2005 Dodge Ram 3500 QC

I'm upgrading my four speaker system to a six speaker system. I'll be using a Kenwood DX418 HU and using Kicker 3.5's in the dash, 6x9's in the front doors, and 6.5 coaxials in the rear doors. I'll be powering these with an Alpine 4 channel amp 70w per channel at 4ohms and 100 per channel at 2ohms. I'll have a separate amp for a 12" sub.


Question is, whats the best way to wire these up? Should I run the 4 door speakers off the amplifiier and the dash speakers off the HU? or all 6 speakers off the amp...running the front door and dash speakers in parallell at 2ohms?

or lose the dash speakers and buy 6.5 components for the front door and mount the tweeters in the dash?

All opinions welcome...

thanks
jasper

 

The dash is a crappy location for speakers, your sound stage will shift way left since the sound from the left dash speaker is closer to your ear. If it was me id put 6.5 components in the kick panels and lose the dash speakers and maybe even the door speakers. Though the door speakers are 6x9 up front they can pump out decent mid bass as opposed to the 6.5.

 

yeah like you said, i'm a big fan of 6x9's because of the midbass that they bring to the table. Never been able to get that from a 6.5. I'm looking for everything to be loud with clarity. My ears aren't much of an audiophile, I can't really tell the difference between a perfectly balanced system as to one that isn't so perfect. but i can hear distortion right away. I'm looking into the polk mm6501, but not sure how they'll compare to having four speakers up front.

 

4 speakers up front doesn't mean anything if they are mediocre speakers!

I had polk db series 6x9's and they had lots of bass with an added amp, but my Boston Acoustic 6.5"comps have as much bass and are much clearer and defined in all acoustic ranges.
4 speakers over 2 speakers...only adds 3db more at rated power.
So, take 2 speakers at 150W that are rated for 91db, and add 2 more same speakers with same power and you'll get 94db MAX.

Your better off with better sounding speakers than mutliple speakers.

 

There's a youtube video (can't post link now) that shows a guy who had the 3.5 dash speakers hooked up to an amp, and he was overpowering the speakers; said he was smellign smoke. He ended up taking the 3.5 dash speakers to the HU, and ran the other four through the amp.

 

Ok so based on what you guys are saying i'm leaning towards components now. Does everyone feel that the 7 speaker stock infinity setup sounds crappy? I didn't think it sounded that bad in a friends truck.

So I guess the next question is ....which components to use.

Do you remember which boston acoustics you had or at least a price range they were in? The polks I mentioned above have good reviews and were about 200 bucks. Money is definitely an issue, but i've found that instead of buying something in my budget, I find the ones i really want and figure out a way to come up with the money lol

 

You can always find good deals on ebay. Do you ave your head unit already? Have you thought about upgrading to a double DIN

 

Yes I'm going the double din route. Picked up a used kenwood locally. My bezel is on its way to you as we speak and the RB4 thats in there now is going on ebay. Sucks my uconnect won't work with aftermarket.


I'm pretty sure i'm going with Alpine Type-R SPR-60C for front and rear. Just recieved my foxbox which is gonna hold a 12" Alpine type R sub. Hopefully it should all come together nicely.

 

Where did you get the bezel from because I dont recognize the screen name so I dont think you got one of mine did you?

www.youtube,com/weedahoe

 

Yeah I just sent it to you today.