[PhillyGuy15]

Hi Guys,

I really have no knowledge on car audio, but I just wanted to know if I would be able to replace my stock non-bose speakers with upgraded 6X9's without the addition of an amp. Is this possible?

I don't really need much bass for the music I listen to, I just want to improve the sound quality of the mids and highs. I am currently looking at a pair of Infinity Primus PR6500cs's.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[lDejavul]

The 6x9s in the doors are for midbass. Stick your ear on the door and listen with it turned up. If you want better highs you need to replace the dash speakers. Not sure how much better you will get without an amp though.

[ctrlz]

You need to pull a dash speaker and take a look. You might be able to get more volume by going to a speaker with greater sensitivity. Don't know the sensitivity of the stock speaker, so will be trial and error. You also need to determine the impedance of the stock speaker. The Bose units seem to be mostly 2 ohm. Non-Bose, I don't know, but would guess 4. There are some speakers out there which are sold as 2 ohm, but are really closer to 3. Those you might be able to use in place of stock speaker without overheating the stock amp. Lower impedance speakers will play louder. An amp rated for a 4 ohm load will probably be ok with 3, but I would not try a 2 ohm load. You will gain volume if you swap high impedance for lower, lose volume if you swap low impedance for higher.
The other thing you need to check when you pull the speaker is magnet size. Not sure how much room there is. Some aftermarket speakers gain their efficiency partially through bigger magnets which means a stringer field. You can also get that through stronger magnets like neodymium.

[PWPhoto]

From what I have seen on another thread, the factory speakers in the dash are 3 1/2". There are companies that make good 3 1/2" speakers that will fit without any mods to the dash. However, making sure the ohm load is in the right range is a thing you do have to consider as ctriz was saying. The built in amp in the factory radio and the separate amps in the car were designed to operate speakers in a certain ohm load. If you vary form that too much, you will damage the head unit built in amp and component amps or the speakers by overloading them if you go with a higher ohm load than they are rated for; i.e.. the amps are rated for 6 ohm load and you install 3 or 2 ohm speakers unless you by pass the factory wiring and wire them in parallel. This will also use you to have lower volume. On the flip side, if you go the opposite way with the ohm load; i.e.. the amp rated for 4 ohms and you install 8 ohm speakers, you could potentially damage the speakers at higher volumes if you install the speaker using the same factory wiring instead of wiring them in series. It is always best to try to stay close to the rated ohm load for the amps. Most of the Bose amps and speakers I have removed from a lot of my other GM cars were all either 6 or 8 ohm. Most of the time, when I change out a system, I leave all the factory wiring and harnesses intact and rewire everything. That way I know it is wired properly for what i am doing. But at the same time, I always install fairly elaborate systems as well. I built an '01 WS6 Trans Am I had as an IASCA Sound Q competition car. I had to rewire the entire car. I ran all new speaker and amp wiring, new alternator wiring, new front and rear grounds, new battery positive and ground cables, and even installed a second battery and battery isolator with another inline fuse holder in the back of the car, but yet all the factory wiring and harness were left intact incase I decided to strip the comp system and reinstall the factory system. Which I ended up doing 3 years later and selling the car.