Upgrading speakers in my 2000 Blazer LT?
 

I would like to upgrade the speakers in my 2000 4X4 4 door Blazer LT because my rear door speakers are cutting in and out and probably ready to go completely.

I would like to upgrade the dash speakers (Tweeters) to 4X6 2 ways if is possible to just drop in a pair of Polk Audio DB461 speakers.

Here is what I have in the dash right now.

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1355680050

I'm curious as to what is in the black shrink wrap tube (capacitor maybe?). W
ill I need it when I drop the 4X6 speakers in or do I cut the wires behind it and "bug" on a pair of wires and connectors for the new speaker?

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1355680050

Pic 3

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1355680050

Anybody upgraded these before? I'm going to add Polk Audio DB651S to each of the four doors as part of the upgrade and plan on using the stock head unit for now.

Thanks in advance for any help, input and suggestions.

The "black shrink wrapped tube" is a bass blocker, it prevents the tweeter from being destroyed by low frequencies. As far as whether the 4x6 will fit, it should but i'm not certain. I have an older model Blazer so the configuration is a little different. I find Crutchfield.com to be quite useful in determining if something will fit. In theory, you should be able to snip the wire below the bass blocker and drop in the new 4x6.

Btw, if you get the Polk Audio install finished, please let me know how it sounds. I'm considering doing pretty much the same install with my '96 Blazer this summer.

I'll be sure to post back with pics and results. I tried Crutchfield but according to their website and a phone call to sales, they don't have anything that will fit without modification.

Thanks for identifying the "bass blocker".

The 'bass blocker' is also known as a high-pass filter.

A 4x6 might fit (that is the opening size at least) but the depth might be an issue. I squeezed a pair of 4" infinitys in mine without too much trouble, but like I said, they need to be fairly low profile.

Depth is always the limiting factor on those dashes. Between brackets and duct work they're kinda tight.

If I may be so bold as to suggest you forget the 4x6 speakers all together and try this. Assuming you've already upgraded the speakers in your front doors, put them in the back doors. Then go get yourself a nice set of 6.5" components. Install the tweeter in the factory tweeter location (remove the factory one from the plate, install the new one), drop the mid into the front door, wire them up to the crossover and it to your HU or amp and you'll be another step closer to a much better sounding speaker system.

Using all these different speakers in these different locations creates havoc in the overall sound you hear. With all of them playing the same frequencies from all those places ruins imaging and staging and can often times cause bad cancellations, beaming and different kinds of harmonic distortion.

A single set of components lends a machete to the audible thicket. There's far less chance of problems with cancellations, beaming and distortions. It also tends to open the sound stage up, letting the music sound as though it's coming from it's intended locations.

In my Jimmy I ran a set of Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5" components off the HU for quite some time before I upgraded to my Bravox's with the custom baffles and Sundown amp. I got a lot of comments on how good it sounded and how loud it got. A lot of people commented on how "alive" and "natural" the music sounded. What they heard was the difference between a jarbled mess of a bunch of different speakers and single sources for each range of frequencies played by the mid and the tweeter on each channel.

A lot of people think that just because they have ALL those speaker holes filled that it's louder and sounds better than a much simpler setup such as a set of components in an ideal installation. Truth is that the simpler the arrangement and the better the installation the better the overall output is. Depending on the level of equipment you buy and the kind of installation you can do, it may or may not be cheaper than buying all those seperate size speakers too. Whether you belive it or not is up to you.

get a high end component set and install them in the factory dash/front door locations. amazing results for about the same amount of coin as full range coaxial speakers in both front locations. co-ax speakers work well in the rear, but not the front..:icon_twocents:

For the system I'm planning to put in my Blazer, I was going to use component sets in both the front and rear doors. Would you recommend co-ax in place of the rear components?

MBunk 007
i wouldnt spend the money on rear components. when was the last time that you sat in the back seat of your own vehicle? i would just buy a bi*chin set of coaxial speakers.

ohiolefty

i talked to my stereo shop about doing the same thing. 3 out of 5 guys said to drop in a 4x6 with a bass blocker. they said that you can change out the blockers pretty quick with the way that they wire them up; which is what i dont know about. i was thinkin it would be better to do components but after talking to them it makes more sense to drop 4x6's. the mid speakers are in the bottom of the doors, right where your legs and passengers legs are, IN THE WAY!! so when i get the money, im doing 4x6's. but thats just me.
good luck.

I agree with Twip to a point. Components are absolutely useless in the back. That's a waste of money for something you're not going to be able to properly listen to from the driver's seat. In all honesty so would a set of "bi*chin" coax's. You're money is better spent focusing on the quality of the installation of the front speakers than it is on almost any part of the equipment.



That doesn't make any sense at all. Why would you ever want to change the bass blockers? There's no good purpose in doing so, not one. It makes sense for them to recommend buying both new speakers for the doors and the dash, they're making more money from the sale. There's a bigger margin for markup for a two sets of cheap coax's than it is for one nicer set of components.


I'm an out and out SQ guy and always have been. Ever since I attended my first audio competition I was hooked on making things sound good. There's nothing like listening to the music the way it was intended to be heard. There's no part of the music that's recorded on the opposite side of the microphones. All the musicians and the singer are on that side of the microphones, like a personal performance right in front of you. Listening to them play you can HEAR the lead guitar on the right, the bass guitar on the left, the drummer in the center behind the singer and the singer front and center. All that really is recorded and CAN be played back faithfully, but doing so requires some work, dedication and attention to detail. The SQ competition vehicles could do it, in AMAZING detail. Anyone can do it but not with a hodge-podge of different sized speakers all creating a mish mosh of sound from all their different locations. All those different speakers, in all their different locations playing the SAME frequencies will ruin the imaging, sound stage and effect of the recording. Many times there will be cancellations and odd order harmonic distortions that are simply nasty to hear. Most people are oblivious to it since it's the only thing they've known, but honestly, does anyone really WANT that? Why not spend a few extra dollars, spend a few extra hours planning, and a few extra hours on the installation and make it the best it can be? Sure, making it sound like it was originally recorded in the studio is a bit of a stretch, but you'd be very surprised how close you can get for a few hundred bucks.

Hell, spend a couple of weeks with the fader adjusted all the way forward for listening to just the front speakers. Be honest and leave it alone the whole two weeks and afterward center the fader back up. It's going to sound VERY off, and maybe then some may understand.

/RANT

Schooled by the master! :)

Master? No. I have a fair grasp on things but I'm not even close to any kind of master or expert.

I really didn't mean to rant, but I just hate seeing people settle for mediocre or worse just because it's cheapest, easiest, or what everyone else does. It's really not that hard to get great sound without spending big money. Hell, just on the highs in my Jimmy there's only about $300 or so. That includes the sound deadening, the custom baffles, the components, the Sundown amp, and all the wiring. I got the amp used, the components on a clearance sale, and the sound deadening on a christmas sale that Second Skin was having. I built the baffles myself and did the rest of the installation myself. It's not perfect, but I've yet to have a negative comment on it. It gets more than loud enough for everyone I've played it for, you can feel the midbass in your chest on most music, the sound stage sounds a little wider than the truck is and the imaging right now is dead center in the dash. It's lower than I want it to be and the stage could be wider but it blows most people away. Similar results could be done for less and most anyone would be more than impressed.

There I go ranting on again. I'll end my rant by asking, do you listen to music just to listen to it, or do you want to really enjoy it?

@altoncustomtech

I enjoyed reading these rants. I'm new to setting up a sound system in a vehicle. I've wired systems in the past, but I've never actually built my own system from the ground up. Everyone I know takes the cheap, easy way to their stereo system. Pretty much to them it's just about how loud they can make it and how fast they can blow their speakers out. I was talking to a guy the other day who was kind of proud that he blew out his back window with a 15" sub. I however, want to do a system purely for the music. I thank you for your rant. I've found it very imformative. :)

Phase 1:

I finally got around to replacing my dead rear door speakers in my 2000 4X4 4dr Blazer LT. The new Polk Audio db651s 6" Coaxial sound great but then again, they should when you consider what they replaced was DOA when I bought the vehicle a month ago. A really nice upgrade!

Phase 2:

I'm going to replace the front door speakers next with a pair of either Polk Audio db651 or Polk Audio db651s like the rear doors. The "shallow mount" db651s fit the rear doors absolutely perfect but I'm hoping the db651 (not "shallow mount") will work in the front doors without any mods. I want to use the db651 because it has a little better Bass response of 35Hz compared to the 50Hz of the db651s. I ordered both pair and will send back the db651s if the db651 don't fit.

If anyone has any experience installing either the db651 or the "shallow mount" db651s in your "2nd Gen" Blazers, I would love to hear about your installation experience.

Phase 3:

If I find it necessary, I will either replace the stock dash tweeters with either a pair of Polk Audio db461 4X6 Coaxial or a pair of Polk Audio db1001 1" tweeters if the 4X6 db461 don't fit.

Thanks for all the advice and help. :icon_beerchug:

I think 3 of the 5 guys wanted to take your money. I had a set of 4x6s in the dash of my 1st gen s10. I ended up pulling the midrange speakers out of the dash and leaving the tweets. i put them into the doors beside a pair of 6.5" woofers and it made it sound waaaay better.

Hey, Lefty! I don't think you'll have any trouble installing Polk db651 speakers in your front doors. Their top mounding depth is only 1-5/8". I just finished installing a pair of Kenwood KFC-G1620 coax speakers in the front doors of my wife's Jimmy. The mounting depth of the Kenwoods is 2-1/8", and those fit in there, so you should be fine.

I also put a pair of Polk Dxi460 speakers in the dash when I installed the Kenwoods in the front doors. I think the Dxi460's are essentially the same as the db461 speakers (not the db461p). Specs, drivers, etc are identical, but the Dxi's are marine rated and the cosmetics are altered slightly. They fit. It's really, really snug, but they DO fit, and the Polks sound great together with the Kenwoods! :)

No rear door speakers in the truck yet. Like yours, one of my back door speakers was dead, but I want 8-ohm units to keep the impedance close to the original 9.5-ohm Delco units, and I couldn't find an 8-ohm replacement locally. I have ordered a pair of Visaton 3017 BG17 speakers from Parts Express. Their design is very similar to the Delcos - full range 6.5's with with fabric surrounds and paper whizzer cones for the treble range, but their sound quality should be a little better.

I thought about ordering a pair of 8-ohm coax for the back (there are a few available online), either that or 8-ohm mid-bass drivers, but I decided to keep the back as close to OEM as possible. Not looking for a truck that goes boom, just one with an audio setup that sounds decent. :icon_band:

The Visatons appear to have decent overall response (80Hz - 20KHz), fairly high efficiency at 93 dB, and an impedance that will work well with the factory electronics, so everything should sound pretty good. The back speakers will hopefully arrive in time to get them installed this weekend, and I'll post about how the project turns out.

:D

This is a great thread, as I too am about to put a 'decent' system in my Blazer. Being a musician, I can tell you that music sounds better in the car 90% of the time! You can never get a live performance mixed well unless you're in a big room with good monitors and someone that knows how to mix it.

Any love for other brands of speakers? All I seem to read about on here are Polk.

You see a lot of Polk on here because they're pretty plug and play friendly and priced fairly good as well. Budget and personal tastes play such a huge part in what people use that it's really not fair to judge what's good or not by what's popular.

It's unfortunate that people's choices are only as good as their best educated guess and in most cases that education isn't much more than what the salesman said or because that person knows somebody's buddy who's using that sub or speaker and impressing people or because they see that it's the popular item amongst some peer group of theirs. Most of the time people simply either don't know what "good" sound really is (they've never been exposed to it) or they don't care.

I was exposed to what SQ really was years ago at competitions and have been trying to achieve that in my vehicles ever since. It's utterly incredible to hear music played back so faithfully that it sounds like you're right there with the group during the recording. Perfect imaging, perfect sound stage, tonal balance and flat response is how it's done and it is possible to do in a vehicle, but not without some real work, money and dedication. I am still working on learning how to read T/S params and tech specs and know how good that driver really is and what it's optimal use would be. Still learning how placement, axis orientation, and other installation issues affect the given response. Still learning what the good and bad compromises are for different goals. There's such an incredible amount to learn its really almost overwhelming. I would love to learn it all someday though realistically I know I'll only ever scratch the surface.

I think a person can achieve a great balance of budget and installation friendliness in comparison to quality of sound. It's not going to happen by throwing a bunch of coaxial speakers in the factory locations and calling it done, but a person doesn't have to spend thousands on high end equipment and custom dash & door fiberglass work either.

As to your question, the list of brands is as long as a person cares to make it, again because it has so much to do with personal preference. In general Alpine, Polk, Infinity, JBL, Image Dynamics (questionable now that original owner is gone), Rockford, JL Audio, Diamond Audio, Hertz, Arc Audio, Zapco, Phoenix Gold & SoundStream & Precision Power (higher end units), Rainbow, Morel, Memphis, Focal, DLS, Dynaudio, Boston Acoustics and a few others make speakers that are pretty much a sure thing in most cases. A few brands you may not have heard of, Incriminator Audio, Crescendo Audio and Sundown Audio have introduced some component sets are are gaining notoriety quickly among the car audio enthusiast circles.

In the end it still comes down to two things in my opinion. First is the most important thing, that only you know what sounds good to you. The main goal is that you're happy with the results. Second is that it all comes down to the installation. The cheapest speakers in a most ideal installation have the potential to outperform in every way the most expensive speakers in the least ideal installation.

Update. I have finally replaced all six speakers in my Jimmy’s audio system, and the system sounds great. Certainly not competition grade, but very musical and light years ahead of the way the OEM speakers EVER sounded. Imaging is superb with coax units installed in both the dash and front doors, and the phantom center channel is rock solid.

Tech notes:
It took a fair amount of field engineering and fabrication to make all the aftermarket drivers fit the factory locations, so it was slow going, but the project was definitely worth the effort. (See my earlier post for a list of the speakers I used.)

Fitting the Visaton (German brand) 6.5” full range 8-ohm home audio speakers into the Jimmy’s back doors gave me the biggest headache. Not exactly plug-n-play. In fact, my initial assessment was that I couldn’t use them at all. Apparently just like everything else in the mobile audio world, speaker sizes are often somewhat exaggerated, so my 6.5” home audio speakers were too big to fit the rear door speaker cutouts. Besides not fitting the openings, their mounting hole spacing is different from the OEM arrangement. Sort of like a 4x114.3 lug nut pattern vs. a 4x100.

After spending half a day trying to come up with the best way to make the Visaton speakers work back there, I finally decided on a pair of adapter rings. There are spacer rings available for automotive speakers that are too deep to fit some OEM locations, so I decided to score a pair of 1/2” spacers and hog them out to fit the Visaton speakers. This I did. Then, I mounted the spacers to the plastic speaker enclosures inside the doors and attached the speakers to the spacers.

Everything turned out great. The back door trim panels cleared the Visatons, despite the extra 1/2” thickness introduced by the adapter rings, and the installation looks OEM. But the quality of the drivers and the sound are much better.

Cheers! :D

Ok , so just to be clear here , when installing components in the front, is flush mounting the tweeters in the factory dash grills a good idea or no? I have a 2000 blazer LT.

Understand that tweeters are directional. You will experience the best performance from them if you can aim them toward you. I'm actually thinking the pillars are the way to go but there are tons of options. Maybe try just sticking them in different spots with some two sides tape just to hear the difference from one location to the next.

I was trying to get away with not putting them everywhere and doing a lot of testing . Lol Using the factory tweeter plates, I could swap them and have them face forward or if I flush mounted them in the speaker grill I could angle them towards me. I just wasn't sure what the best option was.

Agreed. That's probably the quickest way to get it done. Some folks are perfectionists and want to be absolutely sure they gave chosen the best possible location before settling on a permanent home for a set of speakers. It's a big to-do so you don't want to have to mess with it repeatedly. I was considering doing the same thing as you just so I wouldn't have to change the appearance of the interior.

Yeah, I didn't really wanna change the appearance either, but since half of the slots in the door grills have broken, I wound up cutting them out and using the jbl speaker grills in the rear doors and I'm gonna do the same with the front. On the rear, they don't look really great, but they're functional. That's why I was thinking about flush mounting the tweeters in the dash speaker grills just to add to the custom look and mainly so I could hear and aim them better. Unless someone knows a better way . I mean I can replace the dash grills a whole lot easier than a door panel or an a pillar if I don't like it or mess up . Lol

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No offense but it's time to search the junk yards for new panels. (I'm the perfectionist everyone hates)

That's the problem . There's only a few around here . I have searched, and online too .They're few and far between. And the one's I do find are for manual windows . Which sucks. And like I said, not great, but functional.

​​​​​ Correction, I just searched eBay again and found some, but I can't afford them right now . And I'd still have to trim out that ring on the inside to keep it from hitting the surround on the speaker. And since you're a perfectionist, would you flush mount the tweeters in the dash speaker grills and angle them towards the seats, or use the factory tweeter plates by swapping sides so they face the seats? And I don't mean that sarcastically, btw . Lol Just want an honest opinion .

I left my dash tweeters untouched. In fact I purchased a dash cover which has no openings for the speakers. ( The mfr says the material doesn't change the sound quality ). This after buying and painting a new set of speaker covers. Did it affect the sound? I couldn't tell you because at my age my ears can't tell the difference. My Blazer is not a daily driver and when I do drive it the trip is always under 10 miles. The original speakers were all degraded so I bought and installed 4 Kenwood speakers when I was repairing the door panels. My door panels btw look identical to yours. The Kenwoods sound great to me. Sorry I'm no help.

None of my speakers worked at all when I bought the truck 4 years ago. So I put some cheap speakers in . I'm upgrading now. Especially since I've installed 2 12's pushing 1400 watts rms give or take a lil. Lol And I'm on disability. So like you I don't drive my blazer every single day. When I do, it's also less than 10 miles. I just want it to sound good and sound right.

Oh an component sets are nice but put a good amp on them an you will always blow the tweeters. Try cadence they have entry level coax an mid drivers that are pretty cheap. Handle decent power and sound really good

For what it's worth, I installed components in all 4 doors and actually unplugged the factory tweeters in the dash completely. The components in the rear doors are overkill, honestly would have been fine with just coax in the rear or even just the mid drivers and leaving the tweeters out of the rear completely... If you sit far back in the front seats the rear tweeters are pretty much right in your ear lol so they can be a little overpowering. The sound stage is pretty good, but I wan to unplug the tweeters in the rear or possibly even put them on a toggle switch so that I can disable them and enable them if ever wanted, just haven't got around to it... I can of course just fade to the front and it does the same thing, but I can hear the mid frequencies come forward and it just sounds less "full"...

I'm not trying to do anything elaborate. I just want it to sound good and loud enough . And it's funny you mention blowing the 4x6s. I haven't gotten my component set yet and still have the 4x6s in the dash. The other day, the "crossover" if that's what you wanna call it, for the tweeter popped and smoke came out from under the dash speaker grill. Lol So I took the 4x6s out until I can replace them with the tweeters from the components . Any ideas on why that happened ? And yes I play my music just about as loud as I can get it without distortion all the time . Which is about 32 and the radio goes to 40. I've never had that happen before , so I wasn't sure how it happened exactly. Lol

Now, about the tweeters . By reversing and facing the factory tweeter plates forward, they wouldn't be aimed directly at me . More like crossways and up a lil . Lol I'm gonna play with placement a lil before I mount them permanently though . Where do yall suggest putting the crossovers? I have the amp mounted under the dash on the passenger side and am planning on running new speaker wire from the amp wires behind the radio . Thought about putting them in the dash under the tweeters with 3M tape, but I don't want them to magically come loose and start bouncing around in there. I didn't know if there was some place better or more convenient without running unnecessary wiring.

No external crossover brick with them, just a bass blocker on the tweeters.

I run a high pass filter set at 60htz to the door spears through a small in dash Alpine 4 channel amp, then a low pass of 100htz to my 2 12's in the rear and it covers the full range very well. I can crank my stereo almost to max without distortion and drown out wind noise with the windows down at 70mph and it sounds clear as can be. I've found with most Pioneer decks (which is what I prefer to run) you can crank up to about 5 volume "clicks" short of full blast before the deck itself starts clipping and introducing distortion. So long as I keep it under that level (55-57 out of 62 volume "clicks") it just gets loud and stays clear :) I also have a volume knob interrupting the signal heading back to the amp powering the 12's mounted in the ash try so that I can dial in the bass level as needed, since I listen to a variety of music genre's and one bass level setting just will not work across all music types lol

Idk if I've said this already or not, but the amp I'm running for my mids and highs is a pioneer gm d1004 45 watts x 4. Kinda like your alpine . I mounted mine under the passenger side dash though. I swear it puts out more than 45 watts. Lol And the thing is , it automatically adjusts power output by volume and hpf is set at 80 hz. So you can't adjust the gain or the hpf, unless you set it to full. So it's set to 80hz hpf and my 12's are set at 120hz . I know that's a lil high, but I like it. Lol I'm hoping after putting in the components ,using the 6 1/2s in the doors and the tweeters in the dash, it'll sound a lot better. I plan on using stinger fast rings and a lil sound dampening when I put them in . So that should help some . And can someone explain to me how a mid woofer and tweeter in a component set only uses the same amount of wattage as one coaxial speaker instead of using double the wattage even though they're still 2 speakers? If that makes sense . Lol 😁

Most component sets are literally a split apart coax speaker. Some component kits even come with hardware to mount the tweeter in the center and in front of the mid driver, basically turning it into a coax.

It's just all about the physical setup and installation, electronically they're identical, that is of course assuming your comparing the same brand and line-up of speakers.

For instance let's say you're interested in the Rockford Fosgate Prime series of speakers. For pretty much every size (accept the smaller ones) they have both a coax set and a component set. They share nearly identical specs as far as wattage, ohm rating, frequency response, etc, just one has the tweeter installed as part of the speaker assembly, and one has the tweeter as a separate entity.


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