Help a Newbie Out

[Vargil]

I bought a Ram a few months ago which is a 6 speaker setup with no sub. It sounded horrible so I just wanted to switch out speakers in hope that it will help. Its better but still not good. My desire is to add an amp (also need a LOC obviously) and a 10" sub, but my question is around how to make it all work. The 3.5s in the dash are a 50 RMS and the door speakers are 90 RMS. Many of the 6 channel amps I see are about 75-125 RMS and I wasn't sure if that would damage the dash speakers. Without them being completely rewired is there a way to leave the dash speakers on the factory and just do a 5 channel for the doors and sub instead of running an additional sub or buying an 8 channel? I just want it to sound better overall, not looking for a top system or anything close, but would prefer not to buy more speakers if I don't have to.

Click to read more...

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

I bought a Ram a few months ago which is a 6 speaker setup with no sub. It sounded horrible so I just wanted to switch out speakers in hope that it will help. Its better but still not good. My desire is to add an amp (also need a LOC obviously) and a 10" sub, but my question is around how to make it all work. The 3.5s in the dash are a 50 RMS and the door speakers are 90 RMS. Many of the 6 channel amps I see are about 75-125 RMS and I wasn't sure if that would damage the dash speakers. Without them being completely rewired is there a way to leave the dash speakers on the factory and just do a 5 channel for the doors and sub instead of running an additional sub or buying an 8 channel? I just want it to sound better overall, not looking for a top system or anything close, but would prefer not to buy more speakers if I don't have to.

You can definitely leave the dash on oem. Most amps come with loc built in. It is called speaker level input. And if you are worried about damaging speakers, the amp has level control for front, rear and sub output. Since you are using the speaker outputs for signal, you just disconnect the door speakers and run new wire directly from the amp. Also if you find an amp with line input sense, you will not need a remote turn on. It will sense speaker signal input to turn on the amp.

 

[Lasherž]

Great advice from 1aespinoza, I'll just add if you're going to use your OEM head unit then be mindful of reselling the vehicle eventually. Get a speaker adapter which you'll plug the car's harness into instead of the speaker which will then run to the LOC, that way you can quickly return it to full stock. If you snip a vehicle's speaker wire you might regret it later as I did with my first install many years ago.