Alpine system upgraded with JBL and pioneer

[OCSOswat]

@TomT Yea.. I was trying not to spend that kinda cash with this new and looming truck payment LOL

I installed the GX series 3.5 and 6x9s today. I was a little underwhelmed again. I have the 3rd 3.5 ordered from eBay to do the center speaker.

If all else fails I can replace it all. I did all 4 speakers...2 dash and 2 doors in under 2 hours today. So we shall see... I'll give 'em some drive time.

 

[TomT]

Well, what you could do is just amp the new drivers using the PAC for signal and then one of the DSPs with a built in six or eight channel amp.

The Rockford DSR-1 could be another option but I have no personal experience with it. People on the car audio forums (DIYMA) and the SSQ Facebook group aren’t fans of it but a couple people here seem happy with theirs after Rockford released some major software updates.

 

[blackbetty14]

First time poster.....

I just picked up a 2015 Ram Sport. I've had it a total of 10 days.... well.. the dealer kept it 3 weeks because it had a rear end noise I noticed on the way home.. new rear end!

Anyway... I just put the Pioneer sub in today. I have to say I'm completely underwhelmed. I had to get out of the driver's seat and lift the rear seat to see it was even playing. I had zero bass compared to the factory Alpine 8. Now granted I know it needs a break-in period but it really sounded nonexistent.

I'm going to take it back out tomorrow and check to make sure I didn't screw up the polarity when connecting the harness as it was near dark when I finished up... and I was grilling chicken at the same time so it's really possibly that I screwed up. That's how little bass is coming from the sub.

With the factory Alpine I ran the bass adjustment at -2. With the pioneer, the midbass in the front doors overpower anything the sub is doing.

I saw a post on this thread with someone having a similar issue. But I've not seen any remedies. I have the JBL GX series 3.5 and 6x9 sets ready to go in the dash and doors. Just hoping they clean up things a little. I'll go back to the factory sub I guess if the Pioneer problem doesn't remedy somehow.

I haven't been into car audio in over 20 years now.. I did installs as a college kid working part time during school and full time during summers.

For those of you adding aftermarket amps and subs.... where are you tapping the signal? Is an aftermarket signal processor like the RF 360.3 necessary just to add a sub?



As a side note.. I though I had applied enough silicone to the hole at the bottom of the enclosure to seal it properly. Maybe that's my error. It really sounds like the sub has no back pressure. Anyone have any tips on how they sealed their enclosure where the phillips head screw went into the factory sub?

Give it a couple of weeks to break in. The sub output will increase but the sound might be less “loud” but the bass should be cleaner and less muddy.

 

[Shawn Adams]

I know I'm bring this post back from the dead but I had a few questions that I started as a new post but didn't get any replies. Thought I'd drop my questions on here to see if I get any replies from people who sub'ed to this thread.

Hey guys. Been combing through threads and online reviews of speakers and such and have come to some decision on what to buy . Now just waiting on things to arrive. I have a 2017 Ram with the Alpine 10 speaker system. I'm replacing the stock sub, front dash speakers and rear door speakers for now. I'm going to use the Pac Amp Pro to do the sub. My question is I guess is there's been conflicting information as to what the impedance the stock dash speakers are. I've heard they're 2 ohm and if you go over 2 ohm you'll lose volume and I've heard they're 8ohm and getting 2 ohm speakers will make them too bright and fatigue your ears. I'm getting JBL club 3020 dash and Club 6x9 for the rear doors. I can see them being that way if the stock speakers are really 8 ohm. But that doesn't make sense for a premium sound system to have 8 ohm speakers.? Also the wiring harness from Metra for the fronts are wired backwards and have to be swapped? Any help here guys would be greatly appreciated.

 

[blackbetty14]

I know I'm bring this post back from the dead but I had a few questions that I started as a new post but didn't get any replies. Thought I'd drop my questions on here to see if I get any replies from people who sub'ed to this thread.

Hey guys. Been combing through threads and online reviews of speakers and such and have come to some decision on what to buy . Now just waiting on things to arrive. I have a 2017 Ram with the Alpine 10 speaker system. I'm replacing the stock sub, front dash speakers and rear door speakers for now. I'm going to use the Pac Amp Pro to do the sub. My question is I guess is there's been conflicting information as to what the impedance the stock dash speakers are. I've heard they're 2 ohm and if you go over 2 ohm you'll lose volume and I've heard they're 8ohm and getting 2 ohm speakers will make them too bright and fatigue your ears. I'm getting JBL club 3020 dash and Club 6x9 for the rear doors. I can see them being that way if the stock speakers are really 8 ohm. But that doesn't make sense for a premium sound system to have 8 ohm speakers.? Also the wiring harness from Metra for the fronts are wired backwards and have to be swapped? Any help here guys would be greatly appreciated.

Alpine dash speakers are 2 ohm, putting in a higher ohm rated speaker will decrease volume. Think of the ohm rating as resistance... so a 2ohm will sound louder and be louder than a 8ohm. The amp has to be able to drive whatever ohm rated speaker your using otherwise you can overwork the amp. A 2ohm has less resistance so you amp will push more power to the speaker (hence why it is louder) but the amp must be compatible with 2ohm speakers. Since the stockers are about 2ohm you should replace them with 2ohm and I believe the JBL are. My JBL clubs have been great for the last few years and I'm still running them. If you put in a 1ohm dash speaker they would sound "loud" due to less resistance, so keep it at 2ohm and your good. I did not have to wire the dash speakers any different if I remember correctly but honestly can't recall 100%. Maybe someone else will chime in. I did JBL club in the dash, and rear doors (left stock in front doors as they are Mid tones only anyways) and I did infiniti kappa in the headliner. Combined with the Pioneer stub upgrade in the stock enclosure I added a Kicker 8" under the driver rear seat and my own custom sub box that allowed me to keep the fold flat floors. I'm running a Alpine 300w Amp for that sub Tee'd off the stock sub signal for the amp signal. Sounds Much better than the stock system and a more rounded low end and the high end provided by the speaker upgrades. I used to have crazy systems and my hearing has suffered lol but I'm more than happy with this system and I barely get it up higher than 20 on the stock head unit with the alpine system.

The base style sound systems in the rams are 8 ohm for the dash which is where the issue is... no one really sells 8ohm 3.5" speakers. So people swap in 4ohm and then the dash are too LOUD bc of less resistance since you just cut the resistance in half. I did this on my last 14 express with the base system and I soldered in a 10w 4ohm resistor and it brought the speaker back down to normal loudness.

 

[Shawn Adams]

Ok thanks. That answers my questions as to why people think they're too bright. I know about speaker impedance it was just confusing as to why so were saying that the alpine systems were 8 ohm. I'm putting in a well built ported 10" sub box with a single 10" CompR kicker sub at 2ohm with a kicker amp putting out 400 watts rms. Should sound good. I was leary of using a LCI2 LOC hearing less than favorable things about how hard it is to use the accubase to prevent the bass roll off and how the alpines system is crossed over at 50hz. The pac amp pro should eliminate all that and I can amp the door speakers later if it needs it. Anyone dynamat the doors? Thinking about doing that too..?

 

[TomT]

I dynamatted the doors and the back wall. Made a nice difference. Going to go back and do the whole floor, firewall, and maybe the roof if I’m feeling crazy.

I had all that in my previous Ram and it was as quiet as any $100,000 luxury sedan. Even with my Magnaflow mufflers.

 

[geoff tavelli]

I have a 2017 Ram with the Alpine 10 speaker system. Can anyone tell me what size the front and rear door speakers are? Crutchfield says that several different sizes will fit 5 1/4, 6 1/2, and 6x9s. Which is it?

 

[TomT]

I have a 2017 Ram with the Alpine 10 speaker system. Can anyone tell me what size the front and rear door speakers are? Crutchfield says that several different sizes will fit 5 1/4, 6 1/2, and 6x9s. Which is it?

All of them will fit depending on depth and the skill of the installer. Any 6x9 hole can be pretty easily adapted for a 6.5” (or even smaller, but why).

 

[blackbetty14]

Just leave the front doors unless you want to convert them to an external
Amp and want to run full range. Stock amp sends either mid or low range only. Which reducing speaker size from the factory 6x9 hurts the sound. Leave the front doors unless your going to amp them and increase power or range.

Get more bang for your buck with the rear doors and dash speakers... if your going to keep radio and amp etc.

 

[geoff tavelli]

Just leave the front doors unless you want to convert them to an external
Amp and want to run full range. Stock amp sends either mid or low range only. Which reducing speaker size from the factory 6x9 hurts the sound. Leave the front doors unless your going to amp them and increase power or range.

Get more bang for your buck with the rear doors and dash speakers... if your going to keep radio and amp etc.

So you think swapping the fronts out with the MTX 2way 6x9s would not be beneficial? I plan on installing the LC7i and a 5 channel amp at a later date. So if I'm not going to get any improvements out of changing the fronts w/o the amp I'll just save them for later. Also, do you guys know if the fronts are tied into the dash via a crossover?

 

[blackbetty14]

So you think swapping the fronts out with the MTX 2way 6x9s would not be beneficial? I plan on installing the LC7i and a 5 channel amp at a later date. So if I'm not going to get any improvements out of changing the fronts w/o the amp I'll just save them for later. Also, do you guys know if the fronts are tied into the dash via a crossover?

You will get no benefits from swapping the front doors without a amp upgrade. Your only getting mids or lows to the front door which is 1 frequency range... putting a 2 way speaker separates the frequency ranges to improve response and get clearer sound (basically 2 ways add a tweeter to the mid/low cone)... which your not getting on that single channel getting sent to the door in stock form. When you do the amp upgrade your likely going to want to upgrade the wiring anyways so I would leave it till your ready to do the swap unless you want to remove everything swap the speakers and run the new thicker wire and have it pre setup for the amp but if it were me I would hold off till your ready.

I believe there is some type of crossover, not sure how or where but I believe its built into the amp. The dash only get highs, front doors get mids or lows, rear doors are full range and the headliners are passive tweeters.

 

[Claytoris]

I’ve been sitting on this for a while now and I’m going to start ordering parts. I’m going to go with jbl 3020’s for the dash and infinity reference for the rear doors. I’d really like to do the sub upgrade but I see the popular pioneer 8” is discontinued. Is there another suitable plug and play option? Ideally I’d like to just do a separate amp and a 10” but with baby #3 in the oven trying to stay on budget.

Lots of great info here, most of its over my head but I’m learning.

 

[geoff tavelli]

I added the Infinity 3.5s in the two corner dash, MTX 6x9's in the rear door and replaced the 8" sub with a Kicker shallow mount. I realized that I needed more bass so I bought the Rockville D10 mono amp. It was an awesome addition. Make that kicker move. Still trying to find speakers for the front doors. 6 1/2 @ 2ohms are hard to find.

 

[blackbetty14]

I wouldnt bother with upgrading the fronts to 6.5", I actually lost performance in my 2014 with the base uconnect 4.1 system going that route and I left the stock alpine speakers in the front doors. Front doors are only used for Mids/lows I think which you will get less sound out of a 6.5" since you have lots alot of speaker area with that size downgrade. Leave the stock front doors you will only notice a decrease and no increase with the stock wiring/setup. I tee'd off the stock sub wiring (pioneer sub upgrade) and added the kicker 8" shallow to the driver side with a custom box and a Alpine mono amp 350wrms and it really woke the low up. I just used the stock sub wiring as the signal with a speaker to sub RCA (also makes its own amp turn on wire) converter so all I needed to run was power and ground to the amp and your all set. the stock radio equalizer controls the kicker sub now too (even though its not equal adjustment since i set the gain manually on the apline amp.

 

[Robert Lamothe]

For those Kappa Tweeters...whats the numbers for those, how did they install? same ohms as factory ?

 

[blackbetty14]

U just swap them out. They come with crossovers but the ceiling tweeters are already only receiving the highs so no need for them.