2004 Speaker Upgrade

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PolkManiac

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I finally bought and installed the 06 Scion radio and noticed a significant improvement, but I'd still like to look at changing the stock speakers.

Looks like the rear doors are an easy swap, so I'll skip ahead to the front doors. I have a couple questions for anyone who's done the change...

1 - I know I have 6x9 and separate tweeters in my doors now. Are those setup like a typical component system with one set of wires coming from the HU into a cross-over from which wires run to each driver (6x9 and tweeter)? Or do I have a separate set of wires from the HU running the the 6x9 and the tweeter, treating them like independant speakers, and if that's the case does the receiver have a built in x-over to filter out the lower frequencies from that channel.

I hope that question makes sense...

2 - From reading on here, it appears that the general consensus is that there are no direct replacement drop ins. What about all the 6x9 speakers on the market - will none of them fit? I realize that 6x9 are not liked my many people, but I'll never be adding a sub to the mix, and the 6x9 should give me a bit more mid-bass than the 6.5, and I'll need that extra bass without a sub. I'd like to just add a 6x9 up there if it's at all possible...

3 - How deep are the stock 6x9 speakers, with magnet and all? is there anywhere online that I can find that info, or would someone mind measuring a pair they might have laying around. If I can figure out how deep my current 6x9 are, then I should be able to determine what will fit.

Thanks for all your help guys...
 
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u should go with 6 1/2 front components more choices
regardless of what size i haven't seen a direct fit wiring is the same usual i put 6 1/2 components in my 05 and 6 1/2 speakers in the rear
 
I have looked for similiar speakers, but I have only found one set of 6x9 compnents. The MB Quart RCE-269 set. I think that is the only set out there right now. I haven't actually tried these speakers, but it looks like they should fit.
 
Nothing fits in the rear or front locations without modifications. The OEM speakers are molded into plastic speaker adaptors. Remove the adaptors and now you need ultra thin speakers (very little mounting depth inside the door) The adaptors are thick and allow you to use almost any speaker
 
Regarding your wiring question:
one set of wires comes from the HU into the door. They go to the tweeter near the top of the door where there is a capacitor. The capacitor and tweeter are in series. The wiring then goes down to the woofer which is in parallel to the tweeter and cap.
 

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warthog said:
Regarding your wiring question:
one set of wires comes from the HU into the door. They go to the tweeter near the top of the door where there is a capacitor. The capacitor and tweeter are in series. The wiring then goes down to the woofer which is in parallel to the tweeter and cap.
Click to expand...

So, that means that the 1 pair of wires coming from the HU to the stock tweet is the one that I'll route directly to my aftermarket crossover, where it is split into two pairs of signals then, correct?
 
Thats right. You can use the factory plug if you want. In this case, the wires shown in the wiring diagram go into a connector. Just cut the cap and tweeter on the mating connector and put that into your crossover. In this picture, the bottom two wires in the crossover are from the door (HU). This way, the connectors are preserved, and its as clean as possible. The picture is of the drivers side.
 

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Excellent info, thanks.... I don't mean to totally hijack this thread, but it is on topic, so I have 2 more questions for you:

1) how did you mount your crossover in the door? Velcro or something?

2) what AWG wires is the stock wiring? I have some spare 16 (or is it 18? I forget) AWG wire lying around and might use that. I'm curious if that's thick enough for 75w/channel, I've never had an amp that put out more than 50w/channel.
 
1. I removed the bracket from the tweeter so there was room there for the crossover. I used one existing hole (like a mounting hole for the tweeter bracket) and drilled the other into the door. Its a small hole, and I just made sure there was nothing on the other side.

2. I believe the factory wiring is 24 gage. At 75 watts/speaker, if my calculations are right (using I^2*R), you could see as much as 4+ amps per speaker. Now if my memory serves me, I believe even 20 gage is rated to be able to handle 5 amps continuous, so 18 or 16 should be ok, especially since you will usually be listening at a fraction of that wattage. That said, if it were me, and I was going to go to the trouble of rewiring, I would use the largest wire I could, and never worry that my wiring might be a weak link. When you are all done with your stereo setup, if you want to switch to different amp, or speakers, thats easy. If you want to redo your wiring, you'll be out a lot more time. So do it right the first time.
 
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What's the big improvement with the Scion head unit ?

Is it a plug and play or is there wiring involved ?
 
MT4R said:
I have looked for similiar speakers, but I have only found one set of 6x9 compnents. The MB Quart RCE-269 set. I think that is the only set out there right now. I haven't actually tried these speakers, but it looks like they should fit.
Click to expand...


There is a 6x9 made by "Audiobahn" that is similar in concept to the MB Quart in that the tweeter can be mounted remotely or as a coax. They are fairly inexpensive (IIRC around $50 a pair) so I don't know if they would be much of an upgrade over stock.
 
The speakers are molded into the brackets/adaptors (one piece). So once you saw out the speaker you are left with a mess. Modification is needed if you intend on reusing the adaptor. The real function of the adaptor is to add depth/clearance for the magnet. If you remove the speaker adaptor assemble then you are left with a hole in the door in which you could place a speaker in, but it would have to be a thin one as it may hit the glass window when it is lowered.

You should remove the door skin. That way you will get a better idea of what is involved. Then replace the door skin and make a plan. You could also measure the depth from the door to the glass window.
 
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