Suburu Tweeter - Am I Missing Something?

OK, so I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. You want to put in a P300-P8. That's a sub, right? The Sony I do not think is compatible, and unfortunately, I know nothing about the Kicker Key or Kenwood amps. I'm not sure the Kicker is set up to drive a sub. The Kenwood manual says it supports a Sub configuration. I think what you may miss out on, is being able to use the adjustable gains for front and back. Remember the stock HU puts out a pretty low signal compared to the fronts (or at least I think that's the case).

Better to ask Crutchfield these questions.

You ask about the 4-ch config and did I notice a big improvement to the rear speakers... Dramatic improvement actually.

If you want to do a bit of your own research before pulling in and chatting with an expert, one most products on the Crutchfield site, if you go to the product Overview tab, then look under the heading of "What's in the box", you'll find the link to the product manual there.

Oh, I just noticed that Kenwood amp selling for $119 on Amazon.

 

You got the Kicker tweeters, right, and not generic Subaru ones? Should be P/N

$119 H631SFJ101 - Genuine OEM

H631SFJ101.

 

Skip the tweeters, spend a little more and replace all 6. Again, I wish I went straight to components up front, coax in rear. You do not want to amp the stock doors. Once you have one in your hands, you'll immediately see why. They're cardboard with a nickel sized driver. I'm honestly amazed that they put out the sound that they do. An amp might clear up the sound, but they will also destroy those speakers the second you crank the volume.


The sub is fine. It's going to take it's input between HU and amp, therefore any 4 ch amp will be ok. The two won't mess with each other. I'm not sure if it has internal converters or not, but you will need something that takes speaker level output and converts to low level input. Most powered units include the converters or do it internally. Some don't. Download the manual and verify before you buy.

But that's a good combo. I run the key amp, components, and a powered sub. It sounds better than any pickup truck should, and total investment was still well under a thousand bucks.

 

This is it. I went with the DS18 tweeters as my first audio upgrade and did the whole left to right balance comparison when I first installed. Didn't notice a huge difference but figured I already installed one, might as well do the other one.

The following day I realized I was able to turn the music to higher volumes. With the stock tweeters, after a certain volume level things just sounded like they were coming apart.

Adding an Alpine Power pack was the biggest improvement overall for me.

 

did you replace your door speakers? If so what pairs nice with the ds18?

 

All the rave reviews seem to be from people in the honeymoon phase with their new toy. They’re confirmation biasing the crap out of themselves to justify their purchase. Return to stock and try to get to get your money back. The EQ adjustment in the base head unit did the job for me.

Buy some good non-noise cancelling over ear headphones, Bose or Sennheiser etc (not beats unless you like a horrible bass only mix), to enjoy music at home in a quiet space. Your stereo is fighting the road noise when you’re driving so what are you really expecting on the road? Other than looking like an attention depraved teen at stoplights haha…

 

OK, here is something I learned. The front doors get their signal from the speaker connection at the tweeters.

There are three scenarios with wiring components to the front (I believe this is correct, but diagram it out yourself):
1). Each speaker of the component set have their own cross-over electronic parts (capacitor on the tweeter, and inductor on the woofer pre-soldered on the speakers).
Get a harness from Amazon (see below) and unhook existing tweeter, plug the harness into the harness at the dash, then wire the silver wires with slip on connectors to the tweeters. done.

2). The component set has an inline capacitor cross-over you need to attach to the (typically + signal) going to the tweeter. Example: Infinity Primus 693C.
You'd cut off the (+) silver wire of the new connector below, and install the external cross-over inline on the (+) line, and from there, you re-attach the speaker wire with clip and go to the tweeter. The negative goes to the (-) of the tweeter.

3). If however, there is a cross-over "box" with a single (+) (-) input, and two (+)(-) outputs (as is the case with the Kicker component speakers), then that cross-over box is for both the tweeter(dash) and the woofer (door). Example: Kicker 46CSC6934
Now you need to know on the harness, what wires will feed the tweeter, and what two will feed the woofer.
The (+) (-) wires (4 in total need to be separated) and the two in the harness coming from the amp or head-unit need to go to the (+) (-) input to the cross-over. Now we need to deal with the boxes two outputs
Wire from the cross-over box tweeter output wires to the silver wires with clips to the tweeter.
Wire from the cross-over box woofer output back to the 2 wires going back into the connector of the harness for feeding the woofer.

I just purchased the following harness, and because I'm Option 2, my job is easier. If I need to go Option 3, then I'd consult the guru on here for the pin numbers and wire colors for the harness "in/out" connections.

Have I lost anyone?

$10 Car Front Door Tweeter Speaker Wiring Harness Replacement for Toyota Rav4/Camry/Highlander 2008-2022, Subaru Forester/Impreza/Crosstrek 2012-2020 dash Tweeter Speaker wire adapter connector plug, 2PCS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBTLW13R?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

Oh I just looked on ebay, and what should I find:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1663629103...46&cnvId=700003&recoId=166362910384&recoPos=1

That is more than 1/2 off. Of course one would need some additional HW, but wow.

 

I was looking at that little amp.

Where did you wire it for the power source?

 

There are diagrams of the 4-prong dash connection floating around on this site. Two prongs at the connector go from head unit to tweeter, the other two go from tweeter to door woofer. The stock crossover was built in to the tweeter itself.

What I did was buy the matching metra plug off of crutchfield. Then I wired it up so that the plug was connected to my new crossover - two prongs went to input, the other two went to woofer output. The new tweeter gets wired directly to the crossover. No cutting or splicing of factory wires needed with this method - its all plug/play and reversible.

 

Tried the Kicker/Subaru tweeters a few months ago. Although a little better, I really didn't notice much difference either. Sent them back and bought the

$80 DS18 PRO-ST OEM Subaru/Toyota Upgrade Bullet Compression Tweeters with Crossovers 1.9" - Car OEM Tweeter Upgrade Kit for Many Subaru/Toyota Models - Replacement for H631SFJ101 and H631SFJ100 (Pair)

DS18 PRO-ST PNP tweeters. BIG difference! Of the six speakers I replaced, the DS18s made the biggest difference. More here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...3rd-gen-today.399305/page-13223#post-28985602

 

Good info. Will probably add the Sony XM-S400D or

$110 Kenwood KAC-M1814 4-Channel Compact Bridgeable Marine/Motorsports 400W Max Power Digital Amplifier

Kenwood KACM1814 amp next.

Keep meaning to ask, is this the wiring harness you used?

$14 RED WOLF Add AMP Amplifier Subwoofer Speaker Wiring T-Harness Radio Stereo Plug Connector Compatible with Toyota 2018-2022 Camry RAV4 Tacoma Corolla Non-JBL System

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09DTY8PMD/?coliid=I178F81I7P9HWW&colid=2UV4IDMTR1NJ0

If not, link please plus how you ended up wiring the speakers and power to the amp? TIA!

BTW, been buying home and vehicle audio products from Crutchfield for a couple of decades. They are indeed awesome.

 

Some Infinity Reference speakers I picked up on Black Friday for half off. It's tremendously easy to go down a rabbit hole so I realized I didn't need the nicest speakers since I was sticking with the factory head unit and only driving them with a small class-D amp (Alpine Power Pack); nor was I going to spend too much time tearing apart the interior to lay down a ton of sound insulation. I have the Rockford Fosgate self amplified 8" sub behind the back seats and feel like I have setup that's much nicer than the factory JBL in terms of value, clarity, volume and range.

If I were to replace the head unit, I would've likely gone with a nicer 4 channel amp, then I would've gotten nicer speakers all around.

 

The Tacoma's lack of insulation definitely isn't the best platform to start out with, but simple things like replacing speakers and adding some power makes a noticeable difference for most people. This holds true for most cars with mediocre stereos from the factory. Different people also have different ears due to age and damage and may or may not notice or appreciate nicer components.

 

Same that why i sold mine

 

where did you mount the bass knob for the 8" sub, pic? Your setup is exactly what I am thinking of doing. also did you use any type of LOC or did you run the high level inputs into the sub?

 

That is exactly the same harness I used to place the Sony amp between the Head Unit and the speaker harness going out to the speakers. No cutting of OEM harnesses. Cut the Red Wolf harness in half, and the female end connects into the back of the HU. The mae end connects to the factory wire harness.

Power - I ran a 15A circuit all the way back to the battery with a slightly higher gauge wire (12AWG). The negative was wired to a bolt that is part of the dash assembly and grounded. For the SONY to come on, I had to wire the remote wire back to an Add-A-Fuse mounted under the dash at the fuse holder. I think I used a 2A fuse for it. I used a circuit that is "switched" meaning it goes hot after the ignition is turned on.

 

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. Many thanks!

 

Yep, excellent diagrams. What you show here is the original wiring, and the option 3 I described, were the output of the amp feeds the cross-over (I guess placed down into the speaker cavity and sits in the dash). This is the Kicker example. Then the tweeter output of the cross-over box is wired to the tweeter. The woofer output of the cross-over is wired back to the connector to feed the woofers in the front doors.

What you don't show is here is option 2 where the top diagram is used, but the red (+) of the connector feeds the woofer, and also feeds one end of the "inline" capacitor / cross-over, that then goes onto the tweeter.

Thanks for diagramming it out.

For me, it's about learning and having a DIY project to entertain me (when I'm not swearing).

This could be the very last vehicle my wife and I purchase. We'll see.

It's funny - my flexibility is piss poor. I had an easier time replacing a broken screen on an Apple 3 watch. I have an illuminated magnified pair of "eye glasses" but even that sort of thing is getting a click difficult - my medications give me a tiny amount of shaking in the hands.

 

I didn't bother with the bass knob. I ran high level inputs from both L and R front channels from behind the head unit. All the wiring runs fairly easily along the trim piece.