I just posted on the H3T section about how to make the speakers in my truck bump. The main problem is the factory speakers are cheap paper. The other is not enough air space. I have two easy, fairly cheap fixes.

Assuming the H3 has 6.5 speakers in the front and rear doors. Trucks have a 6x9 in the rears, which is a bit more complex. The factory mount is 1/2 inch from the door panel. Just buy 4-1/2 inch spacers for your speakers for more air. This would give them 1 inch to move properly. They are $10 bucks each from best buy or cheaper on the net. The door panels are really easy to remove.

Next the paper speakers for the Monsoon system are junk! A nice pair of 6.5 speakers are around $100 bucks, so $200 for four. A bit more if you have the tweeters installed in the upper door/window post.

Anyway, do this speaker upgrade and feel the mids/bass a lot more by your feet. Let your speakers breathe!

 

i think the stock monsoon is crisp,punchey and plenty loud,as is. best audio i ever had in a car.

but i dont play "thump thump"!!

 

For sure, I was pleased with the system as well. However, once I saw how inexpensive the upgrades were, I was sold. Mind you, I am not a "thump thump" guy, my music is very high on my priority. I enjoy every type of music from classical, country, alternative, 60's, 70's, to hard rock. I mean even my news channels sound better. Cheers.

 

+1 on the monsoon...it's more than enough for everyday use...

 

All four speakers are 6.75". What you Monsoon guys don't know is they use all the same speakers in the base radio package as your "Monsoon upgrade", so all the Monsoon does is put a cheap sub in the back with a different head unit.

The speakers are mounted in a hole in the doors exposing the entire door cavity, so what is 1/2" more going to do for sound? There is at least 4" behind each speaker to the outer door skin without a spacer. I'm no audiophile so I am asking a question. I'm thinking I would need a high wattage head unit and some speakers to handle it before I have to worry about freeing up air space for speaker movement?

IMHO, when your OEM speakers toast (and they will) replace them with a quality two or three way speaker after adding some Dynamat to the door skins behind them, mounted in XTC weatherproof foam speaker baffles to protect them (my truck is outside 24/7).




I just have the base radio, so I went with Pioneer TS-A1674R 600W 6.5" 3-Way Coaxial Speakers, huge improvement. Compare, OEM left, Pioneer right.

 

last yr,when the monsoon spekers were getting a bum rap i did some searces,professional sound sites , speaker comparisons. they said the majority of quality speakers had,,, paper cones. still some of the lightest,best material for sound reproduction.
i guess some paper gets treatment,foaming,whatever, still paper. jfwiw

monsoon,stock from factory=great sound,paper and all,,

 

"I'm thinking I would need a high wattage head unit and some speakers to handle it before I have to worry about freeing up air space for speaker movement?"

I think the monsoon head unit has 50watts per channel. I replaced my head unit with a Kenwood of the same power. I don't know a whole lot about stereos, I just experimented when my new system wasn't putting out what I thought it should. My buddy who is really into the stuff gave me the ideas and they really worked.

"professional sound sites" lol you take any monsoon speaker to ANY stereo shop and they will laugh! I didn't mean to offend anyone on the Monsoon upgrades. These are just ideas to make it work better. I stand by my opinion that the factory speakers are crap. It's like some of you guys would want to tell me that factory hummer tires are sweet. Most people upgrade their stuff. I you want a factory concourse Hummer than be my guest. Cheers!

 

someone please clear this up for me. i hear the monsoon 6 disk unit refered to as the 'head unit". i know it has no power at all but just feeds low level signals to the power amp in the back. that drives the speakers.
so how would a kenwood "head unit" drive the speakers if it feeds the monsoon system amp in back?
did you tear out the stock amp and rewire all 7 speakers to the kenwood? is that how you got better sound?

for the kenwood to drive the stock amp it would need 7 drive wires like the stock "head unit"
those drivers are typically apx 1v driving a 1k to 10 k ohm load, not speaker out signals.

if you sell your head unit and amp ill buy them cheap!1

 

I am basing all of this off of my H3T. This system has the stereo or (head unit) and 6 speakers. I have 2 tweets in the front posts. 2 6.5 mids in the doors and 2 6x9s in the rear doors. By giving the speakers 1/2 air space in the doors by the factory this is where the trucks get their "base" sound. I modified my door speakers by giving them 1 inch of air space. This gives me more or lower "base" sound. I replaced my main stereo with a better quality Kenwood dvd stereo. This system has it's Mosfet amp inside the stereo. The H3's have a 7th base speaker in the rear and possibly another amp to run it, I am not sure. I do have my Monsoon 6 disc changer for sale in the classifieds, but I have no other amps to go with it.

 

If you like the Monsoon that is great if you don't that is great. It's whatever your ears like. I just read a Crutchfield 3 part article that breaks down what upgrade makes your stereo sound the best. It was in a F-150. They put in a head unit and ran test, took out the head unit and added speakers and ran test, added the head unit back in and ran tests, added a sub and sub amp and ran test, then added a amp for the door speakers and ran tests. The #1 thing that really improved the sound quality was the addition of an aftermarket head unit. I'll see if I can find a link to the article.

I decided to do an upgrade and put in a Pioneer AVH-P4300DVD head unit, Polk DB 6051 component speakers in the front, Polk DB 651 coaxial speakers in back w/a Kicker 10" woofer and a Alpine PDX-5 (75 watts RMS to the front and rear speakers and 300 watts RMS to the sub) and it sounds so awesome. I did this in phases starting with the head unit so I didn't have to feel it in my pocket book all at once. It was a really fun project and since I wasn't in a hurry I found great deals and did it all for under $1000.