Help a noob..

[JP-TX]

So my wife has a new suburban with the bose system and to me it sounds VERY nice. I've been relegated to keep my older 2008 GMC Sierra 4x4 Z71. It's paid off and I've been "pimping it" a little to convince myself not to buy another ride (another car payment). The OEM speakers (not Bose) were four 6.5" speakers in the front and rear doors and the little pillar tweeters. When I bought the truck, these sounded fine to me. About a year ago, the front door speakers went out and I went to replace them. The local car audio shop convinced me that I didn't need to pillar tweeters and to get a pair of Hertz Audio DCX 165.3 6.5" speakers. I did and with the stock head unit sounded OK. Recently, the rear door speakers went out as well and to match the front, I bought two more Hertz Audio DCX 165.3 6.5" and went ahead and replaced the OEM head unit with a Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X502 at the recommendation of the local car audio shop. Long story short, this setup sounds worse than the OEM setup and I don't know what I'm missing. Someone suggested that my 6.5" speakers are under powered with the head unit and I just needed an amp to make the speakers sound good. Someone else suggested a 10" sub. Still someone else suggested that the car audio guys steered me wrong and I should have maintained the pillar tweeters. I'm lost. All of my music sounds like its in mono or in a tube. It doesn't sound as good as the OEM that came with the truck and NO WHERE near my wifes Bose system in her Suburban and the local audio shop seems like they just want to push products without solving the issue. I'm not looking for heart stopping base or to irritate everyone at stop lights. I just want clear, good sounding music with decent base. Any suggestions would be appreciated as I don't trust the local car audio guys anymore and I'm into this system now (with installation) over $600. I don't mind spending more, I just want to to go in the right direction.

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[Zer0C00l]

So my wife has a new suburban with the bose system and to me it sounds VERY nice. I've been relegated to keep my older 2008 GMC Sierra 4x4 Z71. It's paid off and I've been "pimping it" a little to convince myself not to buy another ride (another car payment). The OEM speakers (not Bose) were four 6.5" speakers in the front and rear doors and the little pillar tweeters. When I bought the truck, these sounded fine to me. About a year ago, the front door speakers went out and I went to replace them. The local car audio shop convinced me that I didn't need to pillar tweeters and to get a pair of Hertz Audio DCX 165.3 6.5" speakers. I did and with the stock head unit sounded OK. Recently, the rear door speakers went out as well and to match the front, I bought two more Hertz Audio DCX 165.3 6.5" and went ahead and replaced the OEM head unit with a Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X502 at the recommendation of the local car audio shop. Long story short, this setup sounds worse than the OEM setup and I don't know what I'm missing. Someone suggested that my 6.5" speakers are under powered with the head unit and I just needed an amp to make the speakers sound good. Someone else suggested a 10" sub. Still someone else suggested that the car audio guys steered me wrong and I should have maintained the pillar tweeters. I'm lost. All of my music sounds like its in mono or in a tube. It doesn't sound as good as the OEM that came with the truck and NO WHERE near my wifes Bose system in her Suburban and the local audio shop seems like they just want to push products without solving the issue. I'm not looking for heart stopping base or to irritate everyone at stop lights. I just want clear, good sounding music with decent base. Any suggestions would be appreciated as I don't trust the local car audio guys anymore and I'm into this system now (with installation) over $600. I don't mind spending more, I just want to to go in the right direction.

it not sounding as good as the blows (Bose) unit makes sense as blows spends time and money trying to engineer a sound that is not necessarily accurate, but IS pleasing to the ear. The hertz speakers shouldnt sound like theyre in a tube tho. Your issue could be a crossover or time alignment setting. In either event, the car audio shop should have probably stuck with replacing the tweeters in the a pillars as it would have brought the sound stage up and rounded out the frequency response quite a lot. One thing that blows(i will be referring to Bose as blows for the duration of this response  )has in its advantage is that it has outboard amplifiers it utilizes instead of deck power. In addition to that, the stock speakers you replaced were specifically designed to run on the power from the stock deck and the stock deck wont run a pair upgraded speakers very well. Since you upgraded the deck , you should have a bump in power going to the speakers, but its still not ideal for non stock speakers. That being said, it shouldnt sound like its in a tunnel. You really should get an amp, and you should strongly consider getting some pillar tweeters. You honestly can get by with a inexpensive amp that will put out some real usable power and still be reliable. as far as tweeters, youre gonna be stuck with either upgrading to components that have an external passive crossover or, you could take advantage of this misfortune and go with an active crossover setup amplifying your tweeters and mid drivers separately. If you just get a 4 channel amp and a pair of tweeters and go active, itll literally blow your mind.

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-GM-D8604-4-Channel-Bridgeable-Amplifier/dp/B00A02PG0C

https://www.amazon.com/Dayton-Audio-AN25Ti-4-Titanium-Neodymium/dp/B07DR6KNGF/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=dayton+tweeters&qid=1553696219&s=electronics&sr=1-17

parts are less than $150 and youll need some wiring, but those two will get you set to go

 

[JP-TX]

Thank you so much for the response. Sounds like solid advise. I'll look at getting some tweeters, sub and amp. Question though, since I purchased a two way 6.5" speaker with its own tweeter, discarding the old ones, should I scrap the new 6.5's and buy component 6.5's that have its own separate tweeters OR keep the ones I bought and just add pillar tweeters? I assume if I go the second route, it will just render the tweeters in the 6.5's ornamental/non-working once I connect a crossover?

Thanks,

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

id return it all.  coaxials arent very good.  

id get a good deck, with time correction (makes the vocals sounded centered, since the speakers arent at equal distances from your ears)

good set of component speakers and amp them.  then a sub and amp if you want good bass

and forget rear speakers.  they usually just screw up the sound quality.  use that money for better gear 

 

[JP-TX]

id return it all.  coaxials arent very good.  

id get a good deck, with time correction (makes the vocals sounded centered, since the speakers arent at equal distances from your ears)

good set of component speakers and amp them.  then a sub and amp if you want good bass

and forget rear speakers.  they usually just screw up the sound quality.  use that money for better gear 

Unfortunately returning isn't an option. I do think I will get a set of component speakers to replace the others I bought. The tweeters at head level just make more sense to me now. Any recommendations for good 6.5" components? Of course, then comes the amp and sub...I had no idea this little, "upgrade the OEM" stereo was going to be this involved or expensive.

 

[JP-TX]

Since pioneer seems to be the preferred brand, I jut bought this to go along with what I have thus far: https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/Amplifiers/GM+Digital+Series/GM-D9705

I'll add pillar tweeters and a used sub (finger crossed) if I can find one.