Planning audio system for my truck….newb

[rovster]

Just got a 22 Silverado LTD non Bose and the only thing I don’t love about my truck is the sound system. It’s a common complaint of those with the non-Bose stereo. It’s flat, no bass and sounds like hot garbage.

I’m sure this is the first thread of many to come, but I appreciate all your input. Back in high school I did build a couple systems that would rattle my rear view clear off and make the odometer reel jump…..those of you my age will know what I’m talking about LOL! But no experience since then.

Anyway, things have changed and my priorities have changed. My priorities are simple, hidden, and ease of installation. Don’t want to do any customization if possible and want something as close to plug and play as possible.

I put together a system on crutchfield and looking for some feedback. Here is what is tentatively sitting in my cart sans all the accessories needed for install.

At the heart of everything is a JL 5 channel amp. Can’t decide between the one with signal processing or not (extra $600). MB Quart components up front (mid in door, tweeter in dash) and MB Quart coax in rear doors. Stealth box under rear seat.

Looking for quality components not super premium but I like good stuff. Kinda partial to MB Quart due to nostalgia they sounded so awesome back in the day. I plan on keeping this truck for a long time.

I guess the only areas I have doubts is:

1. The amp selection for what I want. Seems the rms lines up with components selected. Signal processing or no? (Punch has a similarly powered amp I was considering as well)

2. Front speakers. Go with component with mid in door and tweet in dash or coax in door and additional tweet or mid in dash. Concerned with the amount of distance between tweet and mid.

Sorry for the long winded post but any input or constructive criticism welcome. Kind of excited and kind of nervous attempting to pull apart my new truck!

Click to read more...

 

[Bass Addict 10+ year member]

About the tweeters on the dash.they will possibly sound harsh,depending on location on the dash,and possibly a problem with imaging with the door speakers.my frontier had tweeters on the dash next to the windshield from factory and they would scream at me.best thing i ever done was take em out and didnt put anything back.my door speakers sit low in my truck doors and they are plenty loud and clear.maybe better if you put the tweets on the a pillar if you do get components.imo...

.also crutchfield may have speaker wire harnesses for the ones in your doors to eliminate the guess work of which wire is hot and which one is positive.....i put speakers in a nissan rogue for a friend and used the harnesses and never had it so easy...one more thing,plastics break alot easier when its cold out.lot more flexible when its warm with less tendencies to break with all the cheap plastics they are puttin in vehicles these days.

 

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

Mb Quart is not the same company that you remember. The company was bought out by Maxxsonics in around 2006. It’s all Chinese built now. Barely decent at best, flea market trash at worst.

 

[rovster]

About the tweeters on the dash.they will possibly sound harsh,depending on location on the dash,and possibly a problem with imaging with the door speakers.my frontier had tweeters on the dash next to the windshield from factory and they would scream at me.best thing i ever done was take em out and didnt put anything back.my door speakers sit low in my truck doors and they are plenty loud and clear.maybe better if you put the tweets on the a pillar if you do get components.imo...

.also crutchfield may have speaker wire harnesses for the ones in your doors to eliminate the guess work of which wire is hot and which one is positive.....i put speakers in a nissan rogue for a friend and used the harnesses and never had it so easy...one more thing,plastics break alot easier when its cold out.lot more flexible when its warm with less tendencies to break with all the cheap plastics they are puttin in vehicles these days.

Thanks. I’m in south Florida so cold is not an issue. Yes the dash speakers are in the corners facing the windshield. I may be able to mount the tweeter low or on the upper door area (will require a hole assuming I have the clearance). I also assumed since u will be driving these speakers with an amp I will need to run all new speaker wire. Thanks.

 

[rovster]

Mb Quart is not the same company that you remember. The company was bought out by Maxxsonics in around 2006. It’s all Chinese built now. Barely decent at best, flea market trash at worst.

Was worried about that. Used to love that supple sound was by far my favorite components back then.

JL was my other choice in that price range but I’m open to suggestion looking to spend $150-200 for each pair components up front and coax in the back.

Also if anyone else can comment on the tweets on the dash that would be great would rather not make a hole in the door panel….

 

[Bass Addict 10+ year member]

I have been using the same factory speaker wires to my amp'ed speakers for over 9 years with no probs.the 6x9's in my sig have some good thump as well as tweeter clarity so wiring for me is not an issue.

 

[rovster]

I have been using the same factory speaker wires to my amp'ed speakers for over 9 years with no probs.the 6x9's in my sig have some good thump as well as tweeter clarity so wiring for me is not an issue.

Absolutely would have done that if running of factory radio but seems like best bet is to run off an amp. That means tapping 6 sets of wires almost seems like more work than just running leads straight from amp. Everything will be apart anyway unless I’m missing something? I’m all for easy so if tapping the wires is easiest I’m all for it.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Was worried about that. Used to love that supple sound was by far my favorite components back then.

JL was my other choice in that price range but I’m open to suggestion looking to spend $150-200 for each pair components up front and coax in the back.

Also if anyone else can comment on the tweets on the dash that would be great would rather not make a hole in the door panel….

I was going to warn you about MB Quart not being what you remember from the old days as well.

I would not bother with speakers in the rear. Spend 300-350$ on a higher tier set of components up front and forget the rears. I always suggest Harmon International (JBL/Infinity) for component speakers, I've had great results with them for the money. I would avoid entry level offerings from premium name brands in general, higher end JL components sound very nice but their entry level ones sound very entry level. On the bright side, if you get something that completely ***** Crutchfield is pretty good about returns if you're not trying to abuse it.

As to where to mount tweeters and what sounds "good" that's very subjective and there's just too many variables to guess. Optimally you would want tweeter and midrange as close to one another as possible but this is often impractical and if you're just doing plug and play into your stock location it probably won't put your tweeter someplace where it will be able to aim up to your listening position. I've never had good luck mounting them up on a dash but others claim to have done OK with it and I've had mostly good results just mounting up high on the door panels near to the side view mirrors. I very much prefer mids and highs together in the kicks but unless Q-forms makes one to fit your truck that probably won't happen with your requirements here.

IF you pony up the extra money for an amp with DSP built in or an outboard DSP you will have a lot more processing power to compensate for any issues you'll run into from sub-optimum mounting locations... if you have the patience to tweak and tune to dial it all in.

 

[rovster]

I was going to warn you about MB Quart not being what you remember from the old days as well.

I would not bother with speakers in the rear. Spend 300-350$ on a higher tier set of components up front and forget the rears. I always suggest Harmon International (JBL/Infinity) for component speakers, I've had great results with them for the money. I would avoid entry level offerings from premium name brands in general, higher end JL components sound very nice but their entry level ones sound very entry level. On the bright side, if you get something that completely ***** Crutchfield is pretty good about returns if you're not trying to abuse it.

As to where to mount tweeters and what sounds "good" that's very subjective and there's just too many variables to guess. Optimally you would want tweeter and midrange as close to one another as possible but this is often impractical and if you're just doing plug and play into your stock location it probably won't put your tweeter someplace where it will be able to aim up to your listening position. I've never had good luck mounting them up on a dash but others claim to have done OK with it and I've had mostly good results just mounting up high on the door panels near to the side view mirrors. I very much prefer mids and highs together in the kicks but unless Q-forms makes one to fit your truck that probably won't happen with your requirements here.

IF you pony up the extra money for an amp with DSP built in or an outboard DSP you will have a lot more processing power to compensate for any issues you'll run into from sub-optimum mounting locations... if you have the patience to tweak and tune to dial it all in.

Solid advice yeah I remember the kick panel mounts, even made them with fiberglass back in the day but not thinking of that now. My other thought was to just mount the tweeter mid or upper door panel and maybe get some high sensitivity mids to mount in the dash to use as front fill and run those off the stock radio.

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

id go with JL. MBQ aint the same anymore. i ran JL comps back in the 90s, they were great. im using Oz now from the early 2000s.

cant go wrong with any JL gear

about the tweet in the dash, you could always place the tweeter anywhere and demo it to get an idea

my deck has 1-4 order xovers, 6 channel time correction and eq or peq, i love the flexibility. if you like flexibility too, you might want to get a DSP

JL has these if you want to keep the stock radio...

OEM Integration

www.jlaudio.com

 

[rovster]

Thanks for the suggestion about the DSP I don’t want to get too far into the weeds. As it is I started with just wanting to add a small sub but the more I listen to the stock highs the more I want a more comprehensive set up….without going too far down the rabbit hole lol.

 

[rovster]

I also had an Oz 12” sub way back when and a couple of kicker solobarics back when they were round haha!

 

[SlugButter]

Thanks for the suggestion about the DSP I don’t want to get too far into the weeds. As it is I started with just wanting to add a small sub but the more I listen to the stock highs the more I want a more comprehensive set up….without going too far down the rabbit hole lol.

CDT has some decent component sets and speakers. I’ve been happy with the CDT stuff on a kinda low budget. simplest setup is the easiest to make sound good if you don’t want to go all in. A good set of amped 2 way speakers or a component set and a single sub on a 3 channel amp, or a 4 channel with the back channels bridged.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

My other thought was to just mount the tweeter mid or upper door panel and maybe get some high sensitivity mids to mount in the dash to use as front fill and run those off the stock radio.

Sounds like a recipe for trouble if you're not getting into DSP for everything.

If you want 3 way up front consider just getting a plug and play 3 way component set and put the 6" in the stock location and do the 3" and tweet up high and front on the door panel. I wouldn't mess with mounting on a dash if it were just bounced off the windshield. The right shape dash at a good height and I'd consider building pods, but you've already expressed reluctance to get into any complex fabrication. I ran some original Boston Pro series in a Camry some years back with the 4" and tweet up high and forward in the doors and the 6" down in the stock location and it worked really nicely.

If you went 3 way you could further simplify by just using a 150X4 size amp strapping 2 channels to the sub and the other two run stereo to a nice pair of 3 way components. I'm running some CDT 3 ways in my Jeep with good results. CDT sells a good product and often have 40-50% off sales, I'd say anything at deep discount is going to be great bang:buck, at MSRP you could probably do about the same elsewhere.

 

[rovster]

Got me thinking about the 3 way. Only concern is a lot of you are steering me away with a dash mount. I could easily mount the tweet and the sub in the door and most of the mids in the 3 ways could probably easily mount in the dash location and everything stays stock looking (with the exception of the tweeter in the door panel but that should look “stock enough”). Again just looking to fill the cab with good sound not looking into doing a whole lot of processing or messing with timing at all. That said I truly appreciate the comments it’s got me thinking and in creative mode which is always a good thing!