Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

Well that’s unfortunate. So the kicker key 180 is the go to for most Tacoma audio upgrades?

 

For a cheap and easy power upgrade while keeping the factory radio, yes.

 

I did the upgrade last week in my (US) 2020, including the rear speakers.

To my knowledge there isn't an adapter available yet for the 2020 rear speaker harness, or at least Crutchfield didn't send one with my speaker order. What they included for the rear was a pigtail you could solder onto the factory wiring after cutting off the factory plug. Well, I wasn't cutting into the factory wiring. However, I did manage to hack up a temporary solution that lets me install the new speaker without cutting into the factory wiring harness.

What's missing in the aftermarket is the female socket to mate with the factory rear connector. Well, you actually have one in your truck already and it's on the old speaker you are replacing. The connector is molded into the speaker surround but you are scrapping the speaker anyway so just cut it out and reuse it. I used side cutters and carefully snipped away as much of the speaker surround as I could without cracking the connector I was trying to salvage. You could use a coping or hack saw as well. Once the connector is free, you want to cut the wires going from the connector to the speaker cone as long as you can. Then connect your speaker pigtail to those wires using solder, wire nut or crimp connector, wrap the mess in electrical tape so the wires don't short on each other or anything else. Connect your new adapter to the new speaker, mount the speaker, plug it into the factory harness and enjoy. It's not pretty but it works. As soon as a commercial adapter is available you can swap the hack out in few minutes.

When creating your adapter cable you want to try and ensure you are connecting the + and - wires from the factory harness to the + and - terminals on the speaker. On the rear passenger door, the blue wire should be + and the green one -. On the rear driver door, the white one should be + and the pink one (if I remember correctly) should be -. If you get these wrong, it's not the end of the world. It might effect the sound a bit but the rear speaker have so little output compared to the fronts anyway that any phasing problems are unlikely to be noticed. And again, eventually we should be able to buy commercially made adapters so all this is temporary.

EDIT: It appears the connector for the 2020 Tacoma rear speakers is the same one used in the 2018+ Camry. Here is a link to an ebay source for the wiring adapter (in the description, it mentions the 2020 Tacoma rear door compatibility),

https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/401973183675

 

If you were just going to do one, would you rather swap out the tweeters or the front door speakers?

 

Most just do the Tweeter swap. They are plug and play out of the box. Door speakers will be a bit more involved and I'd suggest waiting until you can do all four.

 

Just swapped out OEM non jbl speakers on a gen 3. Went with the plug and play kicker tweeters in the dash, Infinity ref 9633ix 6x9 for the front, and infinity ref 6532ex for the back. Everything was ordered from Crutchfield except for the tweeters. They were ordered from Amazon but you might be able to pick them up directly from Subaru. All of the mounting equipment was supplied By Crutchfield.

My feedback on everything. ( not a pro but am an audio junkie)

First, I can’t believe the speakers that come stock. What a joke. The magnet is pretty much non existent. I have never seen this before and it’s just another sucker punch from Toyota.

Installing the total upgrade is a breeze and a pro could do this in about an hour or so. Watch the YouTube videos on replacing front and rear speakers to gain confidence in the process. It’s pretty hard to screw up. Pay attention to the door clips that stay In the door at the top of the rear door panels and the triangle piece on the front that cover the side mirrors. PULL THEM OUT AND ATTACH TO THE TRIM PIECE FOR REINSTALLATION. If they fall in they are a pain to get out and are $3 bucks a piece from Toyota.

Everything is clearer at louder volume but it definitely will require a boost in power if you desire more. Keep in mind the infinity’s are more power hungry than the kick’s. It is worth the investment as a first step or just want better sound. The stock speakers actually produced more punchy bass at times but were very prone to distortion.

The kicker tweeters provide a huge increase in the highs. This was the first part I installed. They replace a much larger 2 inch mid speaker and the change is dramatic. It does add a high level of clarity to the system. It does this so well that I would recommend staying away from a three way in the door. it won’t hurt anything it just simply isn’t necessary. Not sure if I would completely rule out a two way but it really does provide a lot of highs up front.

the 3way 6x9s provide nearly all of the bass. They are clear and the mid and highs will be more defined as well as have a less distorted low end. It doesn’t always punch as hard as the crappy paper woofers that the taco comes with but personally I think better sounding wins any day of the week. I rethought installing three ways due to the immense improvement from the tweeters but ultimately just stuck with what I had.

The rear 6 1/2s. Thank god that we drive in the front of the car. At least Toyota took that into account. Not much of an improvement aside from being clearer. Still change them because when everything is balanced it does sound better. I’m not sure if the kickers or another brand will sound better but I have read numerous times that the stock Head unit seems to limit the power going to the rear and the problem persists even with an upgraded speaker. Not sure if that is true but it is lackluster.

I believe that as a first step it’s not a bad one and I’m sure the full kicker speaker upgrade probably yields the same result if not slightly more bass without an amp as everyone says. You never get in a cold pool unless you put your feet in or just jump in. An upgraded head unit or crossover and more power via an amp or even just a key amp would probably give you a solid base platform. You can always add to a system if you feel like slowly piecing it together. Just plan a little on what you want your end product to be so you don’t end up buying twice to accomplish the desired end result.

The entune system doesn’t provide the power or have the proper sound controls by itself that a perfectionist will demand. As I’m an old man and I’m happy where I am with my changes I'm not planning on anything additional. Hope this helps a couple people improve the listening experience.

 

Has anybody installed Kicker KS series speakers in the rear doors along with KS in the front and the Subaru tweeters? Crutchfield was saying the KS don't fit in the rear, but I can't figure out any reason why. Thoughts?

For semi-OCD reasons, I'd like to keep the same series speakers front and rear.... If the KS won't work, what are some other good brands (I'm not stuck on Kicker)

 

KS will fit but the stock head unit will struggle to power them. An amp is highly recommended... I was able to listen to the CS and KS powered by a stock HU and the CS had more bass and clarity. The KS were too heavy on the highs and became distorted at higher volume.

 

Good info, thanks! I was told on the CarAV subreddit on Reddit that I was wasting my time looking at anything but KS... I figured that person had their reasons, but maybe they didn't know this application.

 

New speakers in the rear will be better than the crap that was installed from factory. I fade my system to the rear slightly so that I can hear the quality Infinity 2-ways I installed there along with the quality Infinity 3-ways in the front.

 

Infinity makes a great set of replacement speakers for the Taco.

 

I also installed Infinity all around(2 weeks after I bought my Taco) except for the tweeters, I had a set of Bose so I modded the tweeter housing to accommodate them. You will find that the Infinity speakers will take some breaking time before they really sound great. Also, insulating all the plastic panels in the cab will improve base response.

 

I agree with the break in statement oostroma. About a week in and they do sound better. It is amazing how much more the speakers can handle. They really start to come alive at higher volume. Pretty much when the stock speakers sounded like they would explode is when the infinity’s seem to have enough juice to move the cones properly. I could definitely see where some second skin or dynamat type products could further improve the sound quality. I had another Taco enthusiast listen to them and they immediately asked for a list of the speakers used in order to follow suit. His eyes really got big when I cranked it well into the 40 range and the speakers didn’t even flinch.

Still wish the entune system had a little more juice and eq abilities but many stock systems have the same issue so I don’t see that changing.

 

Glad you are enjoying the improvement. I put Infinity in my daughter's 2016 Camry about 3 months after she bought it. It came with the same crappy speakers the Taco did.
I'm working on building my system bigger by adding 2x 6" subs under the jump seats in MT access cab powered with an Alpine amp as well as rerouting the front speaker output from the head unit into a 4 channel amp and back to the Infinitys.
I even added Infinitys to my pop-up camper powered with a nice Pioneer DVD receiver.

 

Hey guys I just did this upgrade on my 2016 SR5 with the 6 inch entune head unit. I didn't see many people with my config doing this upgrade but still decided to try it. Happy to report it works great. the ^ inch head unit is perfectly capable of running the four kicker speakers.

 

???
Don't see anything.

 

Hey guys I installed the Kicker speakers from the OP in this thread in my 2018 Taco over a year ago.

Everything sounded great up until last month when I started getting a really bad rattle on the driver side. I took the panel off and checked to see if anything had come undone, however everything still was tightly in place. No loose wires, harnesses, speaker housing unit was on tight.

With the door panel off I didn't hear a rattle and the speaker itself didn't sound busted.
Now it sounds even worst, mainly whenever I play anything with nice bass. (Shout out to Big KRIT)

Any suggestions besides placing some sound mat in the door panel? Has anyone else dealt with this?

 

Going to sound dumb, but make sure there isn’t any change or anything in the door panel. I’ve found dozens of pens and pennies and all sorts of stuff in people’s doors making rattles.

 

That's exactly what my friend said before I took the panel off to recheck for any loose harnesses. Luckily no loose change or items anywhere.
What I noticed right now is that the rattling goes away if I simply apply pressure to the door panel/speaker grill. Any ideas on how I can troubleshoot this?

Pretty frustrating considering this wasn't an issue for months of having the speakers installed.

 

Note where you need to apply pressure, take the door panel off, and put some foam on that spot. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Just google foam tape