Hozer's 2014 Sierra Audio Upgrades

[Hozer]

The dash grills are pretty easy to remove actually.

 

You need to remove the trim from the pillar on each side first. On the driver's side, just pull the trim and the clips will come out; there's a lanyard type clip in the middle that retains the trim if the side airbags go off, you'll need to unclip that but you just push on the tab and slide it out of the trim. On the passenger side, remove the two bolt covers and then the two bolts holding the trim/handle in place.

 

Once the pillar trim has been removed, you can move on to the speaker grills. The grills are actually part of a single piece that goes across the whole dash. The trim clips are toward the cab side. The windshield side has L shaped tabs that slide into retaining holes so don't pull up on that section.

Grab one of the grills on the outside edge away from the windshield and pull up. The clips will come out there and then you just keep lifting and pulling clips toward the other side of the truck.

[Tim99GT]

I really need to upgrade my system... The damn stock sound system is ehh.

[RobZ71LM7]

I've bought both Metra harnesses and just need to pickup the new speakers and settle on an amp. BUT, would we really want to run dash speakers and door speakers? Or would it be better to run components up front and tweeters in the dash?

 

Ok stupid question. If the dash speakers are actual speakers are they in parallel with the front door speakers? If so is the aftermarket amp going to see too low an impedance up front? Just trying to better understand the dash speakers. I was planning on two sets of 6.5's in the front and rear doors. I might do components up front and put the tweeters in the dash.

[GRN69CHV]

Factory wiring, front door and dash speakers are parallel with dash speakers getting a HPF (approx 500hz). Impedance should not be a concern, just about every amp is stable to 2 ohm load non-bridged.

[Hozer]

Front speakers are definitely run in parallel on each side thus bringing the impedance down to 2 ohm. As staged by GRN69CHV, most amps are stable down to 2 ohm and so it's a non issue. My amp happens to output 75W per channel on each of the front and rear when run to a 4 ohm load. The output jumps to 100W per channel when run to a 2 ohm load. You can run a 2 ohm load on the front and 4 ohm on the rear channel.

 

Doing it over again, I'd just go with components in the front. There would be some additional wiring in order to feed the tweeters in the dash from the crossovers rather than the "Y" of factory wiring but, it would be worthwhile.

[Hozer]

The grill before and after I removed some of the ring using a dremel. The ring would have hit the speakers if the material was left in place.

[Hozer]

The passenger side cutout and speaker installed. The driver's side turned out much nicer but I had to get ugly with the passenger side trying to get enough material cleared without cutting into the HVAC ducting. This is definitely where I realized a set of tweeters would have been better than cramming in another set of full range speakers.

[GRN69CHV]

Not sure I want to cut up my dash just yet, also not sure about components and taking all the mids out of the dash. Door speakers are a lot lower in relation to seating position as compared to SUV's and sedans. I used a set of these in my Chevelle mounted at the top of the kick panels, angled upward to add some nice high end detail and provide some special imaging, might give this a try in the truck. I'm thinking mounted at base of the A-pillar cover tight to the windsheild and painted to match you'd hardly notice them.

 

http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/car-audio-tweeters-dieci-dt24_3/

[Jeff5347]

Hey guys, just came across this post and its given me some ideas and also concerns. Instead of writing everything I wrote in a post a while ago I'll post the link. http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/180861-15-Silverado-speaker-and-amp-help

What I became concerned about is the front door and dash speakers. Reading that they are wired together would give an effective impedance of 2 ohms once amped. So I can proceed 2 ways. Run all my pioneer speakers right off the factory hu. No amp and see how she sounds with the jl audio sub connected.

The other or original way I was thinking of amping the door and dash speakers but forgot about the dash speakers. So if I amp all the hu outputs the dash speakers get amped but being the front door and dash are wired in parralel this would turn the speaker total output to a 2 ohm load. I was looking at the pioneer gma6604 or Kenwood kac 6406 but cannot tell if a 2 ohm bridged load is OK with these amps. The metra wiring harnesses are exactly what I need if I amp so I don't need to run loads of wires. Did any of you try your aftermarket speakers just on the hu before amping them. Did they sound OK or like crap. Thanks a bunch for this thread it has now given me a headache on all the thinking im doing... Lol

[Hozer]

I initially installed my aftermarket rear speakers powered by the factory head unit without an amp and it was terrible. Less bass than stock and overall flat sounding because the head unit just didn't have enough power to effectively power them.

 

You should be able to find the manual for those two amps online and verify they're okay at a 2 ohm load. I checked Kenwood's website and they list the KAC-6406 with an output of 60w x 2 at 2 ohm so you'd be fine with that.

[Hozer]

Finally finished my install.

 

Added a JL Audio CL441dsp (Cleansweep) to clean up the sad factory equalization. Got a good deal on ebay and I can hear the difference so I'll call it worthwhile though it wasn't a night and day change.

 

The big improvement was to get my JL 12TW3 subwoofer installed. I bought the JL CS112TG-TW3 sub/box combo for simplicity and to get something nicer than a box I'd build. It fits under the seat great though when someone sits on the seat, they do push the grill down a bit.

 

That subwoofer with 300W nominal REALLY hits! Very tight and clean with no distortion until I get stupid loud with it. I'd say this is as much or more bass than I got from an Orion XTR Pro 10" with 600W nominal input. The extra surface area certainly helps but JL has definitely done some great work with the TW3 subs.

[Jeff5347]

Glad to hear the cleansweep didn't make a huge difference. Reason for saying that I mean although I'm sure the radio has some eq'ing inside at least it nay not be a butcher job. Hozer, on the rears..once p did they perk up and come alive? After constantly searching amps and what would work and to have something that is able to used if I upgrade parts down the road I settled on a PPI i1000.4. I had discarded the idea of the Kenwood and pioneer and was looking at the Rockford pbr300x4 and PPI plus a ton others. The pbr I was set on but not a ton of headroom and I read that it would get boiling hot. PPI many moons ago was the brand to get. They may not be a top line now but are fairly up there and miles from a low end. This puts out roughly 140w/CH so I have lots of room to play plus unlike the pbr , LP or HP xover freq. can be adjusted to the listeners liking. I don't know if you stated...what amp are you running for your doors. Speaker level or rca inputs?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Hozer]

Once amplified, the aftermarket speakers sound GREAT.

 

I'm using a five channel JL Audio amp, the XD700/5v2. With the front door and dash speakers in parallel and single speakers in the door and the sub having dual 4 ohm coils in parallel, the effective RMS output is 2 x 100 W at 2ohm, 2 x 75 W at 4 ohm, and 1 x 300 W at 2 ohm.

 

Originally was using speaker level inputs (via RCA plugs) on the amplifier and using the signal sense turn on mode. That actually worked very well once adjusted.

 

My amplifier selection came down to a few criteria:

1) Clean output; I wasn't going to use a cheap and noisy amp.

2) Space considerations; modern Class D amps take up little space and give off little heat so I could stash one behind the rear seat.

3) Multiple outputs from the same amplifier; this reduced cost and space requirements.

4) Quality. Only brands with consistently good quality were considered: JL, Alpine, etc. PPI used to be great, possibly still are but they don't offer a 5 channel amp to fit my needs.

 

With the Cleansweep installed, I'm now using low level inputs on the amplifier and have it turning on using the remote wire from the Cleansweep.

 

Had I opted for the cleansweep from the start, I would have just used speaker wire (speed wire 9 conductor most likely) on the T harness for the head unit output. Instead, I used two sets of RCA cables and cut the plugs off one end and soldiered those to the T harness. The cleansweep has only dual wire inputs, not RCA plugs and so I bought two pair of RCA to speaker wire adapters and soldiered those to the Cleansweep harness and plug the other ends into my RCA cables that come from the head unit.

 

The Cleansweep does have RCA outputs and so a pair of 18" RCA cables were used to feed the amp now.

[krdeal]

Dave,

 

Hi, I am enjoying your posts and this thread. I have a question on your install. Do you have the factory Bose set-up from GM? The reason I ask is the reverse harness shows to be used with an amplified set-up. There is another harness listed for non-amplified. I saw this on the installer.com website you are referencing in the thread. Thanks again for the posts and the thread.

[Hozer]

Ken - No, I don't have the Bose factory components. The 'amplifier bypass' harness version is what I used. That harness kit (Metra 70-2057) did include a second, smaller, harness which I did not use and so the other option may work but I played it safe and used the part numbers which others had already purchased and tested in their installs.