Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

Kind of hard to keep up with whats going on in the thread. Sorry in advance cause i am sure its answered somewhere in here. I am looking to go for the Kicker KS line here https://www.bestbuy.com/site/kicker...lene-cones-pair-black/5712390.p?skuId=5712390 and the equivalent 6x9 with the Subaru tweeters. Will this set be ok if I don't plan on doing an amp? Also, since I am not looking for an amp would the CS line be better?

 

@destin_meeks

Have you heard of any of these factory 7inch HU’s going bad?

I had a JL amp installed and have had nothing but problems (over a multi-month time frame). At first the passenger side would cut out. Took it back to the place a couple times and they couldn’t duplicate the problem. Then yesterday the driver side started cutting out. I took it over there while it was doing it. The guy said they are going to try replacing the line converters, but also could smack the dash above the HU and the speakers would come back on. He mentioned that it could be the HU going out as well.



Any thoughts?

 

I personally have not seen any go bad, but I have only had my hands on maybe 4 of the 3rd gens. Toyota radio’s typically seem to hold up well though. I consistently have early 2000’s Toyota’s come in for new radios, simply because they want Bluetooth.
All that being said, there are millions of Toyota’s on the road and I’ve touched maybe 100 of them. I definitely won’t say it’s impossible for the radio to go bad, and I won’t say the shop is or is not to blame. If the guys work looks clean and they are legit, then I’d trust them. But if the work is janky and the wiring is sloppy, we might have a different story.

There is one possible easy way to check though. If they built a t-harness to integrate the new amp into the factory radio and wiring, just disconnect the t-harness and plug the factory wiring straight back into the factory radio. If the problem persists, then it's the radio. If the problem stops, might be the aftermarket stuff.
If they did not use a t-harness and they either cut factory connectors or ran new wiring from the amp into the doors, things will be much harder to narrow down. You will also lose nearly all hope of warranty covering the factory radio. That is a big reason I always use factory wiring and connectors if possible, and make everything where it can easily be converted back to stock. If the dealer see's aftermarket equipment, they will immediately blame that, even if it's unrelated. I have had so much random crap blamed on me, from headlights that quit working (bulbs went out) to factory key fobs not unlocking the car (battery died in the remote) and the dealer will ALWAYS blame aftermarket accessories. So I make it all reversible

 

Are the speaker wires coming out of the pigtail aluminum or copper?

 

Do you mean in the door? I can honestly say I’m not sure lol. I typically solder the speaker wire directly onto the speaker terminals if I can. One less point of failure. The wire seems to accept solder easy enough so I would assume copper? I know older GM wiring is aluminum and it is difficult as hell to solder.

 

I was thinking behind the hu if you were using a line converter to convert to RCA

 

I feel like it is copper as well. I have soldered a lot of SWC modules into that wiring, as well as power/ground/accy for dash cams and radar detectors. Never had issues with solder not wicking in well or causing corrosion.

Again, I cannot say with certainty that is is copper wire, but aluminum wire is very difficult to wick up solder, and toyota wire never seems to be a problem.

 

Ran this setup for a while and it is way better than stock. Recently decided to add the

$220 Kicker KEY180.4 Kicker 45KEY1804 4-Channel 45 x 4 Key Smart Sound Processor Amp 180W Amplifier

Kicker KEY180.4. Nicely engineered unit. Built the T harness from the 2 Metra harnesses, so no wire taps or cutting. This thing rocks, and totally corrects the rear signal, huge difference. Highly recommend!

 

And the best part is, when your radio starts having problems (like all other 3rd gen's seem to) and the dealer tries to blame the amp (which they will) you can just unplug it and go right back to factory and prove it's the radio!

 

Wait. What problems do they have?

 

The biggest thing seems to be Bluetooth issues during voice services and phone calls. The radio will just shut off and restart itself. This issue may have been finally fixed, or maybe there was a firmware update that cleared it up. My ‘17 radio had every update available, and got replaced 3 times at the dealership and finally I just quit using Bluetooth. There’s a thread somewhere here about it, but I won’t promise your radio will have any issues. However, if it does, you’ll be ready!

 

Unfortunately I'm out of warranty. I'm guessing the OEM radios are in the 4 digit range?

Are they just a drop in if I can find a used one?

 

If you’ve had your truck for a while and haven’t had this issue, then you’re probably good. I wouldn’t worry about it

 

Are there tweeters better than the Subaru kickers? Something that I can find at most car audio places? Thanks.

 

I decide to customize the dash tweeters by cutting out the OEM cone and installing some spare Bose tweeters I had right inside the OEM bracket. Had to do some fine soldering but worked out quite well I think.

 

Nice work!

 

I had found the Bose tweeters(4 of them) from a junk yard scavenge. Going to install the other 2 in my rear deck when the new amps are hooked up.

They just happen to fit in the OEM frames and I like customizing things. I have no way to compare. I found the Bose tweeters(4 of them) when on a junk yard scavenge some time ago. Going to install the other 2 in the rear panel.

 

Lots of tweeters out there that are probably better quality than the Subaru. But they are the only plug and play ones. Anything else will need wiring work to make work.

 

I had that issue for the long time, random rebooting, crashing and firmware updates. When they finally replaced the head unit it fixed it for good though. No issues with bluetooth or rebooting, but we did lose pandora.

 

Can I add jbl club 9630 to my non jbl headunit? Do I need an amp?