So I got a 2009 LNF a few weeks ago, the pioneer stereo is alright. But I'm switching from a Dodge Dakota with Excelon highs/mids/amp with 4 kicker cvt's, so I need some more bass. I'm a perfectionist about my stereos, can't handle rattles, and the system has to have a legit appearance. The car is already fairly rattly without subs and I'm not looking into spending a ton of money/adding weight to the car. I want to keep the factory head unit, I was thinking about getting some better tweeters, investing in some really good 6X9's, an amp to power them and just throwing in one of my leftover CVT's into the stock box(There shallow mount, I also have a Boston G1 sub, but I found kicker to sound better, at least when they had proper power).

Is it even possible to power the two 6x9's? I do have a Kenwood Excelon X1200M amp sitting around, its an amazing amp but no 10" that can handle that power will fit in the stock box, that would rattle allot, and won't help the 6X9's, but its still tempting. I'm sure I can find a way to power the 6X9's. Maybe a small two way amp, low pass filter on one output for the sub and split the power to the 6x9's? Or would that not sound good since it would be the same signal going to the left and right?

Anyways has anyone done something like this? How well do two powerful 6X9's produce bass, will mids sound any better? Just a quick brainstorm of stereo upgrades, suggestions welcome!

 

if you just looking for more bass i would do the cvt on a smaller amp and call it a day. If you want to start swapping speakers your going to need to take out the factory amp and buy a new radio and its going to need to be all the speakers

oh and last thing the stock rear deck rattles the most out of anything in cobalts and to be honest the best solution is never removing it and dealing with the problem as it arises without removing it. you probably wont get more bass then the factory 6X9s anyway so might as well cut your losses before you even start

 

Jj sure saves me a lot of typing.

 

Alright sweet, I'm not touching the rear deck in that case lol. I'll just do a sub setup, I think ill just go all out and get a legit ten, like a Pioneer Premier,throw it in a small sealed box,bolt it to the spare tire or something under the carpet, and wire up my old amp. Might throw in some nice tweeters, I like my highs just as much as bass and I'm finding with some hip hop or acoustically heavy rock that the tweeters break up at higher volumes.

Wait...so the external amp on the pioneer setup powers speakers too? Or is the amp solely for the subwoofer and the H/U powers the speakers?

Pioneer Premier TS-W3002D4 Component Car Subwoofers at Onlinecarstereo.com
Edit: Yea I know thats a twelve, the 10" version was only 800W and the RMS on that amp is more then its rated at

Kenwood Excelon X1200M Class D Amplifiers at Onlinecarstereo.com

 

I believe the amp for the pioneer stock system powers everything... speakers and sub...

Keep the speakers just get a better sub if you want better bass...

I don't have tweeters and the highs that come from my speakers are fine... and the pioneers are even better... just saying...

but if you must only swap out the front doors and power everything up with a new amp... I have my sisters 6x9's on a new headunit and they provide enough bass... my cobalt has 2 12's in it with a remote... Honestly I'd recommend my option... u can put the bass up enough and not have it wash out the highs...

 

yes the amp powers all the speakers in the car. problem is impedance and how its wired so while it is possible to nit pick and change individual things on the car its much harder then it should be. and the only subs that will fit in the stock enclosure is shallow subs. plus i wouldn't trust those pioneers with 800w rms

 

Damn thats really what I wasn't hoping for, so much more complicated. Yea I figured only shallow subs would fit, it doesnt look to deep.

I thought Pioneer was one of the more heavy duty subs, especially with the dual voice coils. Damn well I'm probably just going to sell that amp then, I don't want to spend the money to buy a really expensive sub or use up the space to get a couple 10's. I found out that subs usually aren't what they say they are though, I couldn't turn the sensitivity up above about 1.5 on that amp...with 4 subs lol

Yea the highs aren't bad at all now, bass is definitely my priority, but I like ear piercing highs, like concert **** lol.

I havn't read the how to on bypassing the amp, but I'm guessing I can just take the subwoofer signal from the headunit, remove it from the stock amp, and wire it up with an aftermarket amp. Hide the sub amp somewhere, remove stock box and sub, bolt a new sub and box down, and im good to go. My priority is exhaust, cai, charge piping, and a tune atm though ha, been working overtime at work like no other

I'm actually throwing in a Boston G1 I have sitting in my garage in the stock box right now just for kicks, lets see if it sounds any better then the stock sub. I heard the stock sub is Dual? If so it should improve a little.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

Well I wasted about an hour removing the box/sub to find out G1's don't fit, magnet hits the back lol

 

yup the stock box is no joke tiny. but no amp bypass needed for just bass. you want to tap signal for the loc right at the stock sub plug (un plug and tuck behind the trunk carpet)

 

Id rip all that **** out and start fresh, jsut like I did. i spent a total of 1000 and some elbow grease. It sounds soooo much better and no rattle. What I did was when i took out the rear deck, find a bath towl that you wont miss and when replacing the deck, lay the towel down folded so it slightly rasies the deck a weee bit higher that stock, im talking weeeee bit. found this out from someone on here. Man did that work beautifully, better than dynomat. i got good 6x9's which are polks and polks up front as well. Only thing that rattles now, which it always did are the car seat hook fliper upper things on the deck, i cant remove due to ugliness and can latch em closed cuz i have kids and need to latch my car seats. But other than that, sounds superb. And im only runing one 12 sub. 2 was a bit excessive for me, liked it at first, but like for my kids to hear next year so one 12 does my system justice. hope this helps, otherwise ya.

and as for keeping the stock headunit, I had mine stock for 3 years before i replaced. had subs and all. Only thing i hated was that I couldent adjust low-mid-highs to my likeing with pioneer premiers so I went aftermarket, thats the only reason..I still have that stupid little converter thing that hooks up to the speaker wires and then you run your audio cables from that to the amp. FREE TO WHOM EVER, just PM me..shippin on you

 

here in a while im gettin rockford fosgate t1 or t2 6.5s an 6x9s. and keeping my jl in the back. my car sounds great. but on the other hand. my bass is so much bang that EVERYTHING in my car rattles. no joke have an empty bottle in my hand and can feel it vibrate... shitty example i know. but you get the point

 

Install new rear 6x9's by cutting them into the rear deck cover, add a 1.25" spacer between the deck cover and rear deck and bolt them down with 2"-2.5" machine screws, washers and nylock nuts. Add LOTS of sound deadener (Dynamat, etc.) to the metal on the rear deck also. I used 2 layers. No more rattles!

 

yea sounds like my car... I dont use my rearview mirror anymore... just to put it simply...