sanity check on 3rd gen non jbl upgrade

planning out my upgrade and want to make sure I'm heading in the right direction. I have a 2023 limted OR with non jbl 14" infotainment and i believe 9 speakers. 2 front door, 3 front dash, 4 rear door.

probably going to do this in stages.

1. install beatsonic ENA-3T3
2. install powered sub looking at a few, keeping it small as i don't need mega base and want to possible mount it under rear seat. (BLAUPUNKT GTHS-81PRO 8", JBL BassPro SL2, JBL BassPro SL, or similar)
3. begin replacing doors and dash speakers. here i think based on the beatsonic amp I need to keep the speakers under a 50watt and 4ohm range to pair with this amp.

thoughts on this and suggestions/modifications to this?

 

Ok, So I have a bit of experience here as I am about to complete my setup. I'll go through the list as you have them numbered.

1. The beatsonic amp is great for the factory speakers. If you are planning on upgrading the factory speakers, I would forgo the beatsonic amp and do the speakers first then decide if you still need it. I did the amp first, then installed speakers, then things got out of hand and I bypassed the factory system and went full aftermarket to get the sound I wanted since the beatsonic over drove the tweeters and midranges to the point they sounded terrible.

For reference, I have the JBL system and for that, the beatsonic amp should only be looked at as a DSP not an amp. It goes inline between the head unit and the factory amp and adjusts the preamp signal the factory amp receives. It does not provide any additional power to the factory speakers beyond what the factory amp can provide. If it were me, I would contact beatsonic and verify that the amplified signal out of the beatsonic amplifier will be what powers the speakers in the non-JBL system with the 14" screen. The factory wiring diagrams listed on this site would also be a good reference to see how they connect the 14" head unit to the speakers in the non-jbl system. I believe even thought its not jbl, it still has an amp under the drivers seat.

Another option for that same 350 bucks you could find a basic 4 channel amp with higher power ratings than the beat sonic, the correct integration harness to get line level output to feed the amp and tie into the factory wiring, and a power wiring kit. That would well position you for you speaker upgrade later.

I would save the amplifier mod for last to see if its really needed if you do go the route of replacing all the factory speakers.


2. A new powered sub will make a lot of difference. Going this route you will open up a lot of options regarding amping the the new speakers should that time come since you can get away with a 4-6 channel amp for the fronts and rears and already have the subwoofer taken care of. The brands/models you have listed are all going to be eons ahead of the factory subwoofer. My opinion though, is you are already disassembling the truck to some extent to get it installed so why not just wait until you can afford to go for the full monte and do it all at once? In my upgrades I took panels off and on over and over and have replaced several fasteners and scratched some panels accidentally due to the number of times they were off. If I had done it once, it would have reduced the potential for that damage.

If you need/want to do the upgrade in stages, would do this modification first and wire it to allow for future amplifiers then see if you are happy with the system after it is installed or if you need to go further.

3. You are correct about the ohms, however, the Beatsonic is only capable of 50 watts max power for the ENA-3T3 and 45 watts max for the ENX-T317. Most speakers are rated in RMS which, in my research, is about half of the max power handling capability. For the beatsonic ENA-3T3 a safe estimate would be 25 watts RMS and 50 watts max. Most car speakers are able to handle that amount of power. Where an issue may come into play is if the beatsonic amp is able to power those speakers effectively. What I mean by that is, tweeters have a tendency to perform very well at lower power, where as woofers don't. You could create a scenario where the tweeters are louder than the woofers simply because the amp does not have enough power to feed the woofers. This would create a very unbalanced system. This is all very dependent on what drivers you choose. A good amount of research should be done to ensure this scenario doesn't happen.

I would do the speakers second since they will affect the sound to the point you may not feel the need to add and additional amplifier once they are installed.

 

thank you and there is lots here to think about. i like the advice on changing up the order and you are correct while i'm taking apart the panels i might as well route wire for the sub so i don't have to take everything apart again or just do the sub and speakers at the same time. couple of things i need to check based on your advice. i will read through the wiring diagram and reach out to beat sonic to verify if the amp will drive the speakers. I can also check under my seat for an amp, i didn't think to look as i didn't have the jbl system and assumed there wasn't an external amp.

so new plan i think is to
1. verify if any amp is in line
2. get speakers and powered sub first
3. if needed get the amp.

I did think about you other suggestion to just bypass everything, i'll give that some thought and see if thats a route i want to go.

thank you!!!!!!