Base 6 speaker upgrade options?

[rick619]

I'm planning to just replace the OEM speakers for now and not do an amp or sub.

So I'm planning to buy:
2 sets of the Infinity 6X9 - Infinity Reference REF697F
1 pair of the 3.5" - Infinity Reference REF307F
iDatalink bCH3 ANC Bypass Harness

That way I can just install them myself. I watched a few youtube videos, doesn't look too difficult. I'm confident that I can just do a speaker replacement. Don't want to get into running the cables for the amp, that's above my skill level. I have all those items in my Crutchfield cart which comes with the adapters. Looked yesterday and saw Amazon had a better deal on the 6X9's. So prefer Crutchfield, might call them and see if they will price match.

Probably going to pull the trigger next week sometime. Still reading reviews to see if I want to change it up. Looks like Infinity, Kicker, and JBL get pretty good reviews. All are 3ohm which is what Crutchfield suggests.

The tentative plan is to swap in the speakers and re-evaluate. Decide then if I want to pay to have an amp, DSP, possibly a sub installed later. I got an estimate from two local places to do everything. Told them $1500 budget. Both came back with estimates around $2500 lol. With just the speakers and doing it myself, looks like right around $400. I know it won't sound as good, but save myself over $2000 and I'm sure it will sound better than the OEM garbage.

 

[rick619]

I bought everything. Ended up getting:

2 sets of the Infinity 6X9 - Infinity Reference REF697F
1 pair of the 3.5" - Infinity Reference REF307F

I'll get the ANC bypass later if I need it. At least per Crutchfield, I don't need it. So looking forward to installing everything this weekend. I'm sure there will be some cursing involved. All in all, doesn't look too difficult.

One person on a Car Audio forum suggested that I won't need the tweeter in the 6X9 set up front and actually suggested clipping the wire for the tweeter. Said that with the 3.5" in the dash, don't really want another tweeter in the doors up front. I don't doubt he could be correct. Though I don't plan on doing that, at least at first. Figure I need to return/exchange them, that might be a problem. Plus I figure I'm not dealing with audiophile quality here. That combined with my already impaired hearing, I think it will be fine.

From my previous experience as an audiophile back in the 80's, I do realize the front stage would likely be better if the front door speaker was just a mid and no tweeter. This would be eaiser to do with a larger selection of 4ohm components. Though with lower end 3ohm, not as easy to do.

Figure I'll address that in stage 2, if there is a stage two. Hopefully the above will be enough. Maybe add a sub at some point. Otherwise, could add an amp and possibly switch to higher end components up front. For now, just trying to get rid of the low quality cardboard sound.

 

[Jedi9]

I did 2 sets of the 9632 coax speakers front and rear, and 3032 in the dash. Ended up putting a 4 ohm resistor in line with the front dash speakers because they overpowered everything else, the stock fronts are 8 ohm. with the 3 ohm fronts and without the resistor I measured around a 1 ohm load on the fronts total. If you are using Metra speaker wiring adaptors note the dash adaptors are different from the door adaptors and the dash adaptors are wired with reverse polarity and the pins should be swapped

 

[rick619]

I did 2 sets of the 9632 coax speakers front and rear, and 3032 in the dash. Ended up putting a 4 ohm resistor in line with the front dash speakers because they overpowered everything else, the stock fronts are 8 ohm. with the 3 ohm fronts and without the resistor I measured around a 1 ohm load on the fronts total. If you are using Metra speaker wiring adaptors note the dash adaptors are different from the door adaptors and the dash adaptors are wired with reverse polarity and the pins should be swapped

I think I understood that lol. So how do you install the resistor for the front and what do I buy for that?

Also, for the front 3.5", it came with the Metra 72-7902 for the front (72-6514 for the two sets of 6X9).

Link for the front adapter:

Metra 72-7902 Speaker Wiring Adapters

Fits select 1998-up vehicles — connect new speakers to factory wiring plugs

www.crutchfield.com

Is that what you got? How do I tell if it needs to be reversed?

 

[Jedi9]

Yes, I used the Metra 72-7902. The black wire is the negative, has the small connector that fits on the small spade of the speaker. somewhere around this forum is a diagram of the base 6 non amplified system. I'll see if I can find it.
The reason for the resistor, and I tried without it. The radio is basically a 4 channel radio, with 2 channels rear and 2 channels front. The fronts are component speakers running on the same channel on each side. The door woofer and the dash tweeter are hooked together in parallel, providing a total load of around 3 ohms or so, which is what the rear door speakers are.

 

[Jedi9]

Linky to Resistor

 

[rick619]

Yes, I used the Metra 72-7902. The black wire is the negative, has the small connector that fits on the small spade of the speaker. somewhere around this forum is a diagram of the base 6 non amplified system. I'll see if I can find it.
The reason for the resistor, and I tried without it. The radio is basically a 4 channel radio, with 2 channels rear and 2 channels front. The fronts are component speakers running on the same channel on each side. The door woofer and the dash tweeter are hooked together in parallel, providing a total load of around 3 ohms or so, which is what the rear door speakers are.

Still not clear on how to check if the metra adapter is wired incorrectly. Is there a different company that makes them correct? I just figure if it's been configured incorrectly, at some point they might have fixed it. So don't want to reverse it and find out they already fixed it.

I don't want to be trying to second guess all of this during the install. I'm sure if I asked Crutchfield they will say everything is already wired correctly?

 

[Jedi9]

Need to find the factory wiring diagram and you can see which wires are + and - on the factory plug, when you plug the Metra adaptor into it the black should be the - on the factory plug. Let me see if I can find it.

 

[Jedi9]

Had to screenshot and convert to jpeg as it was a pdf and I couldn't figure out how to load it. This isn't the actual diagram with the ANC system but the speaker wire colors are the same and it shows the connection of the dash speakers to the door speakers so you can see how they are tied together. Left front speakers - is gray with yellow stripe and left front + is gray with violet stripe. Right front - is dark green with yellow stripe and right front + is dark green with violet stripe

 

[rick619]

View attachment 186002
Had to screenshot and convert to jpeg as it was a pdf and I couldn't figure out how to load it. This isn't the actual diagram with the ANC system but the speaker wire colors are the same and it shows the connection of the dash speakers to the door speakers so you can see how they are tied together. Left front speakers - is gray with yellow stripe and left front + is gray with violet stripe. Right front - is dark green with yellow stripe and right front + is dark green with violet stripe

Awesome, thanks for the info!

 

[Jedi9]

Your welcome, my next plan is installing a small Kicker amp with the Key technology

 

[rick619]

Your welcome, my next plan is installing a small Kicker amp with the Key technology

Which amp are you getting?

 

[Jedi9]

Kicker 47KEY2004, little 4 channel amp with built in auto DSP. Going to give it a try Kicker Linky

 

[rick619]

Kicker 47KEY2004, little 4 channel amp with built in auto DSP. Going to give it a try Kicker Linky

I like the small size of that one, be able to fit it anywhere. Looks like the AI DSP would be good for someone like me that doesn't have any experience with tuning.

 

[Jedi9]

It'll be another week or so before I have time to put it in. The new speakers are sounding great and clear but something is missing with the factory tune. Hopefully this little amp will provide it.

 

[jiffi]

Installed these in my truck and am really pleased with the sound, they are made sepcifically for Ram.

KFC-XP6903C | eXcelon | Car Entertainment | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

 

[rick619]

Installed these in my truck and am really pleased with the sound, they are made sepcifically for Ram.

KFC-XP6903C | eXcelon | Car Entertainment | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

Looks like those would work well. Though oddly, Crutchfield says they won't fit. Not sure why, maybe because they're 4 ohm.

 

[rick619]

I installed the 3.5" in the dash yesterday morning and did the front 6X9 this morning. Stopped because it was getting hot and my hands were cramping up a bit from prying the door panels off. Not too difficult, just tedious and a learning curve to get the door handle wire out and get the door panels off an on. I used zip ties to try and keep the metra adapters out of the way of the windows. The speakers are actually the easy part. I'll do the rear 6X9 next weekend.

So far it sounds MUCH better than the stock garbage. Very happy with the Infinity Reference speakers. I didn't use an ANC bypass. Turned it up pretty loud and went for a drive while running some errands. Cycled through a variety of different music. No issues.

 

[rick619]

I bought the PAC ANC-CH01. Not really having issues, but figured I'd get it in case there are problems when I install the rear speakers. Looks like an easy plug in.