ukrkoz

it is very easy to do, but just in case:


1. Remove plastic triangle behind the mirror, it pries out. Carefully, it's only plastic. I have all holes packed with foam for rattle reduction.



2. Remove little rectangular slide for lock/unlock, it also simply pries out:



3. Pry out and remove/twist plastic cover around the door handle:



4. Hidden screw at the bottom of the door panel:



5. Pull out window controls



6. Disconnect connectors:



7. Hidden screw behind the window controls:



8. Hidden screw behind the armrest handle:



9. Door pries up and off, you can see white locking "hooks":



10. Speaker wires disconnected



11. Courtesy light disconnected (in my case, little light bulb always falls inside the light cover. Just pry the cover out and shake the bulb out.



12. Press down on the upper speaker clip with a screwdriver or hammer handle and pry speaker out:



13. Remove speaker



14. Here's speaker attached to the buffle:



15. New connectors spliced into existing wires:



16. New speaker installed.



6 1/2 inch speakers are slightly too small for the opening. If you can find 6 3/4 - good for you. I, simply, drilled holes directly into the metal through the speaker outside rim and screwed them directly to the panel.
There's A LOT of room available, door panel speaker grill is way far away from speakers, so you can be of little concern about new speaker height. I put in 220W 3 way Fusions. I am old school, I like HEAVY speakers. Fusions were the heaviest I could find. $49.95 a pair.

x1cn18

2 things the screw on the bottom holds the pocket to the door panel thats it and on that particular panel if you mount the speaker to the actual door panen through the front by removing the grill screw it in and replace the grill it sounds a little better

ukrkoz

And the word on those Fusions:
they turned out to be small size subwoofer range speakers. As a result, I have lots of bass now in the higher bass range, which is sort of good, as it complements my Basslink behind the driver seat. But, I have almost nothing in the midrange. With a sudden spike in the treble, as now I have 4 tweeters, basically, OEM ones and ones that are built into the Fusions.
Now, need to figure how to get to the rear 4x6s. I hope, that'll restore midrange.

therewolf

Thank you Ukrkoz,

I have to re-do my whole system, and my strategy is to do the speakers first. Do you think 6x9s will fit in the hole? You'd think by the size of the OEM speaker grille that they would.

I'm thinking of putting in a head unit,8" or 10" sub and amp where the "20" part of the 40/20/40 front seat is, and installing a CB radio on the dash. The head unit heats CDs too much in the dash. And I'm soo tired of wimpy,blatty, base tones. I'm considering replacing the actual "20" with a custom-made console using some exotic wood which will match the grey interior, padding the whole top(as an elbow rest) and hinging the lid on the SIDE instead of the back, so my elbow doesn't get in the way.

Nothing crazy wattage-wise, but it doesn't take much wattage to upgrade from OEM.

ukrkoz

well, everyone's creator of his own happiness - or trouble. best I can tell - you'll have to deal with A LOT of rattles when you upgrade to something half way serious. starting with rear bench backrests, vibrating passenger side seat backrest, and all those tiny rattles in all that pile of plastic they call dashboard.
when you'll have your door panels off, spray expending foam from HD into any crack and hole that is not vital or functional. regular, cheap crack sealant works just fine, no need for noise reducing mats. we did this on my son's eclipse - amazing, what a 4 buck can of foam can do.
as of your question: hole is round. it'll fit 6.75 speaker. but, considering the clip hole - I guess, you could expend it into something larger. like I said - there's a lot of empty space around. but you'll have to do some custom cutting and trimming, or you'll have part of your speaker covered by metal.
think about tilting door speaker up, towards you, to give the right direction to the sound. otherwise, your ankles enjoy it, but that's about it. now, moving tweeters up into pillar A covers - that's a serious sound QUALITY upgrade. treble is very directional, having it about face level gives beautiful improvement.

therewolf

I've got the crewcab, as far as I can tell right now, all the speakers are in the doors. My left ankle has turned into quite the Punk-Rock audiophile. I don't worry too much much about noise from my Clunkerado, usually the music drowns it out.

Keep it coming though, because I'm not finding much about aftermarket installs, and I'd really like to do 1 balanced install, and have done with it. I'm seriously considering sacrificing the stock tweeters for the space. A good set of 6X9s comes with tweeter cones, but I can't personally attest to their functionality.

jbacke

Timely post as I am planning to replace the speakers in my '05 Silverado soon. I'm disappointed in the fact that the Bose speakers did not last very long. I don't play music very loud, in fact I listen to news or talk radio more than anything else. Only occasionally do I crank up some loud music. Both front speakers are rattling now, just started recently. I had planned on replacing them with Bose as I figured GM/Bose designed the speaker type and placement for the best sound. I'm not an audiophile but I have enjoyed the factory sound system for the most part, not sure if I want to muddy the sound with different speakers. As you've discovered, you may then need to start changing out all the other speakers too.

therewolf

In my case change is coming, the real question is how much, how many, and when.

Bose probably cut a good deal financially with GM, balance and design has a lot more to do with the bottom line with them. I wouldn't be as worried about what's in there now, as what's going in when you replace it.

Overall, lately, I'm hearing good things about Panasonic, and I like them. I've been looking at the Sony and JVC stuff mostly, up to now.

I've been playing my stereo full-blast since I got the truck new.(WHAT?) The top volume is sketchy, and the standard audio package(probably NOT Bose) is real blatty in the low-end.

I think the real challenge here, for a loud system you're(I'm) going to be listening to with the windows UP,(Locking in every rockin' db I can!) is balance. I don't want an overpowering sub wrecking the overall sound.'

Daylin Supple

You mean the actual door panel? Just under the grill? Would it not rattle like crazy it's just flimsy plastic