EASY tweeter upgrade! (3rd gen non-JBL)

The sound of the non-JBL Entune stereo leaves much to be desired. In my opinion, the factory "tweeters" deserve most of the blame for the crappy sound. They are not true tweeters, but rather small mid-range speakers....so the sound coming from them is harsh with no clarity. In short, they are garbage. The stock door speakers are also low quality, but at least they seem to produce decent bass and mid-range. I decided to replace the dash speakers with decent quality tweeters to see if I could live with the stock stereo.

First, a bit of background.....I had the OEM Audio plus system in my last car (2015 wrx) and knew that company also produced a system for the 3rd gen Tacoma. So, I contacted them to see if any of the system I pulled out of my Subaru prior to trading it in would be interchangeable with the Tacoma system, thus saving me some money if I decided to get a system for my truck. I was told that the OEM+ tweeters were in fact exactly the same in both systems and would just plug in. turns out the stock speakers in the Subaru and the Tacoma are identical (in design and terrible quality).

Subaru offers a plug-and-play speaker upgrade for their base stereo systems that is Kicker branded. You can get a set of tweeters that are ready to install with crossover and factory plug for about $90. These are also a direct fit for the Tacoma! I ordered a set to try....if they didn't work out, they were going to go into our crosstrek.

Turns out they are pretty decent! The harshness is gone and there is actually some decent soundstage/imaging. Proper tweeters make this stereo acceptable IMO.

I'll admit...$90 is a bit steep for a pair of tweeters, but if you want a decent quality set that are a direct fit you may want to go this route. Keep in mind, there are no mounting adapters to get and no fiddling with wires and crossovers. The way these systems are wired, if the dash speakers are unplugged, the door speakers go silent....so replacing the tweeters usually involves either wire splicing or wiring adapters. Not so with these....unplug old, plug in new. Done. EASY!

Pics....

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Holy heck! This is Awsome. So I wish this came out last weak after I wasted 30 plus on the adapters for my 3.5 to work in my dash (who someone else wrote fits with minor work... not apparent in ur pics

 

Way cool, added to list.

 

I'm no audiophile, but I do love my music and find crank my treble up usually. Is it worth the $90, any sound clips?

 

Ordered off Amazon... anyone need a taco tunes harness for $20 lol...

 

Very cool. Great find! Hopefully they are similarly efficient so the balance is retained!

 

So far the sound seems much more acceptable to me. With the stock dash speakers, the treble turned up higher resulted in a very harsh sound, turned down the sound was very dull.....no happy medium.

With the new tweeters in, I have the treble set to zero, mid set to -1, and bass set to 2 and that seems like a pretty balanced sound to me for most music.

I'll listen to it for a while with this setup and decide if it's a keeper. I had the OEM plus system in the last car and it was pretty amazing....may have to invest in another one for the Taco.

 

Wonder if these will work in a 2013 with jbl.........

 

Just curious if you got them put in yet and how you like....

 

Put them in, so easy sounds much better than stock. I also replaced the front 6x9 with fosgates. The entire system sounds great now.

 

What 6"x9"s did you use? did you use an amp or are you just running off of factory headunit?

 

Awesome. What discernible improvement did you notice with the new 6x9s? Clarity? Bass? I'm somewhat surprised by the sound that the stock door speakers put out....i've seen pics of the magnets on the back and they are tiny, but they don't sound entirely horrible to me. The bass can be muddy at times, but there's a surprising amount of bass coming from them IMO.

 

$99 Rockford Fosgate P1692 Punch 6"x9" 2-Way Coaxial Full Range Speakers - Black (Pair)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001P86SE8/ref=ya_aw_oh_bia_dp?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Stock entune

 

Get a much more clear sound. All types of music sounds good. Bass sounds Similar to factory not so mushy.the stock speakers are about as heavy as a sheet of paper and cheap as hell.

 

Also little to no distortion at volume 50

 

Is there as much bass as before? That's my concern switch from a 6x9" woofer (stock) to a 6x9" coaxial..

 

Yes. Better sounding too. Don't forget adapter and plug adapter

 

Do the aftermarket speakers get as load as the factory? I was told by a rep at Crutchfield that aftermarket would not get as loud

 

These are just as loud and sound more clear. Who goes around with their speakers turned up to 50 anyways?

 

Haha very fair point