Alpine 12” Screen Speaker Upgrades - my new set up

[LenTex]

I recently started to upgrade my speaker set up on my 2020 MegaCab with the 12” screen “Alpine” (yeah right) system.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

DS1-204 Discus Shallow Mount Subwoofer (Black) – 8 Inch Subwoofer​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010X424Q0

JBL GX328 3-1/2" 2 ways for the Dash (only 2, as I left the factory crappy 3.5 mid in the center for now)​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJFQZ41

JBL Stage 39637 - 6” x 9” 3 Ways for the Rear Doors​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P74HLFN


These are all 2 ohms and they all sound pretty damn good right now. The sub is mild, but on the right songs it pounds really well. For midranges, I left the factory speakers. The JBLs have great highs without being too sharp, harsh, or tinny. They seem to take the factory power very well.


I’ll probably add a small amp and a low profile dual 10” or 12” sub box to add some more deep punch eventually, but for not a lot of money, the system is significantly better. If you’re looking to upgrade, these are great options for you to consider.

 

[joshuaeb09]

How did everything play with the ANC or did you disable it ? So far all I've done in mine are all 3 dash speakers with the Infinity siblings to the JBL's you used since they always ended up being my go to for the FCA Alpine systems (I've owned a few and played with various different options in the past). I do have to say doing the dashes are always the best bang for buck on these things if you want to clean up the clarity and imaging.

Once it cools down I was thinking of going with the CDT shallow 2 ohm 6x9 woofers for the fronts and their coaxial version for the rears. They seem to be popular on the half ton forums with guys saying their ANC still works without any issues or strange noises, but I know that's apples to oranges cancelling Hemi MDS drone vs the Cummins engine noise. I'll also be sound deadening my doors and foaming up the door cards while I'm in there doing the speakers.

The sub is where I've been looking at options the most. I know the pioneer seems to be a somewhat popular option, but I've never really been a fan of their sub's unless they've improved over the years. There's also been mention of a Kicker on the various forums which is maybe my front runner for now. To my ears the idea of using an MB Quart is appealing, but how does it handle the lower ranges ? Does it roll off nicely staying tight or does it try to play them poorly getting sloppy about it ? Longer term I'll probably get a stealthbox, but that will be predicated on being able to get an ANC free sub output without globally disabling ANC. Compared to my 4th gen this new Laramie has been so much nicer on long road trips which I attribute to the ANC as my 4th gen was fully sound deadend and still had more of the type of cabin noise that wears you down after a while. By comparison this '22 is a dream doing longer trips.

 

[LenTex]

I didn’t do anything with the ANC so I can’t speak to it.

If i were going to do it again, I’d probably go with a kicker or the pioneer shallow sub, but for the price the MB Quart does a pretty good job. It’s definitely not “competition sound” but for daily driving it does the job.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Awesome feedback on not having to touch the ANC. Good to know on the sub as well. I'm not expecting much out of the factory amp/box, but mine seems to get really muddy and loose with certain frequencies that I find annoying. I'd rather it play what it can well over sounding like ass when it hits notes it can't. I actually went and looked up that Pioneer instead of letting my bias get the best of me, doesn't look like a half bad option. I may or may not give it a shot depending on how soon I wanna do another upgrade. Hopefully it cools down by October so I can give myself door speaker some upgrades/acoustic treatment for my birthday. Normally I'd say its a safe bet, but also hitting triple digits in May this year I won't discount having them in October too.

 

[LenTex]

I did both upgrades (two different times) in the Texas heat (100+). Lots of water, and breaks sitting in the garage in front of the fan. lol
Definitely wait til it cools off!

 

[joshuaeb09]

Yea I might tackle the sub if I get bored before it cools down. Just pull the box 1st thing in the morning on a Saturday and do it all from the comfort of my home office lol. This year has got to be one of the worst summers of recent history, at-least that I can remember. Having been in and around South Central Texas my whole life I don't ever remember having so many days close to or over 110.

 

[LenTex]

Just realized you're in Medina. I LOVE that area. Reminds me very much of the area of NY I grew up in with the hills and winding roads. I grew up in the Hudson Valley of NY near the Catskills.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Oh I'd love to be in that area, I used to take vacation days just to drive the twisted sisters when I had my Challenger. I'm actually closer to the Rio Medina Area so we usually go to the lake a ton when it has water, but this year has been depressing to say the least. It's basically a dried up lake bed when you get further away from the dam. We've got our "in-town" house just inside Medina County near Castroville so the wife can go into San Antonio where her family business is and I can get real internet for work. My family also has some property closer to Hondo where we've got some cattle and goats as well as do a little substance farming. I'll probably build a place out there once Starlink works and the other half isn't having to go into the city so much.

 

[Riccochet]

You can get quite a bit more out of that sub swap using the stock enclosure. Pull the sub and line the box with dynamat or any other deadening material. Do not fill it with poly-fill. That'll reduce air space on an already small enclosure which will kill low frequency response. Install a small mono sub amp, in the 200W RMS range, and use an AudioControl LC1i to convert high level input to RCA. Pull the signals off the rear doors since they are full range. Factory sub wires are poorly crossed over and have low end cut-off.

I did this in my last two 1500's and it sounded 100x better than swapping the speaker alone. Hits a lot harder and much cleaner. Used a cheap CT Sound amp, LC1i and a 4ga amp wiring kit. Total was like $230 for the amp, LOC, dynamat and wiring. Hell of a lot cheaper than buying a JL stealth box or any number of other replacement boxes. Plus I didn't lose my fold flat floor that those boxes will do.

Coupled with replacing the dash speakers, as mentioned, and some coaxial 6x9's in the rear doors, it sounded great for not a lot of money. Not winning any competitions, but it's a serious low budget upgrade with excellent results.

 

[CFE]

I recently started to upgrade my speaker set up on my 2020 MegaCab with the 12” screen “Alpine” (yeah right) system.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

DS1-204 Discus Shallow Mount Subwoofer (Black) – 8 Inch Subwoofer​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010X424Q0

JBL GX328 3-1/2" 2 ways for the Dash (only 2, as I left the factory crappy 3.5 mid in the center for now)​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJFQZ41

JBL Stage 39637 - 6” x 9” 3 Ways for the Rear Doors​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P74HLFN


These are all 2 ohms and they all sound pretty damn good right now. The sub is mild, but on the right songs it pounds really well. For midranges, I left the factory speakers. The JBLs have great highs without being too sharp, harsh, or tinny. They seem to take the factory power very well.


I’ll probably add a small amp and a low profile dual 10” or 12” sub box to add some more deep punch eventually, but for not a lot of money, the system is significantly better. If you’re looking to upgrade, these are great options for you to consider.

Did you just swap out the OEM alpine sub w/ the MB Quart sub? I haven't really looked to closely to my OEM sub to see if it's that simple or not. If it is, that will be the first thing I upgrade.

 

[LenTex]

You can get quite a bit more out of that sub swap using the stock enclosure. Pull the sub and line the box with dynamat or any other deadening material. Do not fill it with poly-fill. That'll reduce air space on an already small enclosure which will kill low frequency response. Install a small mono sub amp, in the 200W RMS range, and use an AudioControl LC1i to convert high level input to RCA. Pull the signals off the rear doors since they are full range. Factory sub wires are poorly crossed over and have low end cut-off.

I did this in my last two 1500's and it sounded 100x better than swapping the speaker alone. Hits a lot harder and much cleaner. Used a cheap CT Sound amp, LC1i and a 4ga amp wiring kit. Total was like $230 for the amp, LOC, dynamat and wiring. Hell of a lot cheaper than buying a JL stealth box or any number of other replacement boxes. Plus I didn't lose my fold flat floor that those boxes will do.

Coupled with replacing the dash speakers, as mentioned, and some coaxial 6x9's in the rear doors, it sounded great for not a lot of money. Not winning any competitions, but it's a serious low budget upgrade with excellent results.

I did line the box with some deadening material, but I *did* put polyfill in it. I'll take the fill out at some point and see how that differs. Thanks for the tip on the mono amp.

 

[LenTex]

Did you just swap out the OEM alpine sub w/ the MB Quart sub? I haven't really looked to closely to my OEM sub to see if it's that simple or not. If it is, that will be the first thing I upgrade.

Yup. The holes don't line up exactly, so it took a little modification but not much. And the factory sub isn't what I'd call "Alpine". It has a Pentastar on it and isn't labeled Alpine. None of the factory speakers are labeled Alpine.
Getting the box out is "a little" finicky but not horrible. This guy's video helped me a lot:

Even though he's got a 2014, not much has changed in regards to the sub in the mega cab.

 

[Riccochet]

Yeah the stock speakers are not Alpine. They're paper cone hot garbage. Which is why the sub sounds muddy, the dash speakers are extremely flat, front door speakers are poor in the mid range and the rear door speakers have no high range.

I think the only thing Alpine about the system is the factory amp. And even that's been bastardized by FCA.

If you want a bit more mid-range up front find some 6.5" woofers only. Those speakers are crossed over to 80-200 hz range anyways, so no point in using full range speakers there.

 

[LenTex]

Yeah the stock speakers are not Alpine. They're paper cone hot garbage. Which is why the sub sounds muddy, the dash speakers are extremely flat, front door speakers are poor in the mid range and the rear door speakers have no high range.

I think the only thing Alpine about the system is the factory amp. And even that's been bastardized by FCA.

If you want a bit more mid-range up front find some 6.5" woofers only. Those speakers are crossed over to 80-200 hz range anyways, so no point in using full range speakers there.

So far, the factory door 6x9s work well for the lower mids, and I left the center factory in place. It helps flatten out some of the highs that can tend to be in your face when bounced off the windshield. Not the best, but... they're ok mixed in with the upgraded speakers. I bought some DS18 "shallow mount" 6x9 mids, but the magnets are way too big for the front door set up. Had to send them back and decided I'd just keep the factory ones for now. I might go with the PowerBass OEM replacement 6x9 mids at some point in the future though.

 

[CFE]

Yup. The holes don't line up exactly, so it took a little modification but not much. And the factory sub isn't what I'd call "Alpine". It has a Pentastar on it and isn't labeled Alpine. None of the factory speakers are labeled Alpine.
Getting the box out is "a little" finicky but not horrible. This guy's video helped me a lot:

Even though he's got a 2014, not much has changed in regards to the sub in the mega cab.

appreciate the info

 

[CFE]

One last question - anyone know the mounting depth of the OEM enclosure- I know the MB Quart fits, but just curious about the max depth.

 

[LenTex]

One last question - anyone know the mounting depth of the OEM enclosure- I know the MB Quart fits, but just curious about the max depth.

I didn't measure it, but I found this thread: https://www.ramforumz.com/threads/4th-gen-stock-alpine-subwoofer-specs.92159/
Looks like it's 4 inches? Maybe? The factory sub butts right up against the bottom/back of the box and one of the screws holds it in place (I sealed the hole with sound-deadening material front and back over the hole).

 

[gimmie11s]

Good info!

 

[LenTex]

Hi folks!
Updates are coming. I figured I'd upgrade the sub piece of the stereo.
As it stands now, I think I'm going to remove the factory sub completely and add an amp, a low profile box, and a new 12" shallow sub.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW8V8CD/

Skar Audio RP-350.1D Monoblock Class D​

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IFEFY9A/

Single 12" Subwoofer Regular Standard Cab Truck Ported Stereo Sub Box Enclosure​

www.amazon.com/JBL-CLUB-WS1200-Shallow-mount-Subwoofer/dp/B01KVUJWN4

JBL Club WS1200 12" Shallow Mount subwoofer w/SSI (switchable from 2-4ohm) DVC​

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We'll see how it all turns out.
They should all be delivered by next week at the latest, and I'll let you know what I think when I get it all installed

 

[CFE]

Hi folks!
Updates are coming. I figured I'd upgrade the sub piece of the stereo.
As it stands now, I think I'm going to remove the factory sub completely and add an amp, a low profile box, and a new 12" shallow sub.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW8V8CD/

Skar Audio RP-350.1D Monoblock Class D​

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IFEFY9A/

Single 12" Subwoofer Regular Standard Cab Truck Ported Stereo Sub Box Enclosure​

www.amazon.com/JBL-CLUB-WS1200-Shallow-mount-Subwoofer/dp/B01KVUJWN4

JBL Club WS1200 12" Shallow Mount subwoofer w/SSI (switchable from 2-4ohm) DVC​

AudioControl 2 Channel Line Output Converter with Accubass LC2i | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for AudioControl 2 Channel Line Output Converter with Accubass LC2i at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

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We'll see how it all turns out.
They should all be delivered by next week at the latest, and I'll let you know what I think when I get it all installed

interested in seeing how the low profile box looks. i don't want to give up my little foldable platform behind the drivers side, but i'm willing to give up all of the space from the rear center to the passenger door below the seat.