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newbie door speaker upgrade

weddow

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2007
Messages
56
Location
Cibolo, Texas
Hello, I have a budget I am trying to stay on in regards to a stereo system upgrade. I received a quote from a shop and its a few dollars over my budget. They are to install a new HU, backup camera, box and woofers under the seat, and new amp. They also included on the quote front door speakers with install. My question is, are the door speakers just plug and play? Would the aftermarket ones work after all the other install is done? Is this something I can do myself? I don't want to miss with the install of the HU and wiring of the amp and woofers but if I can save money from the over priced door speakers and labor costs I would like to do so. I can use the existing door wires and upgrade the BOSE speakers correct? Thanks for your help.
 
You should talk to customer service at www.Crutchfield.com , they are great to deal with and can help you get all the parts including wiring adapters to keep all functions on your AV. They can build a system to fit your budget and help with install too.
 
As I recall, the front doors have 6.5" speakers with a separate tweeter & crossover. I used MB Quartz, but other brands I'd be happy with include Plok, Kicker & JBL. Crutchfield should have all of those available. Installation is pretty easy if you use the stock wiring.
 
Crutchfield has adapter kits for the speakers in the front doors as well. I cut the old factory speakers up and reused them to mount mine.

If you have the BOSE system (Center console with BOSE on the doors) you have the BOSE system with seperate woofer and tweeter.

Both wires combine at the tweeter so if you use a passive crossover you want to cut the wires at the tweeter harness, figure out which ones go to the tweeter and which ones go to the door speaker and put the cross over there.

I have Memphis seperates and did this. Be aware of the depth of the tweeters as mine are too deep and I need to redo it. I used double sided tape and taped the cross overs to some duct work in the dash and they should stay right there...

So... Again for the fronts.. You need to remove the top dash piece first and you will see where the wiring is.. There are 4 wires going to each tweeter connector. And 2 wires from the tweeter to that connector. If you cut those 4 wires you will be able to pair them up easily as they are twisted pairs. Then identify which pair of those wires comes from the radio and which goes to the door speakers. Then only one pair of wires is needed to the tweeter connector for the tweeter, the door one goes to the  woofer portion of the crossover and the one coming from the radio is the one for the input to the cross over.

I am running 100 watts to my front speakers and they are very loud but sound decent with factory deck.

Note when you install you may have to run your power wires for your amp directly to the battery. I installed a second battery and tied my ground for the amplifiers to the seat belt mount in the rear and I get alternator whine. Going to be rewiring my power lines and will be running both wires directly to the battery to remove this noise.
 
Reading it again it might have been a little cloudy...

Rear door speakers are just a pair of wires...

The fronts in my truck I have tweeters in the A pillars and I BELIEVE to be 6" speakers in the doors. Again need to check to be sure.

The factory radio sends an amplified signal (25x4 maybe?) to the BOSE amplifier. The BOSE amplifier amplifies them even further and adds a 6" subwoofer (It is in the front of your center console). The amplified wires from the amplifier then go back to the same wire harness as the radio and splits off to the front and rear speakers. For the rear speakers it goes right to the speakers. For the front speakers the amplified feed goes to the tweeters first. Then from the tweeter connector it goes to the door speakers. At the tweeter connector the tweeter can be connected or removed. The line going from the amplifier and to the front door meet at the connector for the tweeter that is mounted to the A pillar frame.

So in my truck I had to figure out which pair of wires to the tweeter were from the radio and which went to the front door speakers. If you cut back the wire about 4 inches you will see the wires are paired up into two twisted pairs which makes it way easier to figure out.

I cut these 2 pairs of wires about 3 inches from the tweeter connector but my passive crossover already had wires connected to it. You may have to add wires to yours if your passive crossover doesn't have its own wires.

For my Passive crossovers I found the pair coming from the amplifier and hooked to the "IN" of the passive crossover. A pair of wires from the "Tweeter Out" of the passive crossover went to the tweeter connector, and the "Woofer out" wires went to the pair going to the front door.

Note for an after market radio since the BOSE amplifier comes back to the same harness as the radio you are able to use a different adapter and bypass the BOSE amplifier all together and go right to the speakers. This is useful for powered aftermarket decks.

I have my factory radio routed to a line level adapter but wired into the factory wiring in the console. I ran some wiring to behind the rear seat. I have bypassed the factory BOSE amplifer and actually removed it and the subwoofer from the console to make room for my PC and its accessories.

I have roughly 6 channels of sound in my truck. I ran the fronts to an amplifier that is putting out 100 watts to my front speakers and 70 watts to my rear speakers. (Rear speakers are really just for fill... You want all of the music to sound like its coming from the dash.)
I also have 2 of my 3 12" subs connected to a 2x250 amplifier.

With 100 watts going to my Memphis Separates and 70 watts going to my rear Kickers and 250 each going to my Alpine BASS speakers the sound is too loud to safely listen to full volume. I didn't realize just how loud it is until I was gasing my truck last night and had the drivers window open with the volume at half way. The bass seems to be lacking a little but probably because the other speakers are too loud. Didn't sound bad but bass wasn't as loud as I would have expected.
But was loud enough to hear well in the store... At half volume it is probably about as loud as factory amplifier normally is.

I will be changing my sound system around a little now that I have the 12 inch subs in the midgate.

Ok probably went a little further than I should but hopefully you get some ideas. I cut into the console wiring to go to my after market amplifiers then used the same batch of wiring to run power to all of my door and tweeter speakers. The subs are wired directly to the amplifiers. The amp turn on is a function of the low level convertor.

Rodney
 
Figured I'd add to this.  I've read a ton of info and watched a ton of videos and think I may be on the right track.

I have a Pioneer DDin DVD, pioneer subs/amp, and stock speakers. 

If i'm reading this correctly, I can install rear speakers, low watts, and run off bose amp no problem.  Front speakers are different.  Need to rewire the doors and tweeters because bose are run in parallel. 

Doesn't seem like a big deal really.  The question looms though, bypassing the bose amp.  Need or no need.  And are there harnesses off the shelf that'll do the job?
 
AirJunky said:
As I recall, the front doors have 6.5" speakers with a separate tweeter & crossover. I used MB Quartz, but other brands I'd be happy with include Plok, Kicker & JBL. Crutchfield should have all of those available. Installation is pretty easy if you use the stock wiring.

Just want to add my personal experience with MB Quart and other brands.  Back in ?91 I started to really get into buying ?good? speakers. Basically I stepped away from the ones folks bought at the big K and Wally World.  :E:

In my opinion, MB Quarts will give you the balance between vocal and instrumental.  Boston Acoustics and Polk Audio lean more toward vocal.  What do I mean?  Well If I were going to listen to the majority of acoustic on softer music, Boston?s and Polk?s are the way to go.  Because I listen to a wide range, I went with MB Quart.

don?t start bashing my interpretation of Polk or Boston speakers.  Again, this is just one man?s opinion.

Bottom line, they are all great speakers you?ll just need to decide for yourself.  Recommend listening to the MB Quarts, they rock!
 
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