Help for determaining audio setup

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Brammie2

CarAudio.com Newbie
Hello,

First of all, I have to say that I have absolutely no experience in the audio world, so some questions may seem like I have no idea what I'm talking about. However my job is in the electrical engineering, so things like resistance, impedance and voltage are things that I'm familiar with.

I have a Dodge pickup from 1977, and it's audio system has seen better days. The previous owner put an OSIO HPA4000 amplifier into it, and a pretty old subwoofer, which still works fine. In both doors are 6x9" speakers installed (I think they are 6x9", how do they measure those?). And in the dashboard there are two small tweeters.
I want to replace the two door mounted speakers because the cone is cracked. The problem is that I have no idea how much wattage the new speakers should be.
The amplifier says "150 Watts x 4CH Bridgeable High Power Amplifier" on the top. I have searched through the internet but I can't find any datasheets or something about the amplifier. Right now the audio system is not connected ideally because the tweeters are just put parallel to the 6x9 speakers, and I don't think that the previous owner has looked at the impedance of the speakers or something.
I was not planning on replacing the amplifier so I hope some of you guys can help me to sort out my audio system.
 
Hello,

First of all, I have to say that I have absolutely no experience in the audio world, so some questions may seem like I have no idea what I'm talking about. However my job is in the electrical engineering, so things like resistance, impedance and voltage are things that I'm familiar with.

I have a Dodge pickup from 1977, and it's audio system has seen better days. The previous owner put an OSIO HPA4000 amplifier into it, and a pretty old subwoofer, which still works fine. In both doors are 6x9" speakers installed (I think they are 6x9", how do they measure those?). And in the dashboard there are two small tweeters.
I want to replace the two door mounted speakers because the cone is cracked. The problem is that I have no idea how much wattage the new speakers should be.
The amplifier says "150 Watts x 4CH Bridgeable High Power Amplifier" on the top. I have searched through the internet but I can't find any datasheets or something about the amplifier. Right now the audio system is not connected ideally because the tweeters are just put parallel to the 6x9 speakers, and I don't think that the previous owner has looked at the impedance of the speakers or something.
I was not planning on replacing the amplifier so I hope some of you guys can help me to sort out my audio system.
Usually on speakers there is a tag on back of the magnet that says what size and make that they are so you could start by removing the speaker and looking . A 6x9 is a football shaped speaker and one of the most common sizes available. There are also slightly smaller 6x8 and 5x7 that are football shaped as well so if no tag you can take a tape measure and measure the speaker cones width and height to determine the size . As at as your amp I’m unfamiliar with it but you can purchase 6x9 components with separate door speaker and tweeters but most likely would only need 2chs of the amplifier to power them the other two chs could be used to power to woofers behind the truck seat in the future maybe a pair of 10s
 
Thanks, I have just looked at the back of the speaker and it said Kenwood KFC-6907, so they are indeed 6x9" speakers. Which wattage do you recommend for the new speakers? And for the new setup, is it best to use one channels per 6x9, one channel for the sub and one channel for both tweeters in parallel?
 
Thanks, I have just looked at the back of the speaker and it said Kenwood KFC-6907, so they are indeed 6x9" speakers. Which wattage do you recommend for the new speakers? And for the new setup, is it best to use one channels per 6x9, one channel for the sub and one channel for both tweeters in parallel?
Those are Kenwood 4 ways . You need to replace them with a basic 6x9 component set . Putting 6x9s with connected tweeters in the middle isn’t good in the lower doors yours highs will be blocked . But in the component set you’ll have a separate 6x9 woofer with a separate externally wired tweeter. On these you’ll only need to use the front channels of the amp and connect the left and right side . Leaving two rear channels of the amp for future use .
 
I'm sorry but I don't understand your message completely, what do you mean with "basic 6x9 component set" and with connected or externally wired tweeters?
 
A 6x9’comp set kind of limits you to what you can get. It’s a less utilized Comp set size so I’d either get a new 2 way coaxial set and leave the front tweeters unplugged, and bridge the amp from four to two channels for power.


or....

get a 6.5 comp set, grab a set of 6x9 to 6.5 adapters and there you go. A comp or components set is a tweeter and midrange that comes with a crossover module to manage the distribution of frequencies, power, and bring the impedance load to a common value (4 Ohms in most case). Probably should remove the tweeter from your dash to verifY what depth and diameter that space can accep


And a pair of these

 
Thanks, now I understand what a component set is. I think I'm going to try to find a component set with 6x9's, and otherwise I'm going for option 1. The speakers are mounted in the doors and there is no doorpanel or something to cover the speakers, so a 6x9 to 6.5" adapter plate is not going to look very nice I think.
 
The biggest problem is that I live in the Netherlands, so if I order on amazon, I get an extra 100 dollar shipping fee... And over here are 6x9's not as common as the round speakers like the 6,5's
I'm thinking again about your idea to put an 6,5" comp set in, instead of the 6x9 because the high's are going to be worse when I only have door mounted speakers on floorlevel. Especially because my car isn't the quietest, so the V8 sound is going to overrule the higher tunes I think. The space for tweeters is no problem at all, there is plenty of room.
 
The biggest problem is that I live in the Netherlands, so if I order on amazon, I get an extra 100 dollar shipping fee... And over here are 6x9's not as common as the round speakers like the 6,5's
I'm thinking again about your idea to put an 6,5" comp set in, instead of the 6x9 because the high's are going to be worse when I only have door mounted speakers on floorlevel. Especially because my car isn't the quietest, so the V8 sound is going to overrule the higher tunes I think. The space for tweeters is no problem at all, there is plenty of room.
Then provide us detail on what your options are if you’re only willing to buy domestic
 
I'm sorry but I don't understand your message completely, what do you mean with "basic 6x9 component set" and with connected or externally wired tweeters?
Most apllications in car audio employ a "Component Speaker" configuration. This can be clsssified as either a 2 way, or 3 way setup.
For instance:
2 way= 2 speakers in total. 1 midbass/midrange and 1 tweeter. The midbass/midrange handle all bass and mid end frequencies (vocals and most instrumental content), while the tweeters handle all of the high frequencies (cymbals and all high pitched insrumentation).
3 way= 3 speakers in total. With the addition of 1 more speaker, we can actually assign to that speaker, all of the midrange content instead of sharing it with the midbass as you would have in a 2 way setup. So here we have:
1 midbass, which plays all bass content. (Bass and Drums)
1 midrange, which plays all midrange content. (Vocals and most instrumention)
1 teeeter, which plays all high frequency content. (Dont let the Violins get you🙂)
As is obvious, this is an oversimplified explanation, it gets far more complicated this. However, for the purpose of this discussion the above explanation should suffice.
 
This is an example of a 3 way configuration.
 

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Brammie2

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