Audio upgrade questions...

[Louisiana Overland]

Background info:

2017 trd offroad premium. So...entune with navigation and no jbl.

Also, I am 50 years old so I am looking more for sound quality than SPL. I will be using it as a daily driver and for overland travel and camping. No crank it up contests here.

I already replaced the front dash and door speakers with the focal is690 toy component set and it greatly improved the audio.

I am looking at the focal ic165 toy for rear doors and hatch. Then I want to add ampli fiers. A 4 channel 50 watt rms for rear doors and hatch and another 4 channel 75 watt rms for fronts and use the two remaining channels for a subwoofer. To save space, maybe an 8" bazooka tube or the new 8" tube from kicker with passive radiator. It hasnt been released for sale yet. My real quandary is in the processor/eq area. Looking at the JL FIX or audio control units and it appears that they require an outboard remote for master volume control. Will I lose volume control at the head unit and steering wheel? Is there a solution where I can keep that function and NOT have to change out the head unit. I would really like to avoid that but I do want to add amps and gain equalization controls.

Has anyone tried the taco tunes processor? What are you guys doing?

 

[Toffees]

Background info:

2017 trd offroad premium. So...entune with navigation and no jbl.

Also, I am 50 years old so I am looking more for sound quality than SPL. I will be using it as a daily driver and for overland travel and camping. No crank it up contests here.

I already replaced the front dash and door speakers with the focal is690 toy component set and it greatly improved the audio.

I am looking at the focal ic165 toy for rear doors and hatch. Then I want to add ampli fiers. A 4 channel 50 watt rms for rear doors and hatch and another 4 channel 75 watt rms for fronts and use the two remaining channels for a subwoofer. To save space, maybe an 8" bazooka tube or the new 8" tube from kicker with passive radiator. It hasnt been released for sale yet. My real quandary is in the processor/eq area. Looking at the JL FIX or audio control units and it appears that they require an outboard remote for master volume control. Will I lose volume control at the head unit and steering wheel? Is there a solution where I can keep that function and NOT have to change out the head unit. I would really like to avoid that but I do want to add amps and gain equalization controls.

Has anyone tried the taco tunes processor? What are you guys doing?

I'm no expert on sound, but on a previous vehicle swapping out the head unit was a tremendous boost in sound quality. I can't speak to quality of output on the stock head unit, but you may find that swapping it with a $500 aftermarket unit makes more difference than swapping out speakers.

Something like this might be worth looking at:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_1302330NEX/Pioneer-AVH-2330NEX.html

 

[keyser_soze]

I am looking at the focal ic165 toy for rear doors and hatch.

Personally I would skip this. The front are all you are going to hear. the back speakers should be used as rear fill and the stock ones do suck but they will be fine

Then I want to add ampli fiers. A 4 channel 50 watt rms for rear doors and hatch and another 4 channel 75 watt rms for fronts and use the two remaining channels for a subwoofer.

Amping the fronts is a great idea. The focals will sound much better with some actual power runing to them. The rears will be fine running off the OEM head unit. The Sub should get a channel or amp meant for a sub. It will have a the proper crossover as well

To save space, maybe an 8" bazooka tube or the new 8" tube from kicker with passive radiator. It hasnt been released for sale yet.

Dont compromise on a sub just because of size. A Wedge box barely takes up any space. Even when I had my 10 infinity kappa in a truck wedge box it still sounded good.

My real quandary is in the processor/eq area. Looking at the JL FIX or audio control units and it appears that they require an outboard remote for master volume control. Will I lose volume control at the head unit and steering wheel? Is there a solution where I can keep that function and NOT have to change out the head unit. I would really like to avoid that but I do want to add amps and gain equalization controls.

Has anyone tried the taco tunes processor? What are you guys doing?

Any DSP will work, it will be run in line before the amp. You will still be able to retain all the OEM controls.

 

[djhuff7]

Personally I would skip this. The front are all you are going to hear. the back speakers should be used as rear fill and the stock ones do suck but they will be fine

Keyser and I disagree with this, the stock speakers suck something horrible, I think there is a bigger magnet in the speaker on my cell phone.

I did my fronts first, and while driving you don't really notice the rears, but after the change, it did fill out the truck much better (maybe this was just me justifying my purchase). As weak as the factory speakers are, they are a little boomy and muddy, especially at low volumes, and you'll notice that up front. The whole system tightened up when I did the rears. Even a cheap set of aftermarket 6.5s would be a HUGE improvement.

Plus, when hanging out behind the truck with the hatch open, it gets REALLY obvious how bad the rears are. If you'll never do this, then just unplug the rears (or fade the whole thing forward) and roll on.

Everything else in the post is spot on. Throw some sound deadening in the doors while you have them open too, that makes a big difference as well.

 

[Jdog]

I too am going to go with the focalz here good things. I also would like to add a sub and really like the look of the one in the oem+ setup but want focalz in the 4runner more.
But i too was curious about the dsp aspect of the audio. I have been watching some of the fab kitchen and soundmanca and i like the easy of use of the jl but i like the bit tunes built in amp. Any body have any experience with audison?

 

[Trigun]

Hello,
Imo, stock head unit is fine
I would go with an audio control LC7i that will allow you to boost your factory unit for an amp. I would also go with a good 5 channel amp, 2 channels for the fronts and bridge the other 2 channels to the back 4 speakers. Add a sub for your 5th channel. For speakers it’s all preference but hertz and focal are good.

 

[Louisiana Overland]

I too am going to go with the focalz here good things. I also would like to add a sub and really like the look of the one in the oem+ setup but want focalz in the 4runner more.
But i too was curious about the dsp aspect of the audio. I have been watching some of the fab kitchen and soundmanca and i like the easy of use of the jl but i like the bit tunes built in amp. Any body have any experience with audison?

I exchanged emails with tacotunes yesterday and was told they are on the cusp of releasing a 5th gen 4runner subwoofer. Ill be staying tuned on that.

 

[Louisiana Overland]

Keyser and I disagree with this, the stock speakers suck something horrible, I think there is a bigger magnet in the speaker on my cell phone.

I did my fronts first, and while driving you don't really notice the rears, but after the change, it did fill out the truck much better (maybe this was just me justifying my purchase). As weak as the factory speakers are, they are a little boomy and muddy, especially at low volumes, and you'll notice that up front. The whole system tightened up when I did the rears. Even a cheap set of aftermarket 6.5s would be a HUGE improvement.

Plus, when hanging out behind the truck with the hatch open, it gets REALLY obvious how bad the rears are. If you'll never do this, then just unplug the rears (or fade the whole thing forward) and roll on.

Everything else in the post is spot on. Throw some sound deadening in the doors while you have them open too, that makes a big difference as well.

I agree on replacing the rears. Even if it were only for fill, the current fill consists of mud. I wish I were more experienced with the ins and outs of car audio. I have had a long time hobby building home audio speakers, though, and certainly can differentiate clean from mud by ear.

I have the materials for sound deadening and damping on hand and have been installing that in the doors here and there when time permits.

Has anyone put this on the roof? Ive searched but found no tutorial or photos to show removal of the headliner.

 

[holcombr48]

Sound goes away the older you get. I agree with your need for "clarity"... It is almost a necessity to change the front speakers, because as you turn volume up
Noise comes with the CHEAP paper cones.... even my 70 year old ears heard it
I put a high priced component set up front and sound dampened my front doors. It is Great..... I fade the back out and the bass is strong enough in the front doors. I am using stock radio in my 2012.
My next step was an amplifier.....but now maybe not.
Good sounds are great.....but expensive

 

[mcox522]

While this solution is free, it won't be for everyone... If you have an Android phone there is an app called Viper4android. You must have a rooted phone though. I play mostly streaming music so a phone app was fine for me. The app made my stock sound system sound significantly better. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there as another option. Obviously this wont compete with changing speakers but I've been happy with it.

 

[GearJunkie88]

[MENTION=91865]roborob1969[/MENTION] did a system upgrade with TacoTunes and loves it. Check out his previous posts.

Sound deadened like dynamat will also help with sound quality.

 

[keyser_soze]

Keyser and I disagree with this

I did my fronts first, and while driving you don't really notice the rears, but after the change, it did fill out the truck much better (maybe this was just me justifying my purchase). As weak as the factory speakers are, they are a little boomy and muddy, especially at low volumes, and you'll notice that up front. The whole system tightened up when I did the rears. Even a cheap set of aftermarket 6.5s would be a HUGE improvement.

Plus, when hanging out behind the truck with the hatch open, it gets REALLY obvious how bad the rears are. If you'll never do this, then just unplug the rears (or fade the whole thing forward) and roll on.

I kind of over simplified this.

Yes it would be beneficial to replace the rear speakers.... but on a budget I would skip it. With amped fronts and the fade set to the front you will shouldn't notice the rears at all.

Decent quality front components, and a sub, on a 3 channel amp is cheap and will satisfy probably 98% of the people on this forum.

I don't use my rear speakers at all.

 

[Hines]

I went back n fourth as to what to do..... in the end I went with a new hu. The money you will spend on a good dsp is about what a good HU will cost.

The dsp route, you won't lose your stock volume control but as the volume changes the eq scaling will change out of the entune and the dsp won't be as accurate as it was on the volume it was tuned at.

Some seem happy with there recurve and that's great! It's an old technology though, and a rebadge of another brands old technology.

If I were to keep the entune, I would have either ran a JL audio FiX86 and twk. Or a Rockford 3sixty.3. But for That money I could replace the hu and gain allot more.

And as someone already said..... don't underestimate the power of sound deadening.... lol

 

[johnbt]

“I think there is a bigger magnet in the speaker on my cell phone.”



Dash, front & rear door speakers taken from my 2016 Trail Premium...