Speaker Upgrade?

[Zanardi]

I'm considering doing a speaker upgrade on my XLT Crew Cab. It has the standard 6 speaker set up - tweeters high in the front and 6.75" (I assume) woofers in the front and rear doors. Being an XLT I have the large touch screen media center. I used to know my way around stereo systems back in the day. My understanding is that now days it's not as straight forward. I have a few questions:

1) I would like to put decent coaxial speakers in the doors. I'm told that some vehicles are wired as such that even with installing coaxial speakers only the woofers will work on the speakers? Maybe something to do with crossovers? Does anyone know if the Ranger falls into this category? Aftermarket speakers are probably superior to the factory ones even if only the woofers work but not sure if it is worth the trouble.

2) Has anyone taken their door panels off yet? I've watched videos and taking them off is well within my skill level. Of all the projects I've done over the years however I can NEVER seem to get everything to snap back together flush and tight.

3) An aftermarket amplifier crossed my mind too but I'm told that's not necessarily a simple swap out either?

Any insight from folks who have done a swap is appreciated. If it's a straightforward swap to get significantly better sound I may do it. If it's a large amount of messing around for only marginal improvement I'll probably just stick with the factory setup.

Thanks!

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[Langwilliams]

I read a thread on this in the electronic forum...I'd like better speakers too but don't know if I want to mess with yanking the door skins off if it isn't much of an improvement without an amp. I have a pair of Infinity Kappa's laying around I could throw in one pair of doors an I have some kicker 6.75 three way's I bought for the soundbar of a jeep I had but never installed. I've checked out some mid range speakers for the front door on ebay but I don't know if I would need a cross over or how to use one an keep the stock tweeter. Guess I'll be watching this thread.

 

[Pinepig]

I had a couple of leftover 1" JBL tweeters from an upgrade I did on a previous car. I put those in place of the factory tweets and it made a HUGE difference. The mid bass is pretty good in the XLT speakers, the highs are barely there. You can do this for about $100 or less and in almost no time.

 

[Dr. Zaius]

I had a couple of leftover 1" JBL tweeters from an upgrade I did on a previous car. I put those in place of the factory tweets and it made a HUGE difference. The mid bass is pretty good in the XLT speakers, the highs are barely there. You can do this for about $100 or less and in almost no time.

Which model JBL tweeters did you use?

 

[Pinepig]

Which model JBL tweeters did you use?

Whatever was in the box with the GT7 6C component set. They are 1", ALMOST a straight drop in to the factory spots the originals went in. I just stuffed some small blocks of high density foam alongside them to wedge them in good, A little hot glue would work in a pinch. As far as the wiring I stripped the wires back on the tweeters about 1/4' tined them with solder to make it look like a factory pin and stuffed it in the factory plugs with a wrap of black tape. Set me back a whole half hour swapping them out.

Any 1" tweeter should damn near drop in.

 

[Zanardi]

Thanks for the replies. I read other information that also suggests simply swapping the tweeters can make a big improvement. It also appears popping off the plastic cover housing the tweeters is very easy. Maybe I'll start with that. I'm still hesitant to pop off my door panels. I'm really fussy and if they don't go back on just right/tight it'll drive me nuts.

Just as a thought - are there any slim-line stand alone subwooofers that could be slipped behind the back seat or under the front seat or such? Does the basic factory amp have an output for that?

If the mids in the door are fairly decent I could upgrade the tweeters, install a subwoofer to boost the bass and see a big sound improvement without having to take my doors apart.

 

[Racket]

I understand that Ford has rolled off bass response in the factory outputs that can be disabled via FORSCAN. This would have an impact on speaker response.
The Powerbass direct replacements are designed to work with the factory setup, once you start adding amps and high end speakers, adding a subwoofer a lá the B&O system you are re-engineering the sound system.

 

[speedczar]

you can replace your factory speakers with 6.5" ( I believe 6.75" can work also ), you will need speaker mounting adapters also available is wire plug adapters (so there is no need to cut factory wires ).

 

[walkerty1]

Whatever was in the box with the GT7 6C component set. They are 1", ALMOST a straight drop in to the factory spots the originals went in. I just stuffed some small blocks of high density foam alongside them to wedge them in good, A little hot glue would work in a pinch. As far as the wiring I stripped the wires back on the tweeters about 1/4' tined them with solder to make it look like a factory pin and stuffed it in the factory plugs with a wrap of black tape. Set me back a whole half hour swapping them out.

Any 1" tweeter should damn near drop in.

Did you install a cross over for the tweeters? And also how are they holding up as of today?

 

[Pinepig]

Did you install a cross over for the tweeters? And also how are they holding up as of today?

There is a cross over built into the factory wiring, no need to do anything other than stuffing new tweeters in there. Still sounds fantastic.

 

[TremorOwner]

It makes ZERO sense to install just new co-axial speakers. The door is midbass, the A-pillar location is a tweeter. There's a reason for that... brings the sound stage and detail up. Frankly the door locations in our cars is terrible for audio quality, so don't put the tweeters down there. Bad move.

In many, many instances you can upgrade just the tweeter and sound will improve (as long as it is the same OHM rating as factory). Factory base stereo tweeters are junk almost all the time.

 

[walkerty1]

I got the kendwood components installed and my tweeters have blown out somehow, it was also very static out of nowhere before they blew out. And they also had built in cross overs... any suggestions?

 

[floormonkey]

i have upgraded the speakers/ sound system. i have a 2020 xlt crew cab. it did not have premium sound and apparently no amp. i used a t-harness that can be found in the electronics section somewhere. (sorry im not much help there). i refused to cut any wires here being a brand new truck... so, again, i bought the t-harness that connects between the truck and the radio, i bought the metra speaker harnesses (4 ea.) and the metra door speaker pods. these are available at crutchfield. then for the line level out i used a jl audio fix 82 so i could utilize the digital line out instead of rca cables. then i ran that to a jl audio vx1000/5 digital amplifier. i replaced the rear door speakers with jl audio c3 6.5" coaxial speakers and the front door speakers with jl audio c5 6.5"component speakers. the tweeters pop out of the top a=pillar pods and the jl tweeters are a perfect fit. then i ran a jl audio tw3 10d4 sub speaker in a .5 sq ft box @ a 2 ohm load that sits behind the driver seat on the floor. power wire is run through the firewall same as a traditional "old school" build. ...also installed closed cell foam rings and sound deadening material in the doors and around the speakers to reduce road noise and channel sound in the cabin. i also used an add a fuse for the turn on lead to the fix 82 and vxi amplifier so it would act just like the oem system and remain on after turning off the vehicle. over all it sounds good but is a much smaller system than i would want. but would be plenty for most people. i might post pictures someday, but im pretty lazy... lol. p.s. there is no and never was any fake engine noise. not sure what these other folks are talking about. and i did not have to turn off any settings using forscan. not sure why anyone else had to either, save for those that had the b&o system to begin with. use quality parts and you will get quality sound, simple as that. rock on peeps!

 

[spieghts451]

Thanks for the replies. I read other information that also suggests simply swapping the tweeters can make a big improvement. It also appears popping off the plastic cover housing the tweeters is very easy. Maybe I'll start with that. I'm still hesitant to pop off my door panels. I'm really fussy and if they don't go back on just right/tight it'll drive me nuts.

Just as a thought - are there any slim-line stand alone subwooofers that could be slipped behind the back seat or under the front seat or such? Does the basic factory amp have an output for that?

If the mids in the door are fairly decent I could upgrade the tweeters, install a subwoofer to boost the bass and see a big sound improvement without having to take my doors apart.

Don’t sweat taking those door skins off. It’s not bad.

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