How to - Subaru/Toyota(3rd Gen) Tweeter Upgrade (Holy S***)

All good! TW is *mostly* a place to come share experiences and help each other out.

I have the JBL package that does have an amplifier separate from the head unit but otherwise no additional amplifier. Apparently the stock jbl speakers are 2ohm but the documentation on this was from a 2015 tacoma so who knows. I was worried my 4ohm speaker replacements wouldn't be as loud... but no problems here. Either the JBL amp is spec'd for 4ohm speakers or it's powerful enough to drive the ones I got... either way, I'm a fan of loud music and find myself turning it no louder than mid 30's at 70mph on the freeway.

Bottom line - unless you're upgrading the sub and want more power all around, I'd say save your money and see how it sounds. Dynamat or some similar sound deadener (I used noico) really makes a ton of difference too....

Regarding the tweeters - my highs are clearer and crisper. Music sounds much less muddy and I'm glad I made the swap for that alone. But, I do think I lost a little volume when using the phone feature. I've gotta turn the "on a call" volume up pretty high to hear whomever I'm talking to.

 

@Micoma idk if you have JBL or not... but this is what I did for my JBL system: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/jbl-system-with-after-market-speakers.600862/#post-20202620

 

Original post says this won't work on JBL Tech/Prem packages but I can't find any reference to why?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this on a '17 Pro without JBL audio.

 

Did this mod on mine and for tweeter upgrade its not bad. Definitely made sound crisper/louder but no where near a “wow” factor. For 100 bucks, I wonder if i should have went and changed the front door speakers instead...

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206CSC6934/Kicker-43CSC6934.html

 

Found the Subaru sti tweets for $80. Price was $102 on Amazon.

 

Promo code "save10" still works for an extra 10% off

 

If the Subaru tweeters mod doesn't wow you, then your hearing is close to, or completely, shot, and your next wow moment won't happen until you discover Miracle Ear hearing aids.

Everyone gets warned about loud music. It falls on deaf ears.

Deaf ears, Coral.

 

Or, you're used to a better sounding tweeter.

The Subaru tweeters are just more efficient than the stock ones so they play louder, and louder is always perceived as "better".

 

No, you haven't heard better tweeters than the Subaru/Kicker. Not in a Taco.

You may have heard more expensive tweeters, heard more efficient tweeters, heard equally good tweeters in a better venue, or measured better tweeters. I'll grant those possibilities.

Any titanium dome/neodymium magnet tweeter can reproduce frequencies from 3.5K up so near to perfection that any (any) human ear could never detect a difference between live and recorded in a double-blind test if the tweeter is all that's being judged (see below). The Kicker is a very good titanium dome tweeter, not the best, but again, better won't gain anything with a human ear.

No, I don't care about your electrostats, Magnapans, Lowthers, or Tandy setup. You haven't heard a better tweeter in this truck.

The limitation of these tweeters in this truck are A) the janky class-D amplifier, B) the distortion resulting from parallel connection with the front door speaker, and C) it's inside a #^*^! truck, reflecting off safety glass, plastic, and probably for you, cats.

 

I agree on all points, but we were talking about the "wow" factor which just isn't there for me. Thank you for confirming my point by citing all the contributing factors.

 

I have no idea how "into" audio you are, but I looked at the output of that amp with a sig gen input. Gah. Esp with complex waveforms.

I didn't unhook the front speaker for that, but the amp's damping is crap or nonexistent.

If you spend a lot of time in there, best bang/buck is an amp, a new receiver, or both.

 

"into" it enough that I do have a dedicated audio test/repair bench with a signal generator and scope, which is where I first tested these tweeters before I installed them, powering them with a home stereo. I could tell on the test bench that they didn't play real clean at the higher frequencies. Combined with the limitations you mentioned when installed, the result is highs that sound "splashy" to me.

Good tweeters: "Tsss-Tsss-Tsss"

Suby tweeters: "Chsh-Chsh-Chsh"

Again, agreed. I did add a small amp for more volume (for now), but it uses a 4ch chip-amp, so no gains in SQ there.

 

I guess you can say that i am bit audiophile, dont get me wrong subaru tweeters are an improvement but no where near an exaggeration from other folks. I just wondered if investing front speakers for that price range would have been a better choice...

And no, my hearing is normal, we do this thing called hearing test in the airforce yearly as a requirement for my job.

 

The front door speakers fire into a leg and carpet. Neither material is good at reflecting or diffusing sound, but both are good at absorbing sound.

So ask yourself: "is something missing? What?"

If it's bass that's missing, replacing the door speakers will likely make that worse. By quite a lot. The stock speakers have a much lower resonant frequency than any upgrade will have. Speakers like those are designed to produce mid-bass and up. You'll gain bass by adding a subwoofer, even one of the underseat subs, but preferably one with a larger throw (XMax) and a rigid, sealed enclosure. Maybe goodbye back seat.

Is it mid-bass and vocals that are lacking? That's the stuff door speakers can do well. The Kicker 6x9 and 6.5 from over in the 'under 250' thread are pretty decent for the price. I did those plus the Subaru tweeters. It's not bad for a pickup truck. I give it a solid "Yehhh. Mmhmm."

Are the high frequencies lacking? This mod, Subaru / Kicker tweeters, is the best you can do in this truck w/o a redesign of the A posts, dash, doors, or all three. This mod is a no brainer, just do it ffs kind of mod.

Is it just not loud enough? You're an idiot. The stock system will easily cause irreparable hearing damage over a short time frame. Go be stupid at Best Buy, you mustard guzzler. Get neutered. Really.

The next-best mod for my vehicle is likely to be a Kicker 180 Key "Smart" amplifier. It has a learning builtin equalizer that should bring the audible range back to "flat', or at least a pickup truck approximation of flat. But it's not bad as it is now.

 

So I did this mod about 2 months into my brand new DCSB Sport. Now I am a mechanic, and have been around loud equipment ridiculously high horsepower engines and a lot of banging and clanking pretty much my whole life. So my ears are in horrible shape. I change the speakers out and to me it wasn't at all the "WOW" factor that I was expecting from the OP statement... So I have driven with these speakers for a year and 5 months, I pulled them out and traded someone for their stock speakers because I'm selling the truck, and after having them in and putting it back to stock, there is definitely a noticeable difference to the tone of the Tweeter. Now in order for me to hear said tone difference, I had to turn the volume up almost to at least 7/8 of the volume to be able to tell that much of a difference. Like I said my ears are horrible, but I knew when I had Iron maiden rolling on Wasted Years at almost full blast w windows down...it wasn't as crisp.
All in all, it was a semi-cheap mod...was it worth the $$...IMO...NO, I should have spend that on a quality set of 6x9's for the doors. That to me would have been the biggest bang for the $$...just my honest wore out 47yr old ears review.

 

Just ordered a set of these from bam for $71 after save10 code. Looking forward to install.

 

Just did the Subaru tweeter swap this morning. The hardest part was disconnecting the harness from the OEM tweeter. Much better sound. I will be doing the 4 door Kicker speaker swap next week when my order from Crutchfield gets delivered. Great write up @SomethingNew71



Original vs Subaru tweeter!

 

Replying to my own post so anyone in a similar situation as me can find an answer - I ended up ordering the Subaru tweeters like everyone else and they worked perfectly for my '17 pro without the JBL audio.

 

So the JBL folks just have to remove stock connector and solder the leads to new tweeters?

 

Best speaker upgrade