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Stock Bighorn stereo upgrade

sskay

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So I have a new 2019 Ram Bighorn with the stock 6 speaker audio system. My father purchased a Laramie with 9 speaker Alpine system. It is a night and day difference!! This may be a stupid question, but can you upgrade to the alpine system from the base 6 speaker after the fact? I understand that there are 3 more speakers, and two are in the rear ceiling panel, but what are my options? I upgraded the stock speakers themselves to quality aftermarkets in the dash and front/rear doors, but it still doesn't sound even close to the Alpine 9. In the summer with the windows down I can't even hear the radio, and there is no bass what so ever! I don't need to shatter glass, but just some quality deep sound would be fantastic! Any advise out there for me?
 

Patsy1099

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If you’ve already upgraded the speakers in the dash and door, only thing left to do is an amp(s) and sub(s). Which ones you choose depend on your ear and your wallet. You can easily make that sound better than the alpine. Head over to the stock stereo upgrade thread. It’s long.

If you are going to do it yourself you can add the harness below inline to your anc underneath your drivers seat. Then you can add a Loc/dsp, amp(s) and sub(s). Done. Note though that your loc/dsp must present a load to the head unit otherwise it won’t send audio. If your loc/dsp doesn’t have that feature built in you can add 5W 47ohm resistors to the + inputs into your loc/dsp. I will also include a link for an awesome and reasonable dsp below that has the load feature built in. All you will need besides the harness and dsp below are amps and subs of your choice.

Your other option would be to pull your head unit and connect a Maestro unit. A bit more work and $.
Good luck. Keep us posted.

Pac harness

Dayton DSP 408
 

parnine

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multiple, and extensive threads on this subject - search is your best friend :)
 

sskay

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If you’ve already upgraded the speakers in the dash and door, only thing left to do is an amp(s) and sub(s). Which ones you choose depend on your ear and your wallet. You can easily make that sound better than the alpine. Head over to the stock stereo upgrade thread. It’s long.

If you are going to do it yourself you can add the harness below inline to your anc underneath your drivers seat. Then you can add a Loc/dsp, amp(s) and sub(s). Done. Note though that your loc/dsp must present a load to the head unit otherwise it won’t send audio. If your loc/dsp doesn’t have that feature built in you can add 5W 47ohm resistors to the + inputs into your loc/dsp. I will also include a link for an awesome and reasonable dsp below that has the load feature built in. All you will need besides the harness and dsp below are amps and subs of your choice.

Your other option would be to pull your head unit and connect a Maestro unit. A bit more work and $.
Good luck. Keep us posted.

Pac harness

Dayton DSP 408

Thank you Patsy1099! Your input was extremely helpful. When I move forward on this I will definitely let you know the outcome. Thanks again!
 

Wesalexleft

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Thought about it for a minute....with the stock Bighorn 6 speaker system, can the stock Alpine amp be put inline with the ANC and get more power that way? If so, would all power, etc be in the plug? Just looking online, and there are some people selling their stock Alpine amps. Seemed like it might be an easy way to get a little more power to the doors without breaking the bank.
 

RichInMN

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Thought about it for a minute....with the stock Bighorn 6 speaker system, can the stock Alpine amp be put inline with the ANC and get more power that way? If so, would all power, etc be in the plug? Just looking online, and there are some people selling their stock Alpine amps. Seemed like it might be an easy way to get a little more power to the doors without breaking the bank.
Sadly that won't work - your head unit puts out amplified power for the speakers, whereas the Alpine head unit outputs a preamplified line signal for the factory amp, they are very different animals.

I'd grab that Dayton DSP and a reasonable 4 channel amp - you will end up with a system that sounds way better than your dad's for a handful of hundred bucks. You can always add a sub later. :cool:
 

lapedr

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I can agree with RichlnMN, I tried to replace the anc with a alpine amp and no sound no luck (no sound) so I just added a factory sub (behind rear seat) and tapped into the left rear output and it sounds great.
 

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