what an unbelievable difference! - kappa 3.5 dash speakers

[Liquidmantis]

I have read some folks post on here about how they swapped the door speakers and were not impressed. My mind tells me something like what I put in the dash has to be better than what Toyota put in the door, but maybe those are just really well matched to the head unit and that's why they sound good. I don't know. Maybe I will just have to spend a little money and find out. Curious to know how yours turns out if you do it.

I think that might stem from putting better, but inherently lower efficiency, speakers in and powered by the stock head unit. Those OE drivers with lightweight paper cones and tiny magnets are probably super efficient. My hope is that with my aftermarket head unit's 50w/channel power that any 6x9 or 6.5" woofer will be driven just fine.

 

[1jzgte]

I think that might stem from putting better, but inherently lower efficiency, speakers in and powered by the stock head unit. Those OE drivers with lightweight paper cones and tiny magnets are probably super efficient. My hope is that with my aftermarket head unit's 50w/channel power that any 6x9 or 6.5" woofer will be driven just fine.

The 6x9's in the front do a pretty good job of delivering bass. Replacing them with more powerful speakers will just disappoint you. If you must, definitely replace the dash speakers. I went with the much cheaper Rockford Fosgate p321:

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-P132-3-5-Inch-Speakers/dp/B001P86SP2

It's also got a built in crossover, and low power requirements. If my math is right, if the OEM front speakers run at 2 ohms then the RF p132 crossovers should cut out all frequency below 240hz at 2 ohms instead of the 120hz at 4 ohms. Which works out fairly well.

keep in mind, even with an aftermarket head unit you're still sharing 50 watts peak between the 3.5 and 6x9 speakers. Which means each speaker is only getting 20 to 25 watts peak. Which also means your head unit is running hotter to work at 2 ohms. Most aftermarket headunits usually run around 17-21 Watts RMS.

But of course all those figures are at 4 ohms: the 50 watts peak and RMS. I worry about the longevity of my aftermarket Alpine since it definitely has to work a hotter to run these speakers at 2 ohms.

On the contrary with Party Mode off the 4 back speakers run at 8ohms, which might help keep the heat down a bit?


A bit off topic but those are my thoughts.

 

[Crocket]

One thing that has been asked before but not really answered is regarding the included crossover in these upgrade speakers. Is the crossover only connected to the tweeter, or the mid range driver too? If only the tweeter then there is still a chance of over driving the mid range cone when the bass and volume are cranked up, no?

edit: Just noticed in the Rockford Fosgate Amazon link above, it indicates that for those speakers only the Tweeters are connected to the crossover. So the question is, for those upgrading the front speakers, do you notice any distortion when cranking the bass and volume up? Or are the (rather smallish) 3.5" mid range cones able to handle it? Thanks.

 

[1jzgte]

One thing that has been asked before but not really answered is regarding the included crossover in these upgrade speakers. Is the crossover only connected to the tweeter, or the mid range driver too? If only the tweeter then there is still a chance of over driving the mid range cone when the bass and volume are cranked up, no?

edit: Just noticed in the Rockford Fosgate Amazon link above, it indicates that for those speakers only the Tweeters are connected to the crossover. So the question is, for those upgrading the front speakers, do you notice any distortion when cranking the bass and volume up? Or are the (rather smallish) 3.5" mid range cones able to handle it? Thanks.

good frickin eye my friend! I didnt even notice that only the tweeter had crossover frequencies. I'll test it out and let you know. Havent really put anything bass intensive through it.

 

[1jzgte]

One thing that has been asked before but not really answered is regarding the included crossover in these upgrade speakers. Is the crossover only connected to the tweeter, or the mid range driver too? If only the tweeter then there is still a chance of over driving the mid range cone when the bass and volume are cranked up, no?

edit: Just noticed in the Rockford Fosgate Amazon link above, it indicates that for those speakers only the Tweeters are connected to the crossover. So the question is, for those upgrading the front speakers, do you notice any distortion when cranking the bass and volume up? Or are the (rather smallish) 3.5" mid range cones able to handle it? Thanks.

Definitely add some bass blockers to them. There is distortion at high volumes.

 

[trick18]

I recently installed the kappa's all around, 6.5 components in the front with the tweeter in the dash. Waiting to install the sound stream 4/1000 amp under the front seat and sound deeding the doors(just need to find the time). Speakers sound better, but hoping the amp and deeding make a significant improvement. If not the next step will be a DSP and small sub.

 

[Crocket]

Definitely add some bass blockers to them. There is distortion at high volumes.

Thanks for the update

 

[trick18]

I recently installed the kappa's all around, 6.5 components in the front with the tweeter in the dash. Waiting to install the sound stream 4/1000 amp under the front seat and sound deeding the doors(just need to find the time). Speakers sound better, but hoping the amp and deeding make a significant improvement. If not the next step will be a DSP and small sub.

Put the amp in this weekend, made huge difference.

 

[Btrepp]

I deviated from this thread (GASP) and ordered these speakers

Rockford Fosgate Punch P132

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-P132-3-5-Inch-Speakers/dp/B001P86SP2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494862357&sr=8-3&keywords=3.5+coaxial+speaker.

They sound GREAT. However they do not fit lol. So dont order them for the dash. Even after shaving down the bottom side of the dash grill they were too "tall" so the grill wont snap into place.

Long story short I have since returned them and ordered the JBL GX302. I have them all wired up through the factory harness like DarkDane posted. Also put a bass blocker in. I was intimated and hesitant to do this mod and glad I tried. Quite easy, especially if you buy crimp on connectors!.

 

[1jzgte]

I deviated from this thread (GASP) and ordered these speakers

Rockford Fosgate Punch P132

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-P132-3-5-Inch-Speakers/dp/B001P86SP2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494862357&sr=8-3&keywords=3.5+coaxial+speaker.

They sound GREAT. However they do not fit lol. So dont order them for the dash. Even after shaving down the bottom side of the dash grill they were too "tall" so the grill wont snap into place.

Long story short I have since returned them and ordered the JBL GX302. I have them all wired up through the factory harness like DarkDane posted. Also put a bass blocker in. I was intimated and hesitant to do this mod and glad I tried. Quite easy, especially if you buy crimp on connectors!.

good to know that the GX302 fits better!

 

[zcruiser]

good to know that the GX302 fits better!

I did shave the circular walls off the underside of the dash grill covers to make sure they didn't interfere with the GX302's, though not sure it was required. I just did it w/o test fitting beforehand.

 

[bane]

Has anyone tried to install the JBL GX302s without shaving the bottom of the speaker grills?

 

[1jzgte]

I did shave the circular walls off the underside of the dash grill covers to make sure they didn't interfere with the GX302's, though not sure it was required. I just did it w/o test fitting beforehand.

yea I did it to be safe also.

Hey guys

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odk....A0.H0.Xbass+.TRS2&_nkw=bass+blocker&_sacat=0

These are the cheapest I could find for bass blockers. Sonicelectronix is reputable and a 60 day return.

I originally installed these:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odk....A0.H0.Xbass+.TRS2&_nkw=bass+blocker&_sacat=0

BB398uf which is supposed to filter 200hz @ 6db on my Rockford P132, but I'm still getting lots of bass and distortion at high volumes.


However I ordered the BB199 to see if it eliminates the distortion. 199uf blocks out 400hz @ 6db and below. I'll report my results in about a week:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Xscorpion-B...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

[tacoyota]

I wonder the same thing too about swapping in a decent driver to go with my JBL's. Problem is I think its diminishing returns for me. Given I would only swap the door speakers, my concern would be marginal or no improvement for money spent. You know? I was just listening to a bit of electronic on the way home from dropping my daughter at school and I have to say for 99 cent shit box OE speakers driven off a head unit, the factory door 6x9's put out decent bass. Its not rattle the house and give you a stomach ache type of stuff, but pretty good all things considered. I have read some folks post on here about how they swapped the door speakers and were not impressed. My mind tells me something like what I put in the dash has to be better than what Toyota put in the door, but maybe those are just really well matched to the head unit and that's why they sound good. I don't know. Maybe I will just have to spend a little money and find out. Curious to know how yours turns out if you do it.

Honestly, if you swap in the JBL setup (or kappa/other brand) I am using you can tell a significant difference. This stock headunit seems to push out decent watts as I can turn up the sounds quite high before distortion. It is only worth swapping the dash and front speakers. You can barely hear the rear doors when sitting up front.

I was thinking about just keeping the stock front door speakers but to be honest, the sound clarity of the upgraded dash speakers made the stock door speakers sound lousy. I think Toyota did a good job in matching all the crap speakers together so when you just change one set, its sounds better but still half assed.

IMHO= Another $60 will make a big difference to change out all 4 front speakers.

P.S. You must shave off the speaker grill. Also the GX302's come with built in Xovers so no soldering needed.

 

[916T4R]

Honestly, if you swap in the JBL setup (or kappa/other brand) I am using you can tell a significant difference. This stock headunit seems to push out decent watts as I can turn up the sounds quite high before distortion. It is only worth swapping the dash and front speakers. You can barely hear the rear doors when sitting up front.

I was thinking about just keeping the stock front door speakers but to be honest, the sound clarity of the upgraded dash speakers made the stock door speakers sound lousy. I think Toyota did a good job in matching all the crap speakers together so when you just change one set, its sounds better but still half assed.

IMHO= Another $60 will make a big difference to change out all 4 front speakers.

P.S. You must shave off the speaker grill. Also the GX302's come with built in Xovers so no soldering needed.

Hmm, maybe I will pick up some 6x9's for the doors. I am really impressed with the JBL 3.5's I put in the dash. We'll see. Want to get some wheels first.

BTW I did have to solder the capacitors that came with the speakers. The one built in was only for the tweeter. No big deal though. And yeah, I did use the dremel to take down the speaker covers. I would like to try some foam rings to see if they help a bit on sound but that is a project down the road. And not necessary by any means right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tacoyota]

Hmm, maybe I will pick up some 6x9's for the doors. I am really impressed with the JBL 3.5's I put in the dash. We'll see. Want to get some wheels first.

BTW I did have to solder the capacitors that came with the speakers. The one built in was only for the tweeter. No big deal though. And yeah, I did use the dremel to take down the speaker covers. I would like to try some foam rings to see if they help a bit on sound but that is a project down the road. And not necessary by any means right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wanted to keep the oem connector so I did solder to bypass the oem capacitor. There was also a huge air gap for my gx302s when I installed them. maybe it would be worthwhile stuffing a bunch of foam to surround it. I don't think a ring will work because the speaker just floats on the two screws lol.

 

[916T4R]

I wanted to keep the oem connector so I did solder to bypass the oem capacitor. There was also a huge air gap for my gx302s when I installed them. maybe it would be worthwhile stuffing a bunch of foam to surround it. I don't think a ring will work because the speaker just floats on the two screws lol.

Yeah, I stuffed some foam around the speaker to fill the voids on the sides and create some sort of enclosure. Who knows if it did anything. In theory it should. So the rings I am referring to work like what they had from the factory on my 3.5's. Essentially it creates a tube like enclosure from the edges of the speaker all the way up to the grill. I did some googling and apparently these are all the rave with some installers. Unfortunately the main company that makes them,FAST, doesn't seem to have a 3.5 kit. I am sure a bit more diligence would turn up something in the smaller size from another company but the incentive is low for me right now.

If I were to do my install all over I would have kept the factory connectors and soldered my caps in place of the stock ones like you did. But I just jumped right into the project and should have done a bit more forum surfing. Oh well. It works fine spliced together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zcruiser]

If I were to do my install all over I would have kept the factory connectors and soldered my caps in place of the stock ones like you did. But I just jumped right into the project and should have done a bit more forum surfing. Oh well. It works fine spliced together.

The only benefit is not chopping the stock harness but really who cares? Will anyone ever go back to stock? If you want a connector, there are much smaller solutions. I just didn't want to have to solder inside the truck....

 

[TVA21]

I had initially installed the Focal plug and play kit which replaced the stock dash speakers with 1" tweeters. The sound was much improved over stock, but I felt that some of the high to mid high range was missing after the fact. The replacement 6x9s do a great job with the mids and lows though.

Today I pulled the Focal tweeters and replaced them with Kicker 43DSC3504 3.5s. I removed the connectors with built in crossovers from the stock dash speakers and soldered them to the included wires with spade connectors. The Kicker 2 ways did not appear to have any built in crossovers so I opted to retain the stock ones on the connector.

Installation required cutting the stock brackets that held the original dash speakers as the 3.5s are too large in diameter. It was an extremely tight fit edge to edge, however these speakers clear well in terms of depth on the driver's side and just clear on the passenger side WITHOUT trimming the bottom of the stock grilles.

The difference in sound between these 2 ways and the Focal tweeters is tremendous. The jump in sound quality is similar to the jump I noticed when installing the Focals, only higher in the sound range. Highs are crisp, snares are much more present, and vocals sound much cleaner. I think replacing the stock full range speaker with a tweeter is a detriment to the whole sound stage and I'm very happy that I decided to swap them out!

 

[Btrepp]

The 6x9's in the front do a pretty good job of delivering bass. Replacing them with more powerful speakers will just disappoint you. If you must, definitely replace the dash speakers. I went with the much cheaper Rockford Fosgate p321:

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-P132-3-5-Inch-Speakers/dp/B001P86SP2

It's also got a built in crossover, and low power requirements. If my math is right, if the OEM front speakers run at 2 ohms then the RF p132 crossovers should cut out all frequency below 240hz at 2 ohms instead of the 120hz at 4 ohms. Which works out fairly well.

keep in mind, even with an aftermarket head unit you're still sharing 50 watts peak between the 3.5 and 6x9 speakers. Which means each speaker is only getting 20 to 25 watts peak. Which also means your head unit is running hotter to work at 2 ohms. Most aftermarket headunits usually run around 17-21 Watts RMS.

But of course all those figures are at 4 ohms: the 50 watts peak and RMS. I worry about the longevity of my aftermarket Alpine since it definitely has to work a hotter to run these speakers at 2 ohms.

On the contrary with Party Mode off the 4 back speakers run at 8ohms, which might help keep the heat down a bit?


A bit off topic but those are my thoughts.

How did you get the p321's to fit?? I bought those and even with shaving down the grill from the truck they were too "tall". Did you cut off the plastic cover from the speaker? Just curious.