Stock stereo upgrade questions...

[rlm1014]

I don't want to be another broken record but, I have some questions about trying to upgrade the stock audio system in my 2008 Altima Sedan 2.5S. I am pretty sure I have the six speaker system. 2 in the dash, 2 in the front doors, and 2 in the rear deck. Now, there are grilles/covers on the back doors where speakers would go but, from what I have read, I do not think there are any speakers in those spots. Here are the questions, I want to upgrade the sound but keep the stock look. I want to know if the rear doors are wired for speakers even if there aren't any there. Also, if not, I would like to power the dash speakers and the front door speakers off of the stock head unit and then install speakers in the rear doors and power them and the rear deck speakers off of a 5 channel amp using the 5th output for a sub. Could I do all of this using a JL Cleansweep or something comparable? Any input welcome. Thank you.

[rlm1014]

Here, maybe this will help get some response. After thinking about it, this is the layout I would like to do. If the 8" subs can be done in the rear doors I would not even bother with a subwoofer in the trunk. Please tell me what you think and if this layout will work. I was thinking maybe Arc Audio, Boston Acoustics, or Infinity Kappa for speakers and then Arc Audio or Rockford Fosgate for the amp. Please let me hear what you guys think. Thanks.



And if the 8" subs cannot be done in the rear doors than this would be the other layout with Arc Audio of Rockford Fosgate as the subwoofer options.

[rlm1014]

anyone?

[Infantry1327]

Sorry bro but I have no idea on how to make things look stock.

Do you have the Bose system?

Replacing the head unit will probably give you the biggest improvment. Up gradeing the door speakers isn't go to sound much better unless you up the power. If you don't want a ton of base, then just up grade the 6x9's. The right 6x9's will probably give you the amount of base you want

I am still pretty new to this hole thing. So I will let some of the audiofiles make the suggestions on equipment.

[rlm1014]

Thank you for the input. It is a non-bose system. I would think that the stock head unit could handle just powering the front door speakers and a pair of tweeters. I do not plan on chaning out the head unit though. Thanks again.

[rjdmmfl1]

Ok, you've got alot going on here... I understand what you are tryiong to do, but I would go about it slightly different!

1st, running your front speakers off of deck power is a REALLY BAD IDEA. Do you drive from your rear seat? No? Then why sacrifice/forfeit front stage audio sound and clarity by running the front speakers off of deck power?

If anything (and again, I wouldn';t suggest this) you would run the front speakers off of two of the channels of the amp, run the rear door speakers off of the other two channels, and run the 6x9's off the deck. The rear should only be for rear fill anyways, and you don't need a whole lot of power to go there! So that's how I would do it if you only want to use the 5 channel amp...

Run 6.5" components with passive crossovers off of two channels of the amp. Mount the tweeters in the factory 3.5" location, and the 6.5" in the door. Running passive corssovers, you only need two channels for this! Now, if you're gonna add speakers to the rear doors, you want to decide whether you want those speakers to only handle mid bass, of full range of sound. If you want them to handle the full range of sound, you need "coaxials" not components. Unless

A. you are gonna cut a hole in the rear door to mount the tweeters, then you can use component or

B. You purchase a set of components that allow you to mount the tweeters on the midbass driver, giving it the appearance of a coaxial setup for installation purposes.

But if you just want there to just be midbass, then you want a set of midbass/midrange drivers for the rear doors... either way, you could run these off of the rear channels of the amplifier. And again, you could just run the rear 6x9's off of the factory deck, and run the woofer off of the 5th channel on the 5 channel amp.

Alternatively, you could also run an additional 2 channel amp for the rear 6x9's! In either case, if I were setting up your system, I would run three seperate amps, and an active crossover setup, but that's just me!

........

OK, you could get some 8" woofers to work in the door, but it depends on what kind. Ideally, you want your doors to carry midbass, not sub-bass. So you don't want subwoofers in the doors, you want something like some good 7" or 8" dynaudio woofers to go there. These woofers mount very shallow, and you could easily get them in the rear doors with a little modification!

MOst subwoofers don't work well in free air conditions.. so putting a real subwoofer in the dorrs is a bad idea!

[rlm1014]

Thank you. This information helps out a lot. The 8" woofers for the rear doors were some free-air woofers I have been looking at. Right now, I have a Rockford Fosgate T400-4 amplifier that I got a GREAT deal on so, looks like I will be doing at least a two amp setup. So, maybe the T400 for the speakers, leaving out the rear door woofer idea, and the purchase a small mono amp for my subwoofer in the trunk. How does this sound?

[rjdmmfl1]

Thank you. This information helps out a lot. The 8" woofers for the rear doors were some free-air woofers I have been looking at. Right now, I have a Rockford Fosgate T400-4 amplifier that I got a GREAT deal on so, looks like I will be doing at least a two amp setup. So, maybe the T400 for the speakers, leaving out the rear door woofer idea, and the purchase a small mono amp for my subwoofer in the trunk. How does this sound?

if the woofers were free air woofers, then it may be OK, but from my experience, most free air woofers are woofers and not subwoofers... thus you would still want the subwoofer in the trunk for a complete sub stage!

running the T4004 for the front components and rear 6x9's would be a good idea. However, I think you can get better rear fill sound by running a second set of 6.5" components in the rear deck where the factory 6x9 was. They make adapters for you to put a 6.5" and tweeter in the 6 x9 space!

I have the T400-4 amp from Rockford also.. its a pretty good amp, I'm running three amps for my setup

A T600-4 pushing my front midbass drivers and my rear 6x9 coxials... a T400-4 pushing my front 4" midrange and tweeters... and a t1500-1bd pushing my Rockford T2 12" subwoofer

For me, my setup gives me the right combination of power and SQ. I'm running an audio control DQXS digital EQ and active crossover setup for the 3 way front stage components and the sub. The rear 6x9 isn't being cleaned up by the DQXS, but running straight from the amp.

[rlm1014]

That sounds like a great system. Sounds veyr much like what I am hoping to achieve. Not too much bass, just solid, crisp sound. I have had the numerous subwoofers rattling my car to death before and that is certainly not what I am going for here. I will let you know what I choose. Thank you again.

[rlm1014]

After much thought, I have ordered everything and begun working on my sound system. Nothing outrageous like some here but, should sound pretty good. This is the layout I am going with.



I will keep updating this week. I am off tomorrow and will finish it up then. I am also going to try and take plenty of pics for those wanting info and because I just received a new camera for Chirstmas!

[rjdmmfl1]

I think the way you have this setup is a wise decision! Take pics and keep us posted!

[rlm1014]

Well, I have not done an install like this is at least a year but, I guess I did not expect to have to troubleshoot so much. Regardless, this is where I stand and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I tried everything after with the rear doors having 6.5 coaxials in them and did not like how they sounded so I am officially running the front component setup and rear deck 6x9's only! I will add a sub later but, I would like to get my issues worked out first.

Issue one is a slight popping in the rear deck speakers which, minus the rear doors now, are hooked up to the amp. The original idea was to run the front components and rear doors off of the amp and the rear deck 6x9's off of the stock head unit. However, as mentioned, I did not like the sound of having all of that and now the amp powers the front components and the rear deck speakers. The noise is only in the rear deck speakers. I have ran new wire to them and checked all of the connections twice. The popping every few seconds is accompanied by a slight buzz which sounds like a grounding issue. I grounded the amp to the back seat frame next to the amp. I'll post pics tonight of everything. So, that is the first problem. Slight popping when music plays and turning off the car with a ground-hum.

Problem two seems much more stupid on my part. In order to power the front components off the amp I tied into the front left and right speaker wires behind the stock head unit and ran wire back to the trunk where the amp is. When trying to use the FADE option on the stereo fading all the way to the front cuts out the front sound. In turn, fading all the way to the rear leaves only the front. I followed the wiring diagram and color codes correctly given in the sticky...right? I guess that is really just more of venting then asking for help but, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Besides that everything is great. As I stated previously, I will get pics up tonight showing pretty much everything I am talking about. Please help if you can and if you must make a comment about my bad wiring, make it funny! Thanks.

[rlm1014]

All is well! I have found the ground and humming/whining noise is gone! I have checked everything and checked it twice. I like it. It sounds so much better to me without the extra speakers in the rear door. Less busy I guess one would say. Anyhow, it sounds great. I am very please. I will probably break down and get a sub installed sometime soon. The amp is temporarily on the floor until I build a rack later when I get a sub. The pics turned out bad for most of them so there are not many. Here are just a few.











When I add the subs I'll take better, and more pics. Thank you to all who post for the help and great info I have found here on the forums!

[rlm1014]

Quick question. I am very happy running my system the way it is but, I have been toying with the idea of putting in a subwoofer in the trunk. The only thing holding me back, besides not being filthy rich, is I do not want to compromise space back there. I am a guitar player and carry pedals, amps, not to mention guitars and I need all of the space I can. Here is what I am thinking and please feel free to comment.

OPTION 1#

Run another amp with the Rockford Fosgate T400.4 that I already have running my Alpine S components up front and my Alpine S 3-way coaxial 6x9's in back. It would probably be another Rockford Fosgate amp if I do this option, class D strictly for one subwoofer. So that is two amps and one sub all in the back of my car.

OPTION 2#

Use a 6 channel amp to replace my existing 4 channel and run the components and the 6x9's off of 4 channels and bridge the last two channels to use for a subwoofer. That would then be one amp an one subwoofer. The 6-channel amp I am looking at is a JL Audio 1000/6.

So there it is, let me hear what you think.