# Speaker Upgrade Question



## WestCoastCruze (Mar 24, 2016)

Hi Everyone

I have a question regarding replacing the stock 6.5'' speakers in the doors. I plan to leave the tweeter in the pillar alone. I have come across some used speakers for cheap that I want to use. Unfortunately I could not get all 4 of the same speaker. I have a couple choices to make and I was hoping for some advise.

I have two Kicker KS65 2-way speakers than I plan to install in the front doors. The other options for the rear doors that I have are 1 x KS65 and 1 x DS65 or 2 x KS65.2 (one-way).

I would like to use the KS65.2 speakers if I can because they are a matched pair. The only problem is I know these came in a component set that originally had a crossover. I was thinking since they are going to be in the rear it might be ok since I would mostly be hearing bass from the back. Is there going to be an issue running those speakers without the original crossover?

Would I be better running the KS65 and the DS65 over the one-way woofers even though they are not a matched pair. I understand it would probably be better buying another set of speakers for the rear but I can get these for practically nothing and would like to take advantage if possible. I do not plan on installing an amp at this time. I have been looking at the customer made sub+amp that Kicker made for this vehicle, so I might go with that at some point down the road.

Thanks for any advice.


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## bostonboy (Apr 8, 2015)

look @ the bottom of page there are links to your question


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## Chris Tobin (Feb 23, 2016)

If I am understanding what you have correctly, you have a pair of KS65 coaxials that you will use to replace the factory 6.5 in the front doors. That should be fine, and may even improve your stereo imaging since the high and mid frequencies will be coming from the same point source rather than two separate locations.

In the rear it sounds like you have four choices for the two different rear door locations, with one option being to use mismatched coaxials and the other to just use the mids from a 2-way component set. Do you have rear seat passengers often? If so go with the coaxials as they will have better high frequency response even if they are not level or tone matched left to right. If it is mostly just you and a front passenger use the mids only and they will be fine running without the crossover. No, their high frequency response will not be great, but they will work fine and they will be matched left to right.

Hope this helps.


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

Leave it stock you'll likely regret changing the speakers. You will loose bass and there will be to much treble


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## WestCoastCruze (Mar 24, 2016)

Hi guys

Thanks for the responses.

Chris Tobin - Yes you are correct in my two options for the rear, either mismatched co-axials or the mids from a component set (no tweeter and no crossover). I suppose the third option would be to only replace the front speakers and leave the rear speakers stock. 

The sound would mostly be only for me, and for a passenger. The rear seats I am not concerned about really at all. Since that is the case you seem to be leaning towards using the matched pair of mids from the component set. Do you think it might be better to leave them with the stock speakers instead, or would replacing with the mids be an upgrade?

jkhawaii - Why do you say that, have you done so and regretted it? As I said I am planning to install some type of compact subwoofer in the back. Either a self-powered sub or possibly the Kicker upgrade (but $$$ jesus).

Again thanks for the help guys. I know this question on upgrading speakers has probably been asked lots of times but it was mainly the fact that I had a pair of mids from a component set without the crossover and I was worried.


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## Chris Tobin (Feb 23, 2016)

WestCoastCruze said:


> Hi guys
> 
> Thanks for the responses.
> 
> ...


In my opinion the rear speakers will sound better than the stock ones, but not a ton... and you will have to weight the install hassle of building baffles and such to mount them versus the improvement. I would do the fronts first and see how you like it before doing the rears...

As for JKs comment, I have no idea why he would say that or what he is talking about. You should not loos bass or have too much treble. Maybe he has a phasing problem and lost bass after an install...

Adding a sub of some kind will make the whole system sound better if you use a highpass crossover for the main speakers so that they are not trying as hard to reproduce the bass frequencies that the sub will be handling...

There is another thread hear on a guy that builds a nice molded sub enclosure that would work well with most 10s then you could use a small 4-channel amp to drive the front speakers and the sub in a 3-channel mode...

Just my 2 cents. I hope it helps...


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## WestCoastCruze (Mar 24, 2016)

Thanks for the reply Chris. I have already bought all 4 speakers (2 coaxial and 2 one-ways) but have the option to take them back. I played music in the car today pretty loud and I honestly could hardly tell music was coming from the rear, seems it is all mostly up front anyway. I think I will do like you said, change the front one's and decide if I want to bother replacing the rear door speakers or leave them alone. I will keep the one-way speakers just in case I do.

Thanks for the advise and the tip on the custom sub box.


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

"As for JKs comment, I have no idea why he would say that or what he is talking about. You should not loos bass or have too much treble. Maybe he has a phasing problem and lost bass after an install..." 
His current speaker selections will loose bass and have to much treble that will be a absolute fact. 
I've installed a few systems over the years in my own vehicles and I know for a fact that there were no phasing issues. I've also heard many set ups and almost all of them sounded terrible to me. 
Without a subwoofer almost all aftermarket speakers will loose bass response because most are set up with stiff suspensions because people like to over power them and, usually are crossed over at at least 80hz any way. 
One error people make is hooking up the stock tweeters than adding aftermarket speakers with more tweeters. If the manufacture felt their speaker system needed more tweeters they would have added them. kickers are also very bright as is. It depends on the sound some one wants. All manufactures have their own formula for what sounds good. 
My last set up I used CDT speakers. Those by far were the best, most realistic/clean speakers I've owned. They were not even their high end line! They didn't look as flashy with their treated paper cones but they were excellent natural sounding speakers. I could hear things in songs I've never knew were there. They had good bass response as well because they did not have overly stiff suspensions found on most car speakers. I would defenetly recommend them. They could be harder to install in some applications though because they tend to have more depth requirement (unless you get the low profile ones) I could actually have done without a sub with the CDT's 
JBL's I had also. Very lively.. Can be fun they were good for rocking out! Those lost bass for sure though. Needed a sub. Similar sound to kicker. 
Crossover design is a large factor in sound quality to. those 2 way kickers will have a simple capacitor for the tweeter. That's all. On the other hand even the low cost CDT's have high end crossovers. 
Mounting and correct wire phasing is alas very important for bass response. Many stereo shops do not seem to even bother wiring the speakers in phase or mount the speaker well. You want the speaker to have a good solid baffle without huge gaps of open air around the speaker to maximize bass. Lower frequencys will cancel each other out if allowed to mix together (front of cone to rear) one could put a 18 inch woofer in open air and It would hardly make any bass. 
So, what would I recommend? For moderate listening levels on a budget I recommend keeping the factory speakers and adding a small subwoofer. 
Unless you want tinggy highs and no bass do not install those kickers the way you originally wanted to especially not with the factory tweeter still connected. 
Also keep in mind that most factory stereos have custom EQ's for the factory speakers and radio and that EQ setting may not match other speakers.
In my last car I had CDT door speakers (previously mentioned) with custom mounts. Kept the tweeters near the woofers for better sound. A JBL MS-8 sound processor connected to the factory deck going to a sound stream 5 channel amp. A single 10 in a sealed box in the hatch. In the end I preferred the factory sound system because after a while you kind of get tired of listening to the system any way and it just becomes background music just like the factory system. Though it was great some times when I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for hrs!


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

Budget and what type of sound do you want. That is the question. Some people like all highs and gut punching bass, others want natural sound as the artist intended. 
Crutchfield is a great place to buy audio equipment from. They give advise, offer everything you need to install ect. 
Oh. And the rear speakers are for fill you should not notice sound coming from the rear while sitting in the drivers seat


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

I also prefer sealed sub enclosures for sound quality. Though the bandpass box I had for a while sure was fun for many types of songs.


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

Don't run the speakers... Well.. The tweeter anyway, without the crossover. The woofer wouldn't care about getting high frequency but wouldn't sound good


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## Chris Tobin (Feb 23, 2016)

JK, I stand behind my recommendations and feel that he will improve the system as I suggested. I was an installer for MANY years from my teens on and worked for Orion Industries handling their tech support as well as designing and troubleshooting systems and installations for our dealers all around the world. I also was an editor at Car Stereo Review and Car Audio & Electronics magazines and worked for Eclipse Car Audio/Fujistu Ten as the Technical Manager. I have probably installed as many systems in a week as you have done in your entire life... Some of the suggestions you gave are correct, but others are far from fact...


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## jkhawaii (Feb 12, 2016)

That's great Chris! Not saying you don't know what your talking about. I'm just speaking from my own experience. Doesn't matter to me if he decides to follow your recomendions, mine, or otherwise. As a installer I know I would want people to buy speakers to.


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## Chris Tobin (Feb 23, 2016)

jkhawaii said:


> That's great Chris! Not saying you don't know what your talking about. I'm just speaking from my own experience. Doesn't matter to me if he decides to follow your recomendions, mine, or otherwise. As a installer I know I would want people to buy speakers to.


I'm far from an installer these days... The OP had a chance to get the speakers at a bargain price from what I gathered so he bought them... He was asking for installation suggestions so I gave them... I am not/was not trying to sell him anything.

I have yet to find a base model factory speaker that sounds better (bass or treble response) than any mid to high end aftermarket speaker from a mainstream manufacturer including Kicker. I have no doubt that both the low, mid and high frequency acoustic characteristics of the car will be improved with the upgrade from the factory speakers, unless of course the aftermarket speakers are damaged or poorly installed.

Adding a sub and an amp will only improve things further. If you experienced less bass after performing an aftermarket speaker upgrade from just about any major brand vs factory speakers, I still contend that you had issues. Possibly phasing or crossover/amplifier configuration issues or something else, but like I said in my real world experience of almost 30 years, 95 out of 100 times aftermarket speakers will sound better than factory speakers of the same size/configuration.


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## Tim Roberts (Aug 21, 2020)

I replaced all 6 speakers with Infinitys. I did the dash first and while the sound was great, it was very overpowering at first due to the speaker's lower resistance and higher sensitivity. Fading the audio back to the rear a notch or two helps.

For both sets of 6x9's I went with the 2 way speakers. There is a button on the tweeter portion of each 6x9 that gives a 3db boost to the tweeter. I turned this off on all 4 speakers. In hind sight I could have left it on for the rear 6x9's. The front gets enough highs from the dash for my taste, so I wanted more bass from the 6x9.

Last thing I did was add the resistor from Infinity to the dash 3.5's. In the stock 6 speaker setup all speakers receive a full range signal as previously mentioned. Whenever I cranked the volume it seemed like the 3.5's were really struggling trying to hit the bass notes and I thought they may blow.

All in all, its a night and day difference from the stock set up for not a lot of work. The 6x9's wont give you any"bump" but do have a good bass.


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## Diamond193 (Jul 28, 2019)

Which infinitys what did you install ? The Kappas or the Reference.


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## Tim Roberts (Aug 21, 2020)

The Reference!


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## Wisconsin4Eyes (Jul 3, 2015)

Tim Roberts said:


> The Reference!


Looking at Critchfield now are you talking the EX or IX reference speakers? For science.


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