Help out this stupid noob please. Speakers, amp, and headunit for my 99 ram 3500???

[BBBSS 10+ year member]

This is for my 99 ram 3500 quad cab with the stock infinity sound system, 6X9's in the front doors, 5 1/4 in the back, or the rears will fit 6 1/2's with a lil work I hear. Depth on the front is pretty good, can fit most anything I hear, backs are so so, trying to get exact measurements on depth for each, but no luck so far.

I listen to a mix of hard rock and rap and some talk shows in the morning. I'd like to not run subs in this truck, or at least not for a while. Looking for something that's gonna have descent bass for door speakers and that will be nice and LOUD, as my trucks a noisy bastard (diesel with 7" stacks and no muffler). I'm guessing I'll need a small 4 channel amp as well.

How big of an amp should I be looking for, obviously they should match the speakers. Should I be looking for speakers running say 75-125 watts RMS and an amp to match that rating? I want a good bang for the buck to slightly higher quality system. I don't want to go overboard and spend insane $ on this. I'm not going to be entering SQ competitions by any means. Just want loud music, with a descent amount of bass that doesn't sound horrible when turned up for a fair price.

I imagine its best to match front and rear speaker brand/type? Am I looking for trouble mixing and matching? I know some about this stuff, but I'm far from an expert and could def use a lil advice here.

Like to fall into the $6-800 range here for 4 speakers, an amp, and a descent head unit.

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[BBBSS 10+ year member]

After looking around a lil I was thinking maybe something like this, plus some speakers for the back, and whatever head unit I go with.

Fronts - Boston Acoustics pro60se

Rears - Something in the ~$100 price range?

Amp - Infinity Reference 475a (will this be enough? Also looking at Infinity Kappa Four, or Boston Acoustics GT-4100)

Head Unit - ????

I may go a lil over my $800 budget, but if I get quality stuff I can maybe go to $1000 for everything.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

You're going to need to use MDF spacers between the door panel and speaker anyway, so I would just take advantage of the opportunity to put a 6.5" component set up front.

Your factory door speakers are full range speakers, meaning they play down to ~40 Hz. Aftermarket speakers are not designed for this, they are meant to be crossed over at 80 Hz, no lower; meaning that a sub will be necessary down to road to fill in that low end response. If you can deal with having no bass for a while, this won't be a problem though

Fantastic quality amp:

Crescendo Audio :: Amplifers :: 1000C4 4 Channel Amplfier

Good quality amp:

MB Quart ONX4.80 ONYX 4-Channel Car Amplifier/Amp

And this is a great front/rear speaker setup. I use the COM-626 set in my car and they sound amazing...

CDT Audio COM-626/COX-622 Front-Rear Package - Vertex Audio

As far as a head unit, what features are you looking for?

 

[BBBSS 10+ year member]

I was eyeballing some of the 7" touch screens in the ~$500 range. I don't care about navi (have it built into my cell phone if and when I need it and a tom tom), but I want blue tooth, a descent quality screen, and descent audio controls.

I'd probably be happy with a non flip out screen head unit if it had the features I'm looking for and a nice appearance, maybe some sort of dot matrix type color screen or something? I've had a few in the past like this and I was fairly happy with them. Not too sure where the technology has gone with these as I haven't bought aftermarket audio for probably 3-4 years now.

 

[thisistiny 10+ year member]

I was eyeballing some of the 7" touch screens in the ~$500 range. I don't care about navi (have it built into my cell phone if and when I need it and a tom tom), but I want blue tooth, a descent quality screen, and descent audio controls.
I'd probably be happy with a non flip out screen head unit if it had the features I'm looking for and a nice appearance, maybe some sort of dot matrix type color screen or something? I've had a few in the past like this and I was fairly happy with them. Not too sure where the technology has gone with these as I haven't bought aftermarket audio for probably 3-4 years now.

Peep this one. Built in Bluetooth. I have the dd version. You'll love it.

Pioneer AVH-P5200BT 7" In-Dash Touchscreen DVD/DivX/MP3/WMA

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Soundstream makes a nice flipout, Pioneer has a lot of nice offerings as well...

 

[BBBSS 10+ year member]

Peep this one. Built in Bluetooth. I have the dd version. You'll love it.

This was the main unit I had my eye on actually. I like everything about it except the bottom part when its open is kinda ugly to me. Price is hard to pass up though.

Also really liking that Crescendo 1000C4 mentioned above.

Thinking I'd like to spend a lil more money on some components for the front, and go with something more moderately priced for the back. I'd really like this thing to scream, yet be clear. Kinda up in the air on where to go for the speakers still. I'll probably end up with a sub in the back in a couple weeks knowing me. I just hate to lose my underseat storage area in my truck, but I'm sure I can figure something out though.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

I have one set of the COM-626s in my regular cab truck, no rear fill, and it keeps up with my two 15's in a blowthrough on 1500W which does low-mid 140's on music all day...

 

[BBBSS 10+ year member]

So if I got those CDT's, what do I need to buy to make the 6.5 fit in a 6x9 opening? Will I be able to keep it under the door skin still?

 

[97chameleonbird 10+ year member]

Is it possible to use 6.5 components up front and 8's in the rear? If there is enough space to cut and fit the 8's you could just use those as subs instead since you dont want super loud spl bass