06 1500HD speaker update advise needed

B33tl3 · August 8, 2012

I have an 06 1500HD Crew Cab with Bose. I replaced the head unit with a Pioneer AppRadio a few months back and everything was great the system was even louder than stock.

Now one of my rear speakers in the door is buzzing when listening to spoken word podcasts or audio books.

I am now looking at replacing all the speakers. I am looking for some advise on how to proceed.

I checked Crutchfield.com to see what fits. It looks like the backdoors are the tough ones. The fronts are 6.5 or 6.75” and the rears are up to 6.5”. I was looking RF Punch speakers but they only showed a component system and I don’t see how a component would fit there without a lot of mods. I tried chatting with their advisors and they said not many speakers fit in the rear door because of the depth and the grill. He said most of the tweeters on 2way and 3way speakers stick out too far and would impact the stock speaker grill. He suggested Polk Audio db651s.

Now the questions:

· Any suggestions on speakers to use? I want to stay around $100 per set but I am open to suggestions

· Will the Bose amp screw the setup? I read that the Bose are 2-ohm setups.

· Should I use the components in the front and put the tweeter in stock location?

· If I use 2 or 3 ways will all of the tweeters screw the sound?

What have others done in their similar trucks?

B33tl3 · August 9, 2012

Anyone?

Toolman82 · August 9, 2012

I would replace the fronts with a nice set of components. The factory speaker location and tweeter location will handle any component setup just fine with some fab work. Its really not that serious. I would go with a 2 way speaker for the rear. No need for 3 ways. 99% of people cannot hear the difference anyways.

I however would not run these speakers on the factory amp. The lower resistance will shorten the life of the speakers, and probably cause distortion at higher volumes. The best thing to do is replace factory bose amp with a small aftermarket 4 channel. It doesnt have to be anything super fancy, just something to give the speakers some life. I guarantee you will not like the aftermarket speakers on just radio power. They'll just sound like tweeters.

I've been doing this a very long time and its not worth it to skip around certain things. And most people want expensive amps and components, but they couldn't tell the difference in sound quality. You're not an audiophile, dont spend money like one. Just buy decent stuff and dont over do it on the volume and you'll be fine.

I cannot speak about Polk's quality these days, but they used to be average back in the day, nothing great. I really like Kenwood Excelon door speakers. They're a little more than regular line speakers, but handle a lot more power and last a lot longer. I've been using them for 12 years now, and never had a problem. I about to install them in the same truck now, hopefully they clear the rear doors.