Upgrade stock speakers

Hello everyone, does anyone have any input or brand they recommend to replace the stock door speakers? I feel like mine are starting to fail and not sound as good anymore. Thanks.

 

https://www.tundras.com/forums/audio-video.30/



lots of info in there.

 

Plug and play replacements or aftermarket and adding an amplifier?

 

Plug and play. I’m passed the ear deafening bass and sounds haha. But would like good bass and solid mid/high.

I don’t want to mess with swapping head units and such to work with amplifiers.

 

The Focals are pretty descent for plug and play. I beleive Crutchfield carries them.

 

thanks for the info. I’m assuming the ones are the focal inside 165 and 690

 

Hertz has a nice component set with mids and tweets in one package.

 

Are those plug and play like the Focals? OP doesn't want to add an amp, head unit, etc.

 

looks like they are according to crtuchfield. They are pretty decently priced as well.

 

Yup, PnP.

I have Hertz tweeters in my sails and they were so bright at first I thought I'd take them out but now I'm used to them and love their output

 

I have Infinitys with xovers. Drilled holes in sail panels for tweeters. Got them and wire harness on sale at Crutchfield. Everything was plug & play. If I recall correctly I used the adapters to mount in door. Crutchfield is running a black Friday sale right now.

 

So I got the hertz 6.5” (front) and 5” (rear) and installed them. Installation was fairly easy and fitment is prefect. However, the sound is FAR inferior to the stock sound. (Mainly bass). I haven’t gotten to the tweeter part since that doesn’t seem to be the issue. The overall loudness and bass (lack thereof) is an issue. Any suggestions?

 

You're still on the stock head unit, right? That's your issue.

 

Yes I am on the stock head unit.

It seems the stock 6x9 front speakers did a much better job (even with the stock head unit). Looks like crutchfield sells 6x9 direct replacements. Would those work better?

 

I'm assuming you used speaker mounting brackets?

 

yes they provided me with them.

 

My concern is the stock head unit doesn't have enough juice to push those new speakers.

 

as of now when I turn up the volume or turn up the bass on the head unit it sounds like mostly distortion.

 

Maybe some crossovers will help...

 

Do you think a head unit will solve the issue? Might get a double din to replace it flush mount. One that can accommodate the stock backup cam?

 

Most certainly.

 

Any recommendations or things to look for in a head unit?

 

Before I replaced the head unit I would upgrade the amp and add a subwoofer. That is what I did and have enough bass to vibrate the rearview mirror.

 

Is there a stock amplifier in the truck soemwhere that can be upgraded? I wouldn’t mind putting in an aftermarket headunit but I don’t want to lose steering wheel functionality, microphone and backup cam.

 

You should have a stock amp under your passenger seat. It can be upgraded but doing the amp kind of goes hand in hand with doing most of the speakers since a new amp will likely be too powerful for the factory speakers, and the factory amp will be too weak for aftermarket speakers.

As far as head units go, depending on the head unit, some will be "iDatalink capable". iDatalink is a company that makes factory integration products, one product being a "Maestro", little black box that plugs in behind the new head unit and keeps all your factory steering wheel controls etc. and also has the ability to grab other data from the canbus system like temp gauges etc. to display on the new head unit. Non iDatalink capable head units will still have other harnesses like a PAC or Crux harness that will allow you to retain steering wheel controls etc., just depends on the head unit you choose.

 

So I did change the factory speakers out already for hertz ones and they don’t sound great. We’ve deduced that they likely don’t have enough power from the stock headunit/amp.

is there a plug and play amp I can replace with the factory one to see if it solves the issue?

 

Taco Tunes has one for non JBL systems

 

Ahh gotcha sorry I missed that. I think the only "plug and play" I've seen people discuss is the Beatsonic, but for the price, I'd just as soon get a better amp. With a little DIY you can make your own plug and play amp setup pretty easily. Your head unit is powering the dash corners, dash center, and rear tweeters in a 2020, factory amp powering the 4 door woofers. Full transparency a lot of times if/when you remove factory speakers, aftermarket speakers sound like they're lacking in bass. This happens for a number of reasons which can be super frustrating. There are multiple routes you could go, I'll list them and go into detail about each. For each of these, you'll need to get an amp, an amp power wiring kit, and the factory integration harnesses, which sounds like a lot but isn't actually too bad. You can also buy or make an amp rack to attach everything to under the seat, or even just use velcro like some folks do.

For an amp power wiring kit, it kind of depends on the amp, but generally speaking an 8 gauge or a 4 gauge will do the trick. Knu Conceptz is probably the best/cheapest option outside of a discounted one when ordering through a website like Crutchfield.
For factory integration harness, I'll talk about this a little further down, but basically you'll get a pair of wire harnesses with plugs on one end and bare wires coming off them so you can wire in a new amp without having to cut/splice any factory wires.

1) get a 4 channel amp for just the doors
2) get a 4 channel amp and "smart" line output converter for just the doors
3) get a 4 channel dsp amp for just the doors
4) get a 5 channel amp, channels 1-4 for doors and channel 5 to add a small sub down the line

1/2) For most amps and keeping a stock head unit, you don't necessarily need a line output converter although many people like/use the Audiocontrol ones for their Accubass feature. A 4-channel like the Kicker CX Series for $173 or the Sony XM-GS4 for $200 would both be nicely power matched for your speakers (looks like they're 70w RMS @ 4 ohms if I'm looking at the right ones). If you wanted to stay with Hertz, the Hertz DP 4.400 for $300 would also be a good choice. Add another ~$50-$75 for an amp power wire kit and factory integration harnesses. Speaking of factory integration harnesses, to make everything plug and play you'll want to get these from Auto Harness House: Toyota Entune Amp Upgrade for Tundra and Tacoma (autoharnesshouse.com) Basically under the passenger seat at the factory amp you've got two plugs, one 10 pin and one 12 pin. In those two plugs are all the input and output wires for the factory amp, pin outs look like this:


As you can see, rather than all the inputs on one plug and the outputs on the other, they're split across the two plugs. Matching up your wire colors isn't hard though and lots of folks on here can help with that if need be.

3) One of the other options I mentioned would be a dsp amp, like the Kicker Key 4-channel on sale for $210. While this amp does 50w rms @ 4 ohms and is a little underpowered for your new speakers, it should still be plenty of juice to improve their sound, and, it has the added benefit of Kickers auto-dsp function. Basically takes the factory signal and fixes all the weird bass roll-off, frequency attenuation etc. that the factory system does.

4) A 5 channel amp like the Kicker CX Series 5-channel for $340 would nicely power your door speakers, and then give you a sub channel to add a shallow sub later on. You might be thinking "I don't want/need a sub", but to really fill out the bass it's always a good choice. Doesn't mean you'll be rattling your rearview mirror off or thumping down the street. Just means you're music will sound good from way down low to way up high. You don't need a sub channel for input either, most 5 channel amps can copy the signal from one of the speaker inputs to use for output to the sub channel, and then you can set the crossovers on the amp so that your door speakers play down to say 80 Hz, and your sub plays 20-80 Hz. This amp in particular does 150w rms @ 4 ohms or 300w rms @ 2 ohms on the sub channel. A 150w sub is what I'd call noticeable/satisfying bass. A 300w sub is what I'd call starting to bump bass. Throw a shallow sub like this behind your rear seat for $130 to round out your system: Kicker 43TC104 Ported truck enclosure with one 4-ohm 10" Comp subwoofer at Crutchfield

The other option I didn't list but is also a great choice, would be to start with a 4 channel amp, see if it satisfies your personal preference, and if not, you can then try adding a smart LOC like an Audiocontrol LC7i. If that still doesn't do it, or if you want to just skip that, you could also easily add a "powered" sub later on to get some more bass. For example, a powered sub like this: Kicker 51HS8 Hideaway™ compact powered subwoofer with 8" sub and 150-watt amp at Crutchfield for $225 or this Sound Ordnance™ B-8PTD Compact powered subwoofer with 8" sub and 125-watt amp at Crutchfield for $190.

 

thanks for the recommendations. I am thinking of just replacing it with a 5 channel under there so I have the option to add a single sub later if I wanted. I have access to two JL audio 12” w3v3 subs (would only install one), but none of these boxes for the tundra seem to fit that speaker.