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subwoofer swap

meltedcheez

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That is what I am getting ready to do right now. Have to call Crutchfield though because the online rep couldn't get the adapters added to the cart for some reason. Ordering the GX302s for the front and the GX963s for the rear doors. I'll leave the fronts doors alone for now as well as the rear speakers in the headliner.

I think this is what I will go with for my base system as well.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Should be solid. I went ahead and bought the GX963s for the front door as well just to get some deeper bass. Also bought another pair of the GX302s for the headliner after somebody confirmed the grills do pop off.
You could have done the GX962 for the front doors same as the GX963 just one less tweeter, all the tweeter is doing is getting in the way of the woofer cone since they won't be getting any signal. When do you plan on installing everything? Hopefully you got all in and can report back before I do mine that way I can just send the stuff back if it sucks and avoid pulling all my door panels off lol, come on man be the guinea pig. Also curious about the difference the 302 make in the headliner. I haven't ordered those, I think it may be overkill on the treble now that the rear doors will have a proper tweeter in them.
 

ksn240

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You could have done the GX962 for the front doors same as the GX963 just one less tweeter, all the tweeter is doing is getting in the way of the woofer cone since they won't be getting any signal. When do you plan on installing everything? Hopefully you got all in and can report back before I do mine that way I can just send the stuff back if it sucks and avoid pulling all my door panels off lol, come on man be the guinea pig. Also curious about the difference the 302 make in the headliner. I haven't ordered those, I think it may be overkill on the treble now that the rear doors will have a proper tweeter in them.
I won't have everything in until next weekend. The dash and rear door speakers will be here Friday and I will get them put in this weekend. The front door and headliner speakers will not be here until Mondsy because I added them late. I probably wont have enough time to put them in during the week.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Also anyone worried about the rear roof speakers leave those in there but change the rear door speakers with the jbl gx963 6x9 it will be so much louder in the back and all around.
Cruz did you have issues with the screw holes matching up in the rear doors ? I tried the gx962 today and only 2 holes match the other 2 are off by an 1/8" or better.
 

cruz1996

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Cruz did you have issues with the screw holes matching up in the rear doors ? I tried the gx962 today and only 2 holes match the other 2 are off by an 1/8" or better.
Had that issue as well I just drilled new holes. And then put some foam tape around the speakers to keep them from any rattling from the vibration
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Had that issue as well I just drilled new holes. And then put some foam tape around the speakers to keep them from any rattling from the vibration
I'm going to perform some surgery on the speaker basket with a dremel tool to enlarge the holes, there is not much space between the holes and the surround though. I sound tested just one door, massive improvement over stock. At least in the rear. Going to attempt the front doors as well even though they're not full range.
 

syddog 2000

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Keep up the good work boys, I want to be sure I get it right !
 

ksn240

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I now have replaced the 3 dash speakers with JBL GX302s, and the rear doors with GX963s. Huge upgrade over stock! Will be doing the headliner and front door speakers sometime next week.
 

vondarius20

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I now have replaced the 3 dash speakers with JBL GX302s, and the rear doors with GX963s. Huge upgrade over stock! Will be doing the headliner and front door speakers sometime next week.
Any tips for removing the rear door panels? Is it difficult?
 

cruz1996

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I'm going to perform some surgery on the speaker basket with a dremel tool to enlarge the holes, there is not much space between the holes and the surround though. I sound tested just one door, massive improvement over stock. At least in the rear. Going to attempt the front doors as well even though they're not full range.
You won’t notice a difference at all with the front doors I wouldn’t even do it
 

ksn240

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Any tips for removing the rear door panels? Is it difficult?
It's pretty simple but you have to pull pretty hard. I was afraid I was going to break something. Pop out the panel behind the door handle and remove that bolt, one more panel a little lower with 2 more bolts under it. After that start pulling starting at the bottom corner. It is on there tight, but does come off.
 

ksn240

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Too late just did the passenger, and you are wrong, I did notice a difference, they sound worse , 100% do not touch the front doors waste of time and money
Awww man don't tell me that. I don't get how they can be worse, damn near anything should beat the stock speakers. Are you sure it wasn't just a bad speaker?
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Alright so, after some experimentation with the alpine system, gx302 in the dash is a must do, gx962 in the rear doors improvement for sure the proper tweeter is just what was missing in the rear, factory front doors are a different part number even though they look identical to the factory rear door speakers, The jbls just couldn't get low enough and a they ruined the front sound stage, leave the fronts alone for sure, I didn't touch the rear headliner but I feel the tweeters in the rear door with the deflectors rotated at 45 degrees is all that's needed. I'm sending my second set of 962s back to crutchfield and calling it done for now.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Awww man don't tell me that. I don't get how they can be worse, **** near anything should beat the stock speakers. Are you sure it wasn't just a bad speaker?
They just don't have the response down at the bottom that the factory speakers do, they sound ok parked but once you're on the road it's like they aren't even there, if they were on a proper amp with the ability to adjust their gain it would be a different story but with the few adjustments available I couldn't get them to perform, there just a hole below 400 hz with them in there. Sounds is subjective though, you might think they sound better but I think they need a woofer biased 6x9 and not a full range 6x9 to replace them.
 

ksn240

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They just don't have the response down at the bottom that the factory speakers do, they sound ok parked but once you're on the road it's like they aren't even there, if they were on a proper amp with the ability to adjust their gain it would be a different story but with the few adjustments available I couldn't get them to perform, there just a hole below 400 hz with them in there. Sounds is subjective though, you might think they sound better but I think they need a woofer biased 6x9 and not a full range 6x9 to replace them.
I'll take your word for it. I may just send them back when they get here. Still going to replace the ones in the headliner.
 

Cannonball

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Alright so, after some experimentation with the alpine system, gx302 in the dash is a must do, gx962 in the rear doors improvement for sure the proper tweeter is just what was missing in the rear, factory front doors are a different part number even though they look identical to the factory rear door speakers, The jbls just couldn't get low enough and a they ruined the front sound stage, leave the fronts alone for sure, I didn't touch the rear headliner but I feel the tweeters in the rear door with the deflectors rotated at 45 degrees is all that's needed. I'm sending my second set of 962s back to crutchfield and calling it done for now.
First off, thank you for the testing and reporting back. There are countless more people reading your write up that you've greatly helped.

A few questions for you:
1. Can you post a comparison pic of the stock door speakers vs jbl. I'm interested to see magnet and woofers compared. Were stock cones paper?
2. So was is a volume loss issue like the base systems guys are experiencing or just a sub 400hz frequency issue? I'm wondering, did you check that polarity wasn't backwards from the amp? I've heard that happening on a few trucks so far.
3. Were you able to find any specs on the different part number of the front speakers? Post the number so we can assist with research.
4. I wonder if there is enough power on those channels to feed a CL-69 SUBCF.2 or HD.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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First off, thank you for the testing and reporting back. There are countless more people reading your write up that you've greatly helped.

A few questions for you:
1. Can you post a comparison pic of the stock door speakers vs jbl. I'm interested to see magnet and woofers compared. Were stock cones paper?
2. So was is a volume loss issue like the base systems guys are experiencing or just a sub 400hz frequency issue? I'm wondering, did you check that polarity wasn't backwards from the amp? I've heard that happening on a few trucks so far.
3. Were you able to find any specs on the different part number of the front speakers? Post the number so we can assist with research.
4. I wonder if there is enough power on those channels to feed a CL-69 SUBCF.2 or HD.


Not a problem, saves people the wasted effort of taking everything apart,
1
I'll snap some comparison pics for you of the rears, I can't get the front because they're reinstalled, but other than part number 52851560aa they look identical to the rears. Cones are poly, they look like Alpine type E speakers from about 6 years ago same blue color Alpine used back then just with chrysler stamps.
2.
Low frequency response was just not as good as the oem, not really a volume issue, polarity was correct. I should have taken some video, fading left to right so others could hear the difference between the 2.
3.
I haven't been able to find specs on much of the factory system, interestingly enough there are multiple part numbers on the speakers some are the same, some different I should have taken a picture while the front was out.
Front 52851560aa
Rear 05064358ab
Both are marked 26777aa
Also these are the same door speakers used in the base 6 speaker system
4.
I think the cl69s.2 would probably work better in the front doors, they have a lower power requirement and shorter mount depth the subcf.2 is a big speaker
 

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