stock audio

[tntway]

hi gang, i may be in the wrong forum for this but here goes.

ordered the stock am/fm/cd w/ infinity speakers. have had the

truck 5 months today. i've been satisfied with the sound system,

until about 2 days ago. decided that it was missing something.

i'd call it fullness in the sound. flipped my little directional joystick around and WOW!! the rear speakers sound just like MUD!!



questions are these: what are good INEXSPENSIVE 3- way speakers to put in the rear? is a sub and an amp hard to hook up to the stock player? is my problem the stock player? what else can i do to "beef up" the sound?



don't have a lot to spend. cash is EXTREMELY limited (red valve cover, EZ and exhaust brake on indefinate hold). any help is more than appreciated. i've already looked in Crutchfield and will probably buy from them but i don't really know what i'm looking for.



p. s. listen to, but not limited to country, pop, and classical.

 

[SOLER]

Stock Infinity Blows

Ordinary stock speakers are crap. The cheapest after-market sound-pumpers are leaps and bounds above anything stock. Look in the Crutchfield mag at the front of the car speaker section. The cone is made of paper. Stock Infinity are crap, too. They are better than the plain-jane stuff, but still crap. If you know even a little about how to "tune" the sound, you know that the location of the tweeters is not the ideal location due to the distance from the woofers. It's too far. But, unless you want to just leave the screen there and perhaps mount some tweeters somewhere else, you are stuck. Crutchfield is a good source to figure out what will fit in the stock location.



Infinity speakers are not the greatest out there, but aren't bad. It is just the stuff Dodge puts in there that suck rocks. The cone is paper, just like the plain-jane stuff. And there is just no way that you can get paper to produce decent sound.



I had the Infinity setup in my Y2K truck, and was actually upset when my Y2K+1 did not. When I found out that it wasn't that great to start with, I realized that it was a blessing.



This is what I did with my current truck. I put Infinity Reference component speakers in the front doors. I made holes in the top of the door panels about 3" below the window ledge, and 6" in front of where the cloth on the arm rest ends. They are adjustable, and they both point right at me. I had to fab a bracket for the woofer, because I couldn't find a 6x9 component set-up. It wasn't hard. I used 3/8" masonite. But you can use just about anything that will be firm and not vibrate.



I replaced the rear door speakers with same-size 3-way Infinity Kappa's. Even a good set of 2-way speakers in the back will do wonders for you.



The aftermarket Infinty speakers are pretty good all-around. They handle a decent amount of bass and highs. Country has a lot of bass, and these speakers aren't too bad. If you want the heavy, deep, thumping base that you hear when a Cholo-mobile pulls up beside you at a light, get something besides Infinity. Though, expect to pay lots for something like that.



If you want an amp, you will want to do things a little different. Again, Crutchfield is a good source of tech support, as is any competent sound shop.



If you have any more questions, let me know. I don't know how much you want to spend, but I can show exactly what I did with my truck. I did a lot more than just put in new speakers.



SOLER

 

[Cooker]

If you are going to retain the stock CD player you will want to concentrate on speaker that are efficient. I just went through shopping around for efficient speakers for my freinds vehicle because he too, did not want to replace his factory CD player.



He decided on Boston Acoustic speakers for his vehicle, I think it was their FX line of speakers. I will admit they were not the most efficient speakers, but they were very, very close to being the most efficient of the one we listend to. The did however, have the nicest sound, hands down.



If you will be shopping from Crutchfield, which is an excellent company to deal with, I would personally recommend the Pioneer TS-A1665. These speakers sound very nice, IMO, and they were very efficient when compared to many of the others we listened to.



FWIW - The Boston Acoustic 6 1/2" that my friend purchased were also $100 and had a much nicer sound IMO.



Hope this helps,

Ryan

 

[DarrellB]

I have a 99 with the infinity sound system in it and it isn't that bad but it's not great either. I just replaced my factory reciever with a new one from crutchfield and the sound quality is much better. Only down side to the new stereo is it has red lights on it. I called crutchfield today and they said if I don't like it to send it back and pick something else out that I like. They are eaven going to pay the shipping, you can't beat that.



Big D

 

[thepipe1]

Crutchfield

Three years ago, I bought a Sony ES series car stereo from them with a really nice wired remote. While installing it I accidentally cut into the wires, ruining the remote. I called to 'fess up and asked them to send me a new one at my expense. Not only did they replace it for free, but the paid for shipping both ways!



BTW, I still have the unit and recommend Sony very highly.

 

[tntway]

sounds like i'll start with speakers then

are the front doors really 6x9? they don't look it, but i trust crutchfield to no end. their fit guide says rear doors are 6 1/2's.

was at walmart and found some sony's that i like---sony Xplod's

i think they had a fuller sound than the pioneers. my wife commented that the pioneers were"tinny" and i have to agree.



still gonna go thru crutchfield tho' 'cuz you can't beat their tech support and install diagrams.



keep talking to me guys because i don't know that much about in-car audio, but i know i want something different. again, many thanx.

 

[Greg Boardman-RIP]

I have the same, as you said, "MUDDY" sound system. I have a friend that owns a stereo shop. He told me we must scrap stock head unit because each speaker is powered individually. That means there are three wires going to each speaker + - and power. If you take out the stock speakers the new ones wont work because there is no power coming from head unit... ... . A good head unit with 50 watts X four will cost you about $300. A set of speakers (2) will cost $120... ... For under $600 you can sound real good. Make sure there is at least 180 watts coming out of stereo... ... Then you wont even need an amp... ... Amps aren't as easy to install and they can cost upwards of $500 for a quality one... ... . JMHO

 

[tntway]

thanks greg!!

yeah i really want to stay away from doing the amp thing if i can.

don't know if i'll have to add a sub or if good 3-ways will be enough. question for you--should i do the speakers first or the head?? as i said b4 funds are EXTREMELY limited right now.



sorry stupid me--i just reread your post and understand the power thing now...

 

[SlyBones]

Greg is correct the factory infinity systems, have the amps at the speakers. Changing the speakers I think required changing the deck.



Many people just replace the deck and use the factory infinity speakers. I did this in my gasser, but the factory speakers only lasted about 3-4 months. I think the high powered deck blew out the amps in the factory speakers.



I also went with a 8" powered Bakooka Tube. About $300. Has the amp built in with crossover, gain and all that. tucks up under the rear seat of my club cab fairly nice. A person can still sit back there. Gives me all the bass I need without sounding like a teenage Honda. And I can remove it for trailhead parking etc. Just leave it at home.

 

[redneckdr]

sound system

what is a sound system? what are speakers? i guess mine doesn' have 'em. i listen to th' pretty cummins all the time. i put in a sony 10 disc changer under th' back seat. might as well have saved the time and bother. haven't listened to it 30 minutes since i got the exhaust system changed

 

[Cooker]

I agree the Pioneers may not have the nicest sound (although still far better than stock), but they are very efficient. You have to do you own shopping and decide what sound you like the best, but efficieny is still something to keep in mind.



Even if you end up with a new CD player that is rated at 50x4 that is not peak output. In reality it is probably 20-25 watts per channel. And even then, take a look at a quality 25w/channel amp. There is more circuitry in this small amp than your entire CD player. So you still don't have much "qualty" power.



You might ask what they hell I am getting at. All I am saying is without an amp, it is important to concentrate on efficient speakers. Ususally the higher quality (read - better sounding) speakers will require a little more power, and hence are less efficeint.



-Ryan

 

[EricBu12]

I replaced all 4 speakers

I replaced all 4 speakers on mine with boston acoustics.



There is an amp directly mounted to the front speakers but you can remove it. there is a separate spade for the speaker connection so you can put the factory amp on the new speaker. The problem is the mount for the amp is a heat-sink for the amp so I attached a piece of metal on it.



Now the new speakers sound good even up front. The rear ones are a little better but still "muddy" Sounding so the best option is to have a professional bypas the factory amp and install an amp ($200) and maybe a 5 channel amp ($250??) to put in a subwoofer under the center seat ($500) I think the rear speakers bleed off of the front amp and it has not very much power. Now as I said before, replacing thspeakers alone did help but to have a truly great sound, all needs to be replaced but the head unit can be used with all the new eqipment.

Sorry for the long post but I did aska ll the dumb questions at the car audio place and that is what he said.

I do like the boston acoustics.

on the rear speakers, you need to use the frame of the grille cover as a spacer behind the speaker and drill new holes for the screws.

The front 6x9's fit tin the factory place without mods.

Hope this helps

Eric