I moved into the expy from a dodge grand caravan. I hate to say it but the sound system was considerably better.

I am looking to start with replacing the speakers in front and rear. Does anyone make a system that is a direct replacement fit for the door panels? I am looking for a larger than stock speaker and perhaps separate speakers for the enclosure, tweeters, midrange etc.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Not sure why you want to go with larger-than-stock speakers...the poor sound quality is almost certainly due to the quality of the components, not their size.

Scosche makes adapters that would help if you currently have oval speakers and want to replace them with components.

If you do replace the speakers, try to find some with efficiency near that of the OEMs (though finding the efficiency of the OEMs could be tough). If you put in really high-end speakers, no way will your head unit produce enough power to make them sound good.

 

I was thinking the larger speaker would help produce a little better sound than the smaller units. I do not need to go to a larger speaker, just one that sounds MUCH better.

 

I imagine your speaker size is OK. Low-end response will suffer from lack of a subwoofer, but trying to offset this with larger midrange speakers is not a good idea, especially if you're limiting your upgrade to speakers, since you're really not going to be feeding them very much power.

Hopefully others will chime in here with specific brand recommendations, but it's a good idea not to go overboard if all you're doing is adding speakers. It will cost more money and they won't perform for you on the power an OEM head unit is going to supply. The entry-level MB Quarts are probably a good choice for this kind of upgrade, and are readily available on eBay.

 

What if I plug in an amp? To get decent system am I truly looking at scrapping the entire setup?

 

Well, one man's "decent" is another's "outstanding" and still another's "lousy." My point was that audio components are kind of like performance components: they do great when matched as a set, and can be nearly worthless by themselves.

If your rig has the original sound system, chances are that the head unit puts out somewhere between 5-10 clean watts RMS per channel. This won't drive top-end speakers much beyond a whisper. BUT: some less expensive speakers like the MB Quarts I mentioned might be OK.

I think the better plan is to begin the upgrade with the head unit. For the cost of four good speakers, you should be able to find a decent HU on eBay. And you'll be amazed how much better your stock speakers sound when powered by a good HU. A good second step would be better speakers, and if this still isn't to your satisfaction, you can add an amp. Note, however, that an amp adds some complexity to the installation: more and bigger wires, a better source of power, where to put the amp, etc.

As far as using an amp with your stock HU, there's a snag there. Your HU probably doesn't have pre-amp level outputs (the things that plug into RCA-style cables) for an amp. You can use a line converter, but I'm not a fan of those for a variety of reasons. You're still better off, IMO, starting with a new HU.

 

I am with MZIMMERS a head unit should be your first step to better sound quality. Although I am not a fan of factory speakers, they can work quite well with a little more power to them from an aftermarket head unit. Also sound deadning around the speaker itself is a big PLUS.

 

I am going to give you a "second opinion", and I hope it will enlighten rather than confuse you. I believe the electronics on your existing system are actually quite good. The reason for this is that everybody knows how to make a good receiver these days, and with the integrated circuits now used, it really doesn't cost any more to make a good unit than a poor one. What does cost more is good speakers, so that is the first target when they look to cut costs in this area. The most noticeable weakness of these speakers is a lack of bass response.

I would recommend you first consider a powered subwoofer. Kenwood makes a nice one. Initially, at least, you would run this off the speaker level outputs of your receiver, which as others have said, is not ideal theoretically. Actually, however, it works quite well, particularly for a sub, since any distortion is less noticeable in the lower frequencies. You can later go to component speakers (again, Kenwood makes a nice 6x8 with separate tweeter), and, if you feel the need, amplifiers and/or HU.

Good luck,
Brian

 

His "electronics" are probably, as you say, quite good...but the amplifier section is likely to be woefully underpowered. We've had several people here test their OEM HUs and most have reported getting under 10W RMS before distortion becomes noticeable.

Don't get me wrong...good speakers are important too, but his are probably already decent, and I'd guess can handle a lot more power than the HU can deliver. Better speakers just aren't going to sound any better with anemic power. This is doubly true for the really high-end stuff that is made for people who value fidelity over efficiency. AND...it's even more so when the truck is RUNNING and making noise that the sound system must overcome.

Not trying to be argumentative...just been down this road before a few times.

 

I agree with mzimmers, the electronics are prolly fine, but the amp sucks
if you were an electronics tech type person, I guess you could open up the stock head, bypass the internal amp,and run the preamp level signal to an external amp, but this is not a feasible solution, since most people don't have the knowledge/training to do this. you could pay someone to do this, but I don't think this would be cost effective. you could buy a speaker level to line level converter, but this causes distortion, and noise.

in my opinion you'd be better off to just upgrade the head, and see how it sounds
if you need more, try upgrading the speakers
if you still need more then maybe an amp and sub
just make sure to get a head with preamp outputs(RCAs)

 

Well, I don't want to argue either; just give another viewpoint.

The factory tuner is very good, the CD player seems adequate, and the amp is clean although admittedly, not very powerful. The powered sub would go a long way in helping it because its the low frequencies that really need the power anyway. And a speaker level input is just used as a control voltage and, while I wouldn't claim it to be the best, it doesn't necessarily add significant distortion or noise, because it's not sucking much power from the factory amp.

So the head unit would be further down on my priorities. The speakers, however, just don't have enough mass to move much air. Adding the sub improves their most glaring weakness, but, if it were me, I would next replace them with more accurate units.

Just my opinion!