changing speakers

builderpaul · May 30, 2004

04 K2500 sierra SLE reg cab. Disapponted in the standard radio/cd sound. For now I just want to change speakers. Went to cruchfiel. Great site. I think I just want regular speakers (no components). I don't want to get involved with cutting up door panels etc. I want to change both the front door and rear pillar speakers. How do I determine which door speakers go with which pillar speakers? Just get the same brand? Any recomendations? I listen to mostly country if that matters.

TIA

Wingnut · May 30, 2004

If it doesn't have components for stockers, then yeah...Just stick with a set of two ways. They will sound great.

Use Crutchfields little dohicky for picking your speaker compatability...Enter make/model/year/etc, and it tells you what they have that will be a direct replacement.

You can get different brands if you want to, mine are different in both my trucks.

02 has MB Quart in the front doors, and Infinity in the rear. Kicker subs.

92 has Boston Acoustics in the dash, and Kicker in the rear. Fosgate subs.

If there are 20 different brands for sale that fit your application, you will get 23 opinions on what to buy.

Just get what's in your price range, just about any of them will sound boatloads better than stock.

And you shouldn't have to do any cutting if you are just buying factory replacements.

BuiltNotBought · May 30, 2004

I'm pretty sure that your truck has components in the front from the factory, but either way i would go with a set of infinitys for the front and rear they sound great and are reasonably cheap.

Wrench Bender 2 · June 1, 2004

I second that INFINITY!

DSZ71 · June 14, 2004

Shop around, you can get better prices on speaker than Crutchfield, try these sites for a few comparisons. They are factory authorized and have full warranties.

www.thezeb.com

www.sounddomain.com

For the same price of Infinity on Crutchfield, you can do better with a set of CDTs, Image Dynamics, DEI. Your application will fit just about any 6.5" 2 way component set, meaning the driver and tweeter are separates, which will drop in the stock locations. You will not need to hack up anything on your door panels.

Sierra04SLE · July 27, 2004

Check out this thread

Stock Speaker Upgrade

Robert

gbishop · August 1, 2004

Check out http://www.onlinecarstereo.com as well...they have good prices and no shipping.

willscary · August 1, 2004

I have owned Alpine/Polk for 18 years in my vehicles. In 2000 I put a Pioneer headunit into my wifes vehicle to drive some Polks. I have also owned Pioneer and Clarion speakers along with a Sansui headunit (1983). Car audio has come a long way since then!

When I bought the Pioneer for my wife's vehicle, I noticed a MUCH better tuner than the Alpines I own, and a touch more hiss and less power than the Alpines (the Alpines both have seperate amps, one was 25X4 @.05%THD and the other was 50X4 @1%THD). I was quite amazed with the Pioneer tuner and its decent, though not overpowering power output.

Fast forward to this week. I have a 2003 work truck with the standard AM/FM only radio. My old truck had this setup and it was fine, I usually listen to news and talk radio when commuting, and only listen to music when travelling longer distances.

This radio in the 2003 sucks! It cannot lock and hold a station unless it is very close. More than about 40 miles and you can forget decent non-fading reception. So I decided to upgrade. I wanted Alpine because I like the clean, single color basic display better than the moving multi-colored displays and tiny buttons of the other brands.

When I began to inquire, everyplace I checked told me the Alpine's sound was cleaner and better. I agree, it is slightly cleaner, but in a 3/4 ton work truck driving down the road I will NEVER hear the difference. The difference in sound may be heard with the motor shut off, but never at 60MPH with the climate control fan on its lowest setting. The more I researched, I found that the Pioneer Supertuner IIID is the most sensitive of the mass market brands, and is in all of their new units. Compared to the Alpine, the Pioneer has a tested 50db quieting sensitivity of 10dbf, compared to 13.4dbf to 14.4dbf for various Alpine units. This means that the Pioneer can get a fairly clean STEREO reception with about 40% of the signal that the Alpine needs! This is not the "useable sensitivity" ratings that are usually published which tell you the signal needed to produce a noisy but understandable mono signal.

Power differences between the Alpine's 18X4 CEA compliant WPC and the Pioneer's listed 22X4 non-CEA WPC is quite minimal in the real world, amounting to little or no discernable difference in perceived SPL.

Although I wanted the Alpine look, the Pioneer, at $30 less, gave me much more of what I was really looking for. For speakers, I bought 2 pairs of Polks, although it was a tough decision over the Infinity speakers. I stuck with what has worked in the past, although I was very impressed with the Infinity speakers also. I called Crutchfield after deciding on the Pioneer DEH-P3600 (basic, but has audio mute for my hands free cell phone), Polk db460s and db675s. While Cruchfield may seem more expensive, they offer 10% discounts on systems, plus not tax and free shipping. They also provide all harnesses, adapters, mounting brackets, etc. for FREE (except for the special harness needed to keep the chimes working in the 2003-2004 trucks-that was $39). Price shipped with everything was $345 including the chime harness and 2 pairs of waterproof speaker baffles that I put behind all my speakers.

My next step is a sub...although I could build an enclosure and buy a good sub and amp for probably $300, I may just buy a new Infinity Basslink T, which is a new truck box edition of the original Basslink. While it looks to be treated paper with a treated foam surround, everybody who has them seems to really like them, and I like the idea of simple plug and play all in one units. I'm not a real bass freak, and this will probably do everything I ask of it. I have seen them on the net for as little as $250 for the truck version.

Smokey420 · August 3, 2004

Components are always better no matter what music you listen to. I recommend the Boston Acoustics my self, I have a set of pro series 6.5's and they are unbelieveable. And don't worry about cutting your interior because most components come with mounting brackets. The Bostons come with about 5 different types of brackets to mount the tweeters wherever you want. Bostons are really nice but you pay for what you get. Infinity's are also really good and not quite as pricey.