Yet another new owner with audio questions

[badzdad]

Hey guys, I'm Shane. Great forum you have and much great info. I am a long time mopar owner, but new to the 4th Gen Ram. I traded my 04 QC Hemi 2wd that had a crap ton of mods from stereo to long tube headers and what not for a 2013 Big Hom 4x4 with 5k miles a couple of weeks ago. While I LOVE the new truck I am missing my stereo pretty hard core. I have the 8.4AN without Alpine / sub and have been reading in various threads as so what some of the options might be for plug and play systems as I dont want to heavily mod this truck as much as I did my previous Ram.

I see many are replacing their stock 3.5s and door speakers with the Kickers and that may well be the path I take. My previous Ram I removed the center seat and had a 12in sub box there and covered it to look like the stock seat. In the new truck I dont want quite as much bass but overall better sound as I think the stock just sounds flat and muddy to my ears.

Question really is...given my set up, what do you 4th Gen guru's recommend for a sub under the rear seat and what door speakers would you run if you are not going to amp them? Or is amping the doors something that "has" to be done get the sound and quality needed?

Appreciate all input and apologize for the post, but I've read about 30 threads and have just gotten overwhelmed with info on so many systems lol.

 

[Etroze86]

For a 12" sub I think hands down a Stereo Integrity BMk IV as many regard it as the best sounding shallow sub ever. Now for the doors, really any speaker will do off of Head Unit power but to get great sound from a mediocre speaker you need to deaden and seal the door like it were a higher dollar install. That is the only way I know of that will make head unit power sound really good.

 

[badzdad]

Etroze - Are people just using soundmat on the inner door itself or are they going further with it? Also, what enclosure would fit that sub under the passenger rear seat?

 

[Etroze86]

They use CDL tiles on the door skin(metal), inner door, and door card for best results for dampening, after that you may want to think about some ensolite right behind the speaker in the door and then to decouple the door card from the inner door.

 

[badzdad]

Sounds good. Any recommendations for a 10in sub vice the 12?

 

[woojyee]

Sounds good. Any recommendations for a 10in sub vice the 12?

I am a JL Audio Fan and have a 10w3v3-2 in a StealthBox. Sounds fantastic

 

[robo99]

Sounds good. Any recommendations for a 10in sub vice the 12?

I'm running a Dayton Reference 10" HO in about .55 ft/3 under the drivers side rear seat, and while it is NOT an SPL sub, it is damn nice to actually hear bass and drum notes as they were played. Very fast, very precice, not boomy at all, but, and I do mean but, it will be strictly bass for the song and the cab, no knocking the neighboring cars out with it, the drivers side will limit the depth of the subs ability. I can play anything from 2Pac to Natalie Merchant and enjoy it though.

 

[woojyee]

I'm running a Dayton Reference 10" HO in about .55 ft/3 under the drivers side rear seat, and while it is NOT an SPL sub, it is damn nice to actually hear bass and drum notes as they were played. Very fast, very precice, not boomy at all, but, and I do mean but, it will be strictly bass for the song and the cab, no knocking the neighboring cars out with it, the drivers side will limit the depth of the subs ability. I can play anything from 2Pac to Natalie Merchant and enjoy it though.

Same, I am older now and just want the sound great in the cab although my JLA sub can get deep when it needs to. I recorded this the other day when making some adjustments... looked kinda cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUOxBzMxfQ

 

[robo99]

Same, I am older now and just want the sound great in the cab although my JLA sub can get deep when it needs to. I recorded this the other day when making some adjustments... looked kinda cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUOxBzMxfQ

Very cool around 2:35. Thanks.

 

[badzdad]

I'm running a Dayton Reference 10" HO in about .55 ft/3 under the drivers side rear seat, and while it is NOT an SPL sub, it is damn nice to actually hear bass and drum notes as they were played. Very fast, very precice, not boomy at all, but, and I do mean but, it will be strictly bass for the song and the cab, no knocking the neighboring cars out with it, the drivers side will limit the depth of the subs ability. I can play anything from 2Pac to Natalie Merchant and enjoy it though.

Robo, the 12 in my last truck was a Dayton. I had never heard of them before that and they are a great sub for the money. What amp are you running on it?

 

[badzdad]

Same, I am older now and just want the sound great in the cab although my JLA sub can get deep when it needs to. I recorded this the other day when making some adjustments... looked kinda cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUOxBzMxfQ

Woojyee I ran a similar series JL when I had my qc Dakota. There was a box that fit behind the driverside rear seat that was a tight fit, but that JL was solid in there. What amp do you have on your JL? Sounds just about like what I'm looking for. Deep enough when you want it loud but not over bearing for everyday listening.

 

[woojyee]

Woojyee I ran a similar series JL when I had my qc Dakota. There was a box that fit behind the driverside rear seat that was a tight fit, but that JL was solid in there. What amp do you have on your JL? Sounds just about like what I'm looking for. Deep enough when you want it loud but not over bearing for everyday listening.

My AMP is a JL XD700/5v2. Puts 300 watts RMS on a 2-ohm sub but my box, which is a StealthBox, fits under the passenger side

 

[badzdad]

Woojyee, are you amping your door speakers since that is a 5ch amp? If so what are running in the doors?

 

[woojyee]

Woojyee, are you amping your door speakers since that is a 5ch amp? If so what are running in the doors?

I had a build log post but everything is changed except the amp

http://www.ramforum.com/f51/my_audio_upgrade_2014_ram_big_horn_crew_cab-61023/

Now I have,
Changed the original sub box to a StealthBox loaded with a 10w3v3-2
Dash I have JL Audio C2-350x
Front doors are JL Audio C3-600 with the tweeters in the sails
Rear doors are JL Audio C3-600 in coaxial mode
Added a JL Audio CleanSweep

Here are some pictures of what I did in the front doors but they are of C2-600s I borrowed from a buddy just to see if the 6" speakers fit









I am gonna take some pictures of the C3s and update my build log.

 

[Etroze86]

If you get a chance check out the Dayton Titanic MKIV, man that is just a sweet sounding sub off of low power.

 

[badzdad]

Woojyee that is a pretty sick set up and I would LOVE to blow the budget on that lol.

For now I am going to go the route of replacing all the door and dash speakers with the Kickers. Thankfully they arent very expensive and see how that sounds like I figure out what I want to do sub and amp wise. If I end up going 5ch amp wise I'll likely upgrade the door/dash speakers at that point again and dump these that I just ordered.

Where is the best place to get a decent price on the Stealthbox? Also, did you notice a big difference between the Stealthbox and the first box you had in there?

 

[woojyee]

Woojyee that is a pretty sick set up and I would LOVE to blow the budget on that lol.

For now I am going to go the route of replacing all the door and dash speakers with the Kickers. Thankfully they arent very expensive and see how that sounds like I figure out what I want to do sub and amp wise. If I end up going 5ch amp wise I'll likely upgrade the door/dash speakers at that point again and dump these that I just ordered.

Where is the best place to get a decent price on the Stealthbox? Also, did you notice a big difference between the Stealthbox and the first box you had in there?

Has a slightly deeper sound with less power. I had the AMP sub channel calibrated to about 28 VAC on the old box and the StealthBox its around 24 VAC.
I purchased the StealthBox for $300 off eBay but the guy scammed me and the speaker was blown. Ended up settling the case and I paid $225 + $100 to get the speaker exchanged from JL Audio (and the replacement they sent was brand new) so total was $335. I paid $259 for a 10w3v3 from Crutchfield that I was able to return for a refund and purchased that wood Atrend box from eBay for $60 so all in all, I spent $15 more for the stealthBox.

I am still trying to sell the wood box locally for $50 but in the middle of Nebraska people are cheap as hell and offer me $10 for it. I tell them I would rather smash it and burn it for warmth then sell it to them for 10 bucks..lol

A new stealthbox is $560 and there are lots of other custom boxes cheaper but the StealthBox is contoured to the area and fits perfectly without having to use seat spacers and stuff but car audio is mainly personal preference and how much $$$$ you can spend

Now you talk about replacing the dash speakers with Kickers, are you going to buy the upgrade from Mopar or an audio shop? The reason I ask is, I initially replaced the Dash speakers with kickers but my factory dash speakers were 8-ohm and I replaced them with 4-ohm and they now got twice the power and became overbearing. I was getting an AMP so I wasn't too concerned but if you plan on keeping them on factory radio for a but I would look into it.

 

[autokraftgt]

Im in Omaha, what part of Nebraska?

 

[woojyee]

Im in Omaha, what part of Nebraska?

Columbus...

Walmart has a better selection than the local car audio shop. They have nothing so I figured it would be an easy sell but nooooo. lol

 

[autokraftgt]

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