Will any 8" subwoofer work with the oem stereo?

I've purchased a second hand 6 cd oem stereo head unit off of ebay (yes it came with the code) and I obviously don't have the oem sub-woofer and wiring in my RT so Im wondering if I'd be doing myself a favor and buy an aftermarket sub-woofer to put under the rear seat or somewhere else in the truck.

But I'd rather not go and have to install an external amp for the sub, so is there specific subs that work better with the oem headunit than others?

Also are there any other places to put a small 8" sub like maybe under the front seat somehow (manual seats, and I've not looked under there to see if there is any room) but I'd love to find a place besides under the rear seat to place it so that I have full space when the seats are up for the dogs to use in the truck. I'll go with the factory unit if there is no other place to put a sub besides under the rear seat, but maybe someone here got creative with their non oem sub installation using the factory 6 cd HU.

Thanks,

Two issues:

1) Some of the ROC members have mentioned that the OEM 8" sub is probably best matched to the OEM HU. i.e. senstivity, and HU eq'd to the sub Therefore, they do not recommend to switch out the sub if you using the OEM HU.

If your case, if your looking for a sub to be best matched with the OEM HU, the stock sub may be the best.

(Actually, your in luck if your looking for a OEM sub. I have one because I upgraded my system last month. Look for bginvestor installs on the forum)

This would be installed behind the seat and would not take up any space which your concerned about...

2) Overall, I would recommend that you put some power behind the sub (more than the HU). If space is crtical for you, I think I've seen some powered subs that fit behind the seat. The easiest to get a powered bazooka and put under the seat. 6" bazooka are impressive. Not the highest quality for an audiophile, but adds bass into your system.

I recommend you scan the forum, there's a lot of good info on this subject. Good luck!

No one knows for sure whether the factory hu has special EQ. My guess is NOT since the factory system is hardly a Mark Levinson, JBL, or Bose system.

No one also knows how much power the factory hu has. Seems to be enough for many.

The factory sub is nothing special other than it is custom designed to fit behind the rear seat. It is a 4 ohm unit. The driver is a decent, inexpensive unit. If you buy another sub, it doesn't matter whether it is 8, 10, or other size. Woofer size has nothing to do with compatibility with the headunit. I just would not buy one with low sensitivity.

Plus make sure it's either a single coil 4 ohm driver or a dual coil 2 ohm driver (wired in series) or you'll blow the amp in the HU.

I've abandoned the stock sub a while ago but I think a free-air unit might work if you drill some holes in the box.

It's a place to hold a sub but being that the ported design is useless anyway, more holes and a free air might actually help.

Thanks for the responses, I've made a deal with bginvestor to purchase his factory sub woofer to use, so that I don't have to use up any floor space in the truck which was one thing I would have liked to avoid since we have two large dogs with a third coming this christmas. I'm no longer an audiophile so having the "best" sound and sound system is no longer a real priority of mine. A couple years ago when I had my Jeep cherokee I went all out and had it loaded to the gills with equipment and sounded (IMO) the best that it would ever sound, but I no longer have the hearing that I had back then (probably listened to the music in the Jeep at too high of a volume) nor the desire to sink the kind of money that I did sink into the audio system in my old Jeep.

But please feel free to keep the discussion alive with information about using aftermarket subwoofers for others that are looking for the same information.

I have a 07 RT and have been thinking about doing some upgrades to the HU. I see the new 08 RTS has 160 watts! Is that with a separate amplifier and HU, or does the HU have 160 watts? Does the 07 RTS HU have 160 watts or 100 Watts? I'm also thinking about staying stock and not going crazy with aftermarket HU and subs.

I have a 07 RT and have been thinking about doing some upgrades to the HU. I see the new 08 RTS has 160 watts is that amped with the HU or does the HU have 160 watts? Does the 07 RTS HU have 160 watts or 100Watts? I'm also thinking about staying stock and not going crazy with aftermaket HU and subs.

I'm sorry about this but I must ask you what does this sentence mean? "amped with the HU or does the HU have 160 watts?" That's just bad English. Amped is not a word.

I don't think any of this has changed since 2006.

All factory headunits have builtin amplifiers.

The 6 CD changer unit has 5 channels of amplification. 4 for the door speaker and 1 for the subwoofer. No one knows exactly how the total power of 160W is divided up. It could be 4x25 + 1x60.....or 4x30 + 1+40....or something else.

The non-CD changer unit has 4 channels of amplification.

No factory headunit has any line level outputs. Any add-on amplifiers must have speaker level inputs or you will need to use line level converters. Adding a sub to a headunit w/o a subwoofer output requires tapping into one of the door speaker pairs (probably the rear).