2011 Audio changeout

[axxman]

Update, New HU again now Alpine ILX-207

Update 7-22-2015 Dashcam installed, and new antenna

Update 4-12-2014 New head Unit added, Alpine ine-940bt

Update 5-12-2013 New head Unit added, Alpine ICS-X7HD




after waiting since last august, I finally have the time and money to install my stereo upgrade, keeping the stock HU, rear doors already upgraded with dynamat and polk audio DXi 650s speakers, it was such a simple install I am too embarrassed to post photos. Did the infinity kappa dash speaker upgrade last august as a simple temporary measure to keep me from going nutz.

Parts list so far:
Front speakers
replaced by MM6501 tweeters---dash Infinity Kappa 3.5 door stock toyota junk
Dynamat in the doors
Polk Audio MM6501

Rear doors:
Polk Audio DXi 650s
Dynamat

Tailgate
Polk Audio DXi 650s

Subwoofer
Update JLAudio Microsub

Selling Rockford Fosgate P3SD10 10 inch Shallow Mount subwoofer in a custom box from a previous car

Amplifier:
JL Audio XD700/5 located underneath passenger seat
4AWG wire


like Oddball, I like to always be able to get out of trouble as quickly as I got in, I am trying to keep everything reversable.

Here is the harness I have pieced together to take the signal from the stereo, through 9 conductor wire back to my JL Audio XD 700/5 amp and back up to the factory wire harness. I am leaving the fronts in initially to make sure there is no noise introduced and to see if I am going to need to add a line level converter.

This arrived today:

I cannot believe how small it is. installed the above 20ft wiring harness today, right now everything just loops from one connector to the other, I want to go a few days in this configuration to make sure I haven't introduced any noise to the system, it will also give me time to decide where I want to mount the amp.

 

[axxman]

Well after installing 20ft of 9conductor wire and driving around a bit, I do not detect any degradation so I will install the 4guage wire next and power up the amp.

 

[FireTruckGuy]

While running the wire to the amp, you could bring a 14ga wire to ground the factory head unit to the amp. That will reduce your chance of noise.

 

[axxman]

While running the wire to the amp, you could bring a 14ga wire to ground the factory head unit to the amp. That will reduce your chance of noise.

thanks for the tip, we will find out tonight or tomorrow when I install the amp.

here is the 4awg route, I mostly came to this conclusion on my own, but I admit it looks like I plagiarized Chip's install.

Power off the battery:

Fuse Holder:

Along the firewall:

Power entering the firewall:

I have powered up the amp and nothing blew so, speakers still routing through the stock wiring via my 9wire, no noise so far, now I need to make the signal connection and set up the amp. Then connect the speakers to the amp and if all goes well, there will be no noise and I will just permanently install the amp under the passenger seat.

Final items will be to get some techflex for covering the wires and make a mount for the amp that raises it above the heater vents under the seat.

Also, the fuse holder will have to go, it is some type of blade fuse that is a bit of a pain.

If you drop any tools in the engine compartment they end up on the rock guard under the engine, that thing is a rattleing piece of sheet metal that needs sound deadening.


Amplifier pre-cleanup:

Amplifier tucked away nicely, plan is to create some sort of platform to raise it up 1-2 inches allowing the heating duct to flow, I will also trim back all the wires to a point that will allow me to slide it out from time to time for adjustments. Once final settings and everything is neat and tidy, it should be pretty much invisible.

quick note about the sound, I tried using a volt meter to get the 17.4V out of the amp, however this thing is so powerful with the gains turned all the way down it is quite scary. so far the sound is great and NO NOISE, front dash speakers are the infinity kappas that so many of us installed first, front door are still the toyota junk but I must say, they sound pretty good with an amp. before amp, the infinitys would clip at higher volume, especially when streaming bluetooth. now, no clipping. but bluetooth sounds like s%$&*t but that is compressed audio for you. I will withhould judgement until I add the components up front. Rear doors are the Polk DXi650s with the doors sound proofed. and finally the sub is a Rockford Fosgate 10inch punch I have had since 08 from a previous car.(Pictured below) It will do for now until I get my new sub.

After spending time driving yesterday and today playing with different settings, I am 90% where I want to be and I haven't installed the front components yet.

Cleaned up some of the amp wireing:

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Let me know your impressions of the XD amp, I just bought the 400/4 for my highs. Thing is so freaking tiny

 

[axxman]

I can say this is the best amp I have ever owned. it has so much power I feel like I am not doing it justice as I have all the gains turned almost all the way down. I don't have my component speakers in yet, but I don't think I will add my audio control processor, it seems to do fine with the LOC converters that are built in. It does not get hot, just a little warm, but that could be from the 90+ temperatures we are having. I came up with a neat little idea to add an inch or so of clearance so the floor heaters are not blocked, stay tuned.....


Been thinking about this for a couple weeks, then yesterday I was in Target, and I saw cabinet hardware on display, and it became apparent this would be a good solution. basically these are knobs for cabinets or drawers, but they make excellent standoffs for the amp.

 

[Bucket81]

I would get a HU, you will be suppressed at how much it will increase the quality of sound with what you got.
I also have the XD 700/5 and you can stuff it anywhere and it won't over heat. My old car was broken into and this fact saved my system. Im going to try and find a spot in the dash in my 3rd Gen for it.

 

[Bucket81]

Oh and nice work looks ran very well. :banana:

 

[axxman]

Thanks, there is still a bit of work to do, but so far, I am really satisfied with the results. added the base control knob today, will have pics tomorrow. I really wanted to keep the factory Head unit. the bluetooth works so well I don't want to give that up, alpine did just come out with a nice new HU.

I don't ever think this amp will overheat, it is so overbuilt. but who knows.

today, the Level/bass control knob. I have it as a level knob for now, but once I get the system balanced, I will flip the switch for subwoofer only

Tweeters and crossover installed today. just the tweeter and crossover, right now stock speakers are still in the doors, it was a tight fit, but I got them in. My goal has been to keep the new stuff invisible but I am thinking of mutilating the grills and flush mounting the tweeters, I think they would look pretty good and it would be easier to aim them.

still waiting on parts, and trying to decide how to make the door speaker adaptors or perhaps drill holes to mount the door speakers, nobody makes adaptors. I want this to be the last time my door panels come off so I am patiently running different ideas through my head to make sure I don't overlook anything.

Now it is time to go for a drive to hear the tweeters.

after a nice 2 hr drive, I can say I am very happy with the system so far, each change I have made has given a noticeable improvement. the polk tweeters sound great, the imaging is what I hoped for as well. I think the tweeters are a little bright but I can flip the -3db switch to lower their output if necessary, hopefully this weekend I can get the door speakers mounted and set the level for the amp and hear how it turns out.

The amp does not get hot, I was listening the whole time at .5 to .75 volume, and it was warm, but not close to hot. having owned several amps over the years, this just amazes me.

As far as security, the reason I have gone to this much trouble to keep everything invisible is to make it theft resistant. when I am finished, the amp will not be visible without moving the seat all the way forward, the sub will be the only component visible, but it will be under the cargo cover and bolted to the frame. That being said, the new alpine is very tempting as is the new factory look 8 inch display unit. but I don't think I have given up much in sound quality, so I am going to go ahead and put my audio control LC6i up for sale, I wont be needing it.

Got around to the front door speakers, did drivers site, made a crude but functional mount out of acrylic plastic, turns out one of my woofers was DOA, Crutchfield has a new one on the way so passenger side will have to wait until then. I could hear an immediate difference on the left so I am looking forward to getting everything finalized.

 

[axxman]

not finished with the stereo, but I have the next addition to add. The one option I wanted was the inverter, unfortunately it wasn't on mine and I couldn't wait any longer. it is not possible to add the factory inverter, the wiring harness is not in place despite what some people say, plus the factory inverter is about 1000 dollars for the part. I thought about the junkyard route but it was too much trouble in my area. I am long past the age where I will pick through junk cars. I picked up a nice little 150w tripp lite inverter, no fan so it runs quiet. I am just adding the front outlet, I don't think I will need the rear outlet.

I went with a switch from an 08 as it was cheaper and easier to wire.

UPDATE: the 08 switch does not fit. got the inverter in, but the inside fuse panel, there is already a fuse in that position, as far as I can tell, the wires are not there, plus it has a cover on it, so add a fuse is not an option unless I leave the cover off. More than likely I will end up tapping the front cigarette lighter circuit, I hate to do it this way, but I am out of options.

Update again added this push button switch, the stock is a 5 pin, and you need a connector that I could never locate, so I went with this, it is capable of lighting up, but I left that wire off as I didn't need that.

 

[axxman]

Finally got the last door speaker in tonight as well as dynamat in the door. Took a short drive and listened to the same cd I have been using for reference. sound is pretty good, although I have the gains turned almost all the way down. if I turn them up I get the dreaded hiss, I was hoping I wouldn't need the line level converter but I think I may have no choice. it sounds fantastic already but I know there is more to be had. stay tuned.....

if Alpine comes out with their Perfect Fit solution for this car, I will be having that.

 

[axxman]

this is kind of becoming my build thread so i a am going to put photos of my latest additions here:
I really wanted the NFAB steps but they are only available for the trail edition, these were the closest to the canadian running board look, should make it easier to wash the roof and put my bike up there. took about 30 minutes to install, I saw a thread stating that these do not fit with the factory mud guards, that is not the case, you can slide them forward and backward to fit.

 

[axxman]

well I have been going back and forth on whether I need to audio control LOC, after much research and experimentation I think I finally have it sounding like I want. I am going to leave it out. There is a hiss in the system that goes up if I increase the input sensitivity on the amps. So my gains are set pretty low. The factory stereo is the source I am convinced. I am going to leave things as they are, Alpine has some new thing called perfect fit, basicly a wiring harness and dashboard adaptor for their stereos, if the come out with one for the 4runner I will be first in line.

now I just have to clean up the wiring a bit more and maybe flush mount the tweeters in the dashboard.

 

[axxman]

Blew one of the woofers, just two days ago I got it sounding exactly how I want it.

Crutchfield sending a new set after grilling me about my install. They are claiming I may have damaged them by having my gains turned all the way down, said I was sending too little power to the speakers. this doesn't sound right to me. The gains adjust "input sensitivity" not output power. Never the less, I am going to put in an audio control lc6i to stabilize the input signal to the amp. If I am still having trouble after that, then it is time for a new head unit. :ybrick:

update: Not blown, basically the little blue connector from the original speakers, which I still had connected developed some sort of short, so since I know I will never go back to the stock setup, I cut it off and connected to my crossover, now it is working great, but the right side doesn't sound so good since they were wired with common ground. so I will do the same to it tomorrow and see how it sounds. also added the audio control lc6i but really it doesn't sound like it cleaned things up, so I think I will ditch it and go back to the built in LOCs in the amp.

update 8-2-2012
finally have everything running great, bypassed the factorie wiring and have the components wired the way they are supposed to be. Party mode works, sound is balanced, clear and staging is really good. I am glad I didn't need the audio control LOC after all, I wanted to keep the system simple. and perhaps the best part for me, it is pretty much invisible.

 

[axxman]

A new mod, sort of

My bank allows personalized cards, so I uploaded a photo of the 4runner, here is how it turned out.

 

[axxman]

Quick update, changed out the speaker wire between the amp and head unit to a 6ch rca cable, this was to hopefully eliminate some of the hiss, it didn't directly eliminate the hiss yet, but it seems to be getting much more signal to the amp which will allow me to turn the gains down thus reducing the hiss. I am only using 4 channels, the other 2 will come in handy when I eventually change out the head unit.

 

[axxman]

not really a mod, just a custom license plate showing my hockey teams logo "The Highlanders" in a weather tech sealed cover. The license plate itself is a photo I edited and uploaded to a company called buildasign.

 

[axxman]

finally found a button that didn't look cheap. it turns on the inverter to power the 110V outlet in the center console.

 

[axxman]

Added Seat heaters last weekend, I didn't bother with photos as the seat heater install thread in the mods forum covers it extensively and I don't have anything more to add, I read those posts several times and referred back to them as I was installing things and achieved the same results. I tapped the seat heater fuse position on the fuse box useing add a fuse. the lines on the right side of the switch light up green, at night I find this to be distracting so I covered them up with black tape. I will never need to go further than half way with these seat heaters.

 

[Vegas]

Great job on the wiring harness... I need to tackle this... But I am only using an older powered sub with high line inputs... so just need to figure out where to tap into the rear doors or if it makes more sense to tap into the hatch speakers... I forget with party mode which is the best results.