Upgraded my JBL Synthesis speakers today

[Mako]

Well, two of them . Rears were wrong size. Tomorrow for them!

Truck is a 2004 V6 Limited.

I read many threads on the JBL Synthesis and HU and speaker swaps. Here are a few pics and thoughts. Overall, it was easy and a lot of things that were suggested on the online weren't necessary. Of course, YMMV. Here goes.

 

[Mako]

Fronts

6x9 up front. Driver side door panel has one extra wiring connector that the pass. side doesn't have, and it was a bizatch to get out. Hung the door with a bungee. Anyway, unlike what some have said, it is quite easy to separate the JBL speaker from the plastic mount. The device mounted in the frame is the crossover. IN from vehicle at white, out to speaker at black.

 

[Mako]

Fitment

I tested the new Pioneer and the old JBL with the crossover, then plugged straight in, no crossover. As you can imagine, being a 3-way it sounded horrible with the crossover. The unit itself pops right out under finger pressure. Then a couple snips with a bigger wire cutter and the little box was gone too. This was necessary to fit the Pioneer 6x9.

No need to remove the white connector. More on this in a moment.

My new Pioneers matched the OEM mount holes perfectly. No need to buy an aftermarket mount frame!

 

[Mako]

I did buy the Metra 72-8104 plugs and they worked great. The go direct from the car harness to the speaker terminals.

In retrospect, they aren't needed; there is another option for a cleaner install, with the downside of having more splices and such for signal degradation.

Go like factory from the main harness into the speaker frame. Then out from the white box inside the frame, and cut off the black "T" plug. Strip and crimp on female spade connectors, then attach to your aftermarket speakers.

This keeps the quite smart design from the factory. But, it also offer more chances for lost, broken or degraded signals.

The point is you aren't required to use the Metras. We went the Metra route in front but might do the non-Metra rears tomorrow when the speakers show up.

Here are the Pioneer A-series 6x9s installed. Left side of speaker you can see the Metra going behind the mount; these wires end at the speaker terminals.

 

[Mako]

Rears

Somewhere I thought I read the rear doors were 5.25". Nope, 6.5". Oh well. here is the stock JBL, again easily separated from the OEM frame. Will finish this thread tomorrow when the 6.5s come in.

 

[zopperman]

Interesting. I'm running my 3 ways with the crossover and I think they spud great. I'm also running 1" door tweeters.... Should I ditch the crossover?

 

[Mako]

Zopperman, I don't want to steer you or anyone wrong but, according to other threads the system is setup so that the tweeters above get high frequencies only and the 6x9 the low freqs only. It makes sense because the OEM JBL 6x9 is just a driver; it has no midrange or tweeter. I know there are full range drivers...James B Lansing was famous for this in the 60's with that classic 15" home stereo driver (model escapes me now). But then why the crossover built into the 6x9?

I did run the JBL 6x9 and the Pioneer 3-way both with and without the crossover. WITH the crossover the Pioneers sounded muddy and low; it definitely was getting low freqs only. WITHOUT the crossover the Pioneers were clearly playing highs and lows. If it had sounded the same or better I would have kept the crossover in the circuit.

I did not touch the upper tweeter or its components.

That's just my own experience. It's easy enough to take the door off and unscrew the speaker out and it might be worth another test on your part...you MIGHT be losing some good sounds if you kept the crossover. However I am no audio expert so I may be wrong. Hmm. Wish I had recorded the with and without crossover.

6.5's go in today.

The reason I am doing just the speakers is, for now I can't be bothered with dealing with that damn proprietary JBL amp and HU setup and getting the Pac Tato and all that jive. Hoping the new main speakers will improve sounds enough that all that business isn't necessary. I'll soon know. My heart was dark with rage and hate last night when I realized that I'd ordered the wrong size. Another illusion shattered!

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Nice work, I also used the stock JBL speaker mounts in my 03, that's another nice thing abut the JBL system, missed that with my 08

 

[zopperman]

Nice work, I also used the stock JBL speaker mounts in my 03, that's another nice thing abut the JBL system, missed that with my 08

You Also used the crossovers right??

 

[97BlackAckCL]

You Also used the crossovers right??

yes on the JBL system I did

 

[Cygan1008]

Just did mine yesterday with Infinity Reference and the 6x9s were to big, a little modification and some serious sqeezing in and they were in. I also removed the crossover since I had 2-ways.

If you keep the crossover you can just disassemble the black stock wire connecter that goes to the speaker and it has the standard blade connectors in it. Thats about as clean an install as you can ask for. I just removed it all used the Metra connectors, shoved them into the bracket and secured it with foam tape so it is sealed.

 

[Mako]

Got some Pioneer TS-D 6.5's in back. They did not QUITE line up perfectly with the frame mount holes, but close enough. Done and dusted ten minutes per side. Used the Metras; I had 'em so why not use 'em versus cutting and crimping and all.

Sounds better, maybe not incredibly better but way better than those single woofer rear drivers!

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Sadly the rears are underpowered so you won't notice THAT much difference, but anything is an improvement

 

[NasaE30]

So overall impressions? Amazon has those 6x9 for $50. Thats not bad for better sound.

 

[Mako]

Yeah, the rears are better but clearly way underpowered. The fronts are better but not tons better. It is not a DD yet so I can live with it for now. For the cost for speaks on amazon, and not even the need to buythe Metras, it's a good upgrade. I think the 6x9 TS-A front Pioneers were $52 and the 6.5 TS-D rears were $66.