Upgraded speakers

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fastroads

fastroads

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Nobody's going to like this, most especially the guys in the business. (Hi Noah, how ya doin'?)

A vehicle is an inherently poor listening environment. What's the most common mod that Raptor owners do? Exhaust. And what's the nearly inevitable result of installing an aftermarket exhaust system? Increased noise from the exhaust. That exhaust note, pleasing as it may be to a Raptor owner, competes with Fleetwood Mac, Def Leopard, and Chopin for the attention of your auditory nerves.

A vehicle in motion is necessarily worse. Now you have road noise transmitted through the hard parts of you vehicle along with wind noise in addition to exhaust noise. Now your auditory nerves have a real problem!

Yes, you can take the interior of your truck all apart and install sound deadening materials of various descriptions and capabilities, but I submit that most people don't do that. Noah can do it while sleeping off a hangover, but he has unique skills.

Bottom line: Unless you spend a lot of time on the road in your truck or are a music perfectionist, your vehicle is not a good place to make music quality investments unless you go all out with the sound deadening/suppressing materials. Sorry, but that's the physics of it.

I can agree with this - as most are looking for a V8 sound out of a V6. I have heard a few exhaust systems that come really close but not my #1 most important mod.

I do spend a lot of time on the road everyday commuting to work so yes sound is extremely important and my OCD kicks in when music doesn't sound the way it should.
 

goblues38

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Hello All,

I have a 2017 Raptor with a non-Sony stereo. The factory sound really sounded bland so I decided to upgrade the speakers and add a small amp. Not sure what sounds worse the factory or replacements. Almost feel I made it worse!!
I used the following:
JL Audio C2-690x 6x9's for the front doors
JL Audio C2-650 Component 6.5" and tweeters (6.5's for rear doors)
Kicker 200.4 amp.

Sound is almost muffled - no bass and not that great in the treble side either. My wife's 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL sounds awesome comparatively.
Any other speaker and amp suggestions? I'm thinking about starting over and selling the JL's for a higher grade like C5's or different brand.


sigh.....you didnt do your homework. as other will tell you....the factory stereo has bass mangement. turning it up only turns down the bass. untill you get clean signal...you are just burning money on everything after the source of your problem...which is the source.
 

The Car Stereo Company

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Connected amp between speakers and head unit (I believe). It's been 2 months. I used the factory wiring and used speaker wiring harnesses instead of cutting. I mounted the crossovers in the dash and ran speaker wire from amp to crossovers. Tweeters crackle at volumes above 9. So, I might have connected something wrong not sue. I know I'm not happy with the results.
do you have crossovers that come with the speakers wired correctly? you definitely have an issue somewhere. regardless sound is going to suffer until you add a sound processor. 2018 and newer trucks have the b&o system which allows the use of the nav tv piece. unfortunately thats not available for the 17.
 

smurfslayer

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sigh.....you didnt do your homework. as other will tell you....the factory stereo has bass mangement. turning it up only turns down the bass. untill you get clean signal...you are just burning money on everything after the source of your problem...which is the source.

What he said.

I don’t know what the non-sony system sounds like, but the sony mixing was awful. Songs I’d heard for decades sounded different than before and most assuredly not in a good way. Crude and imprecise.
 

dhmcfadin

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do you have crossovers that come with the speakers wired correctly? you definitely have an issue somewhere. regardless sound is going to suffer until you add a sound processor. 2018 and newer trucks have the b&o system which allows the use of the nav tv piece. unfortunately thats not available for the 17.
The NavTV Zen a2b is not a dsp or sound processor of any kind.
 

dhmcfadin

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dhmcfadin

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sigh.....you didnt do your homework. as other will tell you....the factory stereo has bass mangement. turning it up only turns down the bass. untill you get clean signal...you are just burning money on everything after the source of your problem...which is the source.

What he said.

I don’t know what the non-sony system sounds like, but the sony mixing was awful. Songs I’d heard for decades sounded different than before and most assuredly not in a good way. Crude and imprecise.

1. He does not have the Sony system
2. Factory non-amplified trucks do NOT have bass management or eq attenuation of any kind on the front channels. This has been verified countless times by multiple industry experts. The rear channels have an 80hz highpass crossover applied but rears are for fill. They are not designed to be full frequency nor should they ever be run full frequency.

OP- you have a significant wiring issue. You need to disassemble your system, taking your time to trace each wire. You should be using the for-11ck harness and you should have a wiring diagram that corresponds with it. With the components you have you should notice a substantial improvement in overall output and sound quality.
 
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