Questionhave around $750.00 for system. have a 97 tahoe. speakers are in doors and above rear glass. front doors have a tweeter and4" round speaker in each; back doors have 4" round speakers and the back has 2 6x9's would like amp and subs added. can you offer any suggestions on brands?
AnswerHi Doyle,
I try not to get into brand-name recommendations, but I can give you some general information and tips on your vehicle.
I think your information on speaker sizes may be incorrect. In every Tahoe I've ever worked on, the front and rear speakers are an oversize 6.5" speaker (often with a separate tweeter mounted near the armrest in the front door), and the speakers over the rear doors are 4x10". Most of these vehicles incorporate a factory amplifier, usually just for the rear door speakers. If you want to keep these working, you'll need to make sure you connect the factory amp activation wire when you install a new head unit. This normally can be done by connecting the blue "power antenna" wire in your adapter harness to the blue/white "remote" output from your after-market deck.
If you're replacing your speakers, I'd suggest applying most of your speaker budget toward the front door speakers. A nice set of 6.5" component speakers would work well here. The position of the rear door speakers makes them all but irrelevant for anyone but rear-seat passengers; unless they're blown, upgrading these speakers won't make much difference to your overall sound quality. As for the speakers over the rear glass, you won't find many 4x10" speakers to choose from. Trying to fit 6x9" speakers in this location is a waste of time, as the speakers are placed into unbaffled brackets suspended from the ceiling. I've managed to place 4x6" or 4" speakers in this location by cutting my own adapter plates from ABS plastic. Again, I wouldn't invest too much money here; the front door speakers are, by far, the most important to your sound quality.
If you're just looking for a clean, balanced overall sound with a solid bass response, you can get it by using a 4-channel amp and a single 10" or 12" 4-ohm subwoofer. Use two channels of the amplifier to run your front door speakers; leave the rear speakers running from the head unit. Combine the other two amplifier channels into a single bridged channel for the subwoofer. This type of system gives you the most for your money in terms of sound quality, with room for future expansion.
On the other hand, if you're looking for booming bass, you'll probably want to get a double-12 subwoofer system in a ported box, combined with a mono amplifier, and just run all the other speakers from the head unit.
Hope this helps!
Brian
