Help help!!! 6x9 Upgrade for 2017 Ram 1500 with Alpine

[Richard Kim]

OP has the Alpine system which I believe is a 2ohm system. Using aftermarket 4ohm speakers will be harder to drive than 2 ohm. The 4 ohm speakers won’t be as loud as the 2 ohm at the same amp power output level. The Alpine also has a preset built in DSP so aftermarket speakers won’t get full frequency ranges. It’s a lot easier to upgrade the basic six speaker system.

Atcer,

You are absolutely correct in regards to the 2 ohm system. If you put 4 ohm speakers, there will be a volume difference. Everything is controlled by the OEM Alpine system amplifier. The front door speakers are mid bass only. The rear door speakers are full spectrum. I replaced the rear with 2 ohm JBL dedicated 3 way and it did make a huge difference (getting full range). The OEM door speakers have the same 6X9's front and back without a dedicated tweeter (hence the muffled sound). Hope this helps.

 

[regal81455]

Just to add to this thread and give OP ( and others ) some things to think about. Here is how I ended up on my system.

Replaced the factory Alpine HU w/ Pioneer DMH floating screen. Maestro added means no factory functions were lost.
Replaced the front dash speakers with Infinity References.
Replaced the front and rear 6x9s with JBLs - doors were sound deadened at this time as well.
Replaced the ceiling speakers with Massive Audio 2.5"s
Removed the factory sub and replaced it with the JL stealth box.

This is where things get interesting....

The front corners and the four doors are being ran off a AudioControl D6.1200
The subs are being ran off a Kenwood 600w mono thru the AC6.1200. The AC then can control/tune them thru the built in DSP.

I then left the center dash and the ceiling speakers connected to the factory Alpine amp.

For this to happen, I found the correct TYCO plug from Mouser to make a jumper harness so I could maintain the use of the center and ceilings thru the factory amp. Speaker leads were then ran from the AC6.1200 back upfront to where the factory amp is and all were tied into the factory wiring from there with another factory type plug.

Once all was installed and operational; I was able to balance everything first by disconnecting the factory amp speaker plug so I could use the built in DSP in the AC6.1200 to optimize the big six and subs together. Then I re-introduced the factory amp and tuned till it sounded good and blended well at max volume.

This type of install is crazy involved but it's about the only way IMO to really IMPROVE on the factory setup beyond minor gains seen from simply replacing the factory sub with a LOC or pre-amped sub and dash speakers.

BIG sound comes with BIG expense and time.

 

[Atcer2018]

Atcer,

You are absolutely correct in regards to the 2 ohm system. If you put 4 ohm speakers, there will be a volume difference. Everything is controlled by the OEM Alpine system amplifier. The front door speakers are mid bass only. The rear door speakers are full spectrum. I replaced the rear with 2 ohm JBL dedicated 3 way and it did make a huge difference (getting full range). The OEM door speakers have the same 6X9's front and back without a dedicated tweeter (hence the muffled sound). Hope this helps.

Thank you for the feedback. Fortunately I have the basic 6 speaker audio system with the 8.4 radio. On the base system all channels are full spectrum from the factory amp while the dash and front doors use capacitors to block frequencies. I’ve upgraded my base system. The dash has Infinity 3.5 two ways with capacitors. Front doors have Kicker 6X9 poly mid bass woofers and the rear doors have Kicker 6X9 two ways. I use a Kicker Key amp in bi-amp mode to drive the four front speakers and the factory head unit drives the two rear speakers. The base system is so much easier to modify than the Alpine system, new speakers, couple of capacitors, a few feet of wire, sound deadening foam and a T-harness so you don’t have to cut factory wires. A friend has the Alpine system and has forever been upgrading and tweaking while spending a small fortune on it.