Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

I pulled the felt off and went right over the plastic. No need for the felt, it’s just deadening material.

 

So after a few days I’m very happy with the upgrade. I’d also highly recommend that if you are going through the effort to replace the speakers, add some dynamat (or similar) while you’ve got the truck torn apart. It’s cut down on some of the road noise and eliminates basically any vibration caused by the speakers - I hate when everything rattles and buzzes.

I used 4.5 sheets of dynamat extreme (leftover from when I did behind the rear seats). Basically one sheet per door and two strips inside the door behind where the speaker mounts. I ripped out the felt and went right over the plastic, worked out very well. The sheets I had were big enough I could basically just stick on the sheet and cut out the couple spots for the wire harness, locks and door mount.

 

That's a good idea to apply a speaker mount buffer. Yeah I used Bluetooth to test audio. Can't stand the underwater-sounding XM and HD radio cuts in and out all the time. Thanks again for your intel on all this.

 

I did the whole back wall/rear floor/doors on my 2nd Gen with pretty good results. Since the 3rd Gen is more insulated, what kind of difference did you get after dynamating yours?

 

I basically did behind the underseat bins and up the back wall. 99% of the time I have my rear seats folded down so I notice a pretty significant difference. If you always have the seats up I’m sure it won’t be as much.

There was more of what I assume is some kind of deadening material on the 2017 than the 2016 I had. In the 2016 I did 2 layers, on the 2017 I only did one.

 

In my 2nd gen I put 1 layer, then applied a mass loaded vinyl on top of it on the back wall, and floorboard. That vinyl is designed to really kill road noise, just not sure if the 3rd Gen needs it.

 

Honestly it probably depends on how much time you spend in the truck. I’m doing about 1,000 miles every week so I spend a lot of time in my truck and some of this stuff I notice a lot more than others would. If I wasn’t driving nearly as much, I’d say doing the doors is probably more worthwhile than the rear, but at the same time I figure if I’m gonna do part of it, I might as well do all of it

I’ve done a lot of days driving 6-12 hours and it’s definitely noticeable for that. The third gen is much quieter than the second gen was from the start but I think it’s definitely been worth the time and effort, at least for myself.

 

True, I'll probably end up doing pretty much the whole thing as well, lol.

 

I am gonna have to do this. I have been kicking the idea around for a couple years. Now is as good as time as any I guess. They are awfully proud of their "Genuine

$120 Subaru H631SFJ101 Subaru Genuine Tweeter Kit Kicker WRX STi Forester Crosstrek Impreza H631SFJ101

Subaru H631SFJ101 Tweeter Kits" though at $96.27 a pop.

 

For the 2nd gen guys, this won't work. However ********* makes a tweeter adapter for $20 bucks. Order the adapter to be cut at 1.75". Then order the kicker 44kst2504 tweeters from crutchfield for $75. I am speaking just from what I found from bouncing between the two pages. I just placed my order and will report back later in the week on my outcome.

 

I'm patiently awaiting your review of the Kicker 44KST2504 tweeters. Do you plan on using the in-line crossover?

 

Yes. I'm hoping they will be sufficient for my use so i won't have to buy different ones.

 

After installing the speakers, I listened to xm radio mostly and really didn't think much of the upgrade. I then switched to my iPod (yes I'm behind the times) and wow....big difference.

 

Anyone know why the XM sounds so shitty compared to Bluetooth? I noticed this right away. My free trial to XM ends in a few days and I definitely will not be paying for it after that. I'll be switching to my Ipod as well, and sometimes my phone with Pandora. Speaking of Ipod, does the audio sound good when you have USB or Aux plugged in? I have not tried either yet

 

The short answer is compression. When XM first came out it had about 120 stations. Now its like 175? (Not sure). That means the same signal is divided up amongst all of those songs. Sirius comes through at like 32kbps whereas a cd gives you around 1400ish kbps. So around 2% if you do the math. You are getting 2% of the information that a cd can give. So what do you lose? Depth, clarity, brightness, nuance etc etc etc.

 

going to switch out my tweeters today....i read to disconnect negative terminal first cuz of airbags...is anyone sure ? Thanks

 

The codec they use sucks too. If you stream it through a phone it sound immensely better.

 

I love XM stations, so I listen to it frequently BUT I never listen to it over the antenna.. I keep my XM subscription, but with unlimited on my phone I just stream the stations I enjoy from there and the quality is immensely better w/o such high levels of compression. It's still not QUITE as deep and clear as the high quality setting on Spotify or some other apps but 10x better than the low quality you get over the head unit alone...

Also have to throw out a plug - if you enjoy any of the "jamband" scene or even things like live Pearl Jam, Grateful Dead / Jerry G Band, Greensky Bluegrass, etc., the only thing I've been listening to recently is actually "Nugs.net" app - there is a paid subscription for lossless audio (i.e. not compressed) and they have 1,000s of live shows recorded from the soundboard at perfect clarity and for many bands who are touring right now the shows are posted the next day. Nothing I've played shows off this speaker setup quite like the soundstaging and crispness of those tracks..

 

Not sure if anyone had their airbag go off, but when you remove the A-pillar trim piece, the airbag is right there. You nip a wire and you could be setting it off.

 

Does anyone have the model number for the jbl amp in the optional 2017 pkg?