New speakers for stock r/f system 2004 Titan

[johnszcz]

Would replacment speakers alone make much difference to sound quality? I would rather take a baby step right now before considering a majority conversion to a new amplifer and head unit.

Having a Navigator GPS System makes it much more difficult to swap out head units.

I found some replacement door speakers but the top dash speakers are much harder to locate.

John

2004 LE

[bestatchess]

You can keep the RF head unit and use an LOC to connect aftermarket amp(s) which can then drive decent aftermarket speakers & sub(s).

The stock speakers state "35 watts" and "2 ohms" so the speaker selection might be pretty limited with respect to speakers that can be driven adequately by the RF amp. (Don't be fooled by the "350-watt" RF advertising).

[johnszcz]

Can you send me any links to where I might find an after-market amp that will use the R/F head?

Thanks

John

[bestatchess]

Originally Posted by johnszcz

Can you send me any links to where I might find an after-market amp that will use the R/F head?

Thanks

John

There are many, many, many amps that you can use.

The RF head unit lacks RCA outs. So you need to use a device known as an LOC. I think LOC stands for Level Out Converter. It connects to the speaker outs on the RF head unit and has RCA connectors so that you can connect RCA cables to the LOC and then connect the RCA cables to your amp.

The amp(s) that you want to use depend on the power requirements of the speakers and sub(s) that you want to use. So step (1) is select the speakers and sub(s) that you want. Step (2) is select the amp(s).

[johnszcz]

If you are not a car audio installer or audiophile its hard to keep up with the technical terms etc.
Some adapters are for using existing head units which may be called "receivers" to the existing amp and vise versa.
It appears that if I want to used a new amp and speakers I will need an interface device and I am getting a rather cloudy picture of what is actually needed.

[bestatchess]

O.K., as an example of what is possible, here is what I did. I am not saying this is the best thing, but it is alot better than stock.

A 4 channel LOC:

http://www.davidnavone.com/detail.as...UCT_ID=NE-774V

connectors/pigtails to connect the LOC to the RF head unit and factory harness w/o chopping factory wiring:

http://www.sjgreatdeals.com/sisnn03rb.html (plugs into RF head unit)
http://www.sjgreatdeals.com/sisnn03b.html (plugs into factory harness)

A pre-amp to boost the extremely weak RF output signals and to amplify the AUX input jack (three separate gains for front, rear & aux):

http://www.audiocontrol.com/MobileAu...rs/Matrix.html

short RCA cables to connect the pre-amp to the LOC (length depending on where you mount the pre-amp)

I used a 4 channel 16 foot Phoenix Gold RCA cable to go from the pre-amp to a TRU 4.100 v2 amplifier mounted on the rear cab wall. Another short RCA cable connects the 4.100 v2 to a TRU 2.100 (bridged to 400 Watts). www.trutechnology.com

The 4.100 v2 drives two edi6500 component sets. The TRU 2.100 drives an 11 KV2 sub. Speakers & sub from www.edesignaudio.com

I pulled new 12 gauge speaker wire through the door boots to drive the speakers and mounted the sub in a .5 cu ft. sealed box under the driver side rear seat.

I disconnected and removed the stock RF amplifier.

A UI-4 LOC from www.altomobile.com that might eliminate the need for a pre-amp and which also has nice music sensing remote on w/delay for the amps. It is supposed to be available shortly.

You need to supply power from the battery to the amp(s). This involves running a cable from the positive battery terminal through the firewall. The cable will be either 0 or 4 gauge depending on the power requirements of your amp(s). You need a fuse at the battery and perhaps a fused distribution block near your amps.

There are zillions of posts on upgrading the RF stereo if you search. A few things I recall:

eakes, lizardking, and smoketitan have made numerous informative posts.

lizardking posted about upgrading the factory battery/chassis/block ground to 0 gauge

eakes posted about bypassing the RF amp using wire & molex pins so as to use the factory speaker wiring to drive aftermarket speakers

I posted about (1) removing center console & sound deadening (2) changing rear door speakers (3) mounting amplifiers on rear cab wall (applies to '04 CC perhaps not the same with '05)

There is a long, informative thread called '"installing aftermarket radio tonight"

There are numerous posts about various speakers & sub boxes & amp mounting arrangements.

schneid posted abot the easiest way to install Nissan's XM reciver (behind knee plate on driver's side dash)

sammy sandbag has a thread about using a PIE amplifer to amplify the aux jack

[johnszcz]

Thanks for taking the trouble to answer my request!