Here's where I'm at:

- I think I have the harmon kardon, but there's no sticker on the amp and all the speakers say Philips. I have (/had) 12 speakers in all the right places, so I think I have the HK system
- Keeping Head unit w/ GROM
- rear woofers are gone, replaced with a single 12" woofer. I think it works well, but I'm no audiophile ( )
- Rear doors are both stripped (gutted door panels) I'm going to put in a tube bar across the attic and mount 'wakeboard' style speakers to preserve floor space. 6.5"

- Open to upgrading the AMP. There's a lot of wires though and looks pretty complicated. does anyone know how many watts the factory amp puts out to each channel?

Per manual, the front doors have a mid range and low range (larger) speaker. Low range = subwoofer??
Rear doors have a tweeter and low range, and they use the same speaker wire

Looking at aftermarket options, the most common option is a 2-way or 3-way "full range" speaker. Is this a good way to go? Or is it better to replace each speaker with a corresponding low, mid, or high range 1 way speaker? What ohms? For example, searching for "low range speaker" on Amazon does not really yield any typical results with high ratings

I picked up a pair of these for the heck of it and tried them out: And I don't really notice any difference, if anything the older one sounded better...

 

Rockford makes nice subwoofers. Their speakers are... eh. If you want to upgrade speakers on a budget look into Infinitys. The Infinity Reference Series speakers are a great value. Been around a long time. Tried and true. , but if you're looking to save a few dollars. They'll just move your soundstage down and you'll want to unhook your factory tweeters in the a-pillar if you use them where as you would replace them with the independent tweeters with the first set.

Either way you go you'll just unhook your "mid range" speakers. The 3" deals in the upper doors. They're not worth replacing with aftermarket units.

That subwoofer is pretty trash, and with ANY sub you'll want to do an aftermarket amplifier. Also, that's a 10"; not a 12" subwoofer. 10" is a good size for a well rounded system, though. is about as cheap as I'd want to go. In general just stay away from Pyle and Boss audio.

For a sub amp, is nothing special but it will push that Rockford sub just fine at a reasonable price.

The real weak point in the factory system is the head unit. Bail on that. for not too much money that will serve your purposes just fine.

You'll want to bypass the factory amp. You don't want an aftermarket head unit running into a factory amp. It messes with resistances and output in weird ways. Leave the factory speakers in the rear doors. They're perfect for that. That said, run wire directly from the head unit to all the speakers. on a spool of wire that you can use for all your speakers as well as your sub.

Also you'll need a wiring kit for the subwoofer amp. You can grab the $25 one at Wal-Mart, or for a few dollars cheaper. Use the speaker wire I linked instead of what's included, but that will get you working for your amp's power, ground, fuse (place as near the battery as possible), RCA's (from head unit to amp), and remote power wire.

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Ok, that gets you a pretty decent sound system in a budget price range. I'm reading through your post again so I'll address a couple things. The "low range" speakers in the doors are actually regular full range woofers. Not sure why they call them low range. Maybe LR wired them to only receive low tones, but they work great in the rear doors as full range speakers.

As stated, you don't need to run the door speakers off of an amp unless you're going for a very high fidelity setup: AKA, audiophile. Bail on the factory amp. Run your speakers directly from head unit. You'll want to throw in an amp for the sub also as mentioned. Do you already have the sub you linked? I think you'll be a lot happier with the Rockford sub on an independent amp especially if you get all your levels set right.

Yes, you'll be better with a component set (independent tweeter and 6.5" woofer with a crossover) than you will with a full range speaker. You'll pay a few dollars extra but worth it IMO. Makes a very noticeable difference.

Curious why you're going to hang speakers wake bar style? That's going to take up a ton of head room and make the sound very harsh for passengers in the rear. You won't take up any extra floor space just leaving the factory speakers in the rear doors unless you're planning on removing the door panels, which... I mean, that won't gain you much room. Even then you'd be better off just leaving rear speakers out of the equation. A ton of guys do that. My Silverado (unfortunately) is like that currently. I really need to pull the head unit and figure out some electrical funkiness that's been happening lately. Hoping the HU is ok and I just didn't wire everything great. I was in a rush when I did it after all.

I guess the real question is what are you looking for out of the system? Everything I linked will work pretty well for a well rounded system and will do a little of anything you want fairly well.

 

This all came about because I'm removing the door panel and door handle off of both rear doors, and making a new flat panel with rigid molle over it to aid in tool storage/camping. It'll seem less crazy once I finish it and post up pictures. There's actually a ton of room inside the door! And 2 of the rear seats are already gone.

So after doing that and realized I need to mount those speakers somewhere, and noticing 2 tweeters are blown, I jumped into an audio project. I don't want to sacrifice any floor space for speakers. Sound is important, but floor space is more important. My headliner is gone. Plenty of headroom. So I thought of the wake-tower style speakers. I've already ordered 6.5" enclosures and will have pictures of that done in a couple of days. I currently have the sub in a big MDF box taking up a bunch of floor space... ideally it could go on the wake-tower, but I imagine it would sound like **** and rattle.

Head Unit - I know that I should replace it, but I just can't bring myself to yet. That one looks decent, but still doesn't do it for me. My ultimate goal is to do the double DIN mod, but not anytime soon. So with that in mind, what should I do knowing that I want to keep the OEM head unit?

Subwoofer - yeah I bought bottom of the barrel stuff. Had good reviews though. If I add an amp and get a new woofer, where does the signal come from w/ stock head unit? Do I need to cut up one of the wires off the amplifier connector coming from the head unit?

 

Ah, I see. Ok, in that case...

I'd still recommend the Infinity component set I linked and I would still recommend stock speakers in the rear. Are you keeping the side pockets in the rear? If so you could fit your subwoofer/box inside of one of them. I did that for a long time with a 10" sub. If you dig through my Tumblr you might be able to find a picture of what I had. I would dig for you but I'm about to hit the sack. I'm assuming by you saying MDF box that you built it yourself, so it shouldn't be too hard to mod to fit. Even if they're not there I would still say your best bet would be to mount the sub box in one of those corners and mount your amp in the opposite corner.

If you want to have a sub and keep the factory HU then you'll need a line out convertor like this. Best bet is to probably run it from the factory sub wires, into this, and then out to RCAs going to the new amp. Won't give you great sound, but probably the best possible with the factory HU.

I have to say, hearing what you're doing I am pumped to see what you're building. It sounds super cool. I understand sacrificing sound quality for utility. I'm hoping I don't have to do the same when I start digging in deep with my disco body/interior because I am a complete audiophile and my Disco's system is my crown jewel.

 

I'm thinking that it doesn't make sense to do any major work here until I decide to go through with the double DIN mod... which I am thinking to start now I have some cameras laying around anyway that I want to hook up for reverse view.

So I should gut the head unit, amp, a-pillar tweeters, 3" front door speakers, and 4 rear door speakers?

Parts to buy:
1. Double din unit
2. Steering wheel controls. How?
3. Subwoofer
4. Subwoofer amp
5. Amp for speakers..?
6. 2x 6.5" speakers for the rear
7. Front door speakers

Have your product recommendations changed at all?

 

Haha, isn't that always how it goes?

Steering wheel controls. There is a unit available to make them work, though I think it's over $100 and I can't recall what its called. If nobody pops in overnight ill try to find it tomorrow.

My recommendations haven't really changed, but ill rehash just to make sure we're on the same page. The component system I linked I would recommend to directly replace your factory front door 6.5" speakers as well as your factory tweeters in the pillars. Unhook the 3" speakers but leave them in place to block the hole they're in. Take your factory 6.5" speakers and put two of them in your wake pods. Subwoofer and amp have not changed. If you're going double din then you will not need the line out converter. No amp is required for the speakers, but if you want one I can recommend you one tomorrow. Throw out the factory amp. Just run fresh wire straight from the HU to the speakers.

And as with everything, if you want to expand your budget then you can put together a nicer system, but this will get you a good step up from factory.

Let me ask this. Plan to do any water crossings? If you do you might actually want marine speakers up front. Just an idea.

 

Very helpful info, thanks. I've got some work to do.

I just have a hard time believing that the factory 6.5's are better than something else I could buy for the wake pods?

 

I mean, there are better components avaialbe than everything I linked. Just depends on what you want to spend. The factory HK 6.5s are honestly pretty solid. Like I said, I'm a complete audiophile and I even left the HK 6.5s in the rear doors. That's to match a Boston Acoustics Component Set in the front, Kenwood 12" sub, everything independently amped, etc.

Which direction are you planning on pointing those pods? If you have the ability I'd play with it some, but I'm guessing rearward will give you the best sound.

 

My rear speakers say Philips on them... do I not have Harmon kardon?

I dont know if the pods are on swivels. I will find out.

 

Steering wheel controls here for $46 m8