"the alpine 1" dash component review"

[rigtec]

"...What gets me a little discouraged about the 4runner is that the interior is poorly laid out, and to fix the acoustic shortcomings (as I see them) would require a major overhaul of the interior (e.g., relocating parts of the door panels to accommodate better positioning of the speakers)..."

I think one thing to keep in mine, at least for me anyway, is the reason that I bought the truck in the first place. I didn't buy it for listening to music; although I knew I'd wanna personalize the sound system... But I bought it to travel safely and securely about! That's the primary reason for getting the vehicle. A car, for the most part, is a terrible place for listening to music. The number one reason is road/wind noise.

The second reason... Power-train noise e.g., Engine, transmission, T/C, differential(s)... So rearranging it's interior to accommodate the sound system to me is a losing battle from the word go. The best place for listening to music (OTOH) is your home, because you can better control the environment there than anywhere else, so maybe you can move stuff around to make it a great listening environment to enjoy! ...just my 0.0001.5 cents!

Cheers!

 

[rigtec]

On 12/04/2015 rig said:

"...I'll surely keep you guys updated on this mid-level dash/door speaker install; particularly if I encounter any setbacks regarding hardware, sound anomalies or wiring clarification notes!..."

Well, about a week ago I set out to get the new 'Alpine SPR-69' door speakers online. I began by setting up the shots I wanted to use for the HOW TO: Thread, that will follow the install. I got all of the pics I wanted e.g., the proper way to remove the door panels, door-lock& latch release cables..., up to the part where I would've actually put the speakers in the doors! ...I found out that these 6 x 9's are too small to fit in our door cut-out with out the use of a Metro 'Adapter-flange' bracket.

...that was like last Friday. So I ordered the brackets last week and am waiting for them to arrive; just tracked them... still at the warehouse in Brooklyn NY... but they report that the shpg labels were printed up yesterday

As soon as they get here I'll try to get them in... provided they show up before it snows here in Jersey; in which case I may sell the speakers w/ brackets and get them again next Spring! ...I'll keep you posted, Rgds!

 

[tigger]

Well, about a week ago I set out to get the new 'Alpine SPR-69' door speakers online. I began by setting up the shots I wanted to use for the HOW TO: Thread, that will follow the install. I got all of the pics I wanted e.g., the proper way to remove the door panels, door-lock& latch release cables..., up to the part where I would've actually put the speakers in the doors! ...I found out that these 6 x 9's are too small to fit in our door cut-out with out the use of a Metro 'Adapter-flange' bracket.

Yeah, I am not aware of any 6x9's that fit the stock hole. Toyota does not like to do anything standard size when it comes to audio. The other fun part is that Toyota runs the cables on the top of the door panel instead of inside, so you will have to take them through the adapter plate. My adapter plates had several holes to allow cable access, but that was just more things I had to seal.

 

[Angelo]

Definitely interested in a few simple upgrades to my new 4R's sound. Subbed, watching for your take on the Alpines- especially ease of installation since I'll be doing it (for the first time) myself when I do pull the trigger. Thanks for all the information and write ups!

 

[rigtec]

"...Toyota does not like to do anything standard size when it comes to audio. The other fun part is that Toyota runs the cables on the top of the door panel instead of inside, so you will have to take them through the adapter plate. My adapter plates had several holes to allow cable access, but that was just more things I had to seal."

Yeah I know! Hopefully the brackets will come next wk so I can get it done. Here in nj it snows a lot; a 28-29 inch dump is not unusual, and all the subsequent dumps afterward... so it could be mar or april before I get to work on my rig!

Best!

 

[rigtec]

To whom it may concern...

The Metra door speaker adapters have arrived. I've been waiting for a warmer day to finish the front door speaker speaker install; temps have been running in the 29 to 35 deg temp range recently. This week-end is "supposed to" be in the upper 50s' so I've got my fingers x-ed! I also wanted to post the Metra (front-door) speaker adapter kit model number and link for anyone to use: "Metra 82-8146" ...and the link to where I got'em: Amazon.com: Metra 82-8146 6" x 9" Front Speaker Adapter for Select Lexus and Toyota Vehicles: Car Electronics Hope to tie it up this week-end! Rgds

 

[Okole]

Any updates?

 

[DKFTPNYC]

Yes, also interested in updates.

 

[rigtec]

The Alpine SPR-69 factory replacement/ upgrade: Continued

Okay folks,

it was 75 deg F' today and so I finally got around to dropping in those Alpine SPR-69' 6 x 9 door speakers... pull up a chair and take a look at what's going in the front doors today!

BEFORE YOU CAN REPLACE THE SPEAKER, YOU NEED THIS SPEAKER ADAPTER FLANGE #82-8416 6x9 inch plate: by Metra


THE COST IS $20 BUCKS from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IIC6CPE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I took these pics back in December when they first arrived, but with their getting here came the snow and the cold weather! So now they're in and I love them; here's what I saw with the unboxing:

THE 'ALPINE' SPR-69 $100 bucks


THE HARDWARE that you likely won't use!


HERE'S THE OLD SPEAKER that's coming out...


It looks like a speaker from an old QUASAR console T.V. that we had in the living room when we were growing up!

AND HERE'S OUR NEW 'SPR-69'

I'M DIGGIN' THE BUILD QUALITY OF THIS DEVICE; IT'S DESIGNED LIKE A "PRO-AUDIO" DRIVER!


Okay enough photo gazing, let's get this heap taken apart so we can do our speaker swap...

FIRST TO REMOVE THE DOOR TRIM PANELS

There are three screws that hold the trim panel on. To access the screws, you must remove these screw covers; "see the small screwdriver tip as I remove the covers":



THERE'S ONE UNDER HERE TOO!


OKAY NOW THAT THE SCREWS ARE ALL OUT IT'LL JUST SNAP APART/ PS: Do yourself a 'HUGE' favor ('BEFORE you start') and P/U a pack of Door trim panel plastic push clips like these:

"...they'll come in handy when you're putting the door panels back on and you have like four that broke during the removal process!!" http://www.amazon.com/uxcell®-White...1&keywords=Door+trim+panel+plastic+push+clips

TO BE CONTINUED BELOW...

 

[rigtec]

CONTINUED FROM ABOVE...

DOOR TRIM REMOVAL Pull this plastic triangle off first, just pull straight back:




USING YOUR HAND, GRAB IT HERE AND PULL


NOW GRAB IT UP HERE AND PULL STRAIGHT OUT TOWARDS YOU


THIS IS ULTRA IMPORTANT!!!

I've seen guys lifting this widow sill flange up and off; problem is if you do it that way it's almost impossible to get it back on... could take 30 minutes to an hour "If you're lucky!" Don't do that beloved. You pull the trim panel off of the track flange just like you did the others; straight back towards yourself... look at the clips once the trim panel has been removed; they're made to stay there and release the plastic clips as you pull. You'll see what I mean when you put the trim panel back on in about 60 seconds hahaha!

"See the clip retainers accented by the green circles, That flange stays there where it is! DO NOT LIFT OR REMOVE!"


I MARKED THE PLASTIC CLIPS W/ RED ARROWS FOR YOU TO SEE WHAT WAS HOLDING THE PANEL ON ...and you thought it was by magic!


NOW THAT THE PANEL IS OFF UNPLUG THE COURTESY LIGHT (BOTTOM), THE 'WINDOW BUTTON/LOCK CONNECTORS' (TOP), AND THE SPEAKER.

THE WINDOW SWITCH PANEL



THE SPEAKER CONNECTOR just push the retainer latch and pull the male harness straight out!


HERE'S THE OLD SPEAKER to be removed


NOW THE NEW ONE

Beyond that there's really nothing that you'll need to do. I did use some adhesive cork gasket material around the speaker baffle mounting hole to seal it up; that's a force of habit, there's no need to do that here cuz the door isn't sealed in the least; there's not even a box for the speaker to live in... so just skip that step! The speakers sound great... I mean you saw the ones I removed; that's just (High falutin) garbage i.e., LE' gar'badge!

THE EDITORS COMMENTS!

What I liked about these and the install was, the speakers didn't break my horns getting them in like some on the market, so there was absolutely NO CUTTING done on this job! I didn't know about the need for the 6x9 adapters before I started so there was a 'False start' initially, but I just put it all back together, ordered the kit and that was it! Wiring was simple, even more so than the dash tweeters because the X-Over was already wired in leaving only two wires to connect. BTW: The Lt Grn wire is POS + and the Blue wire is NEG - on both sides.

Again they sounded excellent for a speaker I only paid $100 for, and still using the stock HU! I don't think you could do any better (soundwise) paying more for a speaker and using the factory playback device; not even TOP SHELF... buy these with confidence!

'Best to you!'

 

[tigger]

BTW: It doesn't matter which wire you choose to use for the positive or the negative, so you decide which one connects to which.

Nice write up but I don't understand this statement. Not wiring correctly will cause the speakers to be out of phase. Why wouldn't it matter, especially if you don't match left to right?

 

[rigtec]

Nice write up but I don't understand this statement. Not wiring correctly will cause the speakers to be out of phase. Why wouldn't it matter, especially if you don't match left to right?

Hi tigger,

let me clarify... I didn't say to cross-phase the L & R door speakers; though I should have stated that differently. I said you can choose which wire colors will be POS and NEG! As far as phase cancellation goes, the wave lengths involved here are far too short and won't meet before they reach a quarterwave length, the point where soundwaves combine destructively, here's the math: 1125 ft/sec (speed-of-sound) divided by 200 (mids in Hertz) = 5.6 ft full length. But one quarter of that = 1.375 ft... too short to combine with other 1/4 waves.

But then you have The boundary effect phenomena; where those soundwaves begin bouncing off of objects in the room e.g., seats, dash, console...etc which will cause some seating positions to be ideal and some to be really poor choices for listening, it gets complicated and nothing you can do about that... 'tis just physics having her way! Thanks for bringing that up tigger; given that not too many lay people or beginners have come to understand that certain rules will make other rules take a back seat unless something else happens!

"I think for that reason I'll take that statement down and post the + and - wire colors else I be spending the remainder of the day wearing my boxing gloves :boxer: hahaha! Thanks again for bringing that up bro,"

Cheers!

 

[rigtec]

Hey audio buffs,

I know that quite a few of you are getting interested in 'Audio engineering theory' which is a complicated field to understand and requires much time to get under the belt. I've been studying the subject for many years (still no engineer), but I didn't get involved with it to become an engineer, but rather to better understand the field that I was working in, which was Studio recording and Pro-Sound audio. But my main passion was 'and still is' the bass because that's my instrument of study and interest!

As some of you may know there is a phenomenon that takes place in sound reproduction known as 'Phase cancellation'. It can be a mother to fully understand and a Bi^ch to control. Phase cancellation doesn't only happen on the stage or in close proximity of the sound system, it also happens 'in room' in the listening area. As soon as the wavefront leaves the the speaker, they are already on their way to be "phased out" by other soundwaves; which are out of phase with them travelling in the room.

When soundwaves leave the speaker of origin they will not all leave the driver's cone at exactly that same moment. There is what's known as 'Off axis' projection; where soundwaves leave the speaker from a different part of the cone (Off-axis) an so may take longer to reach the listener's seat. This is why you'll see some high frequency drivers that use a Phase plug. If time arrival issues crop up in multi-speaker systems, a time delay can be employed or a simple speaker repositioning can be used to eradicate the problem, but when it happens using a single component driver, that won't work; "see the illustration below":

How the phase plug works is, it's placed directly in front the of the voice-coil where the highest frequencies are projected. The highest frequencies (being smaller and on-axis) are able to leave the center of the driver faster (sooner) than the lower mid frequencies; which project from the driver's surrounding (cone) area, and so take more time to reach the audience! So the phase plug impedes those very high frequencies, forcing them to go around it and to join the lower frequencies which project from their 'Off axis' vantage point!

My point: There will be phase cancellation both on-stage and off, in the living room, the bedroom, basement... etc, because sound bounces on objects in the room. This is just a product of 'Room modes (standing waves) and boundary effect'. Theory is this: If you have two soundwaves that are 180 deg out of phase and they are allowed to cross paths 'BEFORE' they travel one quarter of their own full length, then they will combine destructively (phase null)!

But if they are able to travel beyond the 1/4 wavelength threshold and do meet, then they will not cancel out completely, but may noticeably lose some amplitude at some point in the room. But again, this will happen in the listening area anyway because of boundaries, walls, furniture, the floor, the ceiling...etc. This is far more problematic where bass is concerned, due to the extremely long wavelengths e.g., 40 hz = 28 ft, 30 hz = 37.5 ft, 25 hz = 40 ft.... It's very easy to create phase cancellation conditions with wavefronts as long as these; even a quarter wave length of these can be problematic e.g., 40 hz = 28 ft (1/4 wave) = 7 ft, Can you imagine two 7 ft waves (180 deg out of phase) in the truck; there's no way for them to peacefully coexist, so PC is inevitable!

In your suv you'll surely have some PC going on; just because the sound is bouncing off of items in the cabin and then returning to the areas where the sound originated, so you will have some listening areas in the truck that sound better than others as a result! So with short soundwaves as in high frequency reproduction e.g., 200 hz (mid-bass) = 5.6 ft and a quarter of that would be 1.4 ft; not much chance of soundwaves crossing each other's paths, 1/4 wave being only 1.4 ft long. I hope this helps those who are going crazy worrying about phase cancellation happening in your truck... it's already been happening, even when the music's sounded fantastic, so now you can relax!

rig

Cheers

 

[Randyman...]

Rig - I appreciate all you do with regard to your insanely detailed wiring diagrams and all, but I need to clarify this:

Nice write up but I don't understand this statement:

(Original Quote) = Originally Posted by rigtec:
BTW: It doesn't matter which wire you choose to use for the positive or the negative, so you decide which one connects to which.

Not wiring correctly will cause the speakers to be out of phase. Why wouldn't it matter, especially if you don't match left to right?

Hi tigger,

let me clarify... I didn't say to cross-phase the L & R door speakers; though I should have stated that differently. I said you can choose which wire colors will be POS and NEG! As far as phase cancellation goes, the wave lengths involved here are far too short and won't meet before they reach a quarterwave length, the point where soundwaves combine destructively, here's the math: 1125 ft/sec (speed-of-sound) divided by 200 (mids in Hertz) = 5.6 full length. But one quarter of that = 1.375 ft... too short to combine with other 1/4 waves.

Just to clarify - your 6x9"s in the doors don't go any lower than 200Hz (your subs go all the way up to 200Hz?)? And even if that was the case, you are saying absolute polarity across drivers has no effect from 200Hz and above?

Considering those door speakers are very likely reaching well below 100Hz and also being summed with the midbass output from the rear doors and being integrated with the sub at the turnover frequency (not just summing with themselves) - how can someone randomly pick a polarity and run with it? Even if the arbitrary polarity was consistent across L/R doors - you have other drivers you are acoustically summing with.

As an Audio Guru of close to 30 years - this is plain incorrect. Math and theory is nice and all, but real-world experience will obviously yield a different result. Your 1/4 wavelength math can not be relied on in a vacuum - reality needs to be referenced for any meaningful results IMNSHO...

 

[SalsaRed]

[MENTION=83083]rigtec[/MENTION] so if I'm understanding your post right you have both the dash tweeters and the coaxials running?

I ask because I want to upgrade my front speakers so they can keep up with my sub. I also would like to be able to use a little more of the power available from my Alpine PDR-V75. But I don't want to tear apart my dash to hide a crossover and run new wires to the doors.

 

[rigtec]

[MENTION=83083]rigtec[/MENTION] so if I'm understanding your post right you have both the dash tweeters and the coaxials running?

I ask because I want to upgrade my front speakers so they can keep up with my sub. I also would like to be able to use a little more of the power available from my Alpine PDR-V75. But I don't want to tear apart my dash to hide a crossover and run new wires to the doors.

Hi Brad,

Yes, I'm using the new Alpine tweeters in the dash (with passive X-Overs) and the new Alpine 'Two way' door speakers up front; the X-Overs are built-in so there's no extra wiring to do, just two conventional + and - terminal tabs to make your connections! You don't have to change the factory speaker wiring if you don't want to as long as you limit the amplifier power output to a modest 80 or 100W RMS; which comes out to be about 7A total! With bass it's a whole different story... cuz the power and load are many times higher, so the wiring must be able to carry the high current (maybe 80 to 100A dynamic), Rgds!

 

[SalsaRed]

Hi Brad,

Yes, I'm using the new Alpine tweeters in the dash (with passive X-Overs) and the new Alpine 'Two way' door speakers up front; the X-Overs are built-in so there's no extra wiring to do, just two conventional + and - terminal tabs to make your connections! You don't have to change the factory speaker wiring if you don't want to as long as you limit the amplifier power output to a modest 80 or 100W RMS; which comes out to be about 7A total! With bass it's a whole different story... cuz the power and load are many times higher, so the wiring must be able to carry the high current (maybe 80 to 100A dynamic), Rgds!

Thanks man I appreciate it! I always enjoy reading your posts. I've built and set up many home stereos and speakers, but doing it in a car is fairly new to me.

After reading your reply I did a little searching and stumbled upon the Alpine SPR-10C components. They have inline crossovers as well, so I believe they should work on my non JBL 2010 SR5 if I wore them up the same as you did.

I did read a few reviews that said the tweeters can get a little harsh and have distortion at times, so I'm wondering if the tweets you installed might be an upgrade compared to what comes in the set.

I may end up running new speaker wire once I get into the doors and dash for the install and see how simple it is. My amp only puts out 110 W RMS and I never come close to cranking it so I'm not too worried for now.

 

[wolftg]

2016 Upgraded speakers

Great thread! I was ready to do this upgrade when I peeked inside the speaker grill on my dash and the tweeters look much nicer that the 2012 OEM. I'm sure JBL has upgraded for the 2016. Can anyone confirm if they are still worth replacing?

 

[Hawaiian4runner]

Great thread! I was ready to do this upgrade when I peeked inside the speaker grill on my dash and the tweeters look much nicer that the 2012 OEM. I'm sure JBL has upgraded for the 2016. Can anyone confirm if they are still worth replacing?

Maybe post a picture?

 

[wolftg]

Here is a link to the speaker they use now
Sites-JB-US-Site