speaker upgrade suggestions

rastasquid · January 11, 2018

So, I'm going to be pulling my doors apart tomorrow or the next day to do the DL8-DL3 mirror swap with pgamboa's plug and play harness. Since I'm going to have the doors apart anyway, has anyone replace the door speakers and found it worthwhile? I have the non-bose stereo with the larger 8" screen, just wondering if I should consider doing speakers while I'm in there or not. I think the stereo sounds decent as is, but there is always room for improvement right?

Jaychevy81 · January 11, 2018

I have read that people did the speaker upgrade on the factory head unit and the sound was worse. I think the factory amp is not strong enough.

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GRN69CHV · January 11, 2018

I put Alpine Ty-R 6x9's in front doors and a set of Kenwood 7" Excelons in the rears. I di install an inline Alpine 45x4 amp. Also changed the dash speakers to Sundown Audio Sa275. Sound quality in my truck is exceptional. Have had a couple different audio shops listen for their opinion, both were impressed.

Ozer · January 11, 2018

I did just what you are thinking of doing. Got Memphis Audio 6x9 and 6.5 for the rears, used Dynomat on the exposed parts around the speakers and just did plug and play.

The sound is a lot better, it hits better but the stock head unit isnt strong enough, so i found out to really make the speakers shine. So replace them and get an Alpine power pack (used ebay around $60 bucks) like mentioned above and you will love it.

I will be doing the Apline amp install as the next step. You can do the speakers now and then later do the amp since the amp will go behind the stereo or behind the glove box.

I would recommend Crutchfield since they include everything you need.

GRN69CHV · January 11, 2018

Regarding the amp install:

Installed behind glovebox. Relatively simple install. You buy two Metra connector sets, one goes into head unit to amp, other goes from amp to factory wiring harness. No need to run a separate power wire either, just tap the head unit power wire. Search Alpine or Metra will bring up the discussions. For chime volume, just turn the gain on the amp all the way down. On the compact inline amps, turning gain to lowest position doesn't turn it off. On a scale of 0-10, lowest setting is still about a 2. Even with gain on amp all the way down, head unit played up to about 50-60% volume will be very loud and about as far as you'd want to run the factory head unit before sound starts getting dirty.

rastasquid · January 11, 2018

Thanks for the advice. Since I'm pretty happy with the sound as is, I'm just going to leave them be for now. I really don't want to get into installing an amp, and it seems like the consensus in most threads on the topic is that if you replace speakers, you need to add an amp to get the most out of them.

Jaychevy81 · January 11, 2018

Thanks for the advice. Since I'm pretty happy with the sound as is, I'm just going to leave them be for now. I really don't want to get into installing an amp, and it seems like the consensus in most threads on the topic is that if you replace speakers, you need to add an amp to get the most out of them.

I did the kicker install it’s designed for the truck plug and play. Comes with 2 amps and a sub. It def makes the stereo come alive. I then did all door speakers kickers. It’s pricy but for the plug and play feature I guess that’s why but def worth it to retain the stock features.

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GRN69CHV · January 11, 2018

7 hours ago, rastasquid said:

Thanks for the advice. Since I'm pretty happy with the sound as is, I'm just going to leave them be for now. I really don't want to get into installing an amp, and it seems like the consensus in most threads on the topic is that if you replace speakers, you need to add an amp to get the most out of them.

Don't let the amp scare you, very easy to do. But yes, I wouldn't swap speakers without adding an amp. Factory stereo doesn't sound that bad for normal listening levels.

Nasty · January 12, 2018

This is dependent on how much you want to spend. And remember if you just add an amp, you'll have loud chimes and Bluetooth.

What im doing is a little more expensive but it will be done right

BlackHawkZ71 · January 12, 2018

45 minutes ago, Nasty said:

This is dependent on how much you want to spend. And remember if you just add an amp, you'll have loud chimes and Bluetooth.

What im doing is a little more expensive but it will be done right

If I remember right the dash speakers are the only ones that have the chime?

rastasquid · January 12, 2018

25 minutes ago, BlackHawkZ71 said:

If I remember right the dash speakers are the only ones that have the chime?

Can anyone confirm this? If so, could you add an amp to just the door speakers and avoid the loud chimes?

Maxsuperdog · January 12, 2018

The chimes are only loud if you have the volume cranked.

BlackHawkZ71 · January 12, 2018

13 minutes ago, rastasquid said:

Can anyone confirm this? If so, could you add an amp to just the door speakers and avoid the loud chimes?

Ya thats what I remember hearing when i asked about it in a thread i had started long time ago, i have yet to do audio mods still waiting on the stock ones to blow, so far this 16 non bose 8” nav can take abuse.