Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

After hearing everything about the hideaway can someone give me the coles notes version of what is needed to make this work? I have done the tweeters and CS series kickers already. It is recommended to buy the https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206KISL/Kicker-KISL.html but I don’t think I need this as I assume I will be using the speaker level inputs. Now do I piggy back the speakers off of say front driver or does it matter where I take the input from?

I am not a car audio geek so bear with me. I have an access cab and don’t want to lose any rear seat capacity or have something that will get destroyed by having groceries, shopping or kids on top of. If I mount underseat (driver or passenger seat) as was suggested elsewhere online will I feel the sound unbalanced (vs mounting further back and centered) or will I simply hate the ass tickling vibrations underseat?

I am loving the new speakers and since I am this far would I love things even more with the hideaway? Any help is appreciated because this is one topic I am completely lost on.

 

Here’s a reply I wrote to a pm I received about the Hideaway. Maybe it’ll help:

But I did buy the subwoofer harness from ********* so I didn’t have to cut any wires. Otherwise, you can get your signal from the rear speaker wires than run down the B pillar. I bought the harness to save the headache. I think it was around $30.

So it’s set up like this:

Taco tunes harness plugged in the back of the head unit. Wires from it run to the Hideaway.

Battery wire run from the battery through the grommet in the driver footwell back to the Hideaway.

Ground bolted on to one of the rear seat bolts.

Ran the volume control from the Hideaway to the cubby beside the steering wheel.

 

Do you have the part# or link to the taco tunes parts? I prefer plug and play where possible. Thanks.

 

https://*********.com/shop/toyota-t...re-harnesses/plug-play-add-subwoofer-harness/

 

Is this also required?

https://*********.com/shop/toyota-t...acoma-add-subwoofer-stock-stereo-remote-turn/

 

No but it will work also. Either one will work. The one I linked will power on and off the hideaway off the speaker signal and the other will be remote on/off.

 

So just a quick rundown/thoughts on what I did with my system:

Subaru Tweeter kit H631SFJ101: These tweeters sound fantastic, but I noticed that when it is really cold, they sound like there is something sitting on the cone. Like there is some sort of errant resonance going on. They sound even better with power.

Front door PPI 6.5: I decided on going with pure woofers because the speakers in the OP are just too much tweeter. I couldn't even imagine having 8 tweeter cones in my truck. My tinnitus would get out of control. I found that they sounded fine with no power to them, except at hi volume. They were definitely under powered before the amp went in.

Rear Kicker 43CSC674 6.75 coaxials: Great speaker set for rear fill. No issues.

Arc Audio 850.5: Super easy amp to install and tune with oscilloscope. Made specifically for speaker line power, but there is soldering involved to connect the RCA plugs and to create the wire harness going back to the speakers. I probably would go this very same route again, now that I know what exactly needs to be done, and have done it successfully.

JL 10TW1 and @Mr Marv sub box: I'm getting much more bang in the rear than I did with this same sub in my old 2009 Tundra.

I totally went over the $250 with the whole system, but for speakers I was under the $250 ($187.64 with front speaker adapters) because I had the set of PPIs hanging around.

I'll be honest, I think that going by the OP set up, there is just too much high going on. But sound is subjective, and one person may like it while others do not. It is definitely an easy and cost effective way to upgrade the speakers for the Entune Premium however. I think for people that are adverse to treble might go a different route with the speakers and still stay around $250 by putting a midbass woofer in the front doors rather than a coaxial or 3-way 6x9. For example:

$95 Subaru Genuine Tweeter Kit Kicker WRX STi Forester Crosstrek Impreza H631SFJ101

Subaru Kicker Tweeter Kit $96.27
Kicker Coaxials rear door $55.99 Ordered from Crutchfield it will come with everything you need as long as you specify what door. Honestly, any coaxial would work back there....
Midrange Woofer front door $41.70 each ($83.40 total)
You will need adapters for the midrange woofers ordered separately through either @Mr Marv for $35. These particular midrange drivers have a 3" mounting depth.....
Total: $270.66

YMMV.......

 

OK got my speakers out of the box and snow day so not going to install them today. It's snowing like a nuclear winter here... 2"/hour and going on and on... must fucking shovel now...

So putting the speakers in the brackets. Have a question. Does it matter about orientation of the bracket for the front doors? I installed 1 speaker 1 way and of course the other speaker is opposite. Meaning the larger tabs to the left on 1 and the larger tabs to the right on the other. Should they both be to the left??

 

I noticed the brackets only fit one way in the door, where the small hole in the bracket (for the adapter wires to thread through) is facing upward so the adapter connector can plug into the door connector above. The larger tabs will be on the left (or right?) on each side (driver/passenger). Just member the hole is on top.

 

My rear speaker brackets didn’t fit my speakers due to some tabs sticking out.... hmmm. No biggie I just removed them with a small drum sander on the drill. Well, tweets and 3 of the 4 door speakers are in and damn I must say I’m very pleased. Still have the Hideaway to install, but if I stopped now I’d still be super happy!

 

Thanks for the heads up... getting the door speakers ready, this thread is perfect and a big help. I could see this taking a bunch of extra time at install. Getting speakers oriented properly. Did the rears..with the wire cutout towards the btm.. Im guessing from looking at pics the wire cutout should be at top toward the window??
Double Cab here....

 

I think either way will work, there is plenty of wire included in the adapter... but yes, holes to the top.

 

Thanks ... figures. I should have looked at it.... said I'm going this way and do it opposite from the way I thought it should go!

 

Considering just doing the Kicker DS series front and rear and leaving the stock tweeters -- seems the 3-way door speakers should fill in highs plenty. The DS series has the same sensitivity but rated for lower RMS than the CS series, so the HU should be able to drive them a bit better. Cost is about the same. Thoughts? I could always add the tweeters later . . . just don't want to go down the rabbit hole, usually do the entire system with sub, amps and component speakers.

 

These replacement tweeters are almost full range. BIG improv over stock. Night n day diff... I would do the tweeters and then decide if you wanna go any farther.

The stock head unit has enough power, it's the speakers that are the weak part. Specially the front tweeters. I think they set them up to filter out most all of the sound stock. The Subie replacements are letting much more sound thru.

 

That was how I read things. Thank you for the confirmation.

 

So why wouldn't I just get some component speakers for the front and put the tweeters in the dash spots? Seems they would be even better than the Subaru tweeters -- just swapping stock tweeters for stock tweeters that seem to be overpriced seems odd, and then I'd just be driving a woofer and a tweeter rather than a woofer, 2 tweeters and a super tweeter. I've fabbed mounts to go in the Taco and 4Runner mounting spots, it's not hard to do. Worst part of that would be finding a spot for the crossovers and running the wiring.

Who makes the Subaru tweeter and why are they so much better, other than possibly having a different high pass filter?

Not trying to shit on this upgrade, it looks promising, just don't want to dump $200+ and realize I need to dump a bunch more to really improve things. The sound seems a little weak all over, not just in the tweeters. Sucks not being able to listen to one first!

 

That's what I did...have components up front and the tweeters from those components in the stock location. I had to run my own wires to the passive filter down in the kick panel tho.

 

Thanks. So are you happy with it? Which speakers did you go with?

 

You obviously know more than everyone else. Go spend your money and then make your own thread about how much smarter you are than those in this thread.

So far everyone has been happy with the low buck improvements to their system. All positivity and lots of additional upgrades all along the low buck theme. This is not the high end ********* or OEMaudio plus upgrade so if that’s your desire go buy that. This is an inexpensive way to improve the sound on the cheap while getting maximum bang for your buck. Many of us were generally happy with the stock system but did this upgrade for clarity and the plug and play aspect.