It should be fairly straight forward in your place I would imagine. I admit, I have not been able to get my hands on a 4th gen yet to install as River_Booty is saving his mod money for the chally.

Basically, if you were using the factory H/U, you would need that line converter that I posted up earlier, the amp, woofer, and consumables. By consumables I mean wire, wire connections and what not. In terms of what you really need, you simply need to go and listen to some speakers and see which one sounds best to you. Just note that the same speaker that sounded great in the store might not sound the same when you get it into the truck.

When you are looking for a woofer and amp setup, you need to basically watch two things: 1. the RMS Watt ratings and 2. the impedance- ohms. You need to pick a woofer and then pick an amp that is capapble of handling the ohm ratings- usually 2-4 ohms now a days- and then look at the RMS needs of the woofer and make sure your amp can produce that amount.

So if you look on the net or go to the store and you see a 4ohm 100W RMS woofer that you like. You now need to find an amp that will handle it. Ok, so most amps on the market today will differentiate between 2 and 4 ohm, but some don't and that's why you need to watch out for it. Then we look at the RMS watt ratings. Usually they read something like 50W RMS per CHANNEL. This means that the amp will produce a constant flow of 50W per speaker or channel. Some will say that the amp has 50W RMS per channel or 250W RMS bridged. This is a way of combing two channels to produce the maximum amount of power to the speaker. This is exactly how a "4 channel" amp can become a "3 channel" amp. You would simply bridge one side.

Now that you kind of know what you are looking for, lets talk brands. I'm not going to bash any brand out there in this little type up, but I will give you a short list that has what brands I like and what brands I don't like.

Brands that I have used and liked:
Polk
Infinity
Eclipse
Alpine
Power Acoustik
Kicker
MTX
Focale


Brands I don't care for:
Kenwood- Excluding their amps
Rockford Fosgate
JVC
SONY
AWIA
Pioneer- Excluding their H/U's


If you were wondering about Hertz, I have no personal dealings with them myself, but I'm watching them contently to see what people think of them.

 

Let me clarify - I had a full system in my Dakota, with a JL 10w3 powered by a rockford 600w, with 4 infinity kappas and a couple tweeters, alpine deck, alpine amp for the speakers. I'm 6 years out of the mobile audio scene though, and though I know JL Audio is still great and I like them, I'm behind on who makes quality but affordable mains, 6x9s, tweeters, etc, and have never mixed and matched stock and custom. The adapter module you previously posted - got it, no biggie, all the wiring and whatnot, again, no biggie, I did the entire Dakota system myself. Basically I want quality but not like $500 per speaker kinda quality you know? Don't necessarily have a tight budget, but I'd like to keep it under or around a couple thousand or so. Gotta save some money for leveling kit, window tint, new rims and tires, exhaust, intake. =D

 

Yea, I got ya. I have always mixed and matched as I'm usually working with a budget, but if you are pulling out the stops like that, then I would say that you need to look at top end Alpine, JL, or Polk. Polk is putting out some insane products at the moment, and they are still reasonably priced.

http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_5...owAll=N&tp=105

http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_1...owAll=N&tp=105

Alpine Amp- http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_5....html?tp=35782

Polk Amp- http://www.crutchfield.com/p_107PA50....html?tp=35782

 

Nice, I'm digging the polks you linked thanks...

What exactly DOES that alpine system come with? Like the speakers sizes I'm not sure what's in each door, the ceiling, what size tweeters, how big that center channel is, etc. I know it's got an 8" sub and that's about it lol.

 

all the door speakers are 6x9 and the tweeters in the dash are 3.5's i just have the 6 speakers so i dont know about the center or overhead speakers. crutchfield will say 6.5 for the doors but every single person i have read that changed speakers say they are 6x9

 

Well, from looking at Doc's thread about the Hertz, those are most defiantly NOT 6x9's. Those look to be a 6 1/2" round speakers. 6X9 speakers are oblong, and most companies are going away from them since they can't recreate sound as well as a true round speaker. Oblong 6X9's were engineered for one purpose- Door fitment. I can't say what exactly is coming in those trucks, but I would doubt that they have those oblongs. Lemme do some looking around and see just what those different systems have installed on them.


Just by looking at some interior shots, I can see that at least the front doors DO come with 6x9 speakers from the factory. Thing to remember here is that a 6x9 oblong opening will accommodate a 6 1/2" round speaker usually with out an adapter plate, but sometimes they will require it. Not a big deal considering that most AM speakers will have those plates included.

That is some old info, but still sustainable. I'm still hunting around....

 

boooo so no roof speaker upgrades whatsoever...wonder how that's going to be affected...also btw Laramie1997 I've never done any more than a 6 speaker + sub + deck + amps setup before so I don't know what you'd recommend for multiple amps for 9 speakers, ie one for the sub(s) obviously but then what about for all the speakers? get one big one and bridge the top and bottom rears, then have the fronts wired with the dash speakers, what about the center channel, tweeters, etc. I know this is going to be a bigger and more complicated project than anything I've done before.

 

IMO your over-rating MTX and Kicker, but for the most part, your outline above tells me you have a good ear and can distinguish and outline the many nuances of audio.

I'm a fan of Focal, and if I'm in a frugal mood, Eclipse. Contemplating McIntosh for my Ram this time around for my audio system, but after outlining the prices of their components, I'm re-considering. Any experience/opinion with McIntosh products for car audio? I know they have a cult following and are highly revered in home audio. Just unsure if it's worth the big $$.

 

Yea, I had to have a small "sit and think" session before adding those two to my list, but due to the fact that they are economical and most non audiophiles think they are more than enough, I added them in.

Up until your post, I had never heard of McIntosh brand lines. If they started in home audio, I don't think you wouldn't be satisfied. Just look at Polk... They got their start in home audio and they have some amazing items out for car audio.

I will have to look into them a little bit though.

 

i tried to stay out of this thread because i dont want to seem like im showing off my stuff in EVERY thread, and laramie was givin good info.. but i just feel i can end some confusion.

the front door speakers ARE 6x9

the reason crutchfield says 6 1/2 is because the opening is very shallow. So if you were to try to fit GOOD 6x9s in there.. they wouldnt fit.. however most 6 1/2 are much shallower.

if you look in my hertz thread you will see that surrounding my hertz in dynamat.. we put that over the adapter to help seal it and reduce flexing.

just to go over my set up in case no one knows. I still have the stock head unit (not nav but has harddrive and touch screen).

the front doors have mostly low frequency's.. the dash on the sides carry the highs. So i took the signal from my dash and doors and sent them to the cross over to my component hertz. I dunno what freq its set at .. but it sounds really good.

the only other stereo mod i have is an amplified MTX thunderform box (i have recently switched out the subs to RE) and a alpine class d 600 watt amp. btw.. any mtx thunderform from a ram newer than 2002 will fit. doesnt matter if you have a crew, quad, mega.. they are all the same... so any box you find that fits say a 2005 mega cab... will fit your 2009+ quad or crew... or mega when they come out

i used the stock radio to lower the sound on my back door speakers so i get get better imaging in the front.

with this set up.. its ****ing LOUD... just to show off to my cousin yesterday.. i turned it all the way up with some Staind playing and i had o yell at him to talk to him.. and he still couldnt hear me.

i still have all my stock radio functions.. including my rear roof speakers working.. but they only come on when you stick a dvd in anyway.

the only bad thing i can say is the center channel is pretty loud.. im either going to switch it to a matching hertz unit or disconnect it altogether when i swap out head units soon.

i had some of their home theatre stuff.. and yeah its impressive. but nothing magical. They have some nice amps.. but so does marantz but they dont make car audio.

for instance their MCC406M.. which looks like a nice amp.. but its $1900 for a 50x4 & 100x2.... you could get a bad *** 1000 watt JL class d amp for your subs and a nice amp for your speakers and come out a lot less than $1900 and i promise you if you closed your eyes.. you couldnt tell the difference. in fact that $650 1000 watt jl amp would shake you outa your truck.. and i dont think you could hear the difference between 0.05 and 0.005 distortion

i have a feeling that people who buy that $1900 amp listen to mozart in their bentley and wanted something to match their home audio system.

clarion used to own mcintosh.. not sure if they still do though

http://www.clarion.com/jp/en/company...osh/index.html

but if you have the change.. i suspect it would be really nice stuff to listen to the dixie chicks with lol