Well i made the mistake of buying some 6" jbl 60 watt rms 3 way speakers for the doors and running them off the stock amp. After I installed them i found out that the volume level was horrid. i had to max out the volume just to get any good "jamming" sound out of them. Needless to say i put all the stock components back in and have 2 useless jbls sitting around. Now I also bought 2 jbl 3 way 6x9's rated at 100 RMS for the back but didn't even attempt to install them. My question is will these sound too quiet as well? Or does the stock amp pump more power to the rear speakers as opposed to the front?

 

the factory amp if I remember right is rated at 2 ohm (less resistance)
so your 4 ohm 6" jbl 60 watt RMS speakers are at 4 ohm so that is why they are quite of the factory amp the new speakers have a higher Resistance (4 ohm)
and if the 6x9's are 4 ohm you would have the same problem with them the best way to fix it is to get a new 4 channel amp and get rid of the factory amp.

 

Yep, the problem is the ohm load as stated above. Another option would be to sell ur jbl's and buy some similarly sized 2 ohm drivers, then you ill have better volume and sq compared to stock. But adding a 4ch amp with ur existing speakers would be the better, though more expensive, option.

 

New speakers off the stock amp will more than likely sound worse than the original speakers.

So your best bet is looking for a decent aftermarket 4 channel amp.

 

well the funny thing is that all 4 of my JBL's are 2 ohm speakers. Now another question is that if there is already wiring running to the trunk for the stock amp, is there any way to just snip the wires and wire them up to an aftermarket crossover without running new wires?

 

there are wires but you will probably want to run some higher gauge wire especially if you're adding a 4-channel amp.

the stock speakers had a built in crossover so you wont find one there, but you could wire the stock wires to the crossover which would go to the stock amp

 

X2 ^^ and you will be running new wire for the amp (power and ground ) so this would be the time to upgrade the speaker wire in the car If you are going to install a new amp.

try this before you do that though
The only other thing i can figure with the fronts being quiet and they are 2 ohm is that some how the factory amp was unbalanced you could put all 4 in and make sure that the polarity is correct to each of the speakers + to+ and - to -
I have heard a factory being out of phase and that making the speakers quieter (+ to - and - to + ) if you think there was a chance that the speakers were out of phase put them in 1 at a time and trying flipping your leads and see if that makes each one at a time louder . let us know what you find out .

 

See what happens when you assume? I didnt even bother to ask you what ohms ur speakers were, rookie move! I know better than that. In any case, maybe the sensitivity of the jbl's are whats hindering their performance....stock speakers are usually high sensitivity drivers due to the low power levels they see, which allows the cones to move with very little power. Maybe ur jbl's arent as sensitive, so they need more power to move the cone....the factory amp says its 200 watts but thats max, 100rms which works out to about 25 watts rms per channel.....that could very well be on the low side for what your speakers need to perform well.

Best bet is either to find some high sensitivity 2 ohm drivers (Infinity comes to mind) or add a 4ch amp to the mix......when it comes to output and sound quality, I bet you'd be alot happier with the latter.

 

man that is a ton of work. I already spent a ton of $$ on a touchscreen headunit and replacing the body damage from the hit and run. Not sure if i want to do all this. Especially when the stock speakers actually sound pretty decent.

 

you can get a nice 4 channel amp for around $200. that's really all you need right now to finish this upgrade, and some wires to power the amp, rcas and speakers wires.