Alpine audio speaker upgrade ?

[Witch]

I did the infinity reference upgrade on all the speakers but the rear roof speakers,
Way better front sound, little on the bright side and although the front doors are all bass they have a much tighter response over the factory drivers.

on the front doors you need a 1/4" spacers, they have them on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Speaker-Spac...TF8&qid=1523093963&sr=8-5&keywords=6x9+spacer






I added in the 8" Pioneer and while a much tighter response the bass roll off built into the factory system to9 protect the cheap drivers is the death of any sub woofer installed.

If you want better bass you need to get an LC2i to adjust the roll off and a small amp to push it , Night and day, I am not talking about the car next to you hearing your bass / loosening your fillings, just nice solid bass response that no matter what you do or spend can not be achieved with the Alpine system with out modification

 

[SyN]

Thank you both!
Great advice & information shared.

Honestly I do not care to share my music with the Fine Folks outside my cab.
Never have been a fan of that irritating $hit!

Rotwiler: I agree if I can get the Same rich/clear/clean sound out of a $79 set of speakers compared to a $119 set (I’m all for it)!

I do totally understand I need to stay as close to 2 ohms as I can with my speaker choice.
As of right now I am planning on replacing the:

1. Dash Speakers
2. Rear Door Speakers
3. Stock Sub with the Pioneer

I will save the Front Door Speakers for last.

I also understand the the front door speakers will need the 1/4” spacer if the mounting depth is more the 3 1/8”.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences & advice.​

 

[Dodge This]

Thank you for the advice and recommendation.

I do have a question though I as the driver can’t even hear the back speakers.
Are those something that really need to be swapped out as well? I very rarely have any passengers in the backseat.

I don’t mind spending $115 on a good pair of 6 x 9‘s for the rear doors but I was just saying I can’t even hear anything coming from that direction.

Or do I just really need to spend the extra $$ on the front – for some high-quality 3.5 inch speakers?

I will for sure replace the paper (stock) sub with the pioneer low profile.

First, I replaced all 3 dash speakers. Made a remarkable difference in clarity and sound. Then I replaced the sub with the Pioneer and while it's not a booming system, the bass is noticeably cleaner and a bit punchier.

As for the back door speakers, I was also a bit hesitant for the same reason as you...I just didn't hear much from my back doors. Based on some threads I found on other forums, I figured I'd just try it and see, worst thing would be I'd send the speakers back.

However, once installed, the new 2-ways were VERY noticeable and I could clearly hear them. The sound and clarity was as big of a difference as swapping out the front 3.5's. It was so much of a difference, that I actually had to fade the sound a couple ticks to the front to balance the sound stage again.

I like sound quality in a system, because I want to hear all the little details in my music. At this point I've replaced all the speakers in the system, except the front doors and I love the way it sounds.

 

[SyN]

Dodge This: Thank you for your experience.
Everything is highly noted.

Have a few more exterior mods to accomplish first - Then will slowly purchase Dash speakers then rear door then sub. Then install all at once.

Thanks again to ALL of you.

 

[Outbreak]

If you want better bass you need to get an LC2i to adjust the roll off and a small amp to push it , Night and day, I am not talking about the car next to you hearing your bass / loosening your fillings, just nice solid bass response that no matter what you do or spend can not be achieved with the Alpine system with out modification
View attachment 124796

I have my LC2i, amp and Pioneer sub waiting for me at home to install it once I get back from this deployment! Where did you get the 90 degree RCA cables?

 

[toejam]

I think I will start with the dash, then go to the doors.

The speakers in the dash are midrange speakers, so replace them with the same type.
If you like Infinity brand (as I do) here's a suggestion:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-TZbGCYsugIs/p_108PERF300/Infinity-Kappa-Perfect-300m.html

 

[rotwiler]

If you plan on adding a amp later go higher end, if not, the 3022 infinity 2ohm and jbl gx302 are perfect. No reason for overkill. I am all about great sound quality and these sound great at under $50. Reason I went with the infinity 3.5 on each corner is they are 2 ohm, the jbl gx 302 is 2.3 ohm, so I figured it would slightly lessen the output of the middle speaker and worked out very good. I should take pics of factory speakers vs the aftermarket, instantly you will see what they sound so muffled.

 

[rotwiler]

Took pics or jbl vs stock. The infinity ones look almost identical except tweeter is a more gold color.

 

[rotwiler]

The speakers in the dash are midrange speakers, so replace them with the same type.
If you like Infinity brand (as I do) here's a suggestion:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-TZbGCYsugIs/p_108PERF300/Infinity-Kappa-Perfect-300m.html

The 300m is nice for upgrade if later adding a amp, but at 3.5 ohms they probably will not get as loud as the 3022s or gx302s and for sure those 2 get loud and sound super clear at full volume. Also, the 300m you need to cut out a few areas to fit. Now, most won't listen at full or close like I do, but on fm radio, for some reason these 8.4 radios don't get anywhere near as loud on radio. On usb they get loud though. I need to setup something to get accurate spl I am getting now. To be honest, I like these 3.5s so much, even if someone gave me some free high end 3.5s, I don't think I would use them for the Ram, I just really like how clear they are and compliment the system so well. I haven't always been a fan of all infinity brand speakers, in past had some sound super bright and hated that. I prefer soft dome or silk tweeters. I listen to everything from new rap, old school rap, hard core rock, 80s rock, new top 40 stuff, all sound great. One song, not even type I normally listen to, by Noah Cyrus, make me cry, sounds so good, bass notes hit perfect, highs are silky smooth, flawless sounding playing off usb as a m4a file.

 

[EagleChief]

So I'm confused... When I look up the details of the Infinity's, JBL's, and even the Kicker 3.5" speakers, they all say 3 ohm. I thought these were 2 ohm options for our Alpine systems?

I was looking at Amazon and couldn't find much info, so I went to Crutchfield to look and they all said 3 ohm. Am I seeing this wrong? I know nothing about audio stuff...


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[corneileous]

I’m pretty sure 3 ohm is what you’re gonna find an abundance of that’ll replace factory speakers on a factory system.


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[EagleChief]

I’m pretty sure 3 ohm is what you’re gonna find an abundance of that’ll replace factory speakers on a factory system.


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And if that's what it is, I'm fine with it. But I see all this talk about the 3.5" options being 2 ohm, but when I go and look them up on the respective sites, they are labeled as 3 ohm. That's where I'm confused.

 

[corneileous]

And if that's what it is, I'm fine with it. But I see all this talk about the 3.5" options being 2 ohm, but when I go and look them up on the respective sites, they are labeled as 3 ohm. That's where I'm confused.

I think the way Crutchfield put it was that 3 ohm speakers were gonna be about the closest you were gonna get to matching factory 2 ohm speakers and have a much wider array of stuff to choose from.

I’ve got 2-way(I think... they may be 3-way) 3 ohm Infinity Reference 3.5’s all across my dash and I have 3-way, 3 ohm Infinity Reference 6x9s in the rear doors and they sound just as loud. Just a lot brighter.


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[Outbreak]

They way I see it, is if you upgrade ALL of your 2 ohm to ALL 3 or ALL 4 ohm, you're not going to notice a difference. The only thing you MAY notice, is that you might have to turn your dial up a little bit more. But if you were to have a mix of 2, 3 and 4 ohm, then you might be able to hear a volume difference.

 

[corneileous]

They way I see it, is if you upgrade ALL of your 2 ohm to ALL 3 or ALL 4 ohm, you're not going to notice a difference. The only thing you MAY notice, is that you might have to turn your dial up a little bit more. But if you were to have a mix of 2, 3 and 4 ohm, then you might be able to hear a volume difference.

I can’t vouch for my new 2018 because i haven’t tried any 4 ohm speakers but when I took Crutchfield’s advice several years ago to put some 4-ohm Kicker 6x9s in the front doors of my old 3rd gen Ram with the infinity, they sounded like utter crap. 4 ohm speakers on a 2 ohm system is not advised in my opinion.


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[BWL]

For the guys finding the dash speakers too bright and adding resistors I would think going for a higher ohm speaker would give the same result as resistors assuming an equally efficient speaker.

 

[corneileous]

For the guys finding the dash speakers too bright and adding resistors I would think going for a higher ohm speaker would give the same result as resistors assuming an equally efficient speaker.

I think the reason for the resistors is to protect the tweeters from any bass. At least that’s what I was told by a Crutchfield tech the night before I hooked up my new dash speakers and roof speakers, about the resistors that came in the boxes, whether or not they had to be used and what they were for. I’m assuming the ones on the dash speakers mighta been to protect just the little tweeters but definitely to protect the roof ones from any bass at all. Just to make them last longer.


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[BWL]

There's usually a resistor attached to the speaker on a coax that is a passive crossover for the tweeter and there may be a seperate one to cut out the low frequencies that can be installed inline if not running an electronic crossover. The guys that add resistors to tone down the speakers are different. Basically adding more resistance to the speaker to lower the output. I believe a 3db cut is achieved by doubling the resistance if I remember correctly

 

[corneileous]

Yeah, I dunno about that, that’s news to me. I was just talking about the extra resistors that came with the speakers.
Below is the big motherboard resistor thing that came with those 3/4 dome tweeters I used in the roof.


The dash speakers came with a much larger plain looking black resistor with stiff metal wire poking out both ends. Bout the diameter of a AAA battery but not as long.


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[GRN69CHV]

You would wire in a resister to change the impedance. Wire a 4 ohm resister in series with a 4 ohm speaker, the amp will see 2 ohms. Problem is, the power will be shared by both the speaker and the resister, resister absorbs a lot of the energy. Capacitor wired in series will cut lower frequencies at a rate of about 6db/octave roll off.

Here's a company I looked at before when was redoing the system in my '15 Chevy. Haven't heard their products in person but some research I did responses were good.

http://cdtaudio.com/

They market a Ram Replacement set, directed to the standard system, not the Alpine. No idea how it would stack up.