Ram Truck Speaker Upgrade Questions

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Jun 9, 2003
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I recently replaced the dead head unit and degraded speakers in my Alfa. My research lead me to the Kicker 47KS series speakers. I like these enough to replace the tolerable factory units in my Ram.

The front speakers are 6x9 woofers in the doors and 3.5 inch midrange/tweeters in the dash. The rears are 6x9 full range in the doors. The front 6x9 positions are too shallow to take all but a couple lower end 6x9 full range speakers.

The KS series offers a 2.75 inch midrange/tweeter, 3.5 inch full range, 6.5 full range, and 6x9 two and three way full range. The 6.5 inch speakers will fit in the front door positions with the included adapters. There is no dedicated woofer.
https://www.kicker.com/2020-ks-series

Is it acceptable/desirable/undesirable to replace the woofer-tweeter components with full range speakers in both positions? Would you install matching 6.5s in the rear doors or 6x9? If 6x9, is it worth stepping up to the three way over the two way in a rear door position?

Ed
 
Nothing wrong with throwing full-range speakers in both positions. Only thing is, does your truck have the Infinity system? If it does, then the factory speakers are crossed over in the amplifier and no matter what speakers you install, you'll only get low-range from the front doors, high range from the mids/tweets in the dash, and full range from the rear speakers. If you don't have that system, then the front door speakers and dash speakers are likely just wired in series, in which case both of them will play the full range of sound.

*EDIT* I didn't answer your other question. If I were doing it, I would try and find 6x9's that fit within the depth requirements. If that's not feasible, then yes I would run matching 6.5's with adapters in all 4 doors.

*EDIT 2* If you do have the Infinity system, just do the same thing, except substitute a dedicated low-midrange 6.5 for the front door, run a 2 or 3 way in the rear (rear speakers matter very little from the driving position) and install full-range 3.5's in the dash. That should be plenty good.
 
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Originally Posted by 14Accent
Nothing wrong with throwing full-range speakers in both positions. Only thing is, does your truck have the Infinity system? If it does, then the factory speakers are crossed over in the amplifier and no matter what speakers you install, you'll only get low-range from the front doors, high range from the mids/tweets in the dash, and full range from the rear speakers. If you don't have that system, then the front door speakers and dash speakers are likely just wired in series, in which case both of them will play the full range of sound.

*EDIT* I didn't answer your other question. If I were doing it, I would try and find 6x9's that fit within the depth requirements. If that's not feasible, then yes I would run matching 6.5's with adapters in all 4 doors.

*EDIT 2* If you do have the Infinity system, just do the same thing, except substitute a dedicated low-midrange 6.5 for the front door, run a 2 or 3 way in the rear (rear speakers matter very little from the driving position) and install full-range 3.5's in the dash. That should be plenty good.


It doesn't have the Infinity system, just the base 8.4 system, which I understand has amplification by Harmon. It's hard to find out much about factory systems, but I read the fronts are wired in parallel with crossovers at the speakers. I'm assuming the installation shop will know what to do to get everything right.

I did find a Kenwood Excelon system made for the front. Crutchfield says the matching 6x9 full range won't fit the rears. There's pretty much no chance I'll be able to listen to it, so I would be very reluctant to have it installed. The Infinity reference, Alpine, and Kicker CS series all made me cringe. The KS series blew me away. I couldn't believe that the CS and KS were from the same company. Only the Focals were better, those are more than I want to spend.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113XP6903C/Kenwood-Excelon-KFC-XP6903C.html

Ed
 
Originally Posted by edhackett
I'm assuming the installation shop will know what to do to get everything right.


That's a big assumption.
 
Ed I just upgraded my Wife's 14 Ram to some awesome Alpine 6 X 9's, it was super easy, the fit is perfect (they came with the right spacers), and they are amazingly strong performers, too!

39 bucks a pair on Ebay, a really ridiculous deal. Since my wonderful son handled the install I didn't do much but fetch tools and watch, but the whole thing didn't take 30 minutes and the construction of the RAM door panels is amazingly robust IMO.
 
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