Help on c6 speaker selection/setup
 

Man...where to start? The sky really is the limit here. Since there's a 10" hole in the doors, you can literally fit ANY speaker in there. Personally, a 6.5" component set easily gets the nod from me. But speaker brand or particular set is really up to you. There are hundreds to choose from. I'm a HUGE fan of Focal. I've never heard a speaker of theirs sound bad. However, they can be pricey. For a mid to entry-level (and mid to entry-price) Polk makes some pretty good sounding speakers at a non-premium price. I also am a fan of Boston Acoustic, but I wouldn't run bostons without an amp. Stay away from Sony and Kicker. They are too low-end for a ZO6 IMO.

To do this right, you need to replace the door speakers with a good quality set of 6.5" components and also an amp to power them. They sell the adapter plates on Amazon for the woofer location and also the plates or cover for the 3.5" speaker location. The tweeter goes where the 3.5" speaker currently is. In my case I cut a hole on the 3.5" cover to mount the tweeter. The woofer door plates need no modifications.

Here is my old thread about my speaker search. You can look through the pictures to see the end results. I also did rear speakers which is a personal choice, but for simplicity sakes a good set of fronts and a sub all run by an amp is all you would need to get a nice system in a C6.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...need-help.html

Definitely get an amp and a speaker set with external crossovers. Distortion is caused by several things. Playing a frequency outside of the speakers limit. More power than the speaker can handle. EMI, etc. RCA's connect from the head unit to the amp, then amp to speakers/crossovers.

Adapter plates can be purchased from a number of places like here: http://nakidparts.com/id28.html

Absolutely put the tweeter in the stock location. you can play with angle rings to get the components pointed in the best position for the sound stage. When it comes to audio, I'm a SNOB! I can't stand cheap anything in my cars. Certainly don't skimp with wires. The actual "speaker wire" doesn't have to be super high end, but I prefer the BEST POSSIBLE RCAs from the HU to the amp. And NEVER run power/ground wires next to, on top of, or around (if you can help it) signal wires. The EMI can crush the performance of even the highest end systems.

The door plates I used: Metra 82-3014 speaker plates for the woofer, and Metra 82-3015 for the tweeter location. Ignore the info for the 82-3015 tweeter plates, they are listed for the C7 but they are the same for the C6.

It depends on your amp. It sounds like you have a 1 channel amp for a subwoofer. If you have a one channel amp, then yes you are going to need another multi channel amp to either power just your speakers or your entire system.

Do you know the model number? You are going to need a minimum of 3 channels. 2 channels to power your front speakers and a sub channel to power a subwoofer. If you have a 500 watt amp, chances are it is a single channel.

No. If you plan on adding some good aftermarket speakers, you will need an amp to power them. The power coming out of a normal head unit won't be enough to power good speakers.

I'm not sure. But you may be better off or it may be easier just to run the RCA cables for the font channels from your head unit to your current amp location and then just replace your amp with one that can power your speakers and your sub. From there you would just need to run speaker wires back to the doors and install the speakers. You may have to do a little research just to figure it all out but it's not that complicated since some of the wiring is already done for you. You would have to check the existing power wiring and make sure it is sufficient for what ever amp you decide to use if you go with something more powerful.

Yes exactly. Speakers are connected to the amp, not the head unit. There should be a trigger wire also from the head unit to the amp to tell it when to turn on but that should be there already also. Running the wires is not too difficult. You can run them under the carpet and then push them under any molding, like the door sill, if necessary without removing anything. If you have the head unit out, you could also run the wires back to the front under the center console and then run them to the doors from under the dash. The only issue will be where to place any crossovers that come with component speakers. In my case I ran the wires from the amp to behind the drivers seat, stopped there and installed the crossovers there and then continued to run the wires from the crossover to the doors depending on what route you choose.

Also, you will need to disconnect the dash speakers and the stock rear speakers from either the head unit or from the Bose amp under the passenger foot well. They won't be able to keep up with an after market system so it's best to just disconnect them.

TorchRed pretty much beat me to all of it. All good info here. In my past experiences, it's begging for problems when trying to make 2 systems work together in harmony. I find it's FAR easier to just remove the stock junk and replace it with quality stuff. Keep the junk for when you want to reinstall it to sell the car. If you're never selling the car, kill the stock crap with fire.

The crossover is real simple. It comes with your speakers and in layman's terms, it divides the sound frequencies sending the lows to the woofer and the highs to the tweeter. One set of wires goes into the crossover from the amp and then two sets go out. One goes to power the woofer and the other goes to the tweeter.

As far as rear speakers, that's a personal choice. For simplicity sakes for a novice, I would suggest spending your entire speaker budget on the best set of front components you can afford. When you run rear speakers, you run into issues with time alignment and you may or may not like or feel like its worth the efforts. With a good set of fronts properly installed, you will never be able to tell where exactly the sound is coming from and most people would never be able to guess that there are no rear speakers. A good set of 6.5" components and a proper 10" sub are surprisingly plenty for a C6 cabin.

As far as running wires into the doors, there is a cover that is on the inside of the car cabin under the dash that wires run through into the door. You have to remove that cover first by reaching up under the dash, then you just use a coat hanger or something similar to run the wires into the doors, along side the other factory wires that go into the door, and then put the cover back on at the end. But just leave a little extra wire or slack so the doors can close and not pull the speaker wire.