new speakers for the runner, imput and thoughts welcome

[the great him]

so its time to redo my audio in my 4runner, and a little background on what i have done so far and how it sits now....

-when i bought it 3years ago it had no deck, and so i just bought an entery level Sony deck for it -i have the same deck in my old 85 pickup that is running the 2 way 4"(Alpine type S) dash speakers and the 3 way 6.5"(Sony) speakers that came with the deck, it worked great and i have wonderful sound in my old truck. it was ok at best at first, i mean i had tunes... but yeah there was zero base, and if i turned the volume up much i would get a bunch of distortion and cracking and buzzing. so i figured it was time to up grade. i bought all new Alpine type S speakers, component 6.5"s for the front door, and some 5.25"s for the rear doors, i also picked up a used Alpine amp(MRP-F300 4 channel 300amp?) from a member here and hooked that up to power the door speakers. i powered it directly from a fuse cell off the battery, using 2awg wire for power and a 4awg for ground. i ran Kicker Z series RCAs from the deck to the amp for signal and then from the amp i ran 14awg speaker wire to the front doors, and 16awg to the rear doors.

this was a major improvement as now i could actually get some base, and i could get some volume out of my speakers. but i still had some serious issues, the sound quality was not there, and i still had some cracking and buzzing (especially in the left rear door). i was sure the head unit was the issue now. i had a great amp and new i had no loss of power to the speakers because i had too small of wire. so next up i swapped head units with a friend who was selling his RV, he had a nicer Alpine(cda-9884) deck that i wanted mainly because it had 3 sets of RCAs, two for speakers, and one for a sub. so i swapped the decks just before he sold his RV. i lost the bonus of a remote and the USB port along with the aux audio jack/port but i can still get all of that stuff minus the USB port if i want it bad enough(it hasnt bothered me enough at this point).

i just swapped amps again, for a JL audio amp(e6450), and i got a JL audio sub(not sure the model on the sub) with box and grille(only paid $100 for both), and now have all that hooked up. had the help friend who knows a little bit more about the stuff than me help me set it up, it was basically just unhook and rehook the stuff back up... he did a little tuning/adjusting on the amp and deck for me to get the best sound we could with what i had, but again my door speakers are shot i think. and i think they are trashed from a shitty deck... idk could be wrong though...

i guess this is where i need your input for those of you who are really into this. -did i have crappy shit to begin with(yes i no my Sony deck was probably a bad/defective deck) but did that kill my speakers? i need new speakers and have been looking for a good quality set for replacements. id like to go with a old school set of MB Quartz but i dont think thats gonna happen as the ones made in Germany are no longer available and the guys who have them are not letting go... so the speakers i have been looking at are the;

front door
-Infinity Kappa Perfects 6.1, component 6.5"
-Diamond Audio D663S, component 6.5"
-welcome other suggestions

rear door
-Infinity Kappa 52.9i, 5.25"
-Diamond Audio D354i, 5.25"
-welcome other suggestions

also for sound deadening i want to mat the roof, back cargo area, and doors. how much material do you think i will need, and what mil/thickness should i go with?

thanks in advance

btw its a 97 3rd gen

 

[the great him]

nobody has any imput here...?

 

[YouInTheShirt]

input

Type s speakers are good. Head unit may need to be upgraded but the buzzing may be caused by engine noise. Engine noise can be taken care of by rca filters or ground loop isolators.
Buzzing may also be caused by a defective factory amplifier that is located behind the radio. This is easily bypassed with no wire cutting involved and would recommend bypassing the amp if running and aftermarket amplifier.

hope this gives you a start.

 

[the great him]

Type s speakers are good. Head unit may need to be upgraded but the buzzing may be caused by engine noise. Engine noise can be taken care of by rca filters or ground loop isolators.
Buzzing may also be caused by a defective factory amplifier that is located behind the radio. This is easily bypassed with no wire cutting involved and would recommend bypassing the amp if running and aftermarket amplifier.

hope this gives you a start.

the head unit is not bad, i can asure you that, its not top of the line, but it is not a cheap head unit either. the buzzing/cracking is not engine noise/interference, i know what that sounds like and thats not the sound im hearing... type s speakers are ok at best, but they can not handle the power my amp is putting out, they are a 40 and 55w speaker, and my amp is putting out at least 75w... their is no factory am in a 97 sr5 my RCA cables are not the issue, they are good quality cables while again not the top of the line, they are not a cheap cable either.



so again i ask do you have any imput on speakers?

also donsidering the polk momo series, really leaning towards those or the infinity kappa pros.... i think the diamonds are a little out of the price range at this point, and im not really looking to enter and stereo comps with this truck

 

[Bucket81]

Why do people think that old MBs are good? They fall apart and sound horrible. The tweeters are way too sharp. Get a set of JL C3 if you have a good amp. If you like hard dome tweeters get some Focals.

 

[the great him]

Why do people think that old MBs are good? They fall apart and sound horrible. The tweeters are way too sharp. Get a set of JL C3 if you have a good amp. If you like hard dome tweeters get some Focals.

MBs are great speakers if they were taken care of, any speaker can sound like crap if you dont have them set up correctly or abuse them and just trash on them...

 

[ddnww]

so its time to redo my audio in my 4runner, and a little background on what i have done so far and how it sits now....

-when i bought it 3years ago it had no deck, and so i just bought an entery level Sony deck for it -i have the same deck in my old 85 pickup that is running the 2 way 4"(Alpine type S) dash speakers and the 3 way 6.5"(Sony) speakers that came with the deck, it worked great and i have wonderful sound in my old truck. it was ok at best at first, i mean i had tunes... but yeah there was zero base, and if i turned the volume up much i would get a bunch of distortion and cracking and buzzing. so i figured it was time to up grade. i bought all new Alpine type S speakers, component 6.5"s for the front door, and some 5.25"s for the rear doors, i also picked up a used Alpine amp(MRP-F300 4 channel 300amp?) from a member here and hooked that up to power the door speakers. i powered it directly from a fuse cell off the battery, using 2awg wire for power and a 4awg for ground. i ran Kicker Z series RCAs from the deck to the amp for signal and then from the amp i ran 14awg speaker wire to the front doors, and 16awg to the rear doors.

this was a major improvement as now i could actually get some base, and i could get some volume out of my speakers. but i still had some serious issues, the sound quality was not there, and i still had some cracking and buzzing (especially in the left rear door). i was sure the head unit was the issue now. i had a great amp and new i had no loss of power to the speakers because i had too small of wire. so next up i swapped head units with a friend who was selling his RV, he had a nicer Alpine(cda-9884) deck that i wanted mainly because it had 3 sets of RCAs, two for speakers, and one for a sub. so i swapped the decks just before he sold his RV. i lost the bonus of a remote and the USB port along with the aux audio jack/port but i can still get all of that stuff minus the USB port if i want it bad enough(it hasnt bothered me enough at this point).

i just swapped amps again, for a JL audio amp(e6450), and i got a JL audio sub(not sure the model on the sub) with box and grille(only paid $100 for both), and now have all that hooked up. had the help friend who knows a little bit more about the stuff than me help me set it up, it was basically just unhook and rehook the stuff back up... he did a little tuning/adjusting on the amp and deck for me to get the best sound we could with what i had, but again my door speakers are shot i think. and i think they are trashed from a shitty deck... idk could be wrong though...

i guess this is where i need your input for those of you who are really into this. -did i have crappy shit to begin with(yes i no my Sony deck was probably a bad/defective deck) but did that kill my speakers? i need new speakers and have been looking for a good quality set for replacements. id like to go with a old school set of MB Quartz but i dont think thats gonna happen as the ones made in Germany are no longer available and the guys who have them are not letting go... so the speakers i have been looking at are the;

front door
-Infinity Kappa Perfects 6.1, component 6.5"
-Diamond Audio D663S, component 6.5"
-welcome other suggestions

rear door
-Infinity Kappa 52.9i, 5.25"
-Diamond Audio D354i, 5.25"
-welcome other suggestions

also for sound deadening i want to mat the roof, back cargo area, and doors. how much material do you think i will need, and what mil/thickness should i go with?

thanks in advance

btw its a 97 3rd gen

diamond and infiniti are great sounding speakers,, ive used diamond audio subs and speakers for years, , theres nearly nothing better.. what are you using for subs.. and amp

 

[ddnww]

Why do people think that old MBs are good? They fall apart and sound horrible. The tweeters are way too sharp. Get a set of JL C3 if you have a good amp. If you like hard dome tweeters get some Focals.

jl mid n tweet suck.. those diamond audios he has are way way better .

 

[riceandpho]

Cracking sound from a speaker that is hooked up to an amp mean the amp channel might be going bad. You can dix the amp or buy a better one. I suggest a rf t600-4, might be too much power for some people. But the rf t400-4 is a smaller one. For speakers, i only use focal, just make sure u buy from a legit sterep store, so many fakes out there. Also u cant go wront with hertz hsk series.

 

[riceandpho]

Also take the speaker out and switch side to see if you hear the cracking sound.

 

[Bucket81]

I can't stand diamond audio that I have listed to, I said the C3 specifically you can't say all JL speakers sucks when not all JL speakers are built the same. The C3s have a 1in silk dome tweeter witch gives you a smooth highs. Hard dome tweeters give a sharp tinny sound. The only hard dome tweeters that I think sound good is the Focal Utopia Bees.

 

[the great him]

Cracking sound from a speaker that is hooked up to an amp mean the amp channel might be going bad. You can dix the amp or buy a better one. I suggest a rf t600-4, might be too much power for some people. But the rf t400-4 is a smaller one. For speakers, i only use focal, just make sure u buy from a legit sterep store, so many fakes out there. Also u cant go wront with hertz hsk series.

the cracking or buzzing sound was before the alpin and JL amps... so im pretty sure its not both amps that are bad, and both amps produced crips clear sounds before i hooked them up. and no the hook up is not wrong.

 

[the great him]

diamond and infiniti are great sounding speakers,, ive used diamond audio subs and speakers for years, , theres nearly nothing better.. what are you using for subs.. and amp

you quote my entire first post, and yet you still do not know what amp or sub im running.... JL audio sub and amp (6ch 450w)

 

[riceandpho]

take the speaker out and inspect for damaged, could be rubbing a voice coil or just damage from the install. it dont hurt to check the trouble speaker.

 

[ddnww]

I can't stand diamond audio that I have listed to, I said the C3 specifically you can't say all JL speakers sucks when not all JL speakers are built the same. The C3s have a 1in silk dome tweeter witch gives you a smooth highs. Hard dome tweeters give a sharp tinny sound. The only hard dome tweeters that I think sound good is the Focal Utopia Bees.

you've apparently never heard the 6.5 hex pro comp sets.. .. i hate jl comp sets.. they sound like garbage. only silk tweets for me.

 

[BrianSD_42]

The Kid,

It sounds like you are on the right track. I have an Alpine HU, Alpine 4-Channel Amp and Infinity Kappas. ... I'm very happy.
Here is a link to my audio setup .... http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...rnal-build-maintenance-thread-post767748.html


Initial Thoughts
1) Did you run new 14 or 16G speaker wire to all doors from the 4-Channel amp? This really, really is a must do for your type of setup.

2) When you connect your deck to your subwoofer amp be sure to use a Y-splitter to bridge the RCA L/R. Even mono-block amps have a L/R and most decks, even alpine only output a single mono RCA for the sub. The Y-splitter must be used or the amp may significantly under-perform.

3) Did you run new power & new ground to the head unit, a simple 12 or 14G will be enough since the HU isn't actually powering the speakers.

4) Be sure to set the cross-overs at 80HZ for your components, if you have components.



More Troubleshooting the static / distortion ....
* if the Alpine HU is 4V then set the 4-channel Alpine amp to 1.0 (the middle) on the each gain.
* is it there noise/crackle/static ect with the engine BOTH on and off?
* are you running 4 RCA cables to the 4-channel amp? Try running just two for L/R and bridge with a Y adapter merging Front&Rear, use the gain to set fade levels instead.
* if you have a single speaker acting up then swap the RCA inputs into the amp .... does the bad sound change speakers

* What quality music are you testing this system with? No seriously .... a lot of audio sold on the music market is actually crap sound recording quality.

Examples of good quality recordings .... Queen's master CD Collection, Anything Trent Reznor, Tool's 10,000 Days. You get the point. A great test song at 320 kbps is Nine-Inch-Nails The Day The World Went Away. This is because it is a very very clean recording with very powerful highs and some bass with several long moments of silence. At 80% volume you should hear crystal clear sound (very loud) and silence without static when it drops. Jay-Z 99 Problems @ 320 kbps is very similar.