1din or double din?

[Onebeachbum05]

Now the happy owner of an 05 limited T4R and a need to change the stock system. Fisrt let me say thanks to those who have posted pic's and details...very helpful.
MY car came with the "premium sound" package by JBL to include the 6disc indash changer with cassette HU, seperates in front, coax in back seat, and something mouted in the rear hatch back pillars, and an 8" dare I say...subwoofer in the back.

1. I have been told that I have a single din port that require an adaptor as said by a few car instllers, and by other installers I was told that it is a double din HU.
Will I need to modify the opening to install the Alpine W200 double din HU?
Or...
Do I need to alter the mounting brackets?
Or...does it actually fit?

2. Places to hide things? I can see that removing the stock subwoofer and amp offers space to hide another sub amp and crossovers.
But the alpine additions seem to be mounting up. Where to hide the following:
Blackbird cradle, surround sound processor and rear camera interface.
Also, a capacitor would be nice.

3. What is the best SQ 6-1/2 round speakers for the front using an $800 budget for the pair? Everything I knew 5yrs ago no longer applies and the only names that still hold weight are Focal, Diamond Audio, MB Quart and Boston.
I use to have the A/D/S 345is w/soft dome tweet's and loved them but...DEI changed things for certain.

Looking to push 100W rms at the spk's.

ANY advice would be greatly appretiated and thanks for your time.

 

[TX4runnerguy]

I'm about to install the Alpine this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes and what is needed. I bought a Metra trim kit, which is basically two brackets attached to trim pieces to cover the sides. We'll see how it goes and if I need to modify them like this dude did:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23041

As for your speaker question, I'm extremely happy with my Infinity Reference's that I just put in my 2005 F-150. They will keep you under budget and provide crystal clear sound. I've got Infinity's in my vehicles and all for my home theatre. They've never let me down.

 

[Fins_UP]

Onebeachbum05,

I have the Alpine W200 in my truck. Absolute LOVE IT. Also just picked up the Blackbird portable NAV, which is also great. I was worried based on some of the reviews I'd read on Crutchfield.com but when I got my unit from Crutchfield, it came with a note from them saying that they'd already upgraded the firmware from version 1.0 to 1.1, which corrects many of the issues people were having. I absolutely love it. The docking kit isn't available yet, but I'm hopeful that it should be out soon. I also have the Sirius tuner and the iPod connector cable hooked up. The sirius tuner is smaller than you'd think and can easily be hid behind the dash. I ran the iPod cable into the center console between the driver and passenger seats. This is also where I plan on mounting the docking kit for the Alpine Blackbird.

As far as speakers are concerned... I must have listened to 20 or 30 different sets of speakers. You name it, I probably listened to it: Polk Audio, Boston Acoustics, Infinity, JL Audio, Focal, etc. There were A LOT of great sounding speakers out there, especially when you get into the $400 - $500/pair range. Personally, I was set on the Boston Acoustics Pro60. Until I heard Focal speakers for the first time. They made the BA sound like crap, which is saying a lot. Long story somewhat short, I bought the Focal 6.5 speakers for my truck (see my signature, 165KF I think) and it's easily the best decision I made of all the upgrades I've done with my truck. They sound nothing short of phenomenal!!! I bought most of my stuff from woofersetc.com - they had awesome service.

Hope this helps,
Alex

 

[Onebeachbum05]

When I get home tonight I will post the links that I found helpful

I spoke to a very helpful car instal place and he took time to explain the HU to me. It sounds like a few small adjustments in order to make it work.
What I have learned so far:

Any add to the alpine system such as Nav or 5.1 processor you should run your wires now. Why do things twice.

There is a diversified antena adaptor for 12 bucks...may as well. Or just use 1/2 the antena system in the car. Still learning about this one.
Is the diversified antena powered? Will I need to wire it to the HU? Or, just plug in the male antena lead and forget about it?

There is a face adaptor for the 2din Toyota that looks nice and simple.
TX4runnerguy, if you can let me know I would love to know how your instal went. Post a pic so I can see how the cover adaptor looks.

The center speaker box needs to be insolated for best results. If you decide to stay 5.1 and add a processor and replace the center speaker then as long as your in the compartment...do it to it.

I like the steering wheel interface idea so I need space to hide the interface. Hope there is plenty of space behind the dash.
Thanks Fin's UP for the tip on the dash. I hear the docking station will be out in March. I want to do the same with the Nav and your feedback helps.

The factory speaker wire is fine and does not NEED to be upgraded. But I might anyway.

If your going to put a nice system in the car and your going for clarity then the best money/time spent is on sound deadening the car. The Alpine plays DVD Audio and the I want to hear the awesome sound dynamics from that kind of quality. Figure $75 per door and whatever the headliner and floor will run. I dont have a price on this yet but the shop wants my car for 4 days to do it. 4 days for them...4 weeks for me to do it. The price is sounding better every day....whatever it costs.

I am not certain where my amps will go yet and it looks like I am looking at a custom build for the sub and amps. I dont want to give up the storage capacity so I am still working on this. More to come.

When I place everything on paper, I can then start pulling the car appart. At that time I can calculate the length of wire to run for power, remote turn on and RCA's.

I found out more on a company called Genesis for my amplifiers. It's not quite McIntosh but it rates above many others and is a hand made product out of England. Very nice!
I had narrowed down the speaker selection to Boston, MB Quart, Focal and Diamond Audio until I found a place that was set up for side by side listening. Next to the MB Quart and Boston spk's they had some Morel Elate spks.
I was close to buying the Focal's but ended up selecting Morel speakers.
Very smooth from low to mid to high's and definatly not too bright.

To not sound deaden the 4runner makes this amp and speaker combo pointless as you can not appretiate the higher quality over the road noise from a lower priced amp and speakers.

Of all the other products the only other one I found good feedback on was the JL Audio for amps. There are certainly a lot of different opinions out there and it takes a long time to get past the B.S. Many thanks to those who actually took the time to help.

I know what I want...now where to put it and I will probably have the shope design something around the wheel well and keep the amps off the back seat. The amps are nice and I want to desplay them a bit. I cant wait to start as the stock system is killing me.
The JBL stock sub puts out an outstanding 45w max of throbbing base. I guess it does sound pretty good for what it is. But then I am pretty critical and somewhat of a sound geek.