2017 Tundra SR5 Sound system upgrade (proposed)

Other than making sure you power wire isn't running with any of your other stuff, I'm not too sure.

 

Check your RCAs and your gains.

 

There are no RCAs- just using the high input (speaker line) signal from the HU. Power wire is run up the drives side floor panel so not sure if it could be interfering with anything. Gains on the amp are set to minimal. Maybe I need a noise filter on the power input from the battery?

 

I see you are using a budget amp to put it kindly. That could be the issue. The stock HU can also introduce white noise to the amp thought to be caused by the Bluetooth module.

 

Yes I agree it is budget (cheap) amp. I guess that or the head unit signal could be an issue. Hoping it was something else.

 

My issue has been solved. Thanks to a review of my amp on Crutchfield, I discovered a wiring problem on the high level input connections to the amp. Each input channel had a ground wire so I grounded them to the ground from the factory harness. This introduced a ground loop problem. Come to find out, this ground on the high level inputs is only used on older vehicles. Disconnecting this ground eliminated the noise!

 

This post should be converted to a sticky and it needs to be the top result. There’s really no need to blow $1k+ on a full system. I snagged one of these amps off marketplace the other day, and it’s a night and day improvement. Excellent write up!

 

Update: I did not have the remote connected. Factory power is working fine.


Did you all use the factory power? I used a different amp,

$200 Clarion XC2410 400W Peak Ultra Compact 4/3/2 Channel XC Series Micro Class D Marine Amplifier

Clarion XC2410 but the basic setup should be the same. Wired everything using factory power and three amp didn't turn on. I'm thinking it's the factory power but not sure. It's not a super high power amp so I thought it would be ok but maybe not.

 

Thanks to everyone that's contributed to this thread. It convinced me to upgrade my sound system. I've done many upgrades in the past and I'll say that this is the weirdest one that I've come across, mainly because of the odd way that Toyota chose to do the HU and non-JBL amp arrangement. In short, I've upgraded to an Alpine S-A32F 4 channel amp, due mainly to its small size. I also have JL audio 6.5" speakers in the doors. I disconnected the dash tweeters. I kept the factory HU. I used the recommended wiring harness and didn't cut any wires. The amp is wired from the battery as usual.

I have 2 comments or questions.

The first is that I noticed a lot of white noise or hiss. This is the first install I've done where I've kept the HU. I initially didn't have LOC's but used the amps speaker level input. It was horrible for distortion and noise. I picked up a pair of Scosche LOC's and they improved the signal greatly (and have a nice transformer which isolates the HU from the amp inputs). They also provide a gain setting. Eventually, I got the noise down by tweaking the gains of the LOC, HU and Amp. Its still there, but not as bad. In the process of figuring out the noise, I checked all the grounds, wire routings etc. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the HU itself is poor. I did this by connecting a set of headphones to the wires coming out of the wire harness. Sure enough the noise is there. The amp was always clean. Note that the noise is always present and doesn't depend on the volume setting of the HU. For now, I've chalked the noise up to a sub-par HU. I'm curious if anyone else had the same issue. In the end, I have my amp grounded to the frame under the seat. Both black wires from the harness are unconnected. I tried connecting both black wires as well as the RCA grounds in all different combinations - none of which fixed the issue.

Second, in the process of experimenting with the grounding scheme, I found that one of the black wires from the harness, specifically pin 7 (white/black) sparked when I connected it to the chassis ground. I checked this wire with my DMM and found that it has 12V on it - leading me to believe that this is not ground. Hence, I left it floating. It doesn't appear to affect anything in my system (same with the other black wire, pin 9 - which is really ground). Anyone know what this black/white wire is or does? I'm an EE and it bugs me to not know what this thing is.

Thanks

 

Not sure what you are running into but here is the wiring. I ran pin 9 to the remote and pin 7 to the ground and it worked fine. 2018 non JBL.

10 pin:
1: FR+ (output)
2: FL+ (output)
3: ACC
4: +B
5: FR- (output)
6: FL- (output)
7: GND
8: None
9: AMP
10: None

12-pin
1: FL+ (input)
2: FR+ (input)
3: RL+ (input)
4: RR+ (output)
5: RL+ (output)
6: FL- (input)
7: FR- (input)
8: RL- (input)
9: RR+ (input)
10: RR- (input)
11: RR- (output)
12: RL- (output)

 

Subbed

 

Pin 7 should be connected to a common ground. Pin 9 is an amp remote from HU or it can also be a ground, depending on the year of the truck.

 

Great info. Just added the Alpine KTP-44U and a 10" Powered (Cerwin Vega) Sub to my Non-JBL stereo. Currently have the stock speakers and no sound matting.
HUGE improvement over the stock amp.
All in at $300 for everything thanks for offerUp

 

been following along in silence.....this should work on a 19 crewmax non-jbl as well ??
i have the amp in my cart and ready to jump in.....

 

I would think so.. You should confirm that the wiring color coding remained the same, other than that give it a go for a inexpensive upgrade..

 

I think it’s safe to assume there were no changes. But an easy way to determine compatibility is to look up the oem head unit and the amp for a 2019 and then again for a 2016. If both part numbers are the same then the harness will be the same and it will work.

 

sounds like a plan.... i will do that in work tomorrow. thanks all for the input!

 

I'm having a huge problem with this. Can someone explain if the 12-pin would have inputs and outputs on the same speakers?
Is it:
INPUT (signal from head unit) -> NTUNE6 EQ/Signal correction ->AMP -> OUTPUT (to speaker) ?

so the signal from the HU and the output from the amp to the speakers go through the same 12-pin connector?

 

There are 8 inputs and 8 outputs. In between them you will connect your amps, equalizers and so on. you have it right. At the end just use the OUTPUTS to send the signal to the speakers.

 

Okay man, I hooked it up like this and everything seems to be working. All I need now is a subwoofer! Thanks!

 

I’ve got my amp bench wired & ready for install. Question for the guys who’ve already done it, I’ve got pin 7 & 9 connected to the ground so is that correct? I read someone left pin 7 unconnected. I have a 2021 but everything should be the same as OP?

Once I started wiring it up I realized it was easier than I thought. Match up the 16 speaker wires & connect the power. I just want to make sure I’ve got that ground right

 

I connected both 7 & 9 to ground. Works fine no ground loop issues.

 

I figured I’d post my results here:

So I wanted a quick & easy way to improve audio quality. Coming from a Tacoma I was happy with the kicker upgrades that everyone else had done. Now in the Tundra I thought that if I just upgraded my speakers that would do the trick. Nope. It actually made it sound worse? Then I realized how many moving parts this truck has audio wise lol.

So I started researching everything else. My truck is non-jbl with factory amp & head unit. I did a quick google search for “best bass 6x9s” & came across the JBL GTO series. But like I said I was very underwhelmed.

Next I purchased the kicker hideaway powered 10” sub. That instantly added the bass I desired. I was happy with that. But I knew that my speakers were still under performing. So I did some more research & came across this alpine booster amp.

Wow. Just wow. Like everyone else has said, it’s an instant improvement. The JBL 6x9s were thumping. So much so I didn’t even realize that my powered sub wasn’t working after the amp change. Good thing I checked because I realized I did need to run the amp turn on wire that everyone else doesn’t need to run.

I’m now very happy with the way the Tundra sounds, but I’m going to upgrade the dash speakers also while I’m at it. Then I can call it day knowing that every aspect has been upgraded.

@SiberianTundra I was going to go with the infinity speakers you posted earlier but I had 1 question. Did you have to splice in the wires? Or is there a connecter out there somewhere I can purchase? Would it be the same as the ones I bought for the door speakers before?

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It’s a very price conscious way to achieve very good results!

 

So there seems to be some confusion on here about how the front speakers/tweeters are connected...partly because there are 3 different versions of the speaker wiring for these trucks. (No-Amp, Entune Amp, and JBL Amp)

Here's a summary of how the front speakers are wired for each:
No Amp : Front door speaker signals pass through the dash tweeters. If you unplug the tweeters, this will disconnect the door speakers unless you use an adapter that re-connects these pins.
Entune Amp : The front speaker signals are split coming out of the headunit. They are wired (in parallel) to the Entune amp input and wired to the front tweeters. If you have a front "Center" speaker, this speaker is jumpered from the tweeters on both sides (it receives signals from both right and left tweeters) so if you unplug the tweeter, you'll want to use an adapter that will reconnect these signals if you plan to keep the center speaker.
JBL Amp : Front and Rear door speakers are wired to the tweeters. The JBL amp signals are wired through the tweeter and to the door speakers. (basically the same as no-amp models) If you remove the tweeters, door speakers won't work without an adapter. The Center speaker is wired separately from the JBL amp. It is not jumpered from the tweeters.

There are a bunch of different adapters for these different speakers and tweeters...Looks like usually the tweeters use this AHH-4442 if you don't have JBL:
https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/41114.html

 

So as of Sunday, 3rd of 2022 i am officially alpine upgraded. thanks to all of the discussion and advice in this thread it was relatively a simple process.
i haven't upgraded the speakers or added the sound mat yet but the results so far are good. wondering if anyone has any advice on "setting up" the amp.
Are the default setting's on the alpine (aside from the speaker level input and 4channel) good? should i be changing them to something else?

 

Anyone try the Kicker K200.4 or K180.4 instead of the apline? It looks the same on paper but also has an auto/EQ and DSP where the alpine appears to be just straight power. The Kickers come with a little microphone that listens to your setup after installed and dials in the settings/performance custom to your truck and speaker setup.

Also, do you need to run power out to the battery if making this swap to the alpine or will the power that fed the old OEM amp suffice?

 

I can’t speak for the kicker.

The Alpine requires nothing to the battery, straight plug & play after you have wired the adapter up.

 

If you don’t need to run a new power wire it isn’t much of an amp. The OEM power supply is tiny.

 

Buddy.. It’s a mini-amp.

 

And this thread is 4 years old - what’s your point?