I thought my front speakers sounded pretty crappy, (can't hear any bass and the sound is low quality) so I ordered JL TR350-CXi 3.5" speakers to replace the stock Bose. You can guess how happy I was to come home today and find my speakers had arrived. I thought they looked good and couldn't wait to install them:




So I headed out to the garage and started taking my drivers side door off. Everything went pretty well and it was a lot easier than I thought. Unfortunately after I removed the door panel I saw this:










Apparently the previous owner upgraded the size of the front speakers. Oh the joys of used car ownership. I guess its a good thing really because now I get to use bigger speakers. I just have a few questions:

I've heard you need stand alone amps to power the front speakers and I don't see any. Is this why it sounds so crappy?

What kind of amps should I get and how do I install them?

Are the pioneer speakers pictured very good speakers or should I replace those too? It looks like they are held in with insulation tape all the way around so it may be difficult to take them out.

Is there anyway I can still use my 3.5" speakers to enhance my sound system, or should I get rid of them?

Any help is appreciated, now I need to go put my door panel back on lol

 

The amp is right there with the door speaker, but it is NOT made for any aftermarket speakers. A new amp is your best bet, but finding a place for it will not be easy. Most peeps put the amp behind the pass. seat or in a rear cubby, which means pulling all the carpet and trim to run new wires.

No easy fix here. The Pioneer's may be okay, but I'd go with some Focals or better components. Your 3.5" speakers should be returned if you can, as you have room there for tweets. Take your time to look at all the posts on this here, which show plenty of solutions. Good luck and show us what you do ...

 

I'm confused, where is the amp? The thing on the top right of the speaker?

Could I just put an amp in the trunk and wire it to the front speakers? If I did that would they also be able to power 2 sub woofers?

I really have almost no audio experience so if someone could explain this Barny style, it would be appreciated!

 

he prly bypassed bose amp and used the twiddle leads to power those speakers meaning there isnt much bass there at all.

 

If you can figure out what's left of the oem setup, you may be able to find some take-off subs to reinstall in your car. There's no telling what was done.

You could just go aftermarket with sub/amp/speakers.

A basic aftermarket setup would be a sub in the trunk, 6.5" components in the doors (~$150 gets a nice set), and a 4-channel amp to power everything (~$200, ch 1/2 to front components and ch-3/4 bridged to sub). Add an AOEM-Vet1 (to get a clean signal) and misc wires you're looking at <$700.

Unless you can reinstall some oem subs, the 3.5" set you have is pretty much useless.