Dash Speakers - Sundown Audio SA-2.75 Installed

Jeff5347 · January 20, 2017

I have been looking at these sundown 2.75's to put in the dash, good to hear some feedback on them. I am trying to put together a simple build and was hoping I could get some help from you guys. In my '15 crew cab non bose, i pulled signal from both rear speakers to my Lc2i. I only ran a sub with this though. I am looking to use a set of hertz components I used in my ram a couple years ago and still pull signal from rear speakers and run a 2 channel amp for my components up front and use the mono amp for my sub. And keep the sundowns in the dash off of h/u power. This way, I could amp the front doors, and not have loud chimes. All i would have to do is move my fade on the head unit more toward the rear to get a balance from the dash speakers and front doors correct? I thought about using the alpine 45x4 power pack, but have heard several people say you have to turn the gains pretty much all the way down to keep your ears from bleeding when the chime goes off. What is the benefit of even using the alpine amp if the gain is all the way down? I would expect it's not giving much more power at all over the head unit like that. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

I gotta get ready for work so can't write a ton this morning. Look up my posts or grn's posts in the audio section. Some good info on what ppl have done. One thing. The rear signals as far as I know don't get the full spectrum of freq so using those for the sub won't get you the best sound. Someone checked and the freqs roll off at like 400 Hz or so.

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Nasty · January 20, 2017

That little alpine unit isn't much better than stock power

CWilliams · January 21, 2017

I gotta get ready for work so can't write a ton this morning. Look up my posts or grn's posts in the audio section. Some good info on what ppl have done. One thing. The rear signals as far as I know don't get the full spectrum of freq so using those for the sub won't get you the best sound. Someone checked and the freqs roll off at like 400 Hz or so.

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Thanks for the info, I have read most of the audio threads and haven't come across anyone I can remember that wants to do what I am suggesting. That can't be true about the rear speaker signal unless they changed it from the 2015 silverado I had with non bose system. I tapped off the rear speakers and low passed my sub at 80 Hz, sounded perfectly normal and hit hard. When tuning, I used down to 30hz test tone and the sub played it fine. Maybe that 400hz threshold is for the rear speakers on the Bose system?

GRN69CHV · January 21, 2017

That little alpine unit isn't much better than stock power

It's definitely a lot more power than stock. These inline amps work by multiplying the input voltage. My guess is the factory system is about 20-25w/channel, it doesn't take a lot of amplification to effectively double the output

Thanks for the info, I have read most of the audio threads and haven't come across anyone I can remember that wants to do what I am suggesting. That can't be true about the rear speaker signal unless they changed it from the 2015 silverado I had with non bose system. I tapped off the rear speakers and low passed my sub at 80 Hz, sounded perfectly normal and hit hard. When tuning, I used down to 30hz test tone and the sub played it fine. Maybe that 400hz threshold is for the rear speakers on the Bose system?

Audio Control LC2iB is my next purchase. Would like to do same thing as you proposed. Take rear signal, split it to feed both the sub and front doors. In my case, I would just leave the Alpine 445U to power the dash and rear doors and install the RF 400D I have on the shelf to power the front doors and a sub.

CWilliams · January 22, 2017

It's definitely a lot more power than stock. These inline amps work by multiplying the input voltage. My guess is the factory system is about 20-25w/channel, it doesn't take a lot of amplification to effectively double the output

Audio Control LC2iB is my next purchase. Would like to do same thing as you proposed. Take rear signal, split it to feed both the sub and front doors. In my case, I would just leave the Alpine 445U to power the dash and rear doors and install the RF 400D I have on the shelf to power the front doors and a sub.

Sounds like a plan man. You go ahead and do it and let me know how the fade works and if you can get decent blending with the dash and door speakers ha. I really don't want to go DSP route like I have in the past. They are awesome, but exhausting and I just want to have decent sound that I can install in a couple of hours instead of days of tuning and running wire. How do you like those alpine 6x9? Was thinking of using a 2 way coaxial 6x9 instead of components up front since the sundowns are full range and I won't really have the tuning capability to get the components just right.

GRN69CHV · January 22, 2017

Alpine Ty-R's sound good, you really can push them for volume. I've tried them as full range and with 60hz and 80hz cut (445U has a 12db HPF with options of 60, 80 & 120 HPF), speakers will handle frequency all the way down, the sound is definitely tighter and cleaner at the bottom end by cutting very bottom. I think it has less to do with the speaker and more to do with the inability of a speaker in the door to reproduce the very bottom. Right now I have the HPF set at 60hz with the sub picking up the bottom. My son, who is really critical has ridden in the truck with me and says it sounds impressive. If you read my previous posts, I had 8" Earthquake shallow mounts in the rear doors (heavily sound deadened). Those added good amount of bass but still couldn't get that real deep clean bottom, there's just no way to completely seal the door. One of those was damaged when the door got hit so those are now out and replaced with set of Kenwood Excelon 7" woofers from a component set. Somewhat bogus, I just have the Kicker PT250 powered sub sitting on floor behind the driver seat. It's only me or me and the wife in the truck 95% of the time. I haven't had anyone in the back seat at most twice in the past year. Challenge for me will be getting a sub as permanent install while retaining the tool bin under the rear seat. What I am probably going to do is just glass in a sub enclosure into one half of the tool bin and call it a day. Adding another amp and splitting it all out to have 7 channels of amplification would be gross overkill and strictly done out of boredom and time on my hands.

CWilliams · January 23, 2017

Good info. I will be trying a set of type r 8" ported under the back seat. I have never had 8"s before, but I just want something that sounds natural and cleaner instead of the boom boom. I will be getting some things installed toward the end of the week and will update a little as i go. Thanks for input!

JKey · February 2, 2017

Getting a clean soundstage up front wihout breaking the bank or doing a lot of mods has been "on the list" since I got the truck in Feb 2015. Tried 2 different set of tweeters, both sets sounded terrible reflecting off the dash. Set of Bose speakers from a Caddy (I think maybe installed in A pillars), these were lost. Finally decided to give the Sundown Audio SA-2.75's a try. Bought them from Woofers Etc. via Amazon. Are these audiophile quality? Reviews on DIYMA were mixed, but then again, they were comparing them to much more expensive (like 3x-4x-5x pricing) speakers. My thoughts, these are a huge improvement to the factory offering - and they bolt right in. Mids are bright and defined. Upper end of the highs roll off a little (which is a good thing, tweeters reflecting off the windshield were harsh). Running Alpine Ty-R coaxials in the doors with the tweeter angled up, surprisingly, I am getting some high end definition that you wouldn't expect with a low mount speaker. What has been missing was definition of vocals, guitars, keyboards. I do have them amped along with the front door speakers, not a lot of power actually, still running the Alpine 45x4 compact amp, tucked behind the glove box, through the factory wiring harness. Front doors are the aforementioned Alpine 6x9 Ty-R's with a 60hz hpf setting, rear doors are Earthquake 8" Shallow mount subs, ran as full range off the same amp in well insulated and sound deadened doors. The SA-2.75's are right there blending in nicely. I'm happy.

Do the Alpine type-R's fit ok in the stock location? I wanted those too but Crutchfields site says they won't fit, so i asked a advisor there and he said its because of clearance issues on the front side. I figured he's dumb

CWilliams · February 2, 2017

Had my truck finished up Friday. I didn't feel like tackling the project this time around, so I dropped it off at my local shop. I went with JL audio C2 6x9 in the front doors powered by the alpine power pack amp. They kept the dash speakers on the h/u and pulled signal from the front speakers to my lc2i. This kept the chimes and everything sounding about the same as stock. The only place they are amped is the driver front door and honestly I can't tell the chimes are any louder. Also put two type r 8s in a custom ported box with about 600 watts rms going to the pair. To me it sounds amazing, so much louder and cleaner than factory. The 8" subs give rock some serious kick drums and it will still get down low for rap songs too. All I have is a few pics of the box right now. I may pull the door skins and do some sound deadening later on and get some pics of that.

CWilliams · February 2, 2017

Forgot to add, I put the sundown 2.75 in the dash and was not impressed as a simple drop in application. Maybe a touch cleaner than stock, but Theysounded like they had about 3/4 the volume of the stock speakers. I bet if they were amped, it would have been a lot better.

Knotsure · February 2, 2017

Had my truck finished up Friday. I didn't feel like tackling the project this time around, so I dropped it off at my local shop. I went with JL audio C2 6x9 in the front doors powered by the alpine power pack amp. They kept the dash speakers on the h/u and pulled signal from the front speakers to my lc2i. This kept the chimes and everything sounding about the same as stock. The only place they are amped is the driver front door and honestly I can't tell the chimes are any louder. Also put two type r 8s in a custom ported box with about 600 watts rms going to the pair. To me it sounds amazing, so much louder and cleaner than factory. The 8" subs give rock some serious kick drums and it will still get down low for rap songs too. All I have is a few pics of the box right now. I may pull the door skins and do some sound deadening later on and get some pics of that.

Is this a crew cab or double?

2014 Chevy silverado Z71 DCSB w/Bilstein 5100 level

GRN69CHV · February 2, 2017

Do the Alpine type-R's fit ok in the stock location? I wanted those too but Crutchfields site says they won't fit, so i asked a advisor there and he said its because of clearance issues on the front side. I figured he's dumb

Mine are in there using either Metra or Scoche adapters (don't remember which I used). If they are hitting I wouldn't know, sure doesn't sound like it. Depth is easy, Ty-R's have the Neo magnets which are very small. Add to it, if you run a HPF set at 60-80 HZ, that significantly reduces speaker cone travel.

Forgot to add, I put the sundown 2.75 in the dash and was not impressed as a simple drop in application. Maybe a touch cleaner than stock, but Theysounded like they had about 3/4 the volume of the stock speakers. I bet if they were amped, it would have been a lot better.

That might be the case. Most aftermarket speakers always require more power.

GRN69CHV · February 2, 2017

Had my truck finished up Friday. I didn't feel like tackling the project this time around, so I dropped it off at my local shop. I went with JL audio C2 6x9 in the front doors powered by the alpine power pack amp. They kept the dash speakers on the h/u and pulled signal from the front speakers to my lc2i. This kept the chimes and everything sounding about the same as stock. The only place they are amped is the driver front door and honestly I can't tell the chimes are any louder. Also put two type r 8s in a custom ported box with about 600 watts rms going to the pair. To me it sounds amazing, so much louder and cleaner than factory. The 8" subs give rock some serious kick drums and it will still get down low for rap songs too. All I have is a few pics of the box right now. I may pull the door skins and do some sound deadening later on and get some pics of that.

I like that. How do you find the 8's hit with aiming them up into the seat as opposed to down reflecting off the floor? I have the GM molded tool bin under my rear seat. Thinking of taking one side and modifying it to mount a sub in, pointing up would be the easiest. Right now, I just have a 10" in a truck box on the floor behind the driver seat. Sounds good, but really want to bury it. Was worried it would be too muffled aimed at the seat.

CWilliams · February 2, 2017

Is this a crew cab or double?

2014 Chevy silverado Z71 DCSB w/Bilstein 5100 level

It is a crew cab. I had the passenger seat slid back for some reason.

I like that. How do you find the 8's hit with aiming them up into the seat as opposed to down reflecting off the floor? I have the GM molded tool bin under my rear seat. Thinking of taking one side and modifying it to mount a sub in, pointing up would be the easiest. Right now, I just have a 10" in a truck box on the floor behind the driver seat. Sounds good, but really want to bury it. Was worried it would be too muffled aimed at the seat.

I have been using the same guy for almost 15 yrs building custom boxes for my vehicles. I forget what software he uses, but he is amazing at what he does and I trust him. He said when the new body style came out at the end of 2013, he built over 10 different configurations with dual subs and single subs down firing, up firing, port to the back and front etc. to see what sounded the best. Subs on driver side facing up with the port firing into the passenger rear door gave the best results. It sounds great and now that it's done I'm not second guessing his decision at all.