Rear deck replacement concerns

[younger5th]

So i'm sure this has been covered in some way, but haven't found a good answer for my simple mind...so here's my issue

I'm trying to replace the rear speakers in my GTP and realize that there's 4, not two - I only bought 2 3-way 6x9s.
I replace the 6x9, using the wires from the original set, and leave the small speakers plugged in (that I don't have replacements for).
Power on, and the only sound emitting is low pass; the tweets in the center of the 6x9 aren't working...thing is, the small original speaker isn't emitting anything.
So I clip the wires from the useless small ones and switch them to the 6x9, letting the 6x9 wires just hang. Now I seem to be getting the full range. But since I'm not
using the wires from the 6x9 to power them, am I really getting the full range? or am I losing some of the deeper bass I should have had when the original 6x9 wires were plugged in?

So right now they sound alright, but I'm wondering what the typical setup is for splicing or doing whatever to get the most out of the speakers. Ideally I don't think I'd mind replacing the smaller (4"?)
ones and having them along with the 6x9s as I could always lower the treble...

No amp or sub here. Have you guys who have gone from 4 to 2 speakers just left any extra wires hanging? And if I wanted to replace the 4", but keep the 6x9s completely functional, how would I do so.

I think I repeated myself somewhere...anyway, thanks for the help.

[KeithGTP03]

You'd want to cut the tinsel leads running to the mid/tweets and high tweeters and connect that to the wires from your 4" speakers. That signal is a high signal. And connect your factory 6x9 wires to the 6x9's. That signal is low. The aftermarket speakers probably wont sound as good though, because the wattage isn't matched up as well as it was stock. To bring the new speakers to life, you'll need to give them proper wattage.

[Dadillac]

Sounds like an ohm issue. When you had all four speakers hooked up they were in series. That set up will double the ohm rating and cut the sound output in half. By removing one set of those speakers you have restored the required ohm rating and it sounds fine. I would bet that the factory speakers are 2 ohm and the aftermarkets are 4 ohm. If you were to put 2 ohm speakers in it and reconnect the factory ones I would bet they will all work fine

Don

[killerspeed101]

im guessing you have the bose system, the amp only puts out 2 ohm's and 99% of aftermarket speakers need 4ohm. to change the speakers u need to rewire them from the headunit or another amp.