Replacing stock speakers

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In my 2002 GMC Yukon, the speakers sound terrible. There is a separate speaker and tweeter in each front door, unknown speakers in the rear doors, and a woofer in the rear side panel. Can I just replace the two front speakers with a pair of Rockford Fosgate R165X3 Prime 6.5-Inch Full-Range 3-Way Coaxial Speakers, and disconnect the existing front door tweeters and all other speakers, or must the other speakers be there to provide some resistance or balance to the STOCK radio?
 
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
A good place to start research is Crutchfield, www.crutchfield.com. They have a nice vehicle application tool, and their customer service is very good.

+1

These old GM's have an awesome selection of upgrades and options in the aftermarket!
Something I miss from when I had my Ford
 
I would replace the front speakers w the 3 way Rockfords, still use the stock tweeter, replace the rear door speakers w cheap aftermarkets just for fill and add a small 8in sub. Get a 4 channel amp to run the front rockfords and the sub. Power the rears w the stereo. It’ll sound real good
 
Yes you should be able to replace the front speakers and disconnect the rear speakers but you may find that you miss the rear fill sound and wind up installing new rear speakers too. If the sound quality is bad with the factory speakers you may want to test first with a different speaker temporarily installed in the front doors to rule out any problems with the output from the radio. Crutchfield can help you if you do need a new radio and usually provides the installation parts for radios and speakers for free or at a very good discount.

I have two pairs of Rockford 165X3's in my Honda, they are a great speaker. They sound good and have good bass and super crisp highs but mine are driven by a Rockford 4 channel amp. They may or may not do as well being driven with just a factory Delco radio. I saved about $20.00 per pair buying my 165X3's from Amazon. Crutchfield may have a higher price but their customer service and technical help is excellent and can definitely be worth the extra cost.
 
None of our cars have completely stock audio systems. Adding a subwoofer makes the biggest difference, but you still need sound quality. Replacing your front door speakers will do the trick. Just know that you might lose a bit of bass.
 
If you want quality sound and tone you really need to consider adding a subwoofer and an amp for the whole system. Most replacement speakers are intended to be used with an amp and a sub so expect to lose a tiny bit of bass as stated by the user above if all you do is change door speakers.
 
Just an FYI, many vehicles really need a tweeter mounted up high. As the door speaker's higher frequencies are often strangely attenuated by location. Sure it's not an audiophile's first choice to have drivers spaced so far apart, such as really high mounted tweeters. However, the missing high frequencies are often not just a matter of cranking the treble up. As the attenuation is rather random in nature, with certain freq's nearly completely missing, and others loud-n-proud. And different left to right/front to back.
 
Originally Posted By: another Todd
In my 2002 GMC Yukon, the speakers sound terrible. There is a separate speaker and tweeter in each front door, unknown speakers in the rear doors, and a woofer in the rear side panel. Can I just replace the two front speakers with a pair of Rockford Fosgate R165X3 Prime 6.5-Inch Full-Range 3-Way Coaxial Speakers, and disconnect the existing front door tweeters and all other speakers, or must the other speakers be there to provide some resistance or balance to the STOCK radio?


What Audio RPO do you have? Your RPO codes are located on a sticker in the glove box, Audio RPO's start with a "Y" (YE9, Y91) etc.

I'm running JL components & crossovers in the front doors, Alpine 2-ways in the rear doors, Factory Sub-woofer in the hatch area, & the factory Amplifier in my 2001 Tahoe.....It does VERY well for what it is!.....Better than the factory Bose system in my 2500HD, Not as good as the full custom system in the Camaro which is 900 watts RMS.
I'm not a audiophile by any means, But learned a lot doing the system in my Camaro & by refreshing the system in the Tahoe.

It really depends on what you have now!
*Are you sure the rear door speakers are blown? The large interior volume of a Tahoe/Yukon NEEDS rear fill!!
 
I have the stock Non Bose 9 speaker system. I replaced the front door speakers today, disconnected: the front door tweeters, the rear woofer, and two rear D post speakers; left the rear door speakers connected and the system now sounds great. The front door speakers and rear woofer were completely roached.
 
Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
A good place to start research is Crutchfield, www.crutchfield.com. They have a nice vehicle application tool, and their customer service is very good.

+1

These old GM's have an awesome selection of upgrades and options in the aftermarket!
Something I miss from when I had my Ford


+2 Crutchfield is great for their selection and customer service. They also include and brackets and/or installation items required. Also include a step by step manual on how to install as well. Personally I haven't spent money on upgrading a speaker since I was in college but when I did I had nothing but great things to say about Crutchfield. In terms of what speaker to get I dunno anymore.
 
If you have 2-way or 3-way coaxial speakers, I'd disconnect the stock tweeters or you run the risk of the sound staging being "bright", dominated by the highs. All it matters at the end of the day are your ears.

Those Rockford Fosgates aren't the most "efficient" by terms of sensitivity between 84-92dB but they should be better than the stock speakers. Not everyone needs Focals or Infinity speakers.
 
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