bd100
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- May 31, 2022
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- JT, WK2, ole' Ram
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- #1
My truck has the Alpine system. Replacing the 3.5" tweeters in the dash and sound bar was simple, and a great improvement in clarity. Replacing the 4" speakers in the sound bar added a little more highs in the back, but the original 4" speakers are apparently pretty good for what they are and I would have been OK with leaving those alone. Likewise, I am not interested in replacing the 4" in the dash, largely due to how hard it is to get in there.
There has always been too much bass for my liking in this vehicle. In fact, in our WK2 with Alpine there is the same problem, so I suspect it's a design choice. I was setting BASS -5 on the equalizer just to calm it down.
I added polyfill behind each speaker and also stuffed a lot into the roll bar. After that, the volume could go to the max without distortion, buzzing, or chassis vibration, but the bass-heavy sound continued, even with the fader set to full forward. Much of it is chassis resonance.
It turns out you can add your choice of adhesive sound mat to the exterior of the dash speaker pods without tearing apart the dash. Just pull off the panel directly below the steering wheel, straight towards the driver and up a little. There are six plastic clips, each of which has a little white intermediate piece. Start at the bottom. If a white clip piece stays behind in the dash just pop it out and place it back on the panel like the others. I've done this several times and nothing broke.
Once that single panel is off you can reach in and place palm-sized pieces of stick-on sound mat all over the outside top, back, bottom, and near side of the driver's dash speaker pod. You can also add some to the back of the panel you just pulled out from below the steering wheel. I added two layers everywhere.
On the passenger side, you can pop out the glove box and do the same. When reinstalling, be sure that the arm on the left goes back into the sliding latch.
After all of that I was able to turn the bass EQ to -3 instead of -5, and it's much less boomy in general. I also added some mids to make up for the enhanced highs from the new speakers.
Even with all this, I can still feel some of the bass frequencies in the steering wheel as I drive, with the amplifier at normal volume.
It would have been nice if we had a 4 or 5 band EQ, or could control the subwoofer independently.
(For those who would like to upgrade the 4" in the sound bar, I used Kicker 47KSC404. Break off the four tabs and use the 3-screw adaptor ring. For the 3.5" I used Kenwood Excelon KFC-X3C.)
There has always been too much bass for my liking in this vehicle. In fact, in our WK2 with Alpine there is the same problem, so I suspect it's a design choice. I was setting BASS -5 on the equalizer just to calm it down.
I added polyfill behind each speaker and also stuffed a lot into the roll bar. After that, the volume could go to the max without distortion, buzzing, or chassis vibration, but the bass-heavy sound continued, even with the fader set to full forward. Much of it is chassis resonance.
It turns out you can add your choice of adhesive sound mat to the exterior of the dash speaker pods without tearing apart the dash. Just pull off the panel directly below the steering wheel, straight towards the driver and up a little. There are six plastic clips, each of which has a little white intermediate piece. Start at the bottom. If a white clip piece stays behind in the dash just pop it out and place it back on the panel like the others. I've done this several times and nothing broke.
Once that single panel is off you can reach in and place palm-sized pieces of stick-on sound mat all over the outside top, back, bottom, and near side of the driver's dash speaker pod. You can also add some to the back of the panel you just pulled out from below the steering wheel. I added two layers everywhere.
On the passenger side, you can pop out the glove box and do the same. When reinstalling, be sure that the arm on the left goes back into the sliding latch.
After all of that I was able to turn the bass EQ to -3 instead of -5, and it's much less boomy in general. I also added some mids to make up for the enhanced highs from the new speakers.
Even with all this, I can still feel some of the bass frequencies in the steering wheel as I drive, with the amplifier at normal volume.
It would have been nice if we had a 4 or 5 band EQ, or could control the subwoofer independently.
(For those who would like to upgrade the 4" in the sound bar, I used Kicker 47KSC404. Break off the four tabs and use the 3-screw adaptor ring. For the 3.5" I used Kenwood Excelon KFC-X3C.)
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