GEN4 Audio Upgrade Plan (for reviews and suggestions please)

[rickst29]

GEN4 Audio Upgrade Plan (for reviews and suggestions, please)

2007 Sport 6-cyl, with sunroof/moonroof.

Existing: OEM 6-CD changer (no JBL, no Nav). 4 speaker outputs to 2-way "components" in the front doors, some sort of full range (maybe coax) in the rear doors. No Center, no Sub, lots of wind+road noise.

Issues: #1, ambient noise at high speeds. Can some one advise if this could be somewhat improved by putting absorption mats in just the roof, where the surface is pretty flat and easy to expose? (Removing seats, in order to "mat" the floors, probably doesn't fit my "Total Hours Of Work" target.)

#2, Poor sound quality. Flute, Violin, Oboe, and Clarinet playing the same note sound almost identical.

#3, No stereo "image". Not for Driver (1st priority), nor for passengers (lower priority).

(Note, volume is not a problem for me, except as road noise requires more of it, exposing problem #2 even more.) I've owned my 4Runner for 9 years, but I'm not not an expert on the 4R. Because my mileage is low, I anticipate using it for many more years. I Would like advice and comments WRT my slightly exotic "plan" in the next message. Thanks in advance!

 

[rickst29]

Current Plan: I've purchased NOTHING yet. Awaiting Comments!

1) Mat the ceiling (avoiding areas where the sunroof creates "issues"), and and then replace the covering "carpet".

2) HU: the amp and preamp sections are supposedly 'cleaner' than most Android Units, so I'm looking at this one: ATOTO Adnroid 4.4 Unit on Amazon. The power output isn't large, so I looked for relatively efficient speakers. I'm thrilled that the toy can support OBD2 ("Torque"), DVDs and SD cards stuffed with large numbers of HQ mp3's (320Khz sampling), and all the Android "map" applications - many offline, on SD card. As well as touch-free phone calls. (The Toyota HU does none of these things.) I know that sound quality is slightly compromised, but Android NAV Apps seem to be better than those from "traditional" stereo companies, and map updates are frequent (and free). My 4R is frequently out of range for "4G" Cellphone wireless.

3) Front Doors: Right now, I'm inclined to use JL C2-650 (with component crossover and tweeters). Price is a concern, and so is efficiency (91 Db at 1w is better than some, worse than others). Is 6-1/2 too big?

4) Rear Doors: This could get messy. I don't like the idea of a Coax mounted in the bottom of the doors, and would like to use 2-way components again. (JL C2-525). I understand that I might have to increase the width of pillar-to-door cable cut-outs, in order to mount the Tweets on the pillars (wire paris from crossovers inside the doors). Or maybe I can make the rear doors more like the front doors, mounting in the doors (but close to the front pillars.) Suggestions?

5) Sub: I'll skip it for now, because classical music doesn't have a lot of important content below about 80Hz, and I can accept the drop-off from 120Hz down to ~80Hz. The tonal qualities in the midrange and treble are more important for me. (And I Can always add an Amp and Sub later.)

6) Center: My HU doesn't have outputs, and it also (probably) reaches too far back, eliminating any room for a Center Channel Speaker in the dash. I'm inclined to permanently avoid this upgrade. :shrug:

 

[Troymclure]

For dampening, I put it in all the doors, and floor. Planning on doing the headliner soon, just havent had the time.

Ive been looking at the Android headunits as well, but for now just have a relatively cheap Alpine with usb inputs. It does have 2V outputs though.

For speakers, Im running a single set of Morel 6.5 components in the front door, which fit perfectly with an adapter, and with the tweeters in custom pods in the a pillar aimed at the map light. Running those off a 4 channel alpine mounted under the seat, with all the processing coming from a minidsp. Have no rear speakers, and no one has really complained. If you want some, I would leave the stock speakers back there, and run them off the headunit power if the fronts are off an amp, that way it wont interfere with the front stage, and will still be loud enough for passengers in the back to hear.

I get a nice center image, and the clarity is an enormous improvement over stock. My speakers arent that sensitive either, but they go easily loud enough to drown out any noise from driving, and I have a lot with a roof rack, 35's, long travel and fiberglass fenders.

 

[rickst29]

A-Pillar tweeters, nice idea!

For dampening, I put it in all the doors, and floor. Planning on doing the headliner soon, just haven't had the time.

Is there a lot of noise left? (If your remaining noise is greatly reduced already - that would lead us to conclude that my plan to do only the roof isn't good.)

For speakers, I'm running a single set of Morel 6.5 components in the front door, which fit perfectly with an adapter, and with the tweeters in custom pods in the A pillar aimed at the map light.

I haven't got a map light. Is that approximately shoulder level, within one foot of of the dashboard center?

Running those off a 4 channel alpine mounted under the seat, with all the processing coming from a minidsp. Have no rear speakers, and no one has really complained.

If you want some, I would leave the stock speakers back there, and run them off the headunit power if the fronts are off an amp, that way it wont interfere with the front stage.

Before blowing money on a rear set, I'll see how bad the OEM speakers sound with volume faded to "rear only". (I'll be using a 4-channel head unit, no sub output.) I will follow your decision to raise the tweeters up high, on the A-pillars. Thanks for the idea!

*** New Note After Head Unit Upgrade *** Don't!!! mount speakers on A-Pillars with airbags, they'll be blasted into Driver and Passenger faces in an accident.

 

[Troymclure]

Is there a lot of noise left? (If your remaining noise is greatly reduced already - that would lead us to conclude that my plan to do only the roof isn't good.)I haven't got a map light. Is that approximately shoulder level, within one foot of of the dashboard center?

Running those off a 4 channel alpine mounted under the seat, with all the processing coming from a minidsp. Have no rear speakers, and no one has really complained.
Before blowing money on a rear set, I'll see how bad the OEM speakers sound with volume faded to "rear only". (I'll be using a 4-channel head unit, no sub output.) I will follow your decision to raise the tweeters up high, on the A-pillars. Thanks for the idea!

Theres some noise left. Definitely some from the roof though. The floor made the biggest difference though.

Yeah the tweeters are about shoulder level, aimed up and towards the cab a bit, to reduce the reflections off the window as much as possible. If you have a tweeter to mock up, and try to set it as far away as possible from the windshield and dash, its easy to find the same location I did. Pretty much the only spot that really works.

Yeah the fade is a good idea to see how they sound. Since you have a four channel amp, you wont even notice them sitting in the front with the volume turned up to normal listening level though too.

 

[rickst29]

Midrange coming out at my feet... bad image?

Just a thought, which I'll need to answer for myself:

The 2-way JL components will be widely separated, and not properly aligned (vertical). Even worse, the "midrange" sound (from the woofer) will continue to be disrupted by lots of dashboard, legs, car seat "blockage" and "reflection" before reaching my ears.

Maybe a 3-way, replacing the factory tweet with a genuine midrange, will allow more of the midrange "direction content" (300-2000hz) coming from a better-aligned driver? That would be this set, instead of the JL 2-ways: Precision Power PPI P.65c3 3-way Component System.

My guess: Less quality, but much better imaging.

- - - - -
Totally OT: (Here's a very sneaky solution to all my problems, but they only play for 2 hours before they need recharging. I do own a set of these, and they're incredible. But I don't know how to make the App play a music file (with "clean-up"), instead of merely cleaning up the "real world" in response to microphone input: https://www.hereplus.me/ :bigok: