When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I wanted to see what peoples thoughts on using DB6501 speakers in the door versus the tried and true DB651 & DB351 combo. It's basically the same amount of work when the doors off so it comes down to sound quality etc. Any have experience with hearing both of these options?
Nothing yet but when I order the speakers I'm picking up an amp at the same time and right now I'm leaning towards the Rockford Fosgate R400-4D which is 75wx4 @ 4ohm. I plan on using the front channels to drive the doors and the rear for a sub.
Nothing yet but when I order the speakers I'm picking up an amp at the same time and right now I'm leaning towards the Rockford Fosgate R400-4D which is 75wx4 @ 4ohm. I plan on using the front channels to drive the doors and the rear for a sub.
Thanks for the feedback, I ended up going with the 6501 components and the last of the parts (the 6501's actually) arrived by Saturday afternoon. Sunday my son and I spent 6 hours installing everything. Wow I forgot how much more energy teenagers have than me by 5 hours I was starting to get tired of working on it in the 88 degree heat and 70% humidity here in Charleston. I put together my harness ahead of time earlier in the week so that helped save a little time. I'm posting a picture of it because I found a shockingly low number of them in the older posts as most of them were no longer available. This way if someone else is looking to make one they can have a good picture to reference against. The only different to this picture my final product had was I did soldered T splice in the B3 Wire for the remote amp turn on. Which several people have noted is a white wire and for someones reference down the line in my GM24 harness was a solid pink wire but I verified it was white behind the radio.
Here's my harness.
Everything is soldered together and double heat shrink wrapped. Following the experiences of others I soldered extra leads on the ground side of the RCA cables and merged all of them together into a single black wire seen leaving the image to the bottom right. I then grounded this to the back center of the radio.
We installed a 4 ga. amp kit and ran it to the back hatch right behind the passenger seat coming through the grommet behind the battery. I ran my grounding block to a spot right near the passenger seat belt winder (near the rear passenger speaker) but I think this was a bad idea, more on that shortly.
The RCA cables and the amp trigger wire were run under the center console and straight back to the hatch.
New 16ga. speaker wires were installed in each door and run down the sides of the car in the sills. They were then wired to the crossovers on the Polk DB6501 speakers. New wires were run from the crossovers also to the speakers.
For my subs I went with a Subthump partition box and installed 2 Polk 8" DVC subs wired for 2ohm each. They were then wired to the rear channel on the amp.
I did end up going with the Rockford Fosgate R400-4D amp and wired all the speakers up and installed the fuse in the engine compartment as my last step. Seeing no sparks, smoke or fire I turned the accessory mode on and turned the radio on. I was pretty tired at this point and spent all of 2 min playing with the gain and crossovers on the amp (I definitely need to tweak some more). To my dismay I seemed to have picked up some ground noise. With the car off I get a shhhhh sound real low that reminds me of cassette tape noise ie Dolby noise reduction that comes from the front speakers. When the car is running its the same and doesn't change pitch that I notice like an alternator whine thankfully but its still noticeable. So I need to check my main amp ground as I think that may be involved. I may also look at getting some ground loop isolators for the RCA cables to see if that helps too.
I also still need to disconnect the center channel and I feel that will help clean up the front stage which sounds a wee bit off still but immensely better than before. Over all I'm very happy with everything and will feel much better about it when I've got the hiss worked out and can button up the amp wiring (still lying loose for now on purpose till I knew the sound was clear of noise).
Does the noise I'm experiencing sound typical of the ground noise associated with these cars? I'm more typically use to the high pitched alternator whine in previous car installations myself. Before getting some GLI's could I not just run a new ground from the back of the radio and connect it to the same ground on the Amp? Do I need to cut the connection with the old ground on the radio for this to work or can it work in tandem? Would 14ga. speaker wire work fine for this?
04-21-2016, 08:28 AM
C6 Door Speakers Polk DB6501 or DB651 & DB351
but when I order the speakers I'm picking up an amp at the same time and right now I'm leaning towards the Rockford Fosgate R400-4D which is 75wx4 @ 4ohm. I plan on using the front channels to drive the doors and the rear for a sub.
by 5 hours I was starting to get tired of working on it in the 88 degree heat and 70% humidity here in Charleston. I put together my harness ahead of time earlier in the week so that helped save a little time. I'm posting a picture of it because I found a shockingly low number of them in the older posts as most of them were no longer available. This way if someone else is looking to make one they can have a good picture to reference against. The only different to this picture my final product had was I did soldered T splice in the B3 Wire for the remote amp turn on. Which several people have noted is a white wire and for someones reference down the line in my GM24 harness was a solid pink wire but I verified it was white behind the radio.
