How to - Subaru/Toyota(3rd Gen) Tweeter Upgrade (Holy S***)

Door and tweeter are wired in parallel, meaning if you wired the door to the amp, your tweets are wired to the amp too.The tweeter plug actually has 4 wire leads into it, 2 go back to the door speaker.

 

WOW, gotta say how impressed I am at how these upgrade tweeters have dramatically improved the sound quality from the front seats! The stockers were indeed pretty much worthless. Now it's time to move forward with the Kicker door speakers, and likely the Sound Ordnance powered sub that I retained from my '08 DCSB.

 

I know this is a subjective thing based on individual preferred volume/type of music/ settings/existing hearing loss( we all have some degree) I installed the Subaru/kicker tweeters and I am disappointed. I can't tell any improvement over stock. I have the radio adjusted high and mid all the way up and bass 3/4. If anything I have to turn up the overall volume a bit higher to hear things as clear as stock. With no amp and all other speakers stock this mod seems like it's not worth it to me.

 

It's because the factory speakers are not a tweeter. Now you added a different speaker being a tweeter only and your not getting the sound at certain levels that you had with the 3 inch factory speaker. I added a 2 way set of pioneer speakers with a tweeter. I must say that was what I needed, sounds great and there is a great stereo store that does real high end work and suggested this over the Subaru tweeters.

 

I’ve changed mine today an it made a world of difference I’ve already changed the factory’s over to the kickers cs 6 3/4 an 6x9
Also have to L7 12s wired to 1 ohm in back seat with a 1600kx kicker mono amp

 

Did the upgrade a few weekends ago. WOW I can definitely hear the difference. The highs in my music are much clearer now. I can hear cymbals, vocals, fingers moving up and down the frets on a guitar, much better now. The install was breezy, and it's definitely woken up the system enough for me to put off the door speakers and subwoofer for awhile and focus elsewhere. Definitely would recommend.

 

Because you've adjusted the EQ wrong. Turn your high/mid/bass back down to baseline. Now adjust the volume first. Then adjust the EQ.
And yes, it will require a higher volume number to be the the same loudness. The speakers take more power to push. I noticed it as well, but the clarity/quality is definitely better.

 

I definitely had to mess with the EQ to find the sweet spot for waking the speakers up and not going deaf.

 

I did the tweeter and kicker speaker upgrade myself. When I swapped mine out I changed everything on the right side first and listened th my music switching from left to right to compare. Definitely not as loud with the new speakers. After everything was done I noticed while not as loud it was much clearer. After a few weeks went by I decided I wanted more of the bass back so I installed a 5 channel amp from ********* and a 10” shallow mount infinity subwoofer. What a difference that made. I couldn’t be happier. Yeh sub is in a sealed enclosure I built and fits behind rear seat in my double cab. They also sell pre wired harnesses which are plug and play. Check out their installation videos. Pretty simple to remove factory radio to plug in connectors. About five minutes to do that part of it. They also show you how to tune the amp with a volt meter. It is now unbelievable clear with plenty of bass.

 

I usually listen to my music between level 6-8, I’m sure this is much lower than most people.

 

I did this mod today. Very happy with the sound improvement for $90. Looking to start doing the doors next week! Thanks for the write up OP! Cheers

 

I didn’t adjust it “wrong” I adjusted it to my personal preference.

 

Yes, you did. You did it in the wrong order. You need to adjust the volume first, THEN the EQ. Just do it, trust me. Also, at that low of a volume, you're not even providing enough power to push those new door speakers. I used to listen at 25-28, and the new speakers have to be at 30-35 to produce the same volume.

 

I did my kicker tweeters first and was really impressed with the sound quality so I changed out the door speakers as well. For the price you can’t beat it, huge upgrade. I’m thinking about a sub next. Crutchfield is a great place to order from, they came with everything I needed.

 

Any chance you can give details on the pioneer 2 way speakers you had installed

 

I think I've mentioned this before, but I feel like its worth saying just in case I havent. The Kickers are nice, especially since you dont have to do any real work to install them. That being said, for those looking for a better upgrade in the same price range, there are better options out there. Hopefully I wont catch any heat for saying this but adapters can be picked up for about $15 or made with back strap for a couple bucks. A wire adapter can be bought from places like ********* for $22, made for less by yourself, or the wires can be cut and soldered. Beyond that your welcome to try any tweeter you desire. I personally have used the Fosgate R1Ts in my truck as well as installed them in a couple other trucks. They have a larger frequency range, down to 2500hz, vs 3500 on the kickers. Personally, I also believe they sound better. They can be purchased on Amazon for around $40 too, which would make building them about $75-80, cheaper than the Kickers.

If you're looking for a really nice tweeter though, that has an even larger dynamic range and sounds considerably better, try to Image Dynamics XS28. It's a bit more at $90ish but once you get it all together it'll cost about $20-30 more than the Kicker. The extra $ is really worth it with the IDs though.

Just my 2 cents, to hopefully help someone out with a few more options for maybe a cheaper/better sounding option or for a slight more expensive, but much better sounding one.

 

I did the upgrade and now I can't get the damn 10mm bolt covers to clip back into place on the passenger side grab handle.

I can't figure out how to get them to stay into the clipped position; Tacomaworld what am I doing wrong?

 

I looked at the Image Dynamics XS28 from what Amazon sells. Some of the problems with those are how do you mount them?

 

Question for anyone who's done this. The Crutchfield instructions show just popping the speaker cover off without removing the pillar trim. Is this possible or recommended? Is it too tight a fit to do it that way without breaking something?

 

Even cheaper now.

https://goo.gl/yLHCZy