Hey guys, usually wait a year or so before doing upgrades to make sure the vehicle is a keeper. (We trade in a lot...) Anyways, looks like our D will stick around so want to do a couple of things to it. First is the front door speakers. We have the Alpine system and already replaced the anemic factory sub with a JL Audio Stealthbox and JL amp. Now to the front doors. Have a few sets of separates I'm going back and fourth on to replace the factory woofers and tweeters. My questions are... How are the factory drivers fed? Where is the factory crossover? Is it one line that goes to the woofer then up to the tweeter with an inline crossover (or a built in one on the tweeter) or are the tweeter and woofer fed with separate lines from the factory amp? Any tips on how the factory separates are wired would be appreciated!!

 

I'll be honest with you here. I started by adding a different sub, amp with line convertors, then more convertors and a 5ch amp, then door speakers and while it's all been an evolution, I wish I had done it right in the first place. The factory settings are nowhere near good and that's where your change needs to be. Add a Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.3, good 75x4 amp and you'll never look back. Stock amp uses a bus signal input and separate outputs for each individual speaker. You need to intercept that output signal, adjust and resupply a summed and property crossed over output. Coming from someone who has tried just about it all, I can tell you with confidence that that's where the money needs to be spent.

 

Being a former big time audio guy, I completely understand all you are saying. However, at this point in my life, I'm not as into it as I used to be and knowing my current level of enthusiasm for the hobby, I'm fine with just upgraded front separates for now. So, from what you said, it looks like the amp supplies the tweeters and woofers in the door with separate feeds based on an internal crossover? If so, I'll go from there. I'm just not that motivated to start signal summing and DSPing the whole system.

 

Just keep in mind that the stock speakers are quite good out of the box, it's the screwy frequencies and crossover points that are going to make it sound the same. Don't expect much difference from changing the speakers. Pull one and check it out and compare to what you're looking to buy. Also note that all the speakers are going to be 2 ohm so figure on 2 ohm replacements or half the juice.

 

Good info. I'm sure your right. Maybe I'll pass on the project for now until I'm ready to go into it at a larger scale. Thanks for the advice!