New component speakers, do you need the crossovers?

Still looking at options for new front door speakers and tweeters. The better component sets all come with crossovers, but I am wondering if the truck has something for that already in the harness to properly feed the bottom front door speakers that are just woofers and the upper tweeters.

I have a Pioneer NEX head unit but just connected it to the stock speaker harness with the typical plug and play adapter. So, I assume it uses the factory crossovers in the speaker harness, if any. Or were the factory crossover points built into the OEM head unit??

Not looking to build a perfect system, just better. And I'd really rather not mess with crossovers, and I REALLY don't want to run all new speaker wires.

 

Well, I have spent a good bit of time on Crutchfield looking at speakers and they have a filter that lets you find sets with inline crossovers that will simplify the installation. I have pretty much decided to go with these "entry level" Focals. Probably order next week. Should be a huge upgrade over the factory speakers.

Focal ISU 165 Universal Integration Series 6-1/2" component speaker system at Crutchfield

 

My second gen, didn’t have real tweeters. They were small full range speakers, thus the lack of a xover. If your electronics has xover capability, that is can send isolated frequencies to specific speakers, then you don’t need another xover. I caution that this capability is generally found in boutique electronics not OEM.

 

Yes, if your component set comes with crossovers you need to use them. Tweeters will get roasted/blown up by lower frequencies they are not designed to play. Most tweeters will receive about 3,000hz and higher. Too much below that and they will horribly distort or blow up entirely. Most coaxial speakers just have a simple 1st order crossover (capacitor) on the tweeter for this purpose which is why they don't have an external crossover. But when you buy a component set where the speakers are all separate, so are the crossovers. It should be noted the external crossover is also much higher quality and reduces a large amount of frequency overlap between the speakers.

So long story short, get the components with an external crossover if you want it to sound good. The instructions are simple for the install. The wire terminals are literally labeled "woofer + and -" and "tweeter + and -" so you will not screw it up. Just mount them on the door under the plastic panel and you'll be good to go.

 

The wiring from the body side to the door side of the truck is only two wires and the stock tweeter and stock "mid range / woofer" are wired in parallel without a crossover. The stock tweeter has a filter cap on it to filter out the unnecessary lows.

Needless to say, yes you will need a crossover with a component setup.

Even if you go with entry level 3 way 6x9's and a separate tweeter wired in parallel like the stock setup its going to be WAAAAAAAY better than stock even with the stock headunit.

I upgraded my front doors with that setup and rears with a 6.5 round 3 way and it was night and day difference in sound quality with the stock head unit.

 

The stock tweet filter sounds similar what the Focal set I linked above has. I suspect that will suffice for me. I understand full size crossovers are not hard to wire but still I'd like to skip that as well as finding a place to mount them.

The other thing I would like to do sometime is to put a set of real speakers in the wing doors of my access cab. The little speakers in the ceiling are just lame. But I am not sure how easily the headliner comes off to access and extend those speaker wires. Otherwise, it'd be easy.

 

Yeah the component system you linked to will work just fine with the stock head unit if you use the supplied inline crossover.

THAT STATED, unless the front doors are different on the AC, a 6.5 round is not going to fit well, you will want a 6x9

Also the rear wing doors on the AC fit a 6.5 round no problem.

 

Head unit is not stock, it's a Pioneer NEX with plenty (for me) of power. Interesting about the speaker fitment. Crutchfield says most of these round ones have a bolt-in fit with the supplied brackets.

 

I should rephrase, a 6x9 is stock ish size and have no problem fitting (they all need adapter brackets cus toyota uses a wacky speaker attachment). You can definitely fit a 6.5 round with a proper adapter bracket up front, but there is room for a 6x9 if you so choose.

 

If you are running the Pioneer HU to the stock speakers without an amp, add some sound deadening material to your front doors, you will notice a big difference there with sound and bass response. You dont have to go crazy with how much you add but get behind the speaker and the larger areas of the outer door skin.

If you do add components, you will want to add some sort of amp as the Pioneer will not be enough to power a good set of after market components.

Add the deadener first and see how that changes the sound and then look at the next upgrade option, you may be happy with the difference some Noico makes in the doors

 

The Focal set I linked above has very high efficiency (93dB) so the Pioneer should be able to drive it to acceptable levels. And I am not so much asking for bass from this because I already have a sub with its own amp. I am mostly looking for better definition and sound stage up front. When I get in there I'll see what I can do to add some damping.

 

Either way the damping will help but you might actually be happy just doing that first and then decide if you want to go focal route. I added dampening to mine when I put in my HU and it made a huge difference with stock. I have some Morel 6x9’s out of a previous install I had planned to put in but now I’m debating. I do have my amp and wiring already done but hadn’t decided if I want to reuse the Morels or throw in some Hertz6.5’s components I had bought for it. I’m content at the moment T or it’s just too hot for me to take the doors back off and finished the install of speakers and amp

 

There is that. My garage is too small to work on an open door so it would have to be outside. Need a real break from the heat and humidity to even think about it so it might be a while.