overwhelmed n00b to tacoma audio.

I am celebrating a lifetime achievement today, and have decided to upgrade my factory audio system.

If you work in medicine you know what this means, results letter from an unannounced recertification and re-licensure survey: "It was determined your facility was in substantial compliance with no deficiencies found. The cooperation and courtesy your organization is appreciated." That is all, a one page report. One page. I have been working hard to score one of these for 25 years.

There is no one song I want to play loud. I want to play all of them. Every single song I ever loved in the 1980s as a teenager to start...

I think I want to keep the head unit and replace all the drivers. I would like to fit (2015 Access cab) one 8" sealed sub crossed around 60-80Hz on a single mono channel, and then replace all the factory drivers and run midbass, mid range and tweet on 50 watts times two channels.

Am I out of my mind? It should/ could be a significant upgrade from stock without making my ears bleed.

I do listen to some classical, esp the one with all the cello from the nutcracker suite around Xmas time, the Russian dance. For that one the folks in the back row sawing on the big fiddles are working pretty hard and I want it reproduced accurately. But as soon as it is over I will spooling up some Bruce Springsteen or or maybe some Twisted Sister.

I think the main thing is going to be choosing a sub and box that can fit, and then come up with mid basses that pair well with the sub, and will fit in factory openings. Midrange and tweeter should be fairly easy.

Where do I start looking in the pages and pages of threads?

Thanks

 

Firstly, congratulations!! *Bows*

My advice would be to upgrade the head unit as well. Not sure what features your stock one has or that you really desire so that could be costly. My 10 had just the basic one, I already had an aftermarket to install anyways.

Not sure if you have an access or double cab. I went with Rockford Fosgate 1" tweet, 6x9, and crossovers for my doors.

Sub fitment should be a breeze since you only want one 8" but without knowing your particular model I can't get much further.

 

Agree with @ABA180 , the headunit should be considered. To properly integrate a factory headunit can cost as much as replacing it.

Recommend you consider www.Crutchfield.com . They will equip your truck not only with the gear, but the adapters and cables needed as well. I recommend a 6x9 component set for the doors. That takes care of the doors with matched tweeters. For a sub, go to the “sub boxes” section and find one that works with your truck, size and budget. I would recommend as well, a 4 channel amp that you can bridge, or tie, two channels together, like this one, https://www.crutchfield.com/p_13698602/JL-Audio-XD400-4v2.html?tp=35782

In the end, it’s really about how far down this rabbit hole you want to go. Ask anything, we’d love to help you spend your money. Good luck!

And yes, CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement.

 

Agree with what others said above. HUGE difference upgrading the head unit in the ability to shape the tone curve, drive speakers, and addings subs with RCA outputs. Not worth keeping stock heads they suck.

Agree with others on Crutchfield for DIY. If you aren't going DIY then find a local shop you can trust.

Look for other threads in this section for ideas. I'm not a newbie to this game, but I haven't done audio stuff for a decade plus and it's a huge sea of information. Start learning, pick someone else's setup and deconstruct in your head, then reform it to be your own.

For comparision I currently have a Pioneer W4660 headunit and stock speakers. Headunit alone is a big step up. Speakers I'm planning to keep simple: 6x9 component set up front, 6-3/4" 2-ways in back doors (double cab). Will be using a Kicker Key 200.4 to power front mids/tweeters as an "active front stage". Rear doors will be driven only from the head. Later on I can add a sub but might not be needed for me. I'm going for budget sound quality (usually abbreviated as SQ on audiophile forums).

Sound treatments (or "deadening" as most say) is a whole 'nother step. I'm going to do mine in Dynamat or similar CLD (tinfoil/butyl stuff). Then add some kind of foam layer (CCF), then if I go all the way mass loaded vinyl (MLV). Sound treatment gets all sorts of crazy opinions and pseudo-science flying around so I ain't touching it with a 10 foot pole. Dive down that rabbit hole if you want your brain to hurt, but it's probably worthwhile to do at least CLD in the doors while doing your speaker upgrades.

Good luck and welcome to your new spiraling insanity that is mobile audio.

 

I am starting to let go of keeping the head unit. Three in a row from all y'all, plus pulling a line level output out of the factory deck is looking problematic, and I am going to need an active crossover for the sub, adjustable on the fly - so I am going to need gain and cut knobs for the sub-system where I can reach them while driving.

From the head unit I want a visible clock, CD player, FM, and a USB port that will read .wav files from a thumbdrive. .mp3s are right out, I gave up on those before 09-11-01; and L/R line level out.

I have two challenges that aren't going away.

1. My truck is my office. The empty RAM mount is for the phone I used to take this picture. The heavy duty RamBall doohickey from birddawgtech is non negotiable, it has to stay or be replaced. One piece of it is epoxied to the bottom of the factory head, so I guess I can go ahead and order a new one of those.

2. The moose rifle on the floor in front of the jump seats stays. Period.

If you get to come to Alaska someday, and you see a brown or grey horse that isn't in a pasture - you are looking at a cow moose and you need to stay in your vehicle until you spot the calf or calves. Twins happen. While you are in your vehicle, you are part of the landscape. When you get out of your vehicle you are a predator that managed to stalk however close before mama spotted you. She is going to take you down hard and fast.

I have a growing list of songs that aren't getting replayed until the new system is in. One 'almost' was John Cougar Mellencamp's "authority song." the first 17 seconds of intro sounded pretty good on my stock (90k miles) system, the first verse, roughly 0:17 to 0:40 was not so good, and the first chorus starting around 0:40 was hopeless. Between the tom and the kick and the bass guitar and the male vocals, there were too many voices competing to use the 6" rounds in the front doors.

Getting away from male vocals, this song needs to sound great in the new system. I don't need to break windows in the vehicle next to me at a traffic light, but I want this handled cleanly. Speed metal + brass line + soprano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmQuNoqhJjY

 

It occured to me to internet search on "tacoma subwoofer" and then click on images, which brought me over and over to the top sticky on this website. I am quoting two posts from the 32 page thread that I might be able to work from.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/let’s-see-some-subwoofer-setups.571122/page-4#post-21483878

and

Let’s see some subwoofer setups!

lesse how bad my internetz skills are on a Friday night.

 

Ooh, it worked, posts 76 and 617 in the subwoofer pics thread.

The most dangerous wild animal in Alaska, based on annual humans injured, is the cow moose protecting her calves. You can roll down your vehicle's windows to take pictures, but stay in the vehicle. I like rifle calibers that start with .338 or greater. 45-70 is effective.

I am going to look for build threads by these two users, but I have an imaging problem, a sound stage problem. I need to keep the plywood shelf, and I would _like_ to keep the jump seats intact and usable. But I want midbass to unload the 6" drivers in the front door. I want an isobaric midbass pair crossed from 400Hz down, and a sealed sub with an active crossover on it so I can adjust the cut frequency (mostly from 60-80Hz-ish) depending on what music I am playing in the back area of my access cab.

I did page through a few of my favorite female vocalists, Lita Ford, Pat Benatar, nope, the 6" rounds in the factory system aren't handling the band, even with the vocals upstairs.

One option is to stack the midbass box on top of one of the sub boxes pictured. That would have to be extremely well built dual chamber box.

The other option is to upgrade the shelf. I do have a pretty good metal fabricator on speed dial, so I could come up a metal frame work that hits some of the seat bolts front and rear, and then lay a plywood shelf in the metal bracket- and then bolt both the midbass and sub boxes to the shelf. That would also have to be extremely well built.

I am kinda leaning towards the stacked pair and having the plywood shelf remain a drop in for when I need the jump seats. I have used one jump seat one time in the first 90k miles, but I am planning to keep the truck up to the 250k-300k area. No grandchildren on the immediate event horizon, but I expect to keep this truck another 20 years.

At this point I am looking at replacing the factory head. I need clock, FM, CD, L/R line level out and .wav via USB. On the dash I need driver adjustable cut and gain for the subwoofer. Need. Reminds me I need to get on vrbo and book a room in Mauripol, Ukraine for this weekend. Want. I want these audio things.

In the back I want a I want a single sealed sub I am willing to throw watts at, and an isobaric pair of midbasses (the isobaric alignment doubles the Q, the stiffness of whatever driver is selected, so it becomes tight AF). In my experience a sealed sub can pretend to get all huffy or boomy when that is in the signal - like the bass fiddles in the Nutcracker Suite when those folks are working up a sweat- but a ported sub just can't get tight when the signal is tight, like say Muzz Skillings playing anything, or Chuck Rainey on "Peg."

I should have a plenty of options for the front mid range and front tweet. Something in the 50-100 watt right and left and 50-100 watt sub should be plenty.

I suspect I am about to get in touch with Mr Marv for a box. Ongoing input welcome.

 

Lita and Pat are two great ones for testing, might add Pretty Reckless (Taylor Momson) and Halestorm (Lzzy Hale) for that as well.

I have a Marv box for the 2 12's behind my seat and it's well worth it.

You could even float a single DIN radio since you aren't married to using Nav or DVD player. I found a decent Pioneer for about $200 that checks off the basics and is a single DIN since I have a standalone GPS already.

 

Forgot about the back up camera. I am DEEP in the weeds now.

At this point I am looking at DIY schematics for active subwoofer crossovers. I built one in the 1990s that used three of LS741 op-amp. Around the turn of the century I upgraded my Corolla to a half DIN crossover made by Alpine that had a delay switch on it, as well as (to me) the highly desirable analogue knobs for sub cut freq and gain to sub amp. When I eject a Twisted Sister CD and slip in a little Beethoven, I expect the subwoofer is going to need adjusted.

I see the head units that will support my back up camera have (mostly) digital signal processing on board - but I don't want to be peering over my bifocals, looking at LED characters in bright sunlight, poking tiny buttons on the dash - all while driving down the road. I would rather the guy in the next lane wasn't doing that either honestly.

Plan for now is to go audition subwoofer drivers in the ten inch range, order a driver, build a small sealed box, DIY an active crossover, install that on my home audio/ theater system and then re-evaluate.

 

Yes, the original backup camera can be integrated...you just need a wiring adapter for it. I've installed some of the Pioneer units with LED displays before (Example: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pioneer-FH-S52BT-Double-Din-Bluetooth-Receiver/588953342) and I've found that these are extremely hard to read in the sunlight...sure seems like they could make them brighter!

 

i would highly recommend buying a DSP instead of building your own active crossover, unless of course the project is the crossover.
many amps also have built-in sub level control. i wouldn't consider a sub amp without it.

i personally use the dayton dsp-408, due largely in part because it has the same options as the higher end brands, but is significantly cheaper. minidsp tends to be the defacto standard, audio snobs will generally turn up their noses at anything that costs anything less, citing various reasons, but if you're not competing for trophies, it really doesn't matter.

also the kicker key amps have built-in dsp functionality, which might be of use for you as well. i believe they could be programmed from a tablet, that would be more old-eye friendly

 

I have a 5.85 mount depth box for behind the double cab for thelree 12in subs. If you want it I will pet 8t go 25 over 0lus. It's never been opened up