2019 TRD OR Audio Upgrade

[josephp732]

My TRD OR came with the upgraded Entune Premium GPS Navigation Radio and a bunch of very cheap paper cone speakers. So I decided to do a cost reasonable, fairly simple, upgrade while keeping the stock HU. I purchased everything local from a electronics distributor here in NJ.

Front Dash - Kenwood Excelon KFC-X2C 2-3/4" midrange speakers -$50
Front Doors - Infinity Kappa 93ix 6x9" speakers - $130
Rear Doors - Infinity Kappa 62ix 6 1/2" - $109
Rear Hatch - Infinity Kappa 62ix 6 1/2" - $109

Alpine PSU-300FRN, (Alpine KTP-445U amp with PWE-S8 powered subwoofer and plug & play harness) - $525

Noico 80 mil 36 sqft car Sound deadening - $60
Red Wolf front dash speaker wiring harness - $10
Metra 72-8104 Speaker Wire Adapters - $10
Metra 82-8146 6" x 9" Front Speaker Adapter - $10

Installation took the better part of day - (I had done speaker replacements in a Limited - PIA replacing the subwoofer with the 3rd row seat!) so taking the truck apart wasn't time consuming.

Rear doors and hatch - I tore apart the factory speakers (clipping a lot of plastic) and mounted the Kappa's directly onto the factory bracket/speaker. I soldered new speaker wire from the factory speaker/mount connector and connected the wire to new speakers. This kept the factory speaker connection intact. The rear panels then needed a very slight trimming to accommodate the Kappa 6 1/2" (removed about a 1/4" from the door panels circular cone that sits over top the speaker). I sound deadened the complete outer door skin and a few selective inter skin door spots. This took about 2 hours.

Dash speaker replacements took 20 mins - very easy - just soldered the included capacitor in-line with the Red Wolf speaker wiring adapter, connected to the factory harness and bolted the new speakers back in.

Since the front doors receive all frequency's (not like JBL system with the active x-over), I decided to put in full range speakers, installation was about 90 mins with completely sound deadening the outer door skin and a few selective inter skin door spots. Again new speaker installation with wiring adapters and mounting adapter was easy.

Installed the Apline unit last - so I could compare the difference between just doing the speaker upgrade and then the system with a new Alpine mini-AMP and compact Sub.

The Alpine "all in one" amp and powered sub was truly plug and play - only slight bit of pain was the need to fish the power cable through the firewall and connect to the battery. Taking apart the dash and pulling the radio, removing the passenger seat and doing the install with some testing for proper amp gain settings took about 3 hours (Includes me listening to about 45 mins of different music).

For about $1k - I am very happy with the outcome - the system is much, much cleaner and very natural sounding (I like soft dome tweeters) with good depth and decent power.

Even much better sounding than the Limited's JBL system.

 

[llDemonll]

Not saying it doesn't sound good, but people keep buying mid-range speakers for the dash and coaxial for the doors when they should have components in the front doors and tweeters in the dash.

Did the sub bolt right up under the seat with no clearance issues or anything?

 

[josephp732]

Yes, zero issues with Alpine amp/sub kit. Basically the bracket just sits over top the seat mounting holes then you place the seat on the bracket.

So I have tried front dash tweeters / mid-woofers in the door - and I am not a fan of the sound stage. I like a fuller more balanced to very slightly rear sound presence, almost omni-directional.

My preference of having a more balanced sound stage has lead me down the path of installing these little Kenwood mid-range drivers, btw - they have a frequency range of 800-20,000 Hz, and a fairly low sensitivity rating of 83 dB.

By having a low sensitivity rating this pulls down the volume of the dash speakers and by using the Kappa's with a high sensitivity rating of 95 dB, balances out the front / rear sound nicely. Now I don't have use the fader to bring down the dash volume - which then effects the power going to the doors. So I can keep my fader dead center and have very even power to all speakers in the system - while removing the strong front sound stage presence and creating more of an omni-directional sound stage.

I have used the Kenwood KFC-X2C's in a few different applications, even just replacing the dash speakers (I haven't had time to replace all the speakers in one of my Limited's yet), with these in the JBL system has created a much more natural sound stage, for my listening preference.

 

[llDemonll]

That all makes sense. When I was first looking at the 3.5" threads on here a few months ago I noticed that most all the 3.5" are in the 83-87 db range which would fade the dash speakers out nicely (pending the door speakers are higher sensitivity).

good to hear on the sub that it really was mostly plug-and-play

 

[Waepek]

My TRD OR came with the upgraded Entune Premium GPS Navigation Radio and a bunch of very cheap paper cone speakers. So I decided to do a cost reasonable, fairly simple, upgrade while keeping the stock HU. I purchased everything local from a electronics distributor here in NJ.

Front Dash - Kenwood Excelon KFC-X2C 2-3/4" midrange speakers -$50
Front Doors - Infinity Kappa 93ix 6x9" speakers - $130
Rear Doors - Infinity Kappa 62ix 6 1/2" - $109
Rear Hatch - Infinity Kappa 62ix 6 1/2" - $109

Alpine PSU-300FRN, (Alpine KTP-445U amp with PWE-S8 powered subwoofer and plug & play harness) - $525

Noico 80 mil 36 sqft car Sound deadening - $60
Red Wolf front dash speaker wiring harness - $10
Metra 72-8104 Speaker Wire Adapters - $10
Metra 82-8146 6" x 9" Front Speaker Adapter - $10

Installation took the better part of day - (I had done speaker replacements in a Limited - PIA replacing the subwoofer with the 3rd row seat!) so taking the truck apart wasn't time consuming.

Rear doors and hatch - I tore apart the factory speakers (clipping a lot of plastic) and mounted the Kappa's directly onto the factory bracket/speaker. I soldered new speaker wire from the factory speaker/mount connector and connected the wire to new speakers. This kept the factory speaker connection intact. The rear panels then needed a very slight trimming to accommodate the Kappa 6 1/2" (removed about a 1/4" from the door panels circular cone that sits over top the speaker). I sound deadened the complete outer door skin and a few selective inter skin door spots. This took about 2 hours.

Dash speaker replacements took 20 mins - very easy - just soldered the included capacitor in-line with the Red Wolf speaker wiring adapter, connected to the factory harness and bolted the new speakers back in.

Since the front doors receive all frequency's (not like JBL system with the active x-over), I decided to put in full range speakers, installation was about 90 mins with completely sound deadening the outer door skin and a few selective inter skin door spots. Again new speaker installation with wiring adapters and mounting adapter was easy.

Installed the Apline unit last - so I could compare the difference between just doing the speaker upgrade and then the system with a new Alpine mini-AMP and compact Sub.

The Alpine "all in one" amp and powered sub was truly plug and play - only slight bit of pain was the need to fish the power cable through the firewall and connect to the battery. Taking apart the dash and pulling the radio, removing the passenger seat and doing the install with some testing for proper amp gain settings took about 3 hours (Includes me listening to about 45 mins of different music).

For about $1k - I am very happy with the outcome - the system is much, much cleaner and very natural sounding (I like soft dome tweeters) with good depth and decent power.

Even much better sounding than the Limited's JBL system.

Hey Joseph i'm planning on using the exact same speakers. Do you find the amplier a little underpowered for the speakers?
What harness did you use for the Stock head unit to the amp and from the amp to the oem speaker wires?

 

[josephp732]

Waepek - for my listening tastes the system gets pretty loud. I am not running at rock concert levels ... but's much louder than the JBL system in my Limited.

The Kappa's are very efficient and 2.5 ohm and the Alpine amp is 4 ohm at 45Watts per channel so it works well. The Alpine PSU-300FRN is a complete kit with the KTP-445U amp and PWE-S8 powered subwoofer. It comes with a plug & play harness and special mounting bracket. Pretty much drop-in no hassle.

You can see it at Crutchfield: Alpine PSU-300FRN Powered System Upgrade for select 2010-up Toyota 4Runner without factory premium sound at Crutchfield