2013 F150 NEED MORE VOLUME!!!! Recommendations please
03-19-2014, 02:09 PM
#32
putting an amp to stock speakers will work...in theory.. I've done this many times for customers when I was an installer as they insisted they pursue this path (customer is always right). Even put the oscilloscope on them to make sure they were getting a clean unclipped signal at max volume. 2-3 weeks later they came back with speakers that had torn the surrounds off, they were not blown but they no longer functioned the way a speaker was intended to function. The cone was no longer stabilized in its movement which produced a very distorted sound. Stock speakers are not designed to be powered by much more than what is coming from the stock radio. So yea it could be the truth but in reality it is not the proper fix.
Agree 10000%! They are not meant to handle the power for long periods of time. But having countless stereos and installing them myself you have to admit that stock speakers with more power will sound better than aftermarket speakers on a stock head unit. Stock head unit simply doesn't have the power to push after market speakers.
03-19-2014, 08:34 PM
#33
One Bad MoFoMoCo Owner
If you replace the stock speakers with aftermarket soakers with a low wattage sensitivity, you will improve the sound more than amping the stock speakers. Something like Kenwood Excelon or Infinity Kappa do great in this respect.
The stock head unit has around 20 watts peak and 7 watts rms. The speakers are matched to that. Plus the headunit filters out the lows at higher volumes to keep from busting the stock paper and foam surround stockers. If you amped them, they'd sound good until you shred them.
Heck, a good aftermarket head unit like Kenwood or Alpine is 45 watts a channel with 20 watts RMS. You'd blow out stock speakers in a couple days at little over three quarters volumes.
If you replace the stock speakers and keep the factory headunit, you'll get better results by amping then to bring the power up to equal RMS levels.
Better yet, replace the headunit and the speakers at the same time. And add a sub. If you need to spread out the money outlays, in order, replace the
Door Speakers
Headunit
Add a sub
Amp between head unit and door speakers
The stock head unit has around 20 watts peak and 7 watts rms. The speakers are matched to that. Plus the headunit filters out the lows at higher volumes to keep from busting the stock paper and foam surround stockers. If you amped them, they'd sound good until you shred them.
Heck, a good aftermarket head unit like Kenwood or Alpine is 45 watts a channel with 20 watts RMS. You'd blow out stock speakers in a couple days at little over three quarters volumes.
If you replace the stock speakers and keep the factory headunit, you'll get better results by amping then to bring the power up to equal RMS levels.
Better yet, replace the headunit and the speakers at the same time. And add a sub. If you need to spread out the money outlays, in order, replace the
Door Speakers
Headunit
Add a sub
Amp between head unit and door speakers
Last edited by sullyman; 03-19-2014 at 08:36 PM.
03-20-2014, 08:43 AM
#34
The amp first method would allow for you to control the amount of power as well as give you control of the freqs to send to the speaker. In my 4 door Ford Explorer I was running an Orion HCCA 275 amp to two 15" RF HX2's and an Eclipse 4 channel to my 4 stock mids. I just hadn't upgraded them yet but shortly did. I sent the proper freqs to the subs and only mids and highs to the mids. The sound was incredible compaired to before when they were underpowered and received low freqs. Of course when I upgraded them it got even better. All I am saying is upgrading your mids to high-end mids on a stock radio will sound even worse which I stand by.
03-20-2014, 09:39 AM
#35
One Bad MoFoMoCo Owner
In my case, it was speakers first, and it was night and day better. The key was buying high end speakers with good sensitivity ratings, allowing the signal to be correctly separated between the highs and mids versus the stock paper cup.
I'll stick by doing speakers first. Only been doing this for 25 years...
I'll stick by doing speakers first. Only been doing this for 25 years...
Last edited by sullyman; 03-20-2014 at 11:17 AM.
03-20-2014, 10:43 AM
#37
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