2 and 3 way question

I am confused about this. If I upgrade to a 2 or 3 way door speaker does that take the place of the tweeter in the dash? Can I put two ways in the front and rear doors? This would all run off the stock head unit.

Also, was thinking about adding some sound mat while I had door panels off. When you re-attach the plastic vapor barrier do you just tape it or is that goo stuff like RTV silicone?

 

You will be fine. The dash is a small mid range driver that supports higher frequencies but is not a true tweeter.

2 or 3 way will be a negligible difference overall, more your speaker choice and compatibility will be the determining factors.

You can install the new speakers and try them out with the dash speakers in, then try disconnecting the dash speakers and see what you like best.

A good sound deadening will actually have a far greater effect on even the stock speakers. I would do that first and see if you even feel the need to upgrade speakers.

Vapor barrier uses butyl so you can reapply pretty easily. But if you use a good deadener with some closed cell foam, you can eliminate the need for the vapor barrier.

Whats your long game with your audio?

 

Just a simple upgrade. I’m looking at these...

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206DSC6504/Kicker-43DSC6504.html?tp=78072

 

There is a crossover that takes care (of the distribution) of the 2x vs 3x (frequency).

Recommend you purchase from a single source like Crutchfield. You may also consider having a professional do the installation.

 

It’s not just plug and play?

 

Kicker makes decent stuff.

Keep in mind you have 6x9 in the front doors and 6.5 in the rear.

These speakers run 60w rms and the head unit puts out around 14w rms. They should in theory sound good, but mostly the higher frequencies due to the higher quality proper tweeters.

Can't stress a good sound deadening though. When I was installing my system, I did the deadening first and drove for month as parts were on backorder. The deadening actually makes the stock system sound decent overall.

 

Probably. It is not 100% certain. Talk to, and buy from, someone (e.g., Crutchfield), who will take the time to put together a system, and backup the results.

 

Simply disconnecting the dash speaker will disable the speaker in the door as well. The 4 Pin connector on the speaker parallels the signal and sends an out to the door woofer.

Any aftermarket speaker system that is not specifically designed to be plug and play into your vehicle will require some effort on your part. Getting them mounted properly, either making them compatible with the factory speaker wiring (installing adaptor pigtails), or running your own wiring to and from a crossover, or installing filter capacitors.

Your stock speakers are configured to play LF in the door and mid/high in the dash. The signal going to the door woofer is full range, but the spectrum it plays is limited by its frequency response, so since it doesn't have a whizzer cone or integrated HF diaphragm, it can't reach the high spectrum, where the dash speakers are taking over. The dash speakers are also receiving a full range signal but there is a high pass filter capacitor mounted directly to them that filters out the LF so they don't become damaged. There is some overlap between the two but the factory stereo has been internally calibrated for these speakers.

If you install a full range speaker in place of the door woofer, you will have mid/high emanating from both the door and dash. Some people think this would be great because more is better I guess. However, there are a couple reasons I wouldn't think of doing this. First, is that the speaker locations for door and dash are far enough apart that when they are both playing the same part of the audio spectrum, they will not be phase aligned. You will lose your sound stage and what you do hear, assuming there are no destructive interferences, will be blurred and not as clean and accurate as it should be. Second is that the stock unit has VERY LIMITED user EQ controls, so there would be no way to balance/compensate the consequential extra midrange.

 

@dolbytone thx for the reply. So what would you suggest for a simple upgrade? It seems every 6x9 and 6.5 I find online is a 2 or 3 way. Is there such a thing as a one way so it won’t interfere with the dash speakers?

 

You are looking for component speakers. You can either buy them individually, or in sets.

Like, what exactly are you trying to improve here? What is it that you would eventually like to end up with? Knowing these things ahead of time will inform the decisions you make now.

Do you just want speakers because? On the factory stereo there's a not a lot of improvement to be had by just doing this. You still have the condition of low power from your factory stereo. You can buy the wrong speakers and actually make it much worse. You also still have the condition of almost no tuneability. Sometimes new speakers have a lot of potential but you simply don't have the control to make it happen.

If you know what the end game will be, you can avoid going down the wrong path.

If you want to see what you are getting into regarding replacing speakers, you can read what I did in my Audison factory integration thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/factory-integration-audison-build.691221/

 

Yeah I guess it is just because lol. I have no interest in putting in a new head unit. My son and I want some more bass and I guess I just assumed everything would sound better with new speakers. I was looking at the Kicker, MTX and Rockford Fosgate stuff on Crutchfield. I watched some YouTube videos and it looked super easy to pull the door panels and swap them out. If it won’t make a difference I guess I will save my time and $200 bucks!

 

It sounds like you would be more satisfied with a small powered subwoofer then.

 

Be prepared to fall in the pit! Of course, tacos are easy to up grade. The doors are held on by 2 screws! Getting a good sounding system, with a factory HU can be a challenge though! People never consider it until they hear the potential. Next week you'll be researching DSP's and crossovers! Lol

Plus all the other big words that @dolbytone uses.

 

20 years ago I had aftermarket HU's and 12 inch subs lol. I thought I was over it but now my 11 year old loves rocking out to hair nation on Sirius xm and asked for me to get a subwoofer! I think I'm leaning toward trying the Subaru tweeter upgrade everyone raves about and adding a powered 8 inch sub (or two). Then maybe upgrading the door speakers and adding one of those little mini kicker key amps. I really don't want to mess with the factory HU.

 

Same boat brother! Same boat!