Dodge Grand Caravan Speaker Upgrade

[fmueller]

I used to have a great car audio system about 20 years ago, but have made do with the factory radio in my last three cars - wife, kids, and life in general getting in the way. Recently I bought a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, and somehow I have an inkling to put some decent sound into that thing again. The dealer told me it had an Infinity sound system, but somehow I doubt that's true, because the speakers look like pure crap, and don't sound much better.

The good news is that there is space for 6x9s in the doors as well as the back panels, and 5-1/4 in the dash. The goal is to have decent sound and decent imaging. I am not interested in excessive bass or getting the volume above reasonable levels. I listen mostly to 80s pop and rock - Queen, Dire Straits, Eurythmics, and so on. My wife listens to classical music, even in the car 0 especially chamber music. She's studied classical music (violine).

Limitations are that I'd like to keep the factory head unit - unless somebody here really talks me out of that. In addition, I'd like to avoid having a subwoofer box. I am also hesitant to replace the 5-1/4 in the dash, because I am unsure how to get to them, and wondering if that would be a lot of work, which wouldn't yield much of an improvement.

So the current plan is to put some decent 6x9s in the doors, and power them by a nice amp if necessary. In the back panels I could either put identical 6x9s or something like 6" or 8" subwoofers, also powered by an amp as necessary.

As for 6x9s, I am thinking Alpine SPR-69C, Zapco i-6902 or JL Audio TR690TXi or could I get away with Alpine SPS-609, since they are $40 less per pair?

If I go the subwoofer route, I was thinking about Kicker 08CVT84, or if I can't fit those Kicker 08CVT654.

I am totally clueless as to what amp I might need, but I have an old MacAudio MP-120 (2x65W) lying around from the system I had in the 80s.

Grateful for any advice and suggestions.

Frank

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[bigaudiofanati2 10+ year member]

If you want to keep your factor head unit and want to get some nice speakers, they are going to want some power. Depending on how the head unit is setup and if it has a external amp, you may want to invest in a MTX RE-Q or a JL clean sweep, these devices will remove all the factory alternating stuff and allow you to send a nice clean unchanged signal to new aftermarket amps. This way your speakers will get a nice powerful signal that they can benefit from. Your speaker selection is not bad I would look at the JL or the alpines for speakers, the kickers are not bad for the price as well.