Tunes Upgrade

WooD

WooD

WooD
I'm wanting to upgrade my stereo. I asked on another forum, and some say swapping out the tweeters, and 6x9's in the door will give me most better tunes.

Others say I'll need to add an amp or more powerful head unit to get a noticeable difference in sound quality.

Took it to a local stereo shop, and told him I wanted better sound. He's kinda wanting me to go a bit overboard. Gave me an estimate over $2,200, 6 new speakers, an amp. plus a powered sub. I don't think I need that quality of tunes. $900 of that was labor.

What have y'all done to get better sound?
 
A couple years ago, I installed 6x9s and tweeters in front doors (Pioneer components) and 6 3/4 3-way (Kenwood) in the access cab rear doors. Also, installed sound damping in the doors and rear panel. Ran the OEM head unit. It just didn't have enough uuummmppphhh to drive the speakers. About a month ago, I installed a Kenwood DMX8709S head unit. It does have enough ummph. All from Crutchfield.

Don't need an amp or a sub-woofer. This set up has plenty for me. I'm a classic Rock-n-Roller. So, the volume does go up significantly on certain tunes.

If the budget is under pressure, just do speakers. This is a pretty easy DIY task. When you have the door panels off, that is a good time for panel vibration and noise absorption. Then save your coin for a head unit for a future install. Even the install of the head unit is pretty easy.
 
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Just a few hours ago I was on the phone with Crutchfield. I ended up buying...

A JVC KW-M560BT head unit, it puts out 21 watts per channel. Plus all the mounting and wiring stuff, and 2 Kicker 47KSC6904 6x9 speakers.

I bought 2 DS18 PRO-ST 1.9 tweeters off Amazon that I got today. I'm not messing with the back speakers now. Maybe down the road.

I hope when I get everything in, there will be a noticeable difference from my stock tunes!


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Only thing I miss in these new taco's is the compact disc player my old tundra had, otherwise I could care less about the audio systems these current trucks have.
 
tacojoel said:
Only thing I miss in these new taco's is the compact disc player my old tundra had, otherwise I could care less about the audio systems these current trucks have.
Click to expand...

My 2018 factory tunes has a CD player. I don't have the JBL package.
 
I could see the 8 tracks and cassette players going out due to poor reliability, but the cd player was pretty reliable, I never had an issue with the one on my tundra...it even sounded better that the crap in these current taco's.
 
FLAC onna stick is the way to go these days unless you got that fancy WiFi streamer
wish that kenW00D unit that i bot in 2oo6 had that capability... waiting for it to crap out and possibly upgrade
 
I don't even subscribe to SiriusXM to know. Toyota gives it to you free for 6 months when you buy a new truck.
 
I miss the days when a car stereo had a power wire, ground wire, and speaker wires.

I did the tweeters first. Piece of cake, not much room to work but not much work to do.

Watched a couple YouTube videos on removing the door panels, they came off most easy. Due to mass recommendations I decided to put sound deadening stuff in the doors. I was able to pull the factory door plastic and insulation up without damaging it, and used a magnet to hold it up while I stuck and rolled the Noico deadening stuff. The factory plastic sealed back up perfect, they use a soft adhesive and it stuck right back on.

The 6x9 Kickers were plug and play like the tweeters. I tested them before putting the door panels on and they sounded a lot better over factory, along with the tweeters.

Swapping the head unit was a breeze, 4 bolts and mass wire connections to unplug. The wiring harness I got from Crutchfield was plug and play too. I only had to splice 2 wires, one for the 61-N for the steering wheels controls, and one wire marked reverse...it may have been parking brake?

When I reconnected the battery and fired it up, there was great multitudes of difference from factory to my new set up. I'm most pleased with it. I might put a couple Kickers in the back doors in the future. All the steering wheel controls, and backup camera work just like before. The factory USB port works perfect to play tunes off a flash drive too.

I thought this out well before starting, I have a garage and something else to drive, so I was able to take the door panels off, and get the sound deadening stuff put in a day before the head unit and 6x9's arrived. I had the tweeters in a few days before starting with the doors. A few people told me to get a pack of door trim tabs, wasn't sure why until 2 of the factory ones disappeared. They go on the little triangle piece you remove first when taking the door panels off.

Best $600 I've spent on my Tacoma, just wish I hadn't waited so long to do it.

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