Sound upgrade help/build log

3/4" should work fine. mine are close to 1.5"

aluminum might not be the best material for this

here are my quick and dirty brackets, i sandwiched 2- 3/4" pieces of plywood to get the depth i needed

 

Did you use 1.5" to get the speaker closer to the opening in the door panel?

Do you not recommend aluminum for potential sound quality issues?

 

yes, but i had to trim in places for the door panel to sit flush. it has a few protrusions

not so much sound quality as being able to make minor changes if needed. also if you want to change speakers you would have to mill new holes

 

So I'm still slowly gathering my equipment. I finally got the amps from my brother.

The VR404 will be for my midbasses and tweeters.

The VR302 will be for my Sub(s) when that time comes.

He also had an assortment of Power wire, fuse boxes, and speaker wire. Ill have to go through and see what will be useful. He also has a brand new set of JL RCA's a 4 channel set and a 2 channel set.

Still haven't ordered my DSP...don't know what I'm waiting for.

I get a week off between Christmas and New years so I'm hoping to get my baffles made up and start getting stuff put into the truck. I'll need to figure out an amp rack. The 4 channel is pretty good sized. The cubby behind the driver side rear seat seems to get filled up by just it.

 

So big thanks to @EricU for selling me his miniDSP c-dsp 6x8 and Mic. No issues with payment or shipping. Still haven't made my baffles yet for the speakers. I have pulled everything out behind the rear seats to do some figuring on where to mount the amps and a subwoofer box. Hopefully this weekend I can find some motivation to start getting some parts installed!
Anyone have ideas for a subwoofer box that doesn't involve removing the child car seat hooks?

 

glad everything made it to you. im looking forward to see how this build comes out.

 

sub.. ur off to a great start.

 

So I have a question. I worked on making my harness to connect the factory head unit to the DSP. I originally figured I would tap into the front speaker wires to get the full range signal to the DSP. After getting the harness back in to test it out I realized that the bluetooth phone voices out of only the front speakers and not the rear. I plan to leave the rear factory speakers in and most likely fade them out on the head unit. Would it be wise to instead flip the connections and get full range signal out of the rear to the DSP and voice the bluetooth out to the rear speakers. Would doing this prevent any kind of noise or interference with the signal to the DSP due to bluetooth? This only affects the call feature.

 

I wanted to give a little update and some information that could help someone in the future.

So I am using these harnesses so I don't have to mess with the factory harness.
Essentially you connect the required wires of these two harnesses and then plug and play with the factory wire harness and head unit. It's pretty simple but lack of instructions led me to problems. So, first I wired everything up matching colors between the two harnesses like I have on aftermarket head unit installs. I intended to leave the front speakers disconnected to use for the signal into the DSP,there is no power antenna, and the 6 pin plug has two brown MUTE wires that I didn't need so I leave those unconnected. After connecting the harness and everything working I think all is good. Until, I needed to turn on my headlights later that day. I lose all illumination to the head unit screen and the buttons don't illuminate but it still works(plays music). So I find the diagram below pointing out the wire pin locations. I see that pin J which is an orange illumination wire says do not use. So I figured I should snip that connection and it should work. Well the screen doesn't go dark now but the buttons still wont illuminate with the headlight switch being turned on. So after searching I find this post (thanks @Revelations) https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lights-on-oem-radio-after-loc-install.394575/ . So I followed the directions and and pulled the unused power antenna pin from the 10 pin plug to use in the 6 pin plug. I cant remember now if its pin N or O but you can find a green with white stripe wire on the factory 6 pin harness that needs to go to the head unit for the illumination to work. I used one of the brown MUTE wires in the N or O location.But, don't do what I did and not reconnect the orange wire that I snipped. So you need J connected and modify the plugs to connect the green with white stripe wire on the 6 plug harness.

Here are my harnesses soldiered and shrink wrapped before my screw up.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for my previous post that would be great.

 

I don't understand the question. If you have a phone call come in, your music will get muted. So, why would you want to flip the connection? Music won't be playing, so it won't matter where the dsp gets it's signal. I don't have a mini-dsp. I went with the lc7i and you just input all 4 channels into that and it goes to the amp. If I was using the lc2i, I would use the front speakers.

The other thing is that if you fade the rear signal using your headunit and you are using the rear signal for the dsp, it will diminish the voltage your dsp receives and in turn, your volume will need to be cranked to get decent sound.

 

I know that bluetooth will mute the music when its initiated to use for calls. But I've read cases(not specifically Tacomas) where bluetooth will cause an audible noise in the system even when it isn't being used for calls. If this isn't an issue I would just use the fronts for the signal to the DSP. If it is an issue the head unit would just be backwards in the sense that I would fade to the rear to get less voltage to the rear(If I don't have any passengers in the rear I would completely fade them out)

 

I did some searching and found this.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/thoughts-on-awful-hissing-with-lc7i.339592/#post-9013333

So this is why I was asking. If bluetooth for calling only goes through the front( and honestly it only sounds like it comes from the front left) would using the rears eliminate this hissing noise people have heard.

 

Hi Question, On your audio upgrade. I'm looking to upgrade my factory system just checking are you keeping your factory head unit. I'm back and forth on that issues. I see some guys went with taco tunes recurve to set up there factory head unit. What did you decide? Thanks.

 

I am keeping the factory head unit. I am using miniDSP c-dsp 6x8 to keep the factory head unit, it accepts hi-level inputs. Similar to what the recurve does but has a lot more adjustment capabilities and although it isn't plug and play I can easily use it in another vehicle unlike the recurve(I'm sure you could modify the recurve harness for other vehicles).

I would make a post with what your goals are for the upgrade and maybe a budget, I'm sure you will get some recommendations.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

So here's the speakers installed on the drivers side. I should have taken the easier route and made the baffles out of MDF. But, I decided to make them into a horrible project by doing them out of aluminum. While the idea was cool at the time and yeah they wont disintegrate in few thousand years they took forever to make and every step of the way I seemed to make mistakes.Wrong measurements as you can see by the extra drilled holes, broken taps(yes two of them), and deciding that I couldn't wait to finish them without a drill press and making some extra holes. They are definitely unique...

The tweeter baffle I got creative and used a clipboard that I had in the garage and cut them up with a jigsaw. I wanted them in the truck and this seemed to work.


They are not hooked up yet. Still have to run wires and figure out where to put the amp. I left the plastic screw nuts that clip into the door where the speaker mounts. This causes the speaker to have a slight gap all the way around between the baffle and door. What should I do with this? I've seen people use modeling clay to decouple the two surfaces, is this a good idea?

 

I like that you tried something unique man!

 

Order from Knuconceptz came in yesterday. Started running wire last night. Got the power wire ran to the rear and drivers side door speaker wires ran. Hopefully can get some more done tonight. Also trying to figure our how I want to mount my amps. I'm thinking a plywood wall on the back wall of the cab that doesn't remove the car seat hooks. The amps are pretty big compared to todays class D amps. Looked at under the rear seats and their just too big to fit there.

 

I have sound! Worked for the last two days running wires and quickly hooked everything up tonight just to finally have some sound in my truck. Everything is working and I messed around a little bit with the DSP. It's a really cool unit and I can't wait to get into tuning the system and getting everything worked out.I still have a lot to do to finish the install but getting sound was definitely motivating to getting the whole project finished.

 

I too am doing an audio upgrade on my 2015 entune (non nav non jbl). I went with Rockford Fosgate Punch amps and speakers. Primary reason I went with the punch series amp was the RCA inputs are both a low and high signal input. The amp determines the voltage and adjusts accordingly and when using the high level, it does not need a remote turn on wire.
I was originally going to go with the lc7i in addition but after reading about the distortion hiss many have experienced I figured to keep it simple first without spending the extra cash.
I'll post some pictures when I get home and document the install which will be on the next 50 degree day here in jersey.
It's only been 25 years since I wired my '92 first gen ... How hard could it be ??