Best 6x9s for a minivan

[Jim Beam]

I have a Dodge '09 minivan, and I want to install better 6x9s. I'm tired of factory sound. I did a search for the best speakers, and it led me to Cadence. I was considering Rockford Fosgate.

I'll give you a bit of my background. I'm 47, but when I was about 21 I had a '78 Volare with an Alpine system. I had the second from top of the line tape deck, with the top of the line Alpine EQ. Both were the same units being installed in Lambos, Ferraris, Panterras, etc. I know because I saw them myself.

I also had about 400W in amps, and Boston Accoustics speakers. My system put out about 116db, tested by competition judges.

So after having that, you never forget. Now I have this minivan, with the hard drive radio that stores mp3 music. I don't want to change the radio. I think it's insane that no after market company has put out a similar head unit. I'm tired of CDs, and I don't want to plug an iPod into it just to listen to my favorite songs.

I was looking at the Cadence CVLS69 for $175 on eBay. Would this be overkill for what I can get out of the whole system? You wouldn't put a $1000 crossover in a $700 stereo system, as the whole system will bring the overall quality down, so considering that it's a minivan with a factory radio, what level of quality would you recommend? I want crisp, clear sound, but with the current radio. If I have to add an amp, or a crossover, so be it. I just want it to sound great loud. My experience in the past is that the speakers make the sound a lot more than the radio.

I will install new 6x9s in the rear, behind the arm rest panels at the third row seats, and a pair in the front doors. Later on I will buy a pair of speakers for the dash cowl. They're either 3" or 4". I have to measure one.

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[bbeljefe]

There are a couple of manufacturers who offer onboard storage options but the reason it's not common is twofold. First off, price. Pretty much all head units come with USB now so the option is there but the manufacturer doesn't incur the cost of the storage. Second... choice. When the storage is inboard, you're stuck with what's in there. With outboard storage, you can use a 4 gig drive or a 500 gig drive or, switch between both... your choice.

With regard to speakers, if I was doing a small upgrade to a factory sound system the first thing I would buy is an amplifier. Most of the time factory amps are anemic and in that case you could add a $2500.00 pair of speakers and actually make things sound worse by keeping with factory amplification. Also, if you're planning to add aftermarket speakers the first place to start is with deadening the doors the speakers will be in and making sure that whatever speakers you choose are sealed between the door and the door panel.

A lot has changed in the past 20 years with respect to manufacturers and the quality of their products. A lot of the names that were quality then aren't necessarily quality now and a lot of new names are very high quality for not a lot of money. Personally, I haven't seen anything from Cadence in the past decade that impressed me in the least and with Rockford, too much of the price you pay goes to the name and not the quality of the product.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

These days radios are not always putting out a flat signal, and changing the head unit can sometimes make a pretty good difference, especially since built-in EQ is more powerful than what anyone was making 30 years ago. You can get parametric EQ in some sub-$100 head units today. That said, it's become much more common to keep the factory head unit and work around the sound quality limitation.

Depending on the speakers and the efforts taken to properly install them, I would possibly put in a $1,000 equalizer on a sound system with speakers costing much less than that. JBL MS-8 is an equalizer amplifier, and that could go in to your factory system. It's vastly more complicated to set up than the old Alpine equalizers you have seen, but the results can be spectacular.

If you want to go with the speaker replacement first I can help with that. Ask me for a quote and I will send you one by private message.

 

[Jim Beam]

Thank you, bbeljefe. That is great advice. How would you recommend deadening the doors? I tear apart and reassemble these vans for a living every day at the factory, in repair, so I can do all the work myself. Should I spray anything onto the inside of the door skin from inside the door? Should I spray undercoating? Once I take the interior panel off, and remove the factory speaker, what would I do next?

Also for the rear speakers, the space on the side of the van under the 1/4 glass window and around the wheel-well is what we call the 'body-side aperture', or BSA. What would I put in there?

Factory installed amps are installed next to the right rear speaker, in front (toward the sliding door) of the right side speaker hole. It looks to me like a generous space for an amp. If you can fit it through the speaker hole, it's good. If I needed a crossover, it could be installed in the same place on the left side.

 

[shauncox26]

there are multiple steps to deadening ur doors. i suggest reading up on it at the sound deadner showdown website. the main object is to turn ur doors into sealed enclosures for ur after market speakers.

 

[Jim Beam]

I just read most of the tutorial on deadening car doors on the sound deadener site. Very informative. Thank you for the heads-up. Now I have to try to find that stuff, or order from them. Chrysler minivans have door modules, which is very different. When a module is removed, the open hole is almost as big as the door. On a day off, with no other obligations, and no one bothering me, I might be able to do the two front doors.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

idk man, I drive a toyota sienna minivan and 6x9s dont cut it lol. Planning on going 4 15" subs and The answer i've found is pro audio speakers. You also need to see if the speakers will pass the window clearance. If its really tight, you might want to get alpine type Rs to clear the window because of the smaller neodymium magnets. If you like me and just dont care, then your window will be not be able to go all the way down stuck at 1/4 because of the speaker magnet blocking the way.

 

[Jim Beam]

So I have to remove the speaker with the window down to measure clearance! That's good to know before ordering speakers!!

Also, depending on the clearance between the speaker and door panel, the speaker could be mounted out a little bit to make room for a larger magnet. I don't know what that clearance is. I'll just have to poke a nail through a hole to see where it bottoms out.

 

[Jim Beam]

I just measured the driver's door. It's about 1/2 inch overall. So I could put a 1/2" spacer behind the flange if I had to.