SR5 Speaker Install - Time Sensitive Info

Toyota Canada started offering this nifty Bongiovi upgrade for a couple of hundred bucks that apparently works quiet well. I haven't heard it, nor can I vouch for it, but a few who have heard it say it works well. Seems like something SR5 owners in the US might appreciate. Also heard that it wasn't being offered in the US, though have no idea why not since the managing director, Tony Bongiovi, a relative of Bon Jovi, is based in US. Surely, it can be bought up here and installed down there, or maybe it's like many other aftermarket systems.

Link to site
 
Holy cow, I have never seen smaller magnets on speakers before! I have to wonder how the JBL speakers compare. I know someone on the forum pulled there's out of the rear hatch for some pics (harper7?), and I don't recall them looking so tiny.
 
sandcrawler said:
actually, if you're only going to change one or the other (HU or speakers), upgrading your speakers will make the biggest, most cost-effective improvement in sound quality;
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I agree, but you also have to be sure and get speakers that are very efficient. Stock headunits generally put out such tiny amounts of power that only the most efficient speakers can do much with it. :) The original poster got Polk DXi series drivers, which have efficiencies of 91 dB or higher. That's very good. Those will do well with low amounts of power.
 
DavidPapke said:
As promised...
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Thanks for the pics! The ones in the doors look like they are woofers only like the Limited/TE's.

I wonder if when you put Tri-axials in the doors they are only getting the lows and not using the mid-range and tweeters. It must crossover from the internal amp with the mid range and highs going to the fronts(co-axials) in the dash for sound staging.There are only a couple of companies making 6x9 aftermarket woofers that I could find.

Any car audio experts please chime in!!!

Here is the way the JBL speakers are layed out in the 5th 4Runners.... JBL Premium Sound for Your New Toyota
 
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harper7 said:
Thanks for the pics! The ones in the doors look like they are woofers only like the Limited/TE's.

I wonder if when you put Tri-axials in the doors they are only getting the lows and not using the mid-range and tweeters. It must crossover from the internal amp with the mid range and highs going to the fronts(co-axials) in the dash for sound staging.There are only a couple of companies making 6x9 aftermarket woofers that I could find.

Any car audio experts please chime in!!!

Here is the way the JBL speakers are layed out in the 5th 4Runners.... JBL Premium Sound for Your New Toyota
Click to expand...

Although I can't speak to whether or not the signal is being crossed over at the source, I can tell you that the two pairs of speakers in the rear doors and hatch looked exactly the same as front doors - They only look like woofers, I think, because they are so simply designed. Also, if they were being crossed over at the source the dash speakers would not require an inline capacitor (I think). My sense is that it's exactly what it looks like: cheap papercone speakers in a simple 8-speaker set-up.

Oh, and the "ear test" suggests I am getting the full range from the front doors...

DP
 
Rear hatch speakers from my other thread....

_MG_5020.jpg~original


_MG_5021.jpg~original
 
DavidPapke said:
The speakers swap-out was going to add its own extra level of difficulty due to a lack of commercial bracket kits for the 4Runner, the shallow spaces, and proprietary sizes.
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Crutchfield does have a few speakers that fit, along with the adapter brackets, not sure they are the best but probably a little better than what is in there.

Sony XS-GT1626A 6-1/2" 2-way car speakers — also fit in 6-3/4" openings at Crutchfield.com

That is one that will fit in the rear hatch and rear doors with no modifications and all needed parts included. However, they do not offer a 6x9 for the front doors yet, well not one that will not require mods. I will wait 6 months, hopefully they will have some new stuff out. I did a quick look, about 35 speakers for my last SUV with no modifications needed, so hopefully patience will pay off.
 
Do you think the rear hatch openings would support a 8" sub, namely the ptioneer shallow mount, or is the opening the same size as the plastic portion attached to the speaker.

Edit: Also I noticed something about the "15" speakers that come with the JBL. They are counting coaxial speakers as 2, so you're only getting one extra speaker (the sub in the passenger wheel well) and 3 sets of coax speakers, where the rest of us have a single cone woofer. That's marketing BS if you ask me.
 
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westwind77 said:
Crutchfield does have a few speakers that fit, along with the adapter brackets, not sure they are the best but probably a little better than what is in there.

Sony XS-GT1626A 6-1/2" 2-way car speakers — also fit in 6-3/4" openings at Crutchfield.com

That is one that will fit in the rear hatch and rear doors with no modifications and all needed parts included. However, they do not offer a 6x9 for the front doors yet, well not one that will not require mods. I will wait 6 months, hopefully they will have some new stuff out. I did a quick look, about 35 speakers for my last SUV with no modifications needed, so hopefully patience will pay off.
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The front door fitment issue was one of the main dilemmas for me in trying to do a simple swap-out modification/upgrade, which is why I was pleasantly surprised by the Best Buy package. They did have to build a custom bracket for the front doors (sawdust all over the truck spoke to that...), but at an install price (after double discounts) of just $5 a speaker, I was glad to get what I got and get it now.

Of course, prefab brackets means handy guys can do it themselves and come out even more ahead, so I'm not knocking the wait to get it right option at all...

DP
 
David,

I agree with you 100% regarding speaker replacement... Speaker selection will usually have the largest impact on sound quality.

In home audio, a quality pair of speakers can usually create some pretty amazing sound with average audio components driving them. A lot of times its just a matter of finding a speaker that sounds good to your ear and compliments the audio output of the gear that you have. Extreme high-end electronics will probably improve the sound quality further, but the cost/benefit depends on what you are looking for.

It sounds like you found a good combo that works for you. I appreciate the info and the pics.

Harper,

The JBL system is supposed to be 15 speakers, no? I thought that was acheived by using coaxial or triaxial speakers in various locations... If you have the JBL system and standard drivers in the front doors, how does Toyota call it a 15 speaker system? I haven't taken a look at mine yet, but I suspect what I find will match what you have.

Using the "ear test", I only hear mid-low frequencies coming from the front door speakers. What I'm afraid of is that the frequency cutoff for each speaker is in the JBL amp... That would make upgrading to a coaxial or triaxial in the door a waste of cash unless a seperate amp/crossover is used. uhg... nothing is easy.

Does anybody have any details on the sound system in the GX460? The GX uses an A-pillar mounted tweeter. I'm curious if it also uses a coaxial in the dash. I'm interested in upgraded to a set of components up front and an a-pillar mounted tweeter in order to improve imaging. I also wonder if the interior A-pillar plastic cover with integrated tweeter mount from the GX will fit the 4Runner?
 
9Hooker said:
Do you think the rear hatch openings would support a 8" sub, namely the ptioneer shallow mount, or is the opening the same size as the plastic portion attached to the speaker.
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_MG_5017.jpg~original


_MG_5014.jpg~original


Maybe? I did not take off the surrounding plastic pieces to the speaker, but as long as metal is not under it I do not see why it could not be removed and made to fit a larger speaker.
 
Harper,

I just re-read the info from the JBL link you provided... Yup, it looks like just 6x9 woofers in the front door and coaxials everywhere else plus the sub.

I will have to do some more homework to determine what the best upgrade path would be.
 
My SR5 doesn't have any speakers on the rear doors, only the front doors and the hatch. All of the SR5's this way or I'm missing something.
 
westwind, that looks great. i'll have a look at it when I pull off the rear chrome piece.

i think if you take the metal sheet and speaker out, you can put in some 1/2" MDF and mount the shallow pioneer sub. the only concern is what the mounting depth is. the pioneer I have laying around would make a perfect guinea pig and it's only 2 1/2" deep.

that way the jbl ms8 I'm thinking about can run the cabin while a small amp can run either a single or two 8" pioneer free air woofers.

Pioneer USA - TS-SW841D - 8" Shallow-Mount Subwoofer with 500 Watts Max. Power
 
Until someone can get us some pics of the JBL drivers, I'd assume the rear doors and rear hatch have coaxial two-way speakers. The front doors, though, should be 1-way 6x9 speakers (woofers only), with 2-way mid-tweets in the dash. That's all according to that JBL page people have linked to.

On the JBL system, I would assume there is a low-pass to the front doors, since it would be inefficient to pass a bunch of high-frequency signal to a speaker that can't play them. Using a low-pass would allow them to fine tune the performance of that speaker. If you were to put a 2- or 3-way 6x9 driver in there on a JBL system, you'd likely not get any high frequencies out of it. The non-JBL system, though, might not have that low-pass. I'm not sure how the non-JBL system is set up.


Likewise, someone mentioned that there are capacitors on the front mid-tweets in the dash. Capacitors do indeed provide high-pass functionality. You definitely don't want to pump low frequency signals into a tweeter, so some sort of high-pass (usually a capacitor) is needed.

For those of you looking for an alternative for the front door (if you can't find 6x9 drivers you like), you can get adapters for a 6x9 space that allow you to mount a 6.5" 2-way component system. This is very popular in the high end audio crowds, since you usually can't find very high-end 6x9 speakers, but 6.5" is very common.
 
Its pretty easy to put any speaker you want in the front door as long as depth is not an issue. As mentioned above, you can buy a piece of MDF and make a simple adapter allowing you to run 6.5 or 5.25 speakers in the door. I have Focal separates in mine, putting the tweeter in the factory location in the dash. Many people think this is not a good place for a tweeter, however you tend to get very good imaging here allowing tweeter to bounce off of windshield. My system sounds great, imaging is very good and the "height of the sound stage" is right about where I would want it.

I think the speakers in the tailgate are pointless unless you want to utilize party mode while tailgating. Otherwise there is no reason to have speakers back there. Just put some coax (or separates) in rear doors for rear fill and add a sub in the back. Good to go!!!!!!

That is my current setup and it sounds amazing. Another piece of the puzzle to not forget is soundproofing. You can drastically improve both the sound and the volume level of any stereo by simply cutting the amount of outside noise entering the cabin. Dynamat or any other similar material works great to ensure you are keeping as much road noise out of the cabin as possible.
 
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