Recommend cost effective 6x9 + amp setup?

Hello there!

New Tacoma owner, bone stock 2.7 SR Access Cab. Came from a Tundra 5.7 which is a BIG change, but I never needed all of that truck and bought when gas was $2 a gallon. Sold the Tundra at 200k miles and the down payment from that sale plus difference in gas every month nearly equals the car payment. I use for my small business. Also, I can park in garage now in an HOA neighborhood which I was never able to do. Win/win for me.

Anyways, the stock audio certainly isn't bad, but it isn't great either. Very quiet truck though which I couldn't say of the Ranger and Colorado trucks.

I have some experience with a full JL setup in my previous Tundra - 6.5 JL C2 componentsnin front, rears stock, JD 4 channel and and a powered TW1 12" stealthbox. JL cleansweep to eq and polish everything. Stock headunit. Had a shop do it all under the passenger seat.

The clarity was great, subwoofer was excellent but components left a bit to be desired as they had almost no real mid bass authority. The subwoofer just took over everything south of 500hz and I never could fully dial in the low mids without booming everything below the 100hz frequency. I didn't have any sound deadening done either.

In my wife's meticulously maintained 2013 EXL Accord however I personally installed 6.5 Morel Maximo front components (rear speakers stock) in with stock amp and pedestrian 10" pioneer wedge box sub in trunk tapped into wiring via

$85 Audio Control Lc2i 2 Channel Line Out Converter with AccuBASS and Subwoofer Control

Audio Control Lc2i and it's honestly a better setup in every way - even with stock headunit. Richer, lusher and warmer. But there's a catch - I put B-Quiet all in the doors and rear deck.

But it was a pain in the ass to do, took 3 days and door cards never quite fit the same. Hence for my Tundra I had a shop do it and splurged at the time, minus sound deadening.

Long story short: I am looking for a reasonable option this time around. Somewhere between the two where I prioritize quietness and comfort in a car vs outright sound and SPL.

I theorize that the 6x9s + good 2 or 4 channel amp (for future summed output subwoofer if needed) should suffice. Stock headunit is excellent and don't see the need to change in this truck.

I would say that the Morels I vastly prefer over the JL or at least in the setups that were/are used. I would like to have that sort of flavor this time around with warm, rich mid lows and somewhat relaxed highs.

I see though the Morel 6x9 Tempos don't fit in this year Tacoma...any other options?

 

They do fit. Crutchfield has their depth measurements wrong

 

Fit straight in or modified fit? Helpful to know which

 

Fit just fine with the correct mounting bracket

 

Which mounting bracket?

 

Taco tunes.com 1” HDPE bracket. Works in the doors of my ‘06 for the Morels.

 

These??

https://*********.com/shop/toyota-t...-speaker-adapter-front-door-installation-kit/

 

Metra ones work fine. Or get some nice birch ones from MrMarv

 

Can’t link the site here. They had problems fulfilling orders a while back. @destin_meeks is right, the Metra or, if you can wait, Mr Marv one’s work too. I had the TT ones from a few years back.

 

If they can't fufill orders, why in the world you you recommended them?

Generally, I'm not a fan of plastic adapter brackets. Especially Metra I've used before and wasn't a fan of - very brittle and not fully flat requiring additional sound deadening wrap to seal the air gaps

I'd be much more interested in ones made of Birch, though perhaps with a waterproof coating.

 

HAD a problem, not continuing to be a problem. I haven't heard of new issues in the 1.5 years I've been here...

Despite what Facebook and my estranged brother tells everyone, there is a difference. Just because something bad happened at one point doesn't condemn that person/business/entity to operate that way indefinitely.



If you're really happy with morel, stick with morel.

I will say though this trucks OEM radio does do a lot of oddball eq stuff to attempt to make something of the stock speakers, so be warned, the morels might sound entirely different in the truck if you're not replacing the head unit

 

Actually, I’ve been dealing with TT for 15 years, and the multiple changes to my stereo. Personally, I’ve never had a problem. I was just explaining why you can’t link their site here. It’s old news, and they’ve worked out the kinks, but sometimes you NEVER live down your mistakes.

 

Hey man, it's a competitive world and you gotta be consistent and strong to survive much less thrive as a small business.

Not dead set on the Morels, though I'm reading now that folks have made them fit with adapters and have been quite happy with them, even replacing $300+ Kickers of same size. Even their Maximo line I've used were impressively high quality and have no doubt the Tempos of larger size are even better.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/morel-tempo-ultra-6x9-component-sets.564807/


I'll contact Mr Marv to see what he can offer for brackets/adapters.

So...headunit doesn't output a clean signal? Does it need some sort of DSP or JL Cleansweep before sending to an amp?

 

To add some input on the TT situation, it’s not even that they are having issues with products/shipping/delays etc anymore. It’s the way the owner of the company handled any complaint he saw on here. I experienced this personally.
Someone was asking about a product and I chimed in that I had bought the same product from them and it worked fine but it took a bit longer than I expected to arrive. Not a crazy complaint by my standards.
Two posts down, the owner was posting screenshots of my order info, ship date, tracking info, all sorts of stuff, and calling me a liar and cussing me out. My favorite thing he said was to the effect of ‘you’re trying to make us look bad because you work for Best Buy / geek squad and you want to steal our sales’
And I literally had to laugh at that. Like, I just posted that I BOUGHT YOUR PRODUCT AND LIKED IT so how am I stealing sales? Also, while I did work for Best Buy for many years, if you go back in my post history, I would post that something could be bought at Best Buy but would also list other retailers as well. People weren’t coming to my store to buy it from me so why would I care!

so long story short, they weren’t banned for product issues or anything like that. They got banned because the owner was a dick to everyone on this forum that even hinted at a complaint.

 

K.