Kicker speakers vs factory

The adapter brackets lined up with the holes in the door just fine, but the 6x9 speaker's mounting holes didn't line up with all four holes in the adapter no matter what I did. Ended up drilling a new hole in the adapter. No big deal.

 

I can't imagine changing out the factory jbl's for kickers. Really, people?

Unless, of course, your truck didn't come factory jbl's... which I assume is the case?

 

1. Most Tacomas don't have the factory JBL system. This thread appears to deal with people that have the non-JBL system, which is pretty universally recognized as having crap speakers.
2. Kicker has several product lines that range from "better than OEM" to "really good." Not all Kickers are created equally. You can do a lot worse (and a lot cheaper) on Crutchfield than Kicker.

 

Gotcha, and understand. After I posted I thought to myself that individuals going with kickers must not have had factory jbl. Those individuals I can certainly understand wanting something better.

 

Ordered mine today. Will do the install this weekend!

 

If you want maximum performance with your Kicker CS' and Subaru [Kicker] tweeters, pair them with the Kicker KEY180.

 

Why not, the factory JBL's suck ass! I replaced mine with better quality 2 way JBL's with the same ohm ratings in both the front and rear doors. Much improved. Toyota failed miserably with the JBL system. The factory Bose system in my 370z and QX70 kick butt in comparison.

 

The -4 treble +4 bass is way too bassy for me (and I listen to a lot of trap music). I suggest +1 treble +3 bass, subject to changing once I add the JL Stealthbox

 

Off topic: did your company started releasing the morimoto headlights for our taco's yet?

 

There are 260 sets on the water as we speak!

 

Great, gonna checkout you guys website.

 

My comment was regarding to the possibility, which was incorrect, that jbl's were getting replaced with kickers.

 

This upgrade is seeming increasingly appealing to me.

I've got an

$323 Alpine PWE-S8 120W Compact Powered 8" Car Subwoofer for Under or Behind The Seat

Alpine PWE-S8 powered subwoofer behind the driver side rear seat that I'm not in love with. Having always had dedicated amp / subwoofer combos I find myself always adjusting the level to get more bass without distorting it. My suspicion is the distortion is actually vibration / harmonics. However, that being said, I don't get that strong mid-bass.

My assumption is a good set of co-axial speakers is going to be good enough compared to a set of dedicated components with an amp, correct? I had Polk components in my STi with a dedicated amp and overgauged wiring that sounded great, but I'm not convinced I couldn't get 80% of that sound with 50% of the cost / effort. Maybe I'm crazy.

Worst case I can always get one of those small sized 50 x 4 RMS amps to beef up the speakers and go nutty with sound insulation in the back to make my powered sub sound better.

 

pulling the door panel is easy. takes like 2 minutes.

 

I replaced the factory door drivers with 6.5” Cerwin-Vega midbass drivers a month or two ago, and the sound quality difference and additional bass I’ve gained is astounding to me. I used a thin foam tape to seal the drivers and bracket to the door as well. A week or so later I did the Subaru tweeters mod and the sound just got even better. The stock Entune units amplification pushes the speakers pretty nicely. I was surprised, but the woofers I used have a good sensitivity rating. The little cups behind the inside door handles is the only rattle I’ve had, and a small strip of foam tape behind them eliminates that.

 

I can’t believe it took me so long to do this mod on my 18 SR5. Factory speakers are crap and these kicker speakers and tweeters sound awesome!

 

I did the speaker upgrade last year and loved it. Loved it a million times more after I added an amp

 

I have the stock entune head unit and it just doesn't have enough juice to get the most out of upgraded speakers

 

Why amp did you get? I think it’s pretty good for the Entune HU