2008 Dbl Cab Audio Upgrade Questions

Hello Tacoma World, this place has been a bastion of great information since i got my truck a few years ago, and now that i am looking to upgrade my stereo i turn to you once again for guidance.

I have a 2008 Dbl cab with the non-JBL sound system, and my goal is to upgrade the stock HU and speakers for better sound and phone/audio streaming integration.

I am looking to upgrade with the following:

HU - Kenwood DPX500BT
Front Component Speakers - ID CTX65 (kit from taco tunes)
Rear Speakers - JBL GT7-5

I am planning on using fletch97's great write up on deadening the doors and will be using the following from RaamAudio - Package #1

So, with all that out of the way, i have a few questions and welcome any opinions you may have on the above. Family and Friends of mine could care less about car audio, so i figure those who are enthusiastic about it would have some better advice/answers/opinions...

1. Perhaps my forum search skill and googleing skills are not up to par, but i cannot find a clear and concise answer on how to retain the stock wiring in the front doors when adding new tweeters with crossovers and mids. Admittedly i am new to car audio, but can anyone point me to a good write up or video on this?
2. When sound deadening the doors, does this replace/take the place of the moisture barrier that is originally in the door? I may live in AZ, but i would like to keep everything as dry as possible...
3. Thoughts or opinions on the HU and speakers i have chosen for the install above? I have researched reviews on them and feel confident that they will meet my needs, but would love to hear any advice or experiences you may have.

Thanks again for all the great info, if there is any additional information you want about the install, etc... let me know and i will answer below.

 

Bump! Really would like input on this also...

 

Ok, Let see what i can help with even though i know some one ells is gonna chime in.

1) ID CTX65 not bad value for money, retaining stock wiring Imo isn't a good option if your going to be using a passive cross over. Im a massive advocate of powered mids, something like a small 4 channel amp that can drive your speakers and provide the power they want. Power isn't always power, you want clean clear power with some tunability.
- If you want to use stock wiring and after market deck, you can buy a low pass filter for the tweeters and use the deck features to control the rest but there are other options.

2) When i recommend deadener to clients, i found that the best way to go about deadening tacoma doors is to apply deadener to the outer skin as well as the inner skin sealing the door in an essence. This allows the speaker not only a well deadened cabinet but also a good Infinite baffle setup. this means, pull the vapour barrier off, find a dense material to cut and cover the holes and deadener over them to cover.

3)I have eluded to the fact that your setup isn't quite ideal imo. i would personally run a small 4 channel amp, purchase new wire to run from the Amp to the cross over and run to the doors. Its not that much more cost and just slightly more effort if you know your way around the truck.

If you choose a 4 channel that is small enough, you can mount it below the passenger seat as well as both cross overs unless u want to mount them under the dash to reduce wire usage. The hardest part is fishing the wire through the grommet. You can use a zip tie or coat hanger.

You will be 10x happier with the result, i can put money on it

 

Manethon,
Thank you for the response, it is much appreciated and i feel like there is good information here.
The opinion on the ID CTX65 is valuable as well as i like that their kit includes the mounting brackets, etc...

Unfortunately, time and budget do not allow for me to add the amp and additional wiring, so i am going to have to stick with the stock wiring for the time being. I would love to expand this system one day to include a sub, etc... but that will have to wait for a few things.

 

Some members here have had issues with ********* taking forever to ship, or not delivering at all, with minimal or no communication. I would look somewhere else for the front components. As for what manethon said, I agree 100%, run new wire to the doors. If you're keeping your rear speakers, run them off the deck, and run new speaker wire to the front doors from the amp to the crossover, and new wire to the speakers from there. I love my Hertz speakers the HSL165XL kit. Came with everything I needed but the speaker wire. Baffles can be had from Crutchfield, or look up Mr. Marv on the boards here, he'll set you up with some nice baffles.

 

Not a fan of Taco Tunes. Ordered adapters for an install on a buddies truck, everything they shipped was the wrong size. The paperwork had the right size, they just grabbed wrong parts. Took over 2 weeks to get it, over priced. I wouldn't send a friend there that's for sure.

 

Out of curiosity is the consensus on new wire to the front doors due to the weird wiring setup Toyota did with the stock component speakers, or as manethon mentioned more about the type of power/signal?

Since it looks like this might be the best direction, this brings about another question, and this is where my car audio inexperience might be clouding things up....

Since i wont have an amp, just the new head unit...
With the new head unit i will also be using a wiring harness to connect up to the current toyota wiring. where would i run the new wire for the front doors from, off the head unit or the wiring harness?

 

There's not really any point of pulling new wires if your not going with a 4ch amp. If your going to power your speakers off deck power, then the stock wireing would be ok. Pulling new wires won't really make a difference.

However, like manethon says, doing a 4ch amp...ANY 4ch amp, would be a massive upgrade in sound and would give you a reason to pull wires. I did it, it's not that bad. Took about 8 hours to install the amp on my own.

Those Image Dynamics compnents are probably pretty sweet, I've never heard them before. However, if your not amping them, I wouldn't waste the money on them. I'd go for something like JL Audio's TR-650csi. Easier to install and a better fit for deck power since they are efficiant.

This amp right here is decent and can be had for about $100 bucks

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-60WX4...d=1414250033&sr=8-1&keywords=Pioneer+GM-A6604

 

Ok, so that is 3 recommendations now for an amp. Based on what everyone is recommending and after researching on my own as well, i totally see the point in at least running an amp to the components as they are rated at 100 RMS, and my new head unit would only be putting out 22RMS.

So i am off to research amps, as well as budgeting a bit more time and $ for the install.

Thanks again to everyone for the info and guidance.

 

Yes an amp is worth it but can you budget in a sub?

 

I like the idea of a Sub, but i dont like the idea of losing any storage space behind or under the seats. I am going to take a bit of the advice above and run the rear speakers off the HU and run an amp for the front components, i think this is going to get me the system i am looking for. I would definitely consider a sub in the future, but not quite ready to pull the trigger on that.

 

4 decent speakers running on an amp will definatly give you a lot of good sound. I think it's a great move to try this setup out. You'll probably get more than enough bass.

Any thoughts on which amp your going for?

 

Sub'd. I am in this boat as well, real torn on what the best\cost effective way to upgrade my factory crappy speakers. . No matter what i keep hearing run an amp on your mids and highs. Just kinda intimidating for me.

 

Timothom - i am going to be using this amp: JLAudio JX360/2
(amp was way cheaper through Amazon, just grabbed the crutchfield link for this post)
I am going to use this to power the front component speakers and just run the rears off the head unit.

bshell - i completely understand the intimidation factor, although i highly recommend reading this sub and checking out the stickies and few videos on youtube. Once you break everything down it looks a bit more manageable to run the wiring, amp, etc...

 

If you want more bass response and don't want a sub sound deaden your doors and that will help out a lot.