I'm liking system 1 which fits my budget.

They are 6x9's in the doors. But 6.5's with adapter plates fit better in the front doors, or you need shallow 6x9's. Rear doors have more room.

 

[platoon2063]

They are 6x9's in the doors. But 6.5's with adapter plates fit better in the front doors, or you need shallow 6x9's. Rear doors have more room.

All correct.

6.5's just give you more quality speakers to choose from than 6x9's. Now if this was 1985 and you wanted some banging speakers to put in the rear deck, well......6x9's were all the rage.

 

[skates15]

Good to.know about the 6.5, it does give me more options which is what I need. I didn't know the 6x9 need to be shallow in the front. Good looking out, thanks.

 

[Mike Wenrich]

Question...if anyone is still looking at this thread, can I disconnect the sub woofer under the rear seat without affecting the sound quality too much? I would rather have the storage space under the seat to carry tools, etc. Wasn't sure if that would also throw a code.

 

[Black-Wolf]

Hello,
I am looking to replace the speakers in my 2023 1500 9 speaker alpine system, 12" screen. I'm not looking to add amps right now, just a straight speaker swap for starters.

Question - are the rear headliner speakers 2", 2.5" or 3.5"? Crutchfield only displays one 3.5" speaker which fits the rear headliner, which I thought is odd considering there are many 3.5" speakers which fit the front dash.

Second, after reading the various threads on this subject, I was considering the following setup:
Dash - 2-way 3.5" speakers - JBL Club 34F - 3ohm https://www.crutchfield.com/p_109CL34F/JBL-Club-34F.html

Front door - 2 way 6x9 speakers - Either Infinity Reference REF-9632ix (4ohm) or Pioneer TS-A693FH (4ohm) or MTX Terminator69 (4ohms).

Rear door - 3 way 6x9 speakers- JBL Club 964M 3ohm https://www.crutchfield.com/p_109CL964M/JBL-Club-964M.html

Rear headliner - JBL Club 34F

My music genre is punk/60s-70s rock and some classic. I'm not looking for booming bass, so keeping the sub, but want to improve on the mids/highs.

Question - would I need to place bass blockers for the 3.5" speakers?
Also, is the setup correct with 2 way in dash, front door, rear headliner and 3 way in rear doors?

Thanks for any input.

Let's start with your questions in order:

1) The rear headliner speakers are 3-1/2" (Correction: 2-1/2"), but you can mount anything that size 3-1/2" or under with the aftermarket adapter kits and universal backstraps. Any 3.5" speaker should work depending on your preference.

2) I do not like any JBL speakers - the highs are too shrill IMHO. Infinity, Rockford Fosgate, or Pioneer are the way I go. Use 4-ohm speakers across the board or you'll have speakers that are drawing more power on their channels (the 3-ohms) and others that draw less (the 4-ohms) which could cause an imbalance in the "sound stage". You do not need bass blockers unless you really hate bass. I like to feel mine kick when that kick drum hits.

3) The stock bass sucks, but if you're good with it, and want to deepen it just a little (or if you notice it sounds "hollow"), pull the sub out and add a little fiber-fill or shredded-foam fill - make sure it's loosely packed - and put the sub back in. To improve the mids/highs, go with tweeters in the corners. Make sure you use high-pass crossovers for them. Personally I'd use 3-ways in the doors.

4) You can go with 2-way or 3-ways in the dash, front door, and rear doors. Personally, you get more dynamic sound if you use 3-ways. Below is how I set up mine: Note, I'd ditch the Infinity Reference REF-375TXs in the dash corners and go with the same Rockford's I've got in the Headliner. (See below image for notes)

Lastly, your setup looks fine overall. I just really hated the two different types of JBLs I tried because they were SHRILL - like piercing shrill IMHO. Both the Infinity and RF tweeters are awesome. I like the RF because if they're too loud, you can decrease the sensitivity by 2dB or 4dB just by moving your (+) input line to the next port over on the crossover. They also have on and off-axis attenuation (you'd want to use the off-axis in all cases unless you're going to mount them within 6" of your door speakers.)



Notes:
1) Get the Metra adapters for everything.
2) Use tweeters in the corners and headliner - you'll get better/crisper highs. The tweeters in the dash corners need to be aimed either a little forward, or straight up, at the windshield - this is because the audio sound stage in the vehicle is designed to reflect the sound off the windshield.
3) 3-ways in the rear doors will play full range - but unless Alpine changed the AMP processing, the front doors will only have a frequency range of 20 Hz - 5000 Hz (meaning, no treble in the 5 kHz to 20 kHz range. This is fine, but tweeters in the front doors will be under-utilized, regardless of whether you're using 2-way or 3-way speakers. I mainly went with the same 3-ways in the doors so everything matches. Tweeters in the dash corners will provide the highs missing from the front doors.
4) If you go with the infinity 2-way in the center dash, keep in mind that it has an external power capacitor that you should wire in to the (+) wire. Other speakers may or may not have this.
5) Your hand's free audio only comes from the center dash speaker. You'll need either a 3.5" 2-way or 3-way speaker there. Do NOT put a tweeter there.
6) The Rockfords and Infinity tweets have adapters for mounting in the dash corners. To mount in the headliner, you'll need to purchase a universal backstrap for each position, and then bend it to fit, mount the speaker/tweeter to it, and then mount it to the speaker mount in the headliner. If you purchase 3.5" speakers for the headliner, as long as Crutchfield says they'll fit, they will. I have also attached the wiring diagram for the Premium system - but this is for a 4th Gen. IDK if it is 100% accurate for your 2023.

 

[Buhshaun]

The 6 x 9's in the door are only for bass so 4 door 6 x 9's plus a SUB doesn't reproduce bass how most of us want to hear it. Even switching out the speakers won't fix that since the amp sends low frequency bass signals only to those door speakers. To really fix the audio in this truck you need to switch out the amps but I haven't had enough motivation to do that myself yet. The Challenger has the same set up but less speakers and when I was an installer for Geek Squad they would usually had Alpine power packs with some component fronts and coaxial rear speakers and if you needed added bass then would add a sub. That would be similar to the right way of doing it on the Alpine 9 speaker system.

 

[Riccochet]

The 6 x 9's in the door are only for bass so 4 door 6 x 9's plus a SUB doesn't reproduce bass how most of us want to hear it. Even switching out the speakers won't fix that since the amp sends low frequency bass signals only to those door speakers. To really fix the audio in this truck you need to switch out the amps but I haven't had enough motivation to do that myself yet. The Challenger has the same set up but less speakers and when I was an installer for Geek Squad they would usually had Alpine power packs with some component fronts and coaxial rear speakers and if you needed added bass then would add a sub. That would be similar to the right way of doing it on the Alpine 9 speaker system.

On the alpine system the rear doors are full range, the front doors are low pass.

 

[Buhshaun]

On the alpine system the rear doors are full range, the front doors are low pass

I assumed they were all bass so fair enough! Glad to be corrected as long as the correct information is being put out there. I still feel the same as far as the front doors bass sounding pretty bad no matter how I set the EQ. Fine enough for me to live with but can definitely be improved. @Riccochet thanks again!

 

[Riccochet]

I assumed they were all bass so fair enough! Glad to be corrected as long as the correct information is being put out there. I still feel the same as far as the front doors bass sounding pretty bad no matter how I set the EQ. Fine enough for me to live with but can definitely be improved. @Riccochet thanks again!

On my last two 1500's that I did audio work to I replaced the front doors with 6.5" woofers. Definitely no reason to put 2 ways in there. Went with 2 way 6x9's in the rear doors and replaced all 3.5" in the dash. That got things sounding a lot better. Didn't bother with the 3.5"s in the rear headliner. Not only are they a PITA to get to you don't really hear them, and I don't drive from the back seat. lol Only other mods I did was dynamat'd the inside of the factory sub box, replaced the speaker with a Pioneer shallow 8" and powered it with a small amp and audiocontrol LC2i. Wasn't tremendous bass, but was louder and cleaner than stock. Plus I didn't lose my fold flat floor, which every aftermarket box makes you remove.

 

[Buhshaun]

I have an extra LC2i pro and Alpine power pack, I may go this route. One question, did you use 6 x 9 to 6.5 adapters on the door speakers for them to fit properly?

 

[Black-Wolf]

I assumed they were all bass so fair enough! Glad to be corrected as long as the correct information is being put out there. I still feel the same as far as the front doors bass sounding pretty bad no matter how I set the EQ. Fine enough for me to live with but can definitely be improved. @Riccochet thanks again!

Technically, front door speakers have an audio range of 20 Hz to 5 kHz. Bass is from 20 Hz, to 200 Hz. So you get a little more than just the deep end. Treble starts kicking in about 4 kHz and rises all the way to 20 kHz so, the front door speakers actually play the low end range of treble (I verified and tested this by running audio tests using AlphaOBD that can send different pitched tones to one channel at a time

 

[RamDiver]

Technically, front door speakers have an audio range of 20 Hz to 5 kHz. Bass is from 20 Hz, to 200 Hz. So you get a little more than just the deep end. Treble starts kicking in about 4 kHz and rises all the way to 20 kHz so, the front door speakers actually play the low end range of treble (I verified and tested this by running audio tests using AlphaOBD that can send different pitched tones to one channel at a time

Is the response flat from 20 Hz to 5 kHz or is there a roll-off?

.

 

[Riccochet]

Yeah, he's right, the front doors play bass to mid-bass. Which is why I went with 6.5 woofers only. I did use adapters. Reason being is that you can't use deep 6x9's in the front doors due to interference with the window regulators.

 

[skates15]

Let's start with your questions in order:

1) The rear headliner speakers are 3-1/2", but you can mount anything that size or under with the aftermarket adapter kits and universal backstraps. Any 3.5" speaker should work depending on your preference.

2) I do not like any JBL speakers - the highs are too shrill IMHO. Infinity, Rockford Fosgate, or Pioneer are the way I go. Use 4-ohm speakers across the board or you'll have speakers that are drawing more power on their channels (the 3-ohms) and others that draw less (the 4-ohms) which could cause an imbalance in the "sound stage". You do not need bass blockers unless you really hate bass. I like to feel mine kick when that kick drum hits.

3) The stock bass sucks, but if you're good with it, and want to deepen it just a little (or if you notice it sounds "hollow"), pull the sub out and add a little fiber-fill or shredded-foam fill - make sure it's loosely packed - and put the sub back in. To improve the mids/highs, go with tweeters in the corners. Make sure you use high-pass crossovers for them. Personally I'd use 3-ways in the doors.

4) You can go with 2-way or 3-ways in the dash, front door, and rear doors. Personally, you get more dynamic sound if you use 3-ways. Below is how I set up mine: Note, I'd ditch the Infinity Reference REF-375TXs in the dash corners and go with the same Rockford's I've got in the Headliner. (See below image for notes)

Lastly, your setup looks fine overall. I just really hated the two different types of JBLs I tried because they were SHRILL - like piercing shrill IMHO. Both the Infinity and RF tweeters are awesome. I like the RF because if they're too loud, you can decrease the sensitivity by 2dB or 4dB just by moving your (+) input line to the next port over on the crossover. They also have on and off-axis attenuation (you'd want to use the off-axis in all cases unless you're going to mount them within 6" of your door speakers.)

View attachment 533031

Notes:
1) Get the Metra adapters for everything.
2) Use tweeters in the corners and headliner - you'll get better/crisper highs. The tweeters in the dash corners need to be aimed either a little forward, or straight up, at the windshield - this is because the audio sound stage in the vehicle is designed to reflect the sound off the windshield.
3) 3-ways in the rear doors will play full range - but unless Alpine changed the AMP processing, the front doors will only have a frequency range of 20 Hz - 5000 Hz (meaning, no treble in the 5 kHz to 20 kHz range. This is fine, but tweeters in the front doors will be under-utilized, regardless of whether you're using 2-way or 3-way speakers. I mainly went with the same 3-ways in the doors so everything matches. Tweeters in the dash corners will provide the highs missing from the front doors.
4) If you go with the infinity 2-way in the center dash, keep in mind that it has an external power capacitor that you should wire in to the (+) wire. Other speakers may or may not have this.
5) Your hand's free audio only comes from the center dash speaker. You'll need either a 3.5" 2-way or 3-way speaker there. Do NOT put a tweeter there.
6) The Rockfords and Infinity tweets have adapters for mounting in the dash corners. To mount in the headliner, you'll need to purchase a universal backstrap for each position, and then bend it to fit, mount the speaker/tweeter to it, and then mount it to the speaker mount in the headliner. If you purchase 3.5" speakers for the headliner, as long as Crutchfield says they'll fit, they will. I have also attached the wiring diagram for the Premium system - but this is for a 4th Gen. IDK if it is 100% accurate for your 2023.

Excellent write up, thank you for the info.

 

[Cableman]

I did 3 infinity 2 ways in the dash and infinity 2ways in rear doors, tried 3ways in the rear doors but felt they were too high vs the fronts. Kept front doors stock as they don't put highs out anyway.
Just bought a pac sub adaptor for adding an alpine amp to drive a 12" alpine sub i have in a custom fiberglass box.
@Black-Wolf did you notice less volume going with 4ohm speakers?

 

[Black-Wolf]

I did 3 infinity 2 ways in the dash and infinity 2ways in rear doors, tried 3ways in the rear doors but felt they were too high vs the fronts. Kept front doors stock as they don't put highs out anyway.
Just bought a pac sub adaptor for adding an alpine amp to drive a 12" alpine sub i have in a custom fiberglass box.
@Black-Wolf did you notice less volume going with 4ohm speakers?

Not at all. System seems super loud, and I've actually had to turn it down a couple of notches in volume... I suspect that because it's MUCH clearer, it gives the perception that it's just as loud as the stock.

 

[Black-Wolf]

Is the response flat from 20 Hz to 5 kHz or is there a roll-off?

.

I'd say it flattens out as you get higher. Bass (20 Hz to 200 Hz) and mids (200 Hz to 2000 Hz) are pretty clean. The 2000 Hz to 5000 Hz range is sharp to a point, but yeah - it flattens out as you get higher in range.

 

[platoon2063]

I'd say it flattens out as you get higher. Bass (20 Hz to 200 Hz) and mids (200 Hz to 2000 Hz) are pretty clean. The 2000 Hz to 5000 Hz range is sharp to a point, but yeah - it flattens out as you get higher in range.

Not to put any holes in your theory but, do you have any proof of the stock signal like the graph I show here? This is not the Ram 1500 stock signal. This is from my previous vehicle but you can see how the signal falls off below 200 and above 10k. Many stock systems do the same. I have doubts the Ram is much different. I did not measure the stock signal however, before I replaced all the front speakers and added a sub.