Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

Definitely more. I did move the bass way over though. The speakers handle moving the crossover over well I think.

 

You mean you increased the bass in the slider on the audio sound menu?

 

Yes.

 

Did it 6 months ago, no regrets, vastly different low end. Great $250 addition over the stock set.

 

Thanks. Where are you running the highs and mids in the system?

 

I've only had the 4 door speakers since this weekend, so i've been playing around with it. They're pretty close to the middle. Some songs can get pretty loud in the highs. If you do the kicker tweeters, you've got a handful of high note speakers in there. But I'm guessing I'll be able to dial in for the majority of music.

 

Finished mine two days ago. Bass is definitely improved, both in feel and in clarity. OE speaker bass was very poor, low freq. just sounded distorted or muddy. I'm less pleased with the mids and highs however. They're better than stock but its hard to decide whether I believe they've improved enough to warrant the $250 i spent. I fully expect them to improve more though once I amplify them in the next couple weeks. This was also done with the Noico 50mm.

On a side note I had a set of Fosgate tweeters that I already had sitting around with the Taco tunes harness from my 4runner and I personally believe they sound indistinguishable from the kickers. I might be selling my kicker tweeters in the near future.

 

Just finished my upgrade tonight:
- Subaru Tweeters
- Kicker CS series front + rear
- 80mm Noico deader on all door panels (and behind drivers).

Wow. I am so pleased. Totally transformed the bass from loose and airy to tight and punchy. It's not going to give you the big wobbles some people want, but if you want to hear every kick drum of a song- this is it. Time will tell but I don't see myself adding a subwoofer right now as the bass seems plenty punchy without drowning out the rest of the range. Highs are a hair sharp, but turning it down in the HU makes them a little muddy so still figuring that out.
Overall I am super, super happy I did the upgrade and would HIGHLY recommend those doing this to also add in the 80mm sound deadening step.
I used the 36 sq feet 80mm pack, did all 4 doors and had 1/9 sheets left over. Honestly if tight could go with the 25 sq ft, but I happily doubled up in a few areas.
Looking forward to hearing these once they break in a bit.

Thanks all who contributed to the write up and maintenance of this guide!

 

What does the sound deadening Do? Road noise?

 

So with this upgrade, are we talking non-JBL system speakers or JBL system speakers that are in the truck that everyone is replacing? I have the JBL system in my truck and think it sounds great. Am I missing something?

 

Folks have replaced with all kinds of sound "trim" with good results. I can tell you that, to my ears, the kickers sound much fuller than the JBL that was in a loaner Taco I drove last week but you are correct. The JBL system isn't bad at all and if you're happy no need to switch. The genesis of this thread was me having the entune premium head unit with the stock speakers (no JBL) and being pissed at how muddy everything sounded. Enjoy your tunes any way you wish!

The Kicker door speakers, at the least, are a good upgrade from the JBL stock speakers but I do think the JBL tweeters are pretty good.

 

It reduced vibrations of the door by adding mass, and coincidentally adds sound insulation as well- which leads to some reduced road noise.

There main thing is that there less sound travel on the door itself which means more energy of the speaker is firing into your cabin instead of moving the door. That's just my bad explanation anyways but there's a ton of articles online of what it does and why you should do it (more sciency than that I just said )

 

EBay coupon MOTORS18 available today for 15 off 75 if you want the tweeters. Makes them $77.

 

The JBL has the same speakers all of us complain about with the non JBL (pictures somewhere on here prove that). My theory is that it sounds different because they have an amp and a sub, so you hear the bass and don't have gripes with the muddy door speakers because they're drowned out. They're also running 2ohm instead of 4ohm, I don't know enough to understand what the difference that makes.

 

Higher impedance= less usable power. The JBL system I thought actually had upgraded JBL speakers, more power from the head unit, as well as a the sub. I had it in my second gen, but never saw the non-JBL to compare them to.

 

Gotcha. I found the picture of the JBL. My pic below on the non JBL with a magnet a tad bigger than a penny.

JBL



Non JBL

 

Anyone here running an amp for the Kicker speakers? I’m a little concerned on volume level, and wanted to see if sound quality improved with an amp.

 

Link?

 

Try this. Used it to get a LB bed mat. $82 shipped.

https://www.ebay.com/rpp/7247?_trkparms=&clkid=3960379593444004949

 

Coupon doesn't seem to be working for me. Maybe I'm entering the coupon in the wrong coupon location