I am happy with the factory head unit of my H3, I dont have the monsoon deal, but it sounds good....I noticed the left rear speaker is blown now...I was thinking of upgrading all of them to quality speakers, including the tweaters up in the pillars. Anyone have a good recommendation for brand/ type to go with? I dont want to cut anything, just stock shape/size upgrade...that sounds as good if not better than OE....anyone do the same? thanks guys!

 

If you replace tweeters you must cut out the factory white plastic mount with a hole saw and then hot/super glue the new tweeters into place.

If you have a light hand with the hole saw you'll cut out the white plastic without going through the whole piece as the white plastic is separate from the pillar trim.

This may not make sense but remove the pillar and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

 

thanks Draketh......I think I understand....Maybe I will leave tweeters alone...I am looking for experience with brands/types that someone swapped with stock headunit that had the best sound.....while being as close to bolt in as possible. I am good at wrenching, just dont want to cut it up. I dont want to order some for example , some JL Audio speaker and have it be too good a speaker and sound like **** with stock H/U...not alot of traffic it seems over here .....maybe I will link to H3 forum....

 

Bottom line is most aftermarket speakers are made to be run off of an amp. You're never going to get the sound you're looking for from a factory head unit, they just don't put out enough power. I've heard speakers that were underpowered that sounded just as bad as overpowered ones.

Just be sure you know what you're getting into here. The rear doors are easy, the front doors don't have a boot so you'll have to reuse the factory wire if you decide to amp them. As it stand now you'll still be using the factory wire if you keep the factory stereo, you'll just have to chop off the connectors and crimp some speaker terminals on.

That being said I believe if you're going to do car audio do it right. I would never drop money on a good set of speakers and not amp them. That's like buying a sports car and driving it around the city without even going over 35mph. I have Polk MoMo speakers/tweeters front and rear pushing about 100rms per door and couldn't be happier. I haven't heard a vehicle that sounds as good as mine, everyone around here is running ghetto hood crap like planet audio or American bass.

Spend a little extra money and at least amp the doors if you don't want a sub. You don't need a huge massive amp to get good quality/volume/sound. Something that's like 60rms per door should be just fine, and be a tiny amp. Do it right the first time and you won't be sorry. Just my two cents.

 

lol Ghetto hood Planet Audio!

While I agree that amping your speakers will always help, you don't necessarily have to in order to get better sound. if you blew the speakers try a set of Rockfords, or Kickers any of those are going to be better than the factory. Honestly, go to your local Car Stereo shop and take a listen to some. Almost all shops have a speaker "wall" set up. It will give you a good idea of what you'll get. *However* consider that you're in an open room compared to the cabin of your truck.

Also, drilling out the white plastic isnt always necessary either for your tweeters. It depends on how big the tweeters are. If they are oversized, then yes it would help to remove the white plastic. But if they are small enough you can simply snip away the clip part of the white plastic (what would normally hold the factory tweeter in place) and hot glue the new tweeters in. I was lucky enough to be able to do that with my Bravox tweeters. Anyone ever heard of Bravox??
Anyway, if it helps I can try to send a pic of the tweets I put in mine. just let me know.

 

I have put Rockford Fosgate component speakers in the front doors of my h3.The speakers in the doors are almost bolt-on except for a foam surround that i had to glue to the speakers to replace the ones on the factory speakers.It's designed to eliminate vibrations and direct the sound right into the door grille.For the tweeters i prefered to drill a hole into the pillars to install the speakers but it's just a matter of look,i think that you can glue them on the back of the pillar post.I had installed a Kenwood head unit in the gloves compartment because i needed an input for my mp3 and i wanted to keep the gps unit so i don't know if it will sound better whit the stock head unit.I also have two amps in the trunk to drive two infinity 10'' woofers and two 6x9 mounted in the tail gate.It sounds pretty good compared to the stock radio.I can try to post pictures if you want.Hope it will be helpful!

 

thanks.......sounds good, pics would be great....esp. the rear gate too

 

I am in the same boat here...the CD mode is pretty good on the stock system...but in serius/xm mode...pretty much sounds like crap.
Just changing speaks on a head unit doesn't meet objectives.. for me right now with the new to me H3...the jury is out weather or not I want to revamp the entire system...
as I think to myself here for a minute...what may work is to replace the door speaks behind the drivers compartment with good 5 or 6 x 9 s with dome tweets...and put a nice little sub in the compartment in the rear...would sound great compaired to stock...and maybe could leave the tweets on the pillars still active....any thoughts here on this ..of course a small amp would have to go under a seat.

 

So i have a question has anyone ever had or know about these two brandsand which brand should I get Im down to two
1) 6.5" Massive Audio RK-6 Components

2) 6.5" Massive Audio RK 6
Any help would be nice thanks im new to this so if I post in the wrong section im sorry.

 

I'm bumping this thread instead of starting a new one.... Ive searched all the posts on the subject.. has anyone ever actually located where the crossover (if there is one ) / speaker wire splt from the fronts/tweeters for the non-monsoon system is? I'm tryin to figure where to put my crossovers and don't know if the speaker line for the doors already has the highs filtered out of I can run the crossovers off this input..

or if the tweeter line if a full spectrum so I can run the crossovers off that?

thanks