Pickles, Idiot Extraordinaire - 6.5" in the doors

[Pickles]

So I decided I wanted to upgrade my speakers - dug out my box o' car audio "stuff", and found 4 S-series Alpine 6.5" two-ways. Picked up two pairs of 6x9 -> 6.5" adapter plates and went to work.

First off - due to the molding under the OEM speaker you will need to do quite a bit of modification to the adapter plates.

Second - don't ever, EVER, try to replace 6x9's with 4 underpowered 6.5's. The highs sound great, but there is absolutely ZERO punch in low or mid-ranges. It sounded so bad I ended up re-installing the factory speakers.

Now off to find 6x9's that are decently priced AND will fit in the doors AND sound decent. Any ideas?

What is the maximum top-mount depth for 6x9's in our doors?

 

[EagleChief]

There are a few threads with installs about this. Kicker makes direct replacements for all doors and dash speakers.

 

[woojyee]

So I decided I wanted to upgrade my speakers - dug out my box o' car audio "stuff", and found 4 S-series Alpine 6.5" two-ways. Picked up two pairs of 6x9 -> 6.5" adapter plates and went to work.

First off - due to the molding under the OEM speaker you will need to do quite a bit of modification to the adapter plates.

Second - don't ever, EVER, try to replace 6x9's with 4 underpowered 6.5's. The highs sound great, but there is absolutely ZERO punch in low or mid-ranges. It sounded so bad I ended up re-installing the factory speakers.

Now off to find 6x9's that are decently priced AND will fit in the doors AND sound decent. Any ideas?

What is the maximum top-mount depth for 6x9's in our doors?

I replaced my speakers with some Rockford Fosgate Prime 6.5" component sets and felt I lost some bass but I was adding a sub so it didn't matter. I have since replaced the Primes with JLA C3-600 component sets and that woofer pounds compared to the Primes. They were both being pushed by an amp so if you were going to stick with stock radio I would look into the direct replacement kicker sets you can buy.

 

[Pickles]

I ended up with doing as cheap a full speaker swap as I dared.

2x Kicker 3.5" SC354's ($29.99)
4x Kenwood 6"x9" KFC-6965R's ($44.99 each pair)

Sound is significantly better than stock - much brighter/clearer highs, and low is about the same (perhaps a bit more punch due to the stiffer 6x9 cone material). I listened to the Pioneers someone else had mentioned - the Kenwoods had a little better bass response.

Still no great bass to speak of, but that'll wait until I can get the wife to allow more $$ to go into the truck.

PLEASE NOTE - if you use these speakers you will have to modify the mounting holes in the doors - the frame for the 6x9 is bigger on these than on the stock speaker - a bit of shaving on the mounting point edging with my dremel cleared that up nicely.