Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

OP, you already installed all these speakers and did it without any addition of weather strips or Dynamat right? you aren't having any issues are you?

 

You muddahfawka! There goes another 100 bucks! I originally made a set of adapters and mounted some MB Quart soft domes in there, but the hacked up tweeter plug from the old factory tweeter had my OCD swirling. Plus, I hate not having timbre matched speakers, which currently I have a Kicker HS-8 and the Quarts. So that also had my OCD buggin'. Now I will have all OEM and Kicker again. I'll probably end up doing the doors with the Kickers too... Damnit!

 

Nope. Like I said no distortion or rattling at all unless I try it by finding the right track, turn the bass on the EQ to max, and volume to max. and with these speakers max volume is far too loud for me anyway. I used to listen to the stock ones at max consistently to give you a frame of reference though so my ears are no strangers to loudness. You'll be fine. I'm sure you could get improvements with some dynamat or something but damn they sound great and don't rattle unless I intentionally crank the bass and volume far above normal listening levels. With these speakers though I keep the treble in the middle with the mid and bass one notch to the right and it's balanced super well

 

thanks! can't wait til these buggas deliver.

 

Damn you all......damn you. Anytime I have replaced factory speakers i feel like i lose bass. Sounds like its not the case here.

 

I used this:

Noico 50 mil 21.5 sqft car Sound deadening mat, Butyl Automotive Sound Deadener, Audio Noise Insulation and dampening

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B012AVX5HQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



One box is MORE than enough... trust me. I had to return the other two I bought as I did not listen to folks on here and wanted to be safe. I still have some from the one box left and I covered all four doors like the pictures show (did not take pics of the rears).

I tried to get some right on the interior side of the door outer panel, but there is a crush bar/pipe right behind that outer panel, so you can't really get to it.

 

OP, just talked to CF rep and he was recommending these instead of the ones you have. His reasoning was that the sensitivity level was better suited for the stock HU ( the higher the Db level the less power it requires )and that the stock HU was not strong enough for the Kickers without distorting it at times. I know you are pleased with yours and that's what got me interested and the description on CF says its good with a stock HU. ???
109JBLG796Save for later
JBL GT7-96GT7 Series 6"x9" 3-way car speakers
(92)

In Stock$99.99 (pair)2016 Toyota Tacoma Pickup DoubleCab without JBL audio system; With 7" LCD Radio: Front Door




109JBLG76Save for later
JBL GT7-6GT7 Series 6-1/2" 2-way car speakers
(107)

In Stock$79.99 (pair)2016 Toyota Tacoma Pickup DoubleCab without JBL audio system; With 7" LCD Radio: Rear Door

 

Those are the exact ones I put in and I love them. You won't be disappointed, but you may have to bump up the bass on the equalizer a notch. You have to watch it as some channels (radio mainly) will adjust their signal, so I have to play w/ it from time to time. I listen to a lot of satellite radio, so it's pretty flat standard, so I just turned up the bass one notch and suits me fine.

 

Looks like I'm not the only one who uses the crap out of the Save For Later function...

 

LOL, I just bought the exact same speakers (all 6) and installed them last week VERY happy with the results, a very solid improvement over stock for not a lot of cash.

 

I blame you all for making me order all of this stuff.

 

The specs between the Kicker and JBL aren't comparable in my opinion. They are different measurement methods (1W ant 1m vs 2.83V). The Kickers may be just as good or better. The Kickers have better low frequency response, and are cheaper. Comparing them to the other 1W at 1m ratings, the Kickers are at the top for sensitivity.

I'm no expert certainly, but that was my observation. I definitely agree that sensitivity is paramount for stock HU performance. Peak handling is useless.

 

Anyone know how deep of foam baffles will fit F and R?

Edit: Looks like someone confirmed that you must use slim line per CF.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cheap-speaker-upgrades.510424/page-3#post-16034881

 

Well, I was wondering how those two rating systems worked, so I found this article:

http://www.psbspeakers.com/articles/Guide-to-Speaker-Specifications

I was always used to hearing the "per watt per meter" rating from way back in the day and did not truly understand the 2.83V method. However, after reading this article, the JBLs are even more efficient at the 4 ohms I'm running at than the Kickers (from the article):

Sensitivity
Sensitivity is most easily defined as the speakers’ ability to effectively convert power into sound. The traditional way of measuring a speakers’ sensitivity is using the standard of 1 watt/1 meter. Meaning a microphone is placed 1 meter away from the speaker to measure the sound output (in decibels) with 1 watt of sound played through it.

There is much room for error (or imposed error) with this type of measuring system and some manufacturers today take advantage of this.

Voltage Sensitivity
Because today’s solid state amplifiers do a good job across the board of maintaining a voltage output of 2.83 volts, many companies consider this as their standard of measurement. Here again, 2.83 volts are inputted and measured at 1 meter. [Note: 2.83 volts into an 8 ohm load is equal to 1 watt. Ohm’s Law: Power (watts) = Voltage (V) x Current (I) or Power = V_/R (impedance in Ohms)]

Because a speakers’ efficiency in transforming (transducer) power into sound is greatly determined by the impedance of a speaker, (see more on impedance below) 2.83 volts becomes greater about 1.5 watts at 6 ohms (as many PSB Speakers are rated.) and 2 watts at 4 ohms — a 3dB increase. (Read more on the importance of a 3dB increase below.) ​

So, I'm actually getting 97db per watt per meter at the 4 ohms that this is running at if I was to convert that over to the same measurement method.

That all being said, you have an excellent point in that the Kicker has a lower response, hence my issue w/ too much high end maybe. I know I added 3 additional mids/tweeters that were not in my truck before, so that has a lot to play into that, but your point on the low end response is not helping my cause.

All in all, if you like the Kickers, buy them. I love Infiniti speakers, but they would need an amp to push them enough. That is why I settled on these and am very happy. Get the speakers you think are the best for your application and no matter what brand, you will see a huge improvement in sound quality over what you are taking out of the truck. I would guess you could get some Pioneer speakers from Wal-mart that would be an improvement over what they stuck in there.

 

^^ Good info, thanks.

 

I got two thicknesses of weatherstripping. I used the 3/4" x 3/16" for between the speaker and the speaker mount. I then used 3/4" x 5/16" for around the speaker and the door panel to seal it up. It matched up pretty well to what I pulled out on the stock speakers, so I was figuring that it was pretty close. I tested if it was too thick sealing to the door panel by re-installing it and then pulling it back off to see how much was compressed. No issue.

 

Just ordered the kickers. Already did the tweeters a couple weeks back and those were a great improvement for a great price. Thanks OP. !

 

So true... those stock speakers are garbage!

 

I like this idea - let us know how it turns out. I'm not unhappy with my setup in any way, clearly but if $20 improves it even more, why not. It's only (a little bit) of money... ha! I still have a hard time seeing the need for additional bass response from what I have today as it's damn good but hell if it works and makes it even fuller so be it!

Why I love this forum... you post up a decent idea based on experience and others continuously chime in with more info, improvements, insights and we all get better together collectively. Good stuff! Thanks

 

I see you are in LB, did you purchase them online or at your local Subaru dealer?