Tacoma 3 way component speakers

Hello.

I did a bit of searching, but I'd like opinions and maybe some experience. 2009 double cab, jl amps, subs/speakers.

I'm looking at a set of focal 165A3's. I currently have a 2 way system, 6.5s and a tweeter in the factory location. Blew a 6.5(old age/epoxy deteriorated) so need a new quality setup. Going to be putting new tweets in the sail panel most likely, the question is the 4" midrange in this set. The bracket I can handle/modify/make as stock obviously won't work.

Concerns:
Door grille designed for a smaller speaker factory was maybe 1.5-2"?? That just gonna muddle/mess up any gain I'd get?

Anyone running a 3 way with an opinion. Am I wasting time with a 3-way? I got a used set I could grab for a decent price, but, not into chucking a decent amount of cash away.

Thanks!

 

according to this:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/added-3-5-speakers-in-place-of-stock-tweeters.342198/

there's no way that 4" midrange speaker is going to fit in the upper door location.


if you're trying to keep a mostly-stock finished appearance, i think 3-way is far too difficult to accomplish without custom door panel inserts.

the biggest advantage to 3-way is that it moves most of the vocals to the midrange, which can offer better clarity of the vocal region. but that's depending on the speakers voicing, as well as the enclosure that the speaker is installed within. just bolting it up to the side of the door panel like the factory tweeter is unlikely to offer any significant change to the acoustics.

personally, i find 3-way to be about double the effort for minimal gains. ideally, you'll want to run it full active, which requires another pair of amplifier channels, more wiring, appropriate placement, and double the tuning to correctly blend all the speakers into each other.

it's feasible, and takes a ton of effort to do correctly, but any decent 2-way setup is going to get you 98% of the same sound quality.

 

I agree with that for sure. The Tacoma (especially 2nd gen) just isn’t a vehicle worth 3-way. Road noise, tire noise, wind resistance, etc, it’s just hard to justify all that extra work and money.

 

You can do a hybrid 3 way system. Its been done in the 3rd gen a few times with 3.5 inch coaxials.

But your not going to be able to use the focals your looking at.

The hybrid 3 way is a small coaxial with a separate 6x9 midbass. You get the sound stage of a 3 way, but in the space of a 2-way. I did this in my old rav4 using JBL GTO220 2.5 inch coaxials.

But as Soundman said, its not going to be worth it unless you can bi-amp the system. I did a 3way in my 3rd gen and bi-amped the speakers. I have two 4-channels and a 2-channel to run the system with a full DSP sytem.