DIY: Basic Speaker Upgrade- 2nd Gen Access Cab

Depends on the truck.

Some models come with round speakers....

 

Damn! After ordering all my stuff, but before installing it this weekend, I'm starting to have second thoughts about my speaker selection. Let me throw this out there to see what you folks think.

Vehicle: 2011 Access Cab, non JBL, tweeter and 6x9 in front doors, craptastic headliner "speakers".

Owner: 51 year old music lover, not interested in thumping at stop lights.

Purchased from Crutchfield:

HU: Pioneer AVH-P2400BT DVD Receiver
Speakers: Boston Acoustics SC55 5.25" Coaxial Speaker 50W RMS
Subwoofer:

$270 Kicker 11HS8 Kicker Hideaway Powered Enclosure HS8 - Used Acceptable

Kicker 11HS8 8" Compact Powered Subwoofer

Plus all the harnesses, steering wheel control, XM receiver, blah, blah, blah...

I'm reading this thread this morning, hoping to pick up some tips on what to do with my current tweeters and the craptastic ceiling speakers, and I see that 6x9s in the doors are possible, despite what the product selector at Crutchfield said a couple of days ago. I reach out to them, and ask them why they are stating this, and get this response:

"Because they aren't the same size as aftermarket 6x9's. Aftermarket will have a bigger cut out diameter and bigger hole pattern. You would have to do cutting in the doors to get them in."

Well, I don't want to cut the doors, but it appears that some of you have put 6x9s in without cutting the doors. So I'm thinking of a few options at this point, and wanted some opinions:

1. Keep what I have.
2. Return the Boston 5.5 speakers, buy 6x9s and the ********* adapter, and ditch the sub.
3. Return the Boston 5.5 speakers, buy 6x9s and the ********* adapter, and keep the sub.
4. Return the Boston 5.5 speakers, buy a 6.5 component system, and keep the sub.
5. Something else?

I was all fired up to put the system in this weekend, but am now kinda pissed to see that I wasn't told the whole story by Crutchfield.

 

#4. A 6.5" has the most natural sound compared to other cone sizes. component tweeter puts the highs where they need to be.


No matter your age or musical taste, a sub is always necessary for proper sound reproduction. The key is in balancing that spectrum properly, where some people either eliminate it or overemphasize it.

 

Crutchfield is telling me I would need to add an amp, in order to run components, the HU that I have won't drive them.

 

I assume you already had amps due to the sub.
Depending on the speakers, you might not need an amp, but if you were actually able to find components that didn't require an amp, they would be so cheapo you probably wouldn't like them. If you really want good sound, an amp is going to be a necessity. Due to space constraints, either get a 5 channel or take a hard look at solid state amps.
If it's out of budget, your option is to keep with the Boston. You can only go so far with HU power, and either accept it or give in to your spendier tastes


Also, I highly recommend Mr Marv spacers in comparison to *********. A much better business to deal with!

 

That sub has it's own amp. I think I'm going to scratch the component option, as I don't really want to add an amp. It's not a budget issue, but more of what I want to drop into something I don't drive that much, ('11 with 17K miles). I don"t know if there is that much difference between the 5.5 and a 6.5...

 

I have a set of component 6.5 Infiniti Kappa's up front and a set of 6.5 coaxl Infiniti Kappa's in the rear, both running of of the deck. I'm guessing by your age and stated desires that you will be just fine running off the deck. It won't be until the very high end of where you would ever likely set your volume that you would begin to notice distortion. I say, run the components.

 

Having an amp does not mean you have to run at high volume.

At low volume, an amp can provide a fuller-bodied sound and more accurate reproduction. Spendier, high-quality amps are needed when you want to achieve that same quality at higher volume levels.

 

I am well aware of what an amp does. I was merely expressing the fact that he could likely run components without an amp and still achieve satisfactory results within the parameters of what I believe his listening habits to be. The fact that anyone would think that he could not run components off a deck simply because they were components versus coaxl is ridiculous.

 

BTW.... I am not challenging your reasoning, clean power and higher output voltage will always provide for a cleaner and truer reproduction.

 

Did the 6 X 9 thing with ********* adaptors in the front doors...took about 45 minutes total. Did the rear doors with the 6 1/2" adaptors from Crutchfield... took about 40 minutes. Replaced the factory radio with a kit from Crutchfield...took about an hour 'cuz I had Sirius stuff to contend with. Would not have even considered doing this project on my own without the help and support of y'all. Thanks to the members who put so much into this forum.

 

yeah thanks, this is on my list of mods todo lol

 

I could be wrong but I thought the person asking the question, his truck has the larger openings. I wasn't answering to every possible configuration.

Sorry about slow replies, been rather busy.

 

Nice write up, it helped me see what I to expect before I even ordered new speakers. Thanks all who contributed!

I think El Hombre and Xjake have an error. On my truck it was:

Driver Front + violet
Driver Front - pink
Passenger Front + blue
Passenger Front - green

But then again it may be different for different year trucks. I would suggest anyone that is going to replace factory speakers with component speakers simply take a look at their factory tweeter terminal to see which wire of the tweeter harness is soldered to the positive terminal. On my '07 the red wire was positive for both the driver and passenger doors:


Follow the red wire to the sub harness connector to see what color wire on the door harness connects with the red wire. In my truck it was the violet wire on the driver side and the blue wire on the passenger side:

DRIVER SIDE:PASSENGER SIDE:

 

I see a lot of people installing component speakers in the front doors, has anyone ever installed components in the rear doors of a double cab? If so where did you install the tweeters?

 

Well folks install the components in the front doors because there is a tweeter already in the doors so it's an easy replacement. The rear doors are another story, no factory tweeters. I doubt many people install a separate tweeter in the rear doors but I wouldn't be shocked at all to see some folks doing it. I believe there have been many threads on the issue of any benefit of installing additional tweeters and it came out to no benefit to the driver so why do it. Who sits in the back, normally kids.

Sorry for the long answer but I'm sure someone has done it.

 

It's those reasons plus:

Comps cost more

It interferes with proper staging. The idea is to have proper sound staging for the driver. Trying to stage for everyone isnt really possible because the speakers are too close to achieve it. With this in mind, in staging it is important to be able to pick out where certain sounds are coming from, rather than a wall of sound. Tweeters in the rear usually defeats this.

Even when you aren't focused on staging, tweeters in the rear can produce a confusing sound and it 'just won't sound right'

With proper staging, rear speakers barely matter, and are used more as a fill. The fade control is focused to the forward speakers and the rears are brought in only enough to fill the gap.

 

Can you guys confirm.

I am going to replace my front speakers with components. I don't care about using the plugs, I will cut whatever wire is needed.

From factory the wires from the HU goes to the tweeter first? What is the polarity (color) of the wire?

I plan to do the following:

1) cut wire leads before the tweeter. Then use those wires, going to my new crossover.

2) from new crossover, install new wire to new woofer and tweeter.

In the past, I would use a battery to test the polarity, by yanking out the factory speaker. Then use direct wires to the speaker and a battery to test the polarity.

 

That will work fine.

Here's the factory wiring. The gray box is just a sleeve that conceals the joined wires.

 

Rich,

Are the neg/pos wires label in red and black on the taco? I am actually surprised...