[RPMRamFury]

Hey guys, I installed an alpine cda-9856 deck and have the stock 99 ram 6 speaker infinity system... last week my passanger speaker went out, so I took my door pannel off and there is a pre amp type thing that is on the speaker. My question is should I run this preamp type enhancer with my new 6x9's or should I just connect pos and neg and run it straight from the deck? Also I heard that if you disconnect the front door 6x9's that the front 2 tweeters in the a pillar do not work. How much truth is there to this statement? As if now I don't want to mess with the tweeters or the rear speakers so if I just replace the stock 6x9's everything else should work still, right? Here is some pictures below...


Sorry for the long post but I don't want to do this wrong and have to do it all over again. Thanks Jeff

 

[kent0]

Hooking up the amp is the easiest solution. The rear's also come from the deck, go through the amp, and then go to the rear speaker. If you just remove the amp, then you will need to jumper the rear wires. The statement about the tweeters is also correct. If you remove the amp then you will need to tweeter wires. If you use a wiring diagram, you can jumper everything in the door without having to run new wires.

I opted to hook up the amps when I replaced my spekers and it sounds fine.

 

[RPMRamFury]

Will the preamps in the doors hold back the capabilities of my new alpine type s 6x9's that I'm ordering? Where is the best place to mount this amp without hitting the window or messing with my door pannels?

Thanks for your help so far kent

 

[kent0]

I'm not sure if they will hold back on your new speakers or not. I have the factory deck and hooked it up with no amp and then with the amp it it sounded better with the amp so I kept it. Since you have a new deck you may want to hook it up with the amp and without to see which way sounds better. Since your deck probably has more power than the stock one, it may sound good with no amp.

I don't remember exactly how I mounted it, but it seems like I removed the magnet, removed the metal bracket under the magnet, drilled a hole in it, and mounted it to an existing hole in the door. It was several months ago and I didn't take pictures.

Let me know if you need the wiring diagram.

 

[RPMRamFury]

Thanks alot for your help to this point kent. I think I'm going to try to see both ways with and without the amp to see which sounds better. I thought we discussed earlier that if you diconnect the preamp from the speakers, the front tweeters and rears dont work. Is this still true up to tihs point regardless of the new deck or not?

 

[rickbaro]

stock amps

Forgive me if you already knew this, but my 98 has separate wires going from the head unit to the rear speakers (I have a vehicle specific wiring diagram). The front speakers have six wires going to each. Two are the speaker +/- wires, two wires that leave the speaker running to the tweeters, and the final two are a ground, and a 12-volt feed coming from a relay to power the amp.

The rear speakers are powered straight form the head unit with whatever amp is built in. The front speakers probably come off the pre-amp, and then are boosted by their separate amps. The front amps also contain cross over circuits for the tweeters.

Your new deck is probably feeding front and rear circuits off the built in amp. If so, you are overpowering your front amps. They aren't needed unless you can feed them from a pre-amp outlet on the back of your new Alpine. But since the stock amps are probably weaker than your new unit, it would be kind of going backwards.

My question is if you replace your front speakers, can I buy one of your old amps? Mine took a dump.

 

[kent0]

Thanks alot for your help to this point kent. I think I'm going to try to see both ways with and without the amp to see which sounds better. I thought we discussed earlier that if you diconnect the preamp from the speakers, the front tweeters and rears dont work. Is this still true up to tihs point regardless of the new deck or not?

Yes, that is true regardless of which deck you have. The 4 front and rear wires go to the amp on it's side along with a power wire and ground. The amp boosts and perhaps filters this signal and then sends it to the front and rear speakers. I believe the tweeters are just wired in parallel from the front speaker. That is the reason for two wires on each front speaker connector. The amp is basically wired in-line to the 4 front and rear wires.

I'll attach the diagram. If you want to bypass the amp, hook the front + and - from the connector to your speakers. Connect the Amp Rear Speaker + to the Rear speaker + (Tan/violet to dk blue/white for right), repeat for - and the other side. This essentially connects the wires from the deck to the rear speakers. Attach the Amp Tweeter wires to your front speaker connectors. Be sure to tape the bkl/red radio choke wire good because this will have 12volts + when the radio is on.

 

[kent0]

Forgive me if you already knew this, but my 98 has separate wires going from the head unit to the rear speakers (I have a vehicle specific wiring diagram). The front speakers have six wires going to each. Two are the speaker +/- wires, two wires that leave the speaker running to the tweeters, and the final two are a ground, and a 12-volt feed coming from a relay to power the amp.

The rear speakers are powered straight form the head unit with whatever amp is built in. The front speakers probably come off the pre-amp, and then are boosted by their separate amps. The front amps also contain cross over circuits for the tweeters.

Your new deck is probably feeding front and rear circuits off the built in amp. If so, you are overpowering your front amps. They aren't needed unless you can feed them from a pre-amp outlet on the back of your new Alpine. But since the stock amps are probably weaker than your new unit, it would be kind of going backwards.

My question is if you replace your front speakers, can I buy one of your old amps? Mine took a dump.

They must have changed it in 99. It has 10 wires to each front speaker amp.

 

[rickbaro]

Yeah, looking at the drawing from kent0, I can see that. It was my understanding that the 98s and 99s were identical.

If I could figue out how to copy and past my drawing I would. sorry.

 

[rickbaro]

98 version

Figured it out. I would still be interested in buying the amp if you are interested in selling it. I believe I could clip off the reaar speaker wires and reuse my harness plug.

 

[w0rm]

What is that radio choke relay? Does that shut the radio off when turning the enigne over?

 

[kent0]

No, It's the relay that turns on the amps. I think crossovers are sometimes called chokes so I suppose the amps have crossovers in them also.

 

[RPMRamFury]

Thanks for your help guys. So far I broke a bunch of clips off the door pannel itself and have jb welded them back in place. They seem sturdy and now comes the point of speakers. How much depth is there to work with? It's hard to tell because I have the window up but when it's rolled down does the depthe decrease? Thanks, Jeff

 

[rickbaro]

According to the guys at Crutchfield, there is a depth problem. They told me I could not use a standard 6X9 because the magnet would be in the way of the window (the replacement speakers they recommend are actually round. They come with an adapter). After reading a bunch of these forums, it seems like an awful lot of guys mange to do it though.

 

[kent0]

Yes, the window will get in the way and leave you with not much depth. Large magnet speakers are out. I'm not sure the model, but I put in Sony Explod 6x9's from wal-mart and they sound good and fit fine. The first speakers I selected were too deep so I swapped them for the Sonys. Keep your box and receipt for whichever ones you get in case they don't fit.

 

[RPMRamFury]

Is there anyone out there who has baught a good conponent system that fits well? What I mean by conponent system is the front 2 tweeters along with the 6x9's in the doors.

Thanks, Jeff

 

[cheaderhead]

I bought infinity 6x9 from Best Buy. Fit?......... No problem. (speaker sits on the outside of the 6x9 hole) Made "L" bracket and polished one side of it for heat sink purpose and bolted amp to it. There was a hole just to the left of the passenger side speaker hole that I bolted the amp to. Works/sounds great! Had no problems with the door panel.

 

[IBUILD4YU]

Speaker problems

Hi I am having the same problem as the guy you spoke with about the stock speakers in the doors, I have a 1998 Dodge Ram 3500 dually and bothof the front door speakers are not working, They do have the amps attached to them like the pictures he posted, do I just replace them ? can the amps that are on the stock speakers be mounted to the new speakers I install and last if you could email me ( [email protected] ) the speaker wiring diagram that would be an great help I cant find the diagram anywhere, Thanks Mike

 

[dodge80_89]

Hi I am having the same problem as the guy you spoke with about the stock speakers in the doors, I have a 1998 Dodge Ram 3500 dually and bothof the front door speakers are not working, They do have the amps attached to them like the pictures he posted, do I just replace them ? can the amps that are on the stock speakers be mounted to the new speakers I install and last if you could email me ( [email protected] ) the speaker wiring diagram that would be an great help I cant find the diagram anywhere, Thanks Mike

If you look 8 posts up you'll see the diagram for the 98 truck, it says 1500, but they should be the same for the 3500 as well.

On the topic of what fits and what hits in the door. I installed some pioneer 4-way 6x9's that are rated at 250watts in my doors. They originally hit the upright for the window due to the large magnet. To get around that, I made some spacers out of 1" thick MDF that the speakers fit in and were sandwiched between the speakers and the doors. The 3rd gen guys have to do the same thing. Putting the door panels back on were a little bit tricky, and they don't "fully" clip back on the front, (towards the front of the truck), but no one sees that part of the door. The doors close fine, and the panels are secure. Could probably make the spacers our of 3/4" and been fine, but I wanted to be sure.