A few audio questions

Yeah, they are pretty awesome I only go thru them when I buy HU’s. I’ll take my chances on eBay and Amazon for speakers but when it comes to amps and head units, Crutchfield is the only way to go.

 

Got the Kenwood 7"'s and tweeters installed. Pretty straight forward and the worst part is pulling wiring through the grommets in the doors. I put some sound deadening mat in the door behind the new speakers and used the foam that came with the speakers between the mounts and the speaker and the door panel. I did pick up more speaker wire as they only give you about 30" total for the tweeters.
Mounted the tweeters using some plastic strapping I had left from a home remodel I did a few years ago.
When I first turned on the truck, I was seriously underwhelmed due to the volume being low but once you give them some power and EQ, all I can say is WOW!!! These guys sound fantastic!. Clear highs, warm mids and shockingly punchy lows. Keep in mind that I am only powering these with the HU only. No amp. I can only imagine what they would do with about 50 watts more!
I did spend some time tuning with the eq and crossovers that is built into the Kenwood HU. They pretty much cover all the bases for that in the Exeleon 6906S. All in all, I am very pleased with the results and now.... maybe a new set of 5"'s for the rear doors....
Let me know if you guys have any questions that I can answer

 

I also have the 6906 and overall it is great. It has a ton of different sound options and it really makes a difference in the truck. One thing I did have that took me a while to figure out is the USB connection for Apple Car Play. The unit does have wireless Apple Play and that works great but I find the sound quality from an Iphone for music is not as good as a direct USB connection. Originally I connected the Apple Play USB out from the head unit to a Crutchfield connector that allowed me to use the USB jack on the dash. The unit has two USB out cables, one that works with Apple Play, the other does not. I had really inconsistent connection results with Apple Play when I plugged in my Iphone. Sometimes it would connect, other times it would take 5 minutes. Sometimes not at all. I changed USB phone cables, upgraded the HU firmware, and even called Kenwood customer service (no help). Finally I pulled the HU and started troubleshooting. Seems the problem is any connector between the Apple Play USB out from the HU and your phone cable causes a conflict. It works perfectly if you connect your Iphone cable directly into the HU's USB out. I tried other connectors off Amazon (I know they are pretty cheap crap) and these gave me the same problem. Even the USB extension cable that came with the HU caused a conflict with Apple Play connecting.

To solve the issue, I purchased an extra long Iphone cable and directly attached it in the back of the HU and fished it under the dash to connect the Iphone. I used the extension and the Crutchfield connector to attach the other USB out (the non Apple play) to the dash USB so I can use for power. It is not ideal but at least I have had not issues connecting to Apple Play anymore.

 

Thanks for the review Canjun. I was not aware that it was wireless CarPlay?
I used the included cable from Crutchfield and and plugged it into the existing dash USB port. So far, I have not had any issue with the wired CarPlay. I will definitely keep that in mind if I start having issues with the cables though.

 

Question guys.....
After playing around with the new front speakers and sound, I don’t think I’m getting full power from the HU to the fronts now. When I bring the fader all the way to the front, the volume is very low compared to the rears.
I tapped into the door speaker wire to power the speakers and ran the tweeter off them and ran new wire to them also. Ran positive to pink on driver and green on passenger side.
Would there be a reason that I’m not getting enough power to properly power the speakers?
Other than ordering an amp, I don’t know what else to do.

 

5" in the rear doors? I think the ports on the rear doors are cut for 6.5". Of course, I suppose you could find adapters.

 

Hey Adam. I haven’t gotten the rears yet. I will be adding rears soon but I’m speaking of the front 7” and tweeters at the moment. There is very low volume from those and the HU has enough power to push them but it seems it’s not getting to them

 

Are you getting sound at all out of the fronts. Your new speakers have a much higher rms wattage rating and this could be the cause of the difference. Stock speakers are designed to be paired with factory head units and there is no way of adjusting the gain to your new speakers to balance it out. If you pan the system all the way to the front and turn it up a bunch do you get sound?

 

I do get sound. It sounds decent when it’s just panned to the fronts only.
Maybe I just need to get an amp and run all the doors with....

 

Yep that’s the issue. I would get some back door speakers as well. I also highly recommended a 5 ch amp because a sub will be your next desire and you will be already to slap one In.

 

Which auto widow module did u install

 

I got the one from 3W. It was around $89 shipped and easy to install.
It just gives me auto up/down from the drivers side switches only which is what I wanted.

 

So do you have the stock rears and aftermarket fronts?

 

from what I just read, the door speakers run in parallel with ten factory front tweeters. could this be an issue since I just tapped into the wire at the door speaker plug?

 

For now, yes

 

So after reading on another forum about the fronts running in series off the tweeter, should I run the speaker wire up to the factory tweeter location and tap into it at that point?

 

Ok now I’m confused when you say front are you talking doors or dash? Do you have tweeter sails on your door?

typically the hu powers the dash and the amp under drivers seat powers the door speakers.

 

Sorry man. It’s a ‘17 non-JBL, non amp’d, that I replaced the HU with a Kenwood Exeleon 6906 and Kenwood components (7” doors and 1.5” silk tweets) in the front door and dash for the tweets. Still have factory rears for the moment.

 

Gotcha. Usually the components have a cross over box if they don’t the tweeter will have an inline resister that is a very high pass filter so that the signal doesn’t not include low or mid frequency’s to them. I would imagine that if the mid (door speaker) was wired to the tweeter after this resistor then it would sound very off because it eliminates most of the sound producing capabilities of that driver.

 

There's a lot of things youre saying, Ill try to make sense of how I understand it. The front tweeters are powered by the head unit. The doors by the amp under the pass. seat. If the doors and tweeters were in parallel you would lose sound from both by unplugging one or the other.

My guess, if you replaced the front door speakers and not the rears, and feel the rears put out more SPL or volume, is this:

The OE speakers use much lighter materials, and a smaller magnet. While it seems like this should make them perform worse than any nice looking aftermarket speaker, it's really the opposite. They need less power to function, theyre more sensitive to power than a lot of aftermarket options. Some manufacturers target buyers that dont really intend to add amps, those speakers typically do well off <50W power.

I put my Morels in the rear door, and to no surprise the OE rear speakers were louder and produced better midbass. Thats on the factory amp though. The thing is, if I ran the 100W the Morels are intended to be used at, they would be miles ahead of the OE speakers. But at stock power, nope, the OE was louder, albeit a bit less articulate.

Once you replace the rears you will notice the same thing. This is why amps, power and sensitivity should all be considered at some point.


Looking at your Kenwoods, 86db isnt a great poor sensitivity measurement. Which is odd considering the cone size, but most 6.5s are usually closer to 89-91db. I would recommend either you add an amp, exchange them for a different set if volume is a main concern, or give them time and see if you get used to their output.

Hope that doesnt come across as critical, just trying to give you some answers.

 

No offense taken at al brother.
Here’s what I just did.... I made a jumper wire to go to the factory tweeter Plug going from pin 1 to 3 and 2 to 4. It worked.
So I pulled the factory side dash speakers from the box I had them stored in and slit the shrink wrap to expose the wiring and cut the plug end off after where the factory crimp in the wire is. Plug 1 to 3 and 2 to 4. Plugged it into the factory plug for the speakers and no issue now. It is loud and sounds fanfreakimgtastic!
So hopefully this will help someone here in the future if they change from factory dash/door front door/dash speakers to a component set. Thanks guys for all your help.

 

Sorry I didn't get in on this latest dilemma earlier, but it appears that you got it sorted. BUT, whenever you do decide to add an amp, run all new 14 AWG 100% oxygen free copper wiring through the doors, to the crossovers/woofers and up to the tweets. DO NOT use the factory OEM wiring. DO NOT use copper clad aluminum. You will have less issues in the long run!

 

In waiting for the new rear door speakers and new front center speakers to be delivered, I pulled the trigger on 2 Kenwood KCS-SW11's and all the cable I will be needing to control both powered subs with one control knob. I didn't plan on installing subs but I did it anyway. I decided to go the powered route for a few reasons and also to keep the entire system Kenwood. I know I could have done the amp and box but these are small enough to place anywhere I feel is the best sounding place to put them. Either behind the rear seat or under the front seats. I know it won't be enough to rattle my teeth but just enough to make me feel the bass.
Anyway, for $300, I got both subs and wiring to get them installed.

 

Hey, pretty much anything is better than the stock system.

 

Got the Kenwood subs mounted on my board and ready to start wiring them up. I have the cables and splitter to be able to use one control for both subs.
My question is.... Would there be an issue to tap both blue/white power on wires together behind the board and only run ONE to the HU? I don't think it would cause an issue but want to see if anyone has done this.

 

One other question.
I replaced the front side dash speakers with Kenwood 3.5's and they over power the door speakers significantly. Is there anything you guys know that I can either boost the power or lower the volume of the side dash speakers?

 

OK, I am assuming that the blue/white "power" wire that you are referring to is the "remote turn on" wire for each powered sub, correct? If it is, then YES, you should be able to simply split the H/U wire out to both of your subs as the wire simply sends a low voltage signal out to "tell" the amps (or in your case powered subs) to turn on.

So you are not running any amps in this setup, right? Just the H/U running directly to the door speakers and two independently powered subs? My guess is that that H/U just does not have enough juice to power all of the door speakers in addition to the dash. And, due to the dash speaker size and location, they are going to sound louder. I would just not utilize the dash speakers and let the doors have that power. My factory system came with the three dash speakers and I just unhooked them. Granted, I am pushing my aftermarket door speakers (Kenwood Excelon 7" components) with a 4 channel amp and thus, I do not miss those extra speakers. That H/U can only power so much on its own and still sound good.

 

Thanks for the response Preacher. The blue white remote turn on, yes. I am wanting to just run one to the HU and get the signal and connect the other close to the board the subs are mounted on.
I have a ticket into that Taco place as they have a factory amp plug and play replacement. I don’t think the factory amp has enough power to push the components like they need to be.
More than likely, if they tell me that they have what I need, I’ll order the replacement amp. I may go ahead and order the 5 channel in case I ever want to do a different sub. The price difference is negligible to me.

 

I ended up ordering the Taco 5 channel amp kit with bracket and wiring harness. Now I am wishing I had not gotten those SC11's and gotten an enclosure from James or Taco. Oh well..... Live and learn.

 

when you get the kit in, you should open up the amps and lets us all know if there are any manufacturer names stamped inside.
i asked them last year where they get their stuff from and they wouldn't answer.

Unless someone knows ?