Budget Berkshire Speaker Upgrade

[dan-nickie]

I finally got around to upgrading my 2014 Berkshire RB from those little 2 inch speakers and will try to show what I did here.

First of all, do you guys know how to set the bass, treble and balance on the JRV212 radio? I didn't know, but learned in the process. It is an important part of getting your sound right. Just 'press and hold' the 'Audio' button and a new menu appears.

I wanted to get an acceptable sound without a complicated and expensive install of amplifiers and crossovers.

To replace the little 2 inch speakers, I chose some Kicker 6 Inch Coaxial speakers with power handling of up to 65 watts. Some other brand might be just as good. The important thing was I did NOT want some high priced, high performance speakers that were going to require a lot of power as the Jensen radio puts out about only 40 watts per channel. I got them on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



After looking at the ceiling where they would mount, it did not seem that cutting holes in the ceiling for larger speakers was an option. So I got these spacers from Frys Electronics. Two (2) of these needed for each speaker for a total of 2 inch depth.




I painted them white to kind of match the ceiling.



Here they are mounted and connected in the Berkshire.



Many people may be very satisfied at this point as it sounds much better than the stock 2 inch speakers once the bass and treble are adjusted, but I like a little more low end in my music.
============================================

Next up was to add a Sub-Woofer to pump up the bass.

I wanted something that would fit through the removable dash panel and sit on the floor out of sight under the dash. After much measuring and remeasuring the floor space and dash panel opening, I chose this PowerBass BTA8 also from Amazon Amazon.com : Powerbass BTA8 Single 8-Inch 150W Amp Enclosure : Vehicle Subwoofer Systems : Car Electronics



A crossover and 150 watt amp are built into the sub box, so nothing else is required to drive it.


To get the Sub in through the dash panel opening was a chore. Had to temporarily remove some heater hoses, the radio as well as the radio chassis.
But it did fit just fine.



==============================================

Now we have music the way we like it.
I still need to adjust the Sub to get it just right, but we have clear vocals and musical instruments and just enough low end thump to produce music close to the way it was recorded and meant to be heard.

I tried to record something that I could link to for demonstration, but it seems a cell phone does not do a good job of that.

Cheers, Dan

[Mojojojo]

Looks good unfortunately now I got another mod to do

[trekdave42]

Dan,

Great mod and now I have another mod I need to do. In my 2011 390BH I have 4 speakers in the ceiling up front. I'm assuming 2 are for the stereo and 2 are for the entertainment surround sound. By the pictures it doesn't look like yours has this. Can you confirm. If it did have four speakers up front how did you wire the speakers? Thanks in advance for your help.

-David

[KennyGolub]

Very nice. Thanks for the detailed explanation !

[dan-nickie]

Originally Posted by trekdave42

Dan,

Great mod and now I have another mod I need to do. In my 2011 390BH I have 4 speakers in the ceiling up front. I'm assuming 2 are for the stereo and 2 are for the entertainment surround sound. By the pictures it doesn't look like yours has this. Can you confirm. If it did have four speakers up front how did you wire the speakers? Thanks in advance for your help.

-David

David, the 2014 only has 2 small ceiling speakers up in the cab area wired to the dash radio.

[Campin Cajun]

Nice mod Dan, I agree, those little 2" speakers are not good at all.

[dan-nickie]

Originally Posted by Campin Cajun

Nice mod Dan, I agree, those little 2" speakers are not good at all.

The 2 inch speakers were useless to us. Neither me or DW could stand it for more than a few seconds. Just made us want to scream. :-)

[uralman]

The stock small speakers sound like on old pocket am radio. FR could have done better.

[camaraderie]

Nice job on the dual spacers Dan. There are lots of good 6.5" speakers that would work well with that set up with different tonal balance for different tastes that don't require a lot of power and would work well with your spacers. Thanks.

[gasman94]

Looks great Dan. See that you've gotten that project done. Looks great. It's great to have some good sound up front.


Rich

[dan-nickie]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Nice job on the dual spacers Dan. There are lots of good 6.5" speakers that would work well with that set up with different tonal balance for different tastes that don't require a lot of power and would work well with your spacers. Thanks.

That is true Cam. I am not necessarily recommending the exact same 6 inch ones I got.
In fact they turned out to be a little too 'bright' with the big center tweeters and I had to turn the radio treble down quite a bit on them.
Could also be my hearing aids acting up.

The sub worked out nice.

[just me again]

How do you get the original speakers out of the ceiling without ruining the ceiling?
Thanks.

[camaraderie]

It would be helpful to have a picture of what they are using in the Berk these days since this thread is several years old.
Back then...they were using 2 or 3" speakers which you wouldn't mind destroying...and they could be press fit into the ceiling material. If you have similar...you would pry out the grill sections of each and not worry too much as the spacer rings and new speakers will require and cover anything within a 6" circle. The only thing you need to re-use is the wire connections. I did the exact same thing as Dan with the spacer and used a Polk 6.5" speaker with rotatable tweeter. I believe Metra still makes the spacers which you need to run two deep to allow for the increased speaker depth. I'll try to find a link to my project as well..

[camaraderie]

https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...nd-111346.html

That's the link to my speaker project complete with pix. And heres a pix of the speakers I removed...As you can see that is just two small screws to remove then pry the cylindrical section out if yours are similar. It looks like two pieces but is really ll one unit. .

[just me again]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

It would be helpful to have a picture of what they are using in the Berk these days since this thread is several years old.
Back then...they were using 2 or 3" speakers which you wouldn't mind destroying...and they could be press fit into the ceiling material. If you have similar...you would pry out the grill sections of each and not worry too much as the spacer rings and new speakers will require and cover anything within a 6" circle. The only thing you need to re-use is the wire connections. I did the exact same thing as Dan with the spacer and used a Polk 6.5" speaker with rotatable tweeter. I believe Metra still makes the spacers which you need to run two deep to allow for the increased speaker depth. I'll try to find a link to my project as well..

My coach is a 2014. It's them 2 or 3 inch square speakers that you all are/were replacing. They replaced 1 when I bought the coach but I didn't see how they did it. Now the other 1 isn't working.
I don't want 2 new speakers, I just want to replace the 1 that isn't working (or clean it out?). And I don't want to ruin the ceiling of the coach.



So do I pry it off with a screwdriver, trying not to touch the ceiling?

[camaraderie]

Originally Posted by just me again

My coach is a 2014. It's them 2 or 3 inch square speakers that you all are/were replacing. They replaced 1 when I bought the coach but I didn't see how they did it. Now the other 1 isn't working.
I don't want 2 new speakers, I just want to replace the 1 that isn't working (or clean it out?). And I don't want to ruin the ceiling of the coach.



So do I pry it off with a screwdriver, trying not to touch the ceiling?

If it is the SAME as the picture I gave you above then remove the screws and pry around the speaker using a folded towel for both leverage and protection. A wide blade wood chisel might be a better choice than a screwdriver.
If it is in ANY way different I suggest you FIRST get an exact replacement speaker DELIVERED from Forest River Parts so you can SEE how it mounts to the roof. Then proceed. Good luck.