Replacement speakers?

[DietDodge]

I'm looking to get wayyyy better sound quality than I have currently on my 02. Does anyone have experience with certain speakers and what all is needed for a speaker swap? Is it just plug and play or do I need to get connectors? Would also like a bit more bass than stock. I'm getting a double din pioneer soon so I want the sound quality to go with it. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[Deiz29]

I just re did the entire stereo and added 3.5s to the dash. I went with the cheapest stuff I could find with the best sensitivity. Pep boys has a 35% off coupon so I ordered their sdx line 6x9 in front and 5 1/4 in rear and than hifonix 3.5s I got ok eBay for 17$. When I was looking for a head unit I went to crutch field since they give all the harnesses and adapters. I got the Sony media player for 65$ so in total the speakers cost me about 70$ total and 65$ for the radio. Made a world of difference.

As for the install popping the doors are easy 4 screws on front doors (two on bottom one by mirror and one behind handle) and one bolt for the handle than just lift it up and off. For the rears just unscrew the bolt behind handle and the Philips screw behind the handle and door pops up and off like the fronts. Installing them was easy just had to cut and solder some wires I used heat shrink after the connection was soldered. If I plan on running speakers from the dash just pop the front piece off gently it's all clips. Than run your wires straight down the circular hole right to the head unit. Than button everything back up and enjoy.

 

[Deiz29]

But if your scared to cut and solder they do sell connectors to adapt the speakers but I wasn't gonna shell out another 20$ per pair when cutting them is much cheaper and I left enuff if I ever need to put those paper pieces of crap back in.

 

[justin13703]

But if your scared to cut and solder they do sell connectors to adapt the speakers but I wasn't gonna shell out another 20$ per pair when cutting them is much cheaper and I left enuff if I ever need to put those paper pieces of crap back in.

Speaker harnesses are 5 dollars a pair, not 20.

As far as the op, I have all Infinity Kappa 3 ways in my truck with a 4 channel amp that gives them each about 80 watts rms. Sounds amazing. If you go with speakers that can take any kind of power, you should amp them. Depending on what speakers you go with, Alpine makes a mini amp called a Power Pack that doesn't involve any additional wiring kits, it runs off of the wiring already in your dash and puts out about 50 watts rms per channel. I've installed many of these and they sound very good. Stay away from kicker and Sony speakers. They're junk.

The speakers should be 6x9s in the front doors and 5 1/4 in the back doors. Spend the 10 bucks on the harnesses and just plug em in. I'm firmly against cutting any factory harnesses off on a vehicle, and if you cut the harnesses off you can easily flip impedances between your speakers and have the whole thing sound like ****. So yeah, spend the 10 dollars, plug em in and forget about it.

 

[Deiz29]

10$ is 10$ saved and if your a moron than yea u would mess Up the wiring. All the negatives have a black line on them. Not rocket science. You can see that as u wire in the head unit... If you plan on amping them than any aftermarket speaker will sound fine. I've done many speaker installs over the years. And infitiniti is not even close to the best speaker. The amp and head unit mean much more than your speakers for most set ups. Unless your doing a crazy all out build.... If so Than I would remove carpet and door skins and dynomat everything. This is my work truck I just couldn't deal w the crap that it came with. For the money I spent and some time it was well worth it now I have USB and aux inputs and a much cleaner sounding radio.

 

[Ceri]

I'm looking to get wayyyy better sound quality than I have currently on my 02. Does anyone have experience with certain speakers and what all is needed for a speaker swap? Is it just plug and play or do I need to get connectors? Would also like a bit more bass than stock. I'm getting a double din pioneer soon so I want the sound quality to go with it. Any and all help is appreciated.

What's your budget and how involved are you willing to get? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you listen to mostly talk radio? How savvy are you when it comes to electronics?

If you're serious about doing a top notch installation, PM me. I've walked dozens of people through serious installations over the years. I've written lots of guides covering beginner and advanced sound theory/car audio installations. I'm also an electrical engineer by trade and have a passion for audio. The internet is full of aweful advice. Be very careful listening to every Tom, ****, and Harry on the internet. Most installs are garbage, and there's a LOT of snake oil in audio that you can waste your money on. I know 3rd gen Rams inside and out, and like talking about them. Let me know if you're interested in discussing in depth.

 

[DietDodge]

What's your budget and how involved are you willing to get? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you listen to mostly talk radio? How savvy are you when it comes to electronics?

I'm not too worried about budget but it is just my daily driver so I don't need anything competition spec. I mostly listen to country, rap, and EDM. So I'm looking for more bass and overall sound quality. And I've done wiring before but nothing on radios or speakers. But since I'm hate doing things cheaper just to save a few bucks I think I'll just get the connectors. For $10 it ain't too bad. Definitely gonna have to go to a store and test different speakers though.

 

[justin13703]

10$ is 10$ saved and if your a moron than yea u would mess Up the wiring. All the negatives have a black line on them. Not rocket science. You can see that as u wire in the head unit... If you plan on amping them than any aftermarket speaker will sound fine. I've done many speaker installs over the years. And infitiniti is not even close to the best speaker. The amp and head unit mean much more than your speakers for most set ups. Unless your doing a crazy all out build.... If so Than I would remove carpet and door skins and dynomat everything. This is my work truck I just couldn't deal w the crap that it came with. For the money I spent and some time it was well worth it now I have USB and aux inputs and a much cleaner sounding radio.

Since I seem to have pissed you off, I'll go ahead and point a few things. For one, factory wiring does NOT follow the aftermarket color code of all negatives having a black stripe. Almost all wires, positive or negative, have a stripe, and it can be whatever color the factory felt like using. Secondly, I never said anything about infinity being the best stuff out there, I said that it was what I had. And yes, the Kappa and Perfect line are really nice. Third, you can't just amp anything. You amp a set of junk pep boys speakers and not only are you going to probably blow them up, but a junk speaker is still a junk speaker, and will still sound like a junk speaker. Speakers are the most important part of an audio setup, followed by the amp, and then the stereo. I personally don't care how many installs you've done in the past. I did it professionally as my career, and the fact that you think that factory wiring is color coded to the aftermarket specs says something. If you can't afford the 10 dollars to keep from hacking up your car, you need to be focusing your money elsewhere.

 

[justin13703]

I'm not too worried about budget but it is just my daily driver so I don't need anything competition spec. I mostly listen to country, rap, and EDM. So I'm looking for more bass and overall sound quality. And I've done wiring before but nothing on radios or speakers. But since I'm hate doing things cheaper just to save a few bucks I think I'll just get the connectors. For $10 it ain't too bad. Definitely gonna have to go to a store and test different speakers though.

If you wanna do it relatively simple and affordable, I would do it this way. Pick up a nice set of speakers that can handle at least 50 watts rms. Polk, alpine, and Infinity are nice. Install them, and then pick up one of those Power Packs I was talking about. This way you don't have to worry about running power, ground, rca's, remote etc. The amp installs in your dash behind the radio. It'll give your speakers around 50 watts constant instead of the 15 or so that a normal stereo puts out on its own. That amp combined with the better audio controls of your radio will make a huge difference. It'll be relatively cheap, easy, and it'll sound good.

Oh, and don't hack any of your harnesses off.

 

[Deiz29]

Easy there buddy.... I know not all cars are like that but if u do a little search u can find out the wiring and on top of that when u wire up the radio harness u will see which connections goto which colors... Unless u are Stevie wonder or someone who can't read it's not to difficult. And I don't care about your job at Best Buy installing head units. I prefer a soldered joint and heat shrink much more than some cheap plastic connection... and let's not forget that plastic connector is over 13 years old well on my 03 anyway. But to the op it's not hard if u wanna get all the harnesses u can do that as well it will make it easier and prob cheaper if u don't have the proper tools around anyway. But a soldering iron is always good to have. Like I said this is my work truck my goal was to spend as little as possible and make it sound the best it can. And I have done that. I have 3 other cars I don't worry so much about this one in that regard. And I will bet my ******* u give me an amazing amp and some cheap pyramid speakers I'll blow your doors off compared to "good" speakers and a mediocre amp. Head unit and amps are the key also having a head unit that u can adjust many diff freq is also the better option than wasting money on speakers.

 

[justin13703]

Easy there buddy.... I know not all cars are like that but if u do a little search u can find out the wiring and on top of that when u wire up the radio harness u will see which connections goto which colors... Unless u are Stevie wonder or someone who can't read it's not to difficult. And I don't care about your job at Best Buy installing head units. I prefer a soldered joint and heat shrink much more than some cheap plastic connection... and let's not forget that plastic connector is over 13 years old well on my 03 anyway. But to the op it's not hard if u wanna get all the harnesses u can do that as well it will make it easier and prob cheaper if u don't have the proper tools around anyway. But a soldering iron is always good to have. Like I said this is my work truck my goal was to spend as little as possible and make it sound the best it can. And I have done that. I have 3 other cars I don't worry so much about this one in that regard. And I will bet my ******* u give me an amazing amp and some cheap pyramid speakers I'll blow your doors off compared to "good" speakers and a mediocre amp. Head unit and amps are the key also having a head unit that u can adjust many diff freq is also the better option than wasting money on speakers.

Cool story bro.

Anyway, since Diez is apparently trying to turn this into a ******* match I'm out. At least it sounds like the op made the right choice by getting harnesses instead of hacking his off. Dietdodge, if you need a hand or any advice, feel free to pm me or Ceri, he also sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

 

[DietDodge]

Big thanks to everyone who helped. Even though this thread turned into an argument pretty quick it was still a huge help. Again thanks to all of you. This is why I love forums, 2 days ago I didn't know jack about sound systems and now you guys have educated me enough to where I have an idea of where to go from here. Justin, ceri, and diez, I owe all of you a thanks.