Focal IS 690TOY Front Speakers Designed for Toyota

[Texas_Ranger]

I bought the focals for the rear doors off eBay from a company in Italy for $180 shipped and they arrived 8 days later. I'll put them in next week, but its a great way to save some money if you want to try them out without spending the fixed price of $300 in the US.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FOCAL-INTEGRATION-IC-165-TOY-COPPIA-COASSIALI-165mm-120W-PLUG-PLAY-TOYOTA/302565162572?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

[NauticalSR517]

I also bought the rears off eBay and saved a lot of money and shipping wasn’t too bad time wise either.

I installed my fronts and rears last week and the sound quality is a complete difference imo. The stocks were cheap and paper thin. Focals have a good size magnet and the direct fit is a huge bonus!

I recommend these for anyone who’s looking for a simple quick install. Took me less than 40min to do the tweeters, front and rear doors.

 

[Akkording]

Order from Italy it is! Thanks for the tip. Party mode full time all speakers mod after.

 

[blksubykid]

Order from Italy it is! Thanks for the tip. Party mode full time all speakers mod after.

They quoted me $80 shipping :crybaby:
So I passed LOL

 

[Monozub1]

I had this speakers in my 2016 Trail. I would not buy them again without amp. The sound improvement was marginal. I think amp would make big difference, also I think after install the sound went out of balance. Now I have 18 Trd Pro and I would not use this set up in it. I think it is to expensive for what you get, the oem audio would be more money but I think it would sound way better
.

 

[midwest3gunner]

So I bought the Focal IS 690TOY's yesterday and they will arrive Monday. What amps would you guys recommend? I am thinking I will go with a 4 channel so I can have the new front speakers and my factory rear speakers all powered through the same source. Crutchfield recommended this one: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130GMA6704/Pioneer-GM-A6704.html?tp=35782

My local audio shop suggested this Phoenix Gold 4 ch amp: https://phoenixgold.com/catalog/all-products/rx2-4004

They quoted me $425 plus tax for the amp, wiring and labor. Doesn't that seem a little high? Would I really be able to tell the difference between a $140 amp and a $240 amp?

 

[tacoyota]

Don't cheap out on the amp. Buy a quality amp. I don't know about Phoenix Gold but I would stick with brand names like JBL JL etc...

 

[str8flexed]

Has anyone tried these out: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_151OE69CT/PowerBass-OE69C-TY.html?tp=47095

Crutchfiled has them for $140 compared to the Focal IS 690TOY set for $300. Do the Focal's really sound twice as good compared to the PowerBass speakers?

I’m very curious about this as well!

 

[FamousAv8er]

as a side question from an audio newbie, is a line output converter necessary for new speakers and an amp in a non JBL?

 

[midwest3gunner]

Just to give an update:

I installed the Focal IS 690TOY speakers and a 4ch 400 watt amp and the sound quality is quite a bit better. If I were to assign the improvement a percentage, I'd say it is 50% better than before. Honestly though between the amp and the speakers I spent right around $550 and to me, the increase in sound quality is not worth what I spent. The bass is much better, the mids come through clearer and there is no distortion even with the volume up to 40 or so. I'm sure I will enjoy the speakers on all my future road trips, but for me personally, I should have put that money into a good set of AT tires first.

 

[happyb]

Just to give an update:

I installed the Focal IS 690TOY speakers and a 4ch 400 watt amp and the sound quality is quite a bit better. If I were to assign the improvement a percentage, I'd say it is 50% better than before. Honestly though between the amp and the speakers I spent right around $550 and to me, the increase in sound quality is not worth what I spent. The bass is much better, the mids come through clearer and there is no distortion even with the volume up to 40 or so. I'm sure I will enjoy the speakers on all my future road trips, but for me personally, I should have put that money into a good set of AT tires first.

are you running the stock deck?

 

[midwest3gunner]

Yes, I am using the factory head unit.

 

[Sideshow818]

Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents on these speakers.

After a very long drawn out process of weighing all my car stereo options, I decided to go with these speakers as my front stage. Eventually, they will be powered by the front channels of an Alpine MRV-F300 with the rear channels bridged to power a 10" JL Audio 10W0v3-4 in a sealed box. My comments on these are from them being powered by the stock head unit, I'll post again once they got more power behind them with the Alpine. Sorry for no pics, I didn't think it was necessary since they the install has been covered many times before.

Regarding the install, it was super simple. I've done many car stereos in the past, and these were by far the easiest I've ever done in my life. Let me rephrase that, they were easy enough for a 9-year-old to do most of it. I had my daughter do the install with me and let her take lead on the process with my supervision. I handed her the Crutchfield master sheet and said go to town. She just needed a bit of guidance finding the hidden screws in the door panel and I was the one who pulled it off from the clips, but for the most part, she did everything regarding the 6x9's in the door.

I took over the tweeters since those were a little hard for her to reach them. Those took longer than the doors due to an issue I ran into with the brackets. It seems that Focal has taken feedback and painted the top of them black to avoid the glare issue I saw someone here post about. That was good, but the brackets didn't line up with the holes exactly. I had to bend them a bit to make them work. I eventually got them in, but it did take me a few minutes with a pair of pliers. They weren't that hard to make work, but it just took a bit of time.

Sound quality wise, my initial impression was of disappointment. The highs were really shrill and the mids were much worse than the stock speakers. That completely changed when I messed with the sound settings. With the stock speakers, I used to have the Highs almost maxed out, the mids 2 notches from the bottom and the bass one notch back from neutral. Once I leveled everything they sounded amazing. The sound quality was night and day difference. Where the stock speakers were a little muffled, these Focals are clear and sharp. The lows are really good as well, I can feel it when the bass hits. I am more than happy with these as is and I can't wait to hear them with the Alpine giving them power.

Overall, I'm happy with the decision to pick these up. It was a difficult choice for me to spend that kind of money on speakers, especially since there was a set of PowerBass plug and play's for 1/2 the cost. But I was able to get these open box from Crutchfield for a bit of a discount and no tax or shipping charges. With the ease of the install and the sound quality improvement, I would say they are worth the cost if you care about having crisp, clear sound.

 

[Millerrh]

Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents on these speakers.

After a very long drawn out process of weighing all my car stereo options, I decided to go with these speakers as my front stage. Eventually, they will be powered by the front channels of an Alpine MRV-F300 with the rear channels bridged to power a 10" JL Audio 10W0v3-4 in a sealed box. My comments on these are from them being powered by the stock head unit, I'll post again once they got more power behind them with the Alpine. Sorry for no pics, I didn't think it was necessary since they the install has been covered many times before.

Regarding the install, it was super simple. I've done many car stereos in the past, and these were by far the easiest I've ever done in my life. Let me rephrase that, they were easy enough for a 9-year-old to do most of it. I had my daughter do the install with me and let her take lead on the process with my supervision. I handed her the Crutchfield master sheet and said go to town. She just needed a bit of guidance finding the hidden screws in the door panel and I was the one who pulled it off from the clips, but for the most part, she did everything regarding the 6x9's in the door.

I took over the tweeters since those were a little hard for her to reach them. Those took longer than the doors due to an issue I ran into with the brackets. It seems that Focal has taken feedback and painted the top of them black to avoid the glare issue I saw someone here post about. That was good, but the brackets didn't line up with the holes exactly. I had to bend them a bit to make them work. I eventually got them in, but it did take me a few minutes with a pair of pliers. They weren't that hard to make work, but it just took a bit of time.

Sound quality wise, my initial impression was of disappointment. The highs were really shrill and the mids were much worse than the stock speakers. That completely changed when I messed with the sound settings. With the stock speakers, I used to have the Highs almost maxed out, the mids 2 notches from the bottom and the bass one notch back from neutral. Once I leveled everything they sounded amazing. The sound quality was night and day difference. Where the stock speakers were a little muffled, these Focals are clear and sharp. The lows are really good as well, I can feel it when the bass hits. I am more than happy with these as is and I can't wait to hear them with the Alpine giving them power.

Overall, I'm happy with the decision to pick these up. It was a difficult choice for me to spend that kind of money on speakers, especially since there was a set of PowerBass plug and play's for 1/2 the cost. But I was able to get these open box from Crutchfield for a bit of a discount and no tax or shipping charges. With the ease of the install and the sound quality improvement, I would say they are worth the cost if you care about having crisp, clear sound.

I completely agree with your sound leveling comment. Whenever speakers sound best at 0 gain across all levels you know you have some good sounding speakers because you aren't having to tweak with amplifying different frequency ranges to get a somewhat decent sound. Not that these are phenomenal sounding, but they are a lot better than stock and sound best without much tweaking.

 

[Offwidth]

Ordered front kit from Crutchfield.

Thinking if I need more. Stock head unit stays.

In other news, holy shit, Dragonfly Red hooked to iPhone (USB 3 camera dongle, allowing for simultaneous charging) is such a MASSIVE improvement in quality. I can never go back to a build in dongle DAC on iPhone.

 

[FamousAv8er]

Still contemplating getting these speakers but I had a couple of questions.

1.) If I get these should I also go ahead and get an amp? If so, what would you recommend and why?

2.) If I get these (with or without amp) would I want or need a line converter?

3.) How do the tweeters stack against the ones offered from kicker?

4.) Is there a comparable cheaper speaker out there that would be just as good if not better with an adapter from taco tunes?

 

[FamousAv8er]

Ive decided to run these speakers along with a 4 channel amp with. My question now is if I should add a bass blocker to the tweeters if im planning to run the speakers off of the amp?

Also, should I go ahead and run the rear door speakers off of the amp with the extra channels? Im assuming I wouldnt want the tweeters amped

AMP

 

[a t l a s]

Ive decided to run these speakers along with a 4 channel amp with. My question now is if I should add a bass blocker to the tweeters if im planning to run the speakers off of the amp?

Also, should I go ahead and run the rear door speakers off of the amp with the extra channels? Im assuming I wouldnt want the tweeters amped

AMP

I have the Focal Toyota-specific speakers installed in the front and rear doors with the Focal tweeters in the dash. They are all being powered by an amp.

I didn't bother putting a bass blocker on the tweeters and feel it is not needed. The tweeters are fine to be powered by the amp, and I believe they are wired in series with the front door speakers so it'll be some work to separate them in the first place.

The rear door speakers are wired in series with the hatch door speakers (IIRC) and are also fine to be amped. You may just have to reduce the gain on the rears until you can replace the speakers with those that can handle/make good use of the same amount of power as the Focal fronts.

For the rear I only replaced the door speakers, and not the hatch speakers. I have no problems with this setup from a sound quality or power handling point of view. Granted I chose an amp that provides 45w RMS to each channel. I have never heard of the Axxera brand but if it does truly provide 100w per channel, you probably will have to be careful with the stock speakers you decide to leave in.

 

[FamousAv8er]

For the rear I only replaced the door speakers, and not the hatch speakers. I have no problems with this setup from a sound quality or power handling point of view. Granted I chose an amp that provides 45w RMS to each channel. I have never heard of the Axxera brand but if it does truly provide 100w per channel, you probably will have to be careful with the stock speakers you decide to leave in.

Fairly new to all this stuff so to clarify:

Because the tweeters and front speakers are in series, if I amp the speakers im already amping the tweeters? edit: had series and parallel in my mind backwards, the answer is yes

Because 100w may be too much for stock, could I leave the rear un-amped until/if i have them replaced?

Lastly, so you think the highs are still okay without a bass blocker on the tweeters? If thats the case, itll be nice to not have to worry about this

edit: if anyone can recommend an amp with ~70+ x 4 that does a good job at a budget price, it would be appreciated

 

[a t l a s]

Fairly new to all this stuff so to clarify:

Because the tweeters and front speakers are in series, if I amp the speakers im already amping the tweeters? edit: had series and parallel in my mind backwards, the answer is yes

Because 100w may be too much for stock, could I leave the rear un-amped until/if i have them replaced?

Lastly, so you think the highs are still okay without a bass blocker on the tweeters? If thats the case, itll be nice to not have to worry about this

You can have the factory headunit power the rears as they are while powering the fronts with the amp, but IMO it's a messy way of doing things and creates more work when/if you do replace the rear speakers, since you'll have to go and change the wiring around again. I'd imagine that different volume levels will vary the fade between front and rear if you go that route too. I would amp them from the get go and just keep the gain knob down. Start off by listening at a low volume and adjust as necessary, chances are you'll start to hear if the speakers are being over powered. Just go in with caution and you'll be fine.

Regarding the tweeters, no bass blocker is necessary. The tweeters aren't built in such a way that makes them able to reproduce or be affected by lower frequencies by any appreciable amount. In fact, these tweeters are very bright sounding already without the blockers or a crossover. If you do decide to put some bass blockers in though, it probably wouldn't hurt, but it's just more work to do.