3rd Gen non JBL sound system Upgrade Info

Quick update: everything is working now, and it sounds great! I don’t feel like anything is missing anymore. Would I do it again? Probably not – it was a lot of work, plus $950 just for sound that’s only somewhat better than the OEM JBL. If I did it over, I’d just upgrade the front and dash speakers and add a subwoofer, since the rear speakers didn’t make much difference. Overall, I’m satisfied with the results, but honestly, this is how the Tundra should sound from the factory.

Oh, and I returned the LC7i because I connected the speakers directly to the amp—it actually sounds better that way.

 

Hmmm...personal opinion here obviously, but I'm thinking you might be giving the OEM JBL system more credit than it deserves. For a supposed "premium" system, the sound is far from premium.
Even without hearing yours, I'd still wager it's more than "somewhat better" than stock OEM JBL.
Glad your upgrade ultimately turned out well for you and that you're happy with the results.

 

I have a 2024 limited 4x4, non JBL.
This is probably a dumb question, especially for you audio experts, but are the non JBL systems the same as the JBL system, without the better speakers, amp, etc? Or is there an upgraded "head unit/receiver" in the display??

 

some higher end components up front, amplifier with DSP, and a proper tune could have been cost neutral. At least you were able to do everything on your own and learned more about the truck in the process

 

As I understand it, all 8" screens are NON-JBL.
14" screens can be either JBL or NON-JBL.
So to answer your question, yes, the JBL head unit is different from a NON-JBL head unit.

The NON-JBL's are easier to upgrade, since you do not have to work around the outboard JBL amp, which must remain in the system in order for it to function.

By the way, I'm FAR from an audio expert.

 

Awesome, thank you for the clarification!

 

I realized I was overthinking it. This Sunday, a few friends and family tested my new sound system, and they were impressed. My sister-in-law, who’s a music teacher, was especially amazed by how instrumental music sounds in the truck. A few people even said it was one of the best vehicle sound systems they’ve ever heard.

My brother has a Tundra with a JBL system, and mine just blows it out of the water—it’s not even close. Now he’s interested in upgrading his own setup. Overall, I’m really happy with it. I think it was totally worth the $950, and it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun to build.

 

I really appreciate all the advice I got from you! I'm genuinely happy with how everything turned out. I wasn’t aiming for anything super high-end—just wanted good sound, and now I have it, even more than I hoped for. Thanks, man!

 

Just a reminder...Folks should not overlook what is the most important aspect of any car audio upgrade, and that is installation quality. You could have the most high end components, but if they're installed poorly they will not sound better than a lower/mid-grade component that is installed properly. Installation quality covers a huge number of factors from wiring, speaker mounting, power/grounds, sound dampening, connection quality, electrical interference, etc.

 

Truer words have never been spoken/written.
I'm a self-taught gearhead and audio enthusiast. The only education in those two areas was the school of hard knocks. Mistakes of the type listed above were made (some relatively expensive, ALL avoidable) and lessons were learned.
I'm 58 and still learning. Don't ever be afraid to admit you don't know what you don't know, and to learn from someone that does. Hopefully you can skip some of those expensive mistakes.

 

I just completed phase one of my one upgrades with a Kicker Key 200.4 amp. Unbelievable difference with just the amp plugged in. The audio is now acceptable to me for a stock system. At low volumes the highs and lows are leveled out. One can carry on a conversation and decipher what song is playing in the background. The DSP is a nice touch but not entirely necessary. Turn up the volume and there's acceptable lows, very few rattles, and almost every bit as good as my 2016 Sierra with stock Bose system with factory sub. Fairly easy install with a t harness, power line, and two 10' runs of speed wire to underneath the drivers seat. Hook and loop fasteners hold the amp to a piece of abs and then the abs to the carpet.

Phase two is pair of GS25s in the dash and upgrade the front doors to some 6.5 woofers. Both of which are lost in the mail due to a postal strike. Maybe by the new year they'll arrive and I'll get them installed.

 

I just completed phase two of my upgrades. I replaced the speakers in the dash and front doors. The rears are powered by the stock head unit. A Kicker key 200.4 runs the front speakers in bi-amp mode. My goal was to make a pretty decent upgrade as cheap as possible. I'm quite happy how it turned out. It sounds so much better than stock. It's not on the level of our GX460 with Mark Levinson but damn I'll take it! Here's a summary and some pics.

Kicker Key 200.4 Amp with DSP. Run in bi-amp mode. Placed underneath driver seat.
Memphis Audio's MS60MV 6-1/2" midrange speakers in front doors
Audiofrog GS25 dash corner speakers
Speed wire - 20'run to go from behind the head unit to under the driver seat and back
Amp T Harness - connect to the aftermarket amp and back to the stock wiring.
Dash harness from Auto Harness House - used to bypass the removal of stock dash speakers
Metra 72-8109 Speaker Wiring Adapters - included with Crutchfield MS60MV order
Scosche SAT69 Speaker Mounting Brackets - included with Crutchfield MS60MV order
Crutchfield 8G amp wiring kit - good enough for a small amp underneath the driver seat.

$29 Amazon Basics Car Sound Deadening Mat, 14.5" x 10", Pack of 10

Amazon Basics sound deadener - wasn't planning on using this but it's too cheap not to.

$15 Car Sound Deadening Roller Metal Installation Tool 3 Pcs for Auto Noise Roller Car Sound Deadener Application Installation Tool Rolling Wheel Interior Accessories

Roller for sound deadener
Stinger FAST rings - again, why not after spending this much
Odds and ends - hook and loop, ABS sheet, tesa tape, zip ties, Posi-products wire connectors, leftover window gasket tape I had lying around

I've never messed with an audio system before or opened up the doors on a truck. I did a lot of research on this forum, I watched a lot of the Five Star guys on Youtube, and I used Taco on YouTube as a guide for running wire.

The dash speakers are in series with the door speakers. Take the dash speaker out and the door speakers will not work. There isn't enough stock wire to cut the plug and connect the wires together. Rather than run new wires to the doors I bought a harness from Auto Harness House and tied the ends together.

I ran new wires from the dash corners to the head unit. They're easy to fish through with a long zip tie. Even though the Audiofrog GS25 say they are an OEM fit for Toyota dash speakers they didn't fit the stock bolt holes. I used the stock speaker as a template for a bracket and cut a piece of ABS to fit.

It sounds great! The DSP is what makes it. The little bit of sound deadening makes a big difference in the doors and I don't have any rattles or vibrations. One could add tweeters in the A pillars and a dedicated sub, but this is a pretty decent setup for the money and effort. I was hoping to stay closer to $1k but my speaker choices put me up to around $1500CAD.

 

Hey guys, thank you for this thread. I had a 2018 that got totaled but I had upgraded the entire truck with component sets, 2 10" Sundown SLDs, a JL RD400, and a Zapco 1000w mono for the subs. I spent a ton of time installing, deadening panels, and making it look clean. It was hands down one of the best systems I've ever heard and by far my best system for bass. That truck got totaled, I hopped in a silverado LTZ for a bit but it recently dropped a lifter so I'm back into a 2023 Tundra Non-JBL. This stereo setup is awful and I'm back in the audio game with this one. The only difference this time is that I want to keep the OEM headunit. I've read the entire thread and THINK I have an idea of what I want but please let me know if there is a hole in my plans.

T Harness from headunit to Helix Mini DSP via high voltage input.
RCAs to 4 channel amp for component sets front and back via the other T harness connecting into the OEM speaker wires.
RCAs to Mono amp for 2 10" subs.

Is there anything that will cause me a problem here? Any stock functionality that I will lose? I want the truck to remain completely functional like it came from the factory. I've heard of people running a LOC prior to the DSP but this DSP has inputs for direct connection. I figured I'd try this first instead of going ahead with the LOC. I want the ability to tune the system or I would save $500 and not put the DSP in there. I see the audio control D-4.800 could serve as my component amp and DSP but I've been reading mixed reviews on AC stuff lately. Not sure if that's the way to go or not. If anyone has used one, please let me know how it works with our trucks. It would allow me to run RCAs from the amp over to my separate mono amp for my subs too.

I really want to go with Morel or Audiofrog component speakers. Likely a cheaper set for the rear doors.
I've modeled all of the top shallow mount subs in WinISD and I'm really liking the Hertz Millies for a ported sub box with around 2cuft of airspace.

The sub box is the hang up. There are no good boxes out there. The ONLY one that I've found is the Fox Acoustics 4-10" box at 2.4 cubic feet. I have doubts that it is really tuned to 36hz so I'm going to call and make sure that it has internal baffles within the box. I really like a large frequency response in the low 30hz range. That's the bass I love. I might even modify the box to try and get it tuned down closer to 30hz if it's something that I think I can do.

If all of that falls apart, I will likely pick up a pair of Stereo Integrity BM-11s or the Alpine shallows and a 1.2cuft sealed box or build my own and shift from a SPL setup to more of a SQ setup. What I haven't figured out is why no one has combined the two style boxes available. You could build one that covered the back wall and took up the rear under seat storage room for an actual large box. My best friend just got a 8'x4' CNC so maybe that's something that I will have to try if it comes down to it but the last thing I need is another project on top of this one!

Anyway, I would appreciate anyone that knows more than I do and has some experience with a DSP in these trucks. If you only did a LOC, do you feel like you're losing out on anything? Without a way to tune, I feel like you're stuck with whatever you have and I know in my last truck I really brought the system alive by using some of the tuning features which just plain aren't there with the OEM head unit.

Thank yall!

 

Well I'm in now. Ordered a Helix V8 Amp/DSP. Here we go.

3 way active up front and 2 way passive or coax in the rear.

Going to build a box for the rear storage with MDF top and fiberglass bottom and sides.

Subs will be shallow type r, Hertz Millies, or the new Wavtechs in a sealed box. Roughly 2cuft.

Still deciding on best speaker setup. Looking at morel virtus, audiofrog, or stereo integrity.

Not worth chasing the problems with the stock wiring so ill be running new to all locations. I'm sure I'll regret that.

Full deadening/sound proofing with butyl mat, closed cell foam, with extra butyl rope and foam around panels to minimize any rattles.

 

that's a clean install!

 

Hey there, thanks for sharing your build! So how did you wire up the tweeter? Assume you are running woofer and tweeter off a passive crossover and took advantage of the single set (+/-) oe speaker wires already routed to each door?

 

Any progress on wiring up rhe 3 ways... Did you figure out how you are running new/additional wires through the door plugs? Drilling holes vs adding pins in unused spots in the molex?

 

Well I've got everything in but the front mids. I'm still not sure how to get wires in there. Its so tight with all of the plastic insert trays and wiring it's stupid. I can't even figure out how to get them off.

If anyone has tips or has figured out how to run wires through the front door id love to know.

Reara weren't bad. I clipped the top of the plug off and routed out a little channel to route the wires into the rubber boot. A couple of trial and error fits and I had it plugged back in and working. Tweeters were the easiest just running wires up the sides and straight up along with the midrange drivers.

I used 1/4" plexiglass to make a mount and while it works, i can't get my grilles back on so it will be temporary for now. I'll have to come up with another design that recesses the speaker a bit. As a last resort I'll draw it in CAD and get it printed.

I'm really just stuck on the front doors. Truck is still torn apart but I'll have to get it back together and see if I can figure something out for the fronts tomorrow. It's so tight I can't even accurately drill another hole to make my own little pass through but I'm thinking that's my only option honestly. Both the driver and passenger side is the same setup.

I'll be tuning my amp after dinner to see if I can atleast get some sound coming through so my drive this week won't completely suck.

 

Love to see that V8!!! I ended up going a different route with the wiring... Picked up some plug and play harnesses for the doors and dash (eventually just a jumper as the door feeds off the dash plug. But for now have my blam l200p 8s in the doors and lf252s in the dash. Had them in for about 2 weeks now running off a small 25x4 amp and wow they have really opened up after breaking in, especially the 8s... I they were so attenuated when I first put them in I thought they were out of phase! Shocking difference to be honest. Sound deadning the front doors too quite amount of time but we'll worth it.

Yesturday I swapped out the lfr52s for lfr80s to break in so they are ready once I get all my pro mk3 and amps wired up. Will also be tossing in a 3 inch in the center and trying out the "real center" feature in the mk3 pro! Can't wait.

Good luck with the wiring! I'll have to look up some conversion tables from the solar panel research I was doing but since the energy traveling through speakers wires via AC (voltage) and not DC (amperage) im pretty sure the the wire gauge is less of a factor. I.e. If voltage is the dynamic factor in with more wattage, the wires carrying it can be much thinner than if the wattage is generated via increased current. Like from battery to amp(s)... Anyway .. blah blah.... But thats why I went the oe wiring route but I'll have to look up the conversion table to see if I'll end up throtling the total wattage as a result ... Especially to the doors since those will be the only speaker I will be using OE wiring.

 

Thanks man. Spent some more time cleaning stuff up this morning and messing with the DSP. It's crazy to say the least. I've noticed just over 4hrs or so how much the speakers have opened up and I know it's just getting started. It will sound a ton better when I get the front midbass in there.

Toyota does some weird shit with their front stage wiring and it pissed me off in my last truck and swore I'd never do it again. That's why I decided to do new wiring this time and just to get all I could out of the setup. I also knew I'd regret it and I'm very close to that.

I sound proofed the front door with three different layers using the Siless stuff off Amazon and it was amazing, super pleased with it. I will do the rear doors as i get more time and the complete back end and rear wall when i put my subs in. With a couple kids under 10 and baseball just starting i have to tackle projects like these in pieces so I'm not down a vehicle.

I think my next step is to get a mic and break into the RTA setup. They were surprisingly cheap to me.

Your setup sounds killer for sure. I looked at those drivers but wanted to stick around 700 for my front 3way set. Those were definitely over that cost. My other option was the Stereo Imtegrity setup but I've always like Morels when I heard them so I went that route. Glad I did, suits my tastes perfectly.

 

I just wish I had the balls to go through that harness cuz I bought a hundred feet of 16awg OFC with that intention. I was going to start looking into pins for whatever reason just don't have the energy for that.

It's funny actually cuz I ended up getting a quote from a local shop for the blams which was way out of my budget and I ended up purchasing via an online store in the UK and even with shipping etc landed cost basically got me those wide bands for free and then some. I was originally going to do a two-way setup but I just can't let those tweeters sit in the box. Lol

Once I made that decision I had to upgrade from the DSP3S to the Mk 3 pro for the extra two channels. Also needed more channels of amplification. And so the race to irresponsible spending continues...

Curious what you end up finding with the input analyzer in terms of all pass filters. I'm still trying to understand the virtual channel processing outside of all the FX features... Like global tuning etc. we should stay connected as I'm sure we'll be learning lots as we go through this tuning process!!!!

Morels=smooth!!! Good choice.

So you mounted the tweets on the dash? I was going to flush mount on the pillars but a fabricator (3d printing) was recommended to me but he doesn't have my /our pillars scanned in so I'm hoping he can find 1 off eBay cheap.

Others send him one off their vehicles but shipping form Canada is too much so I'll just wait and add the tweeters when hes able to locate a pillar locally.

 

Oh and forgot to ask... Did you drill a new hole for your power via the firewall or did you use an existing one?

I've got 1/0 power and assuming I'll need a new hole/ to use a Grommet Cable Gland.

And which sides did you end up running power and signal on?

 

If you've ever watched the TT videos on the newer models, there is a little rubber grommet they pop out and slide the wiring through on the driver side. Well low and behold there is a matching one on the passenger side behind the battery. I pulled the battery and was able to pop that out and my 1/0 wire fit PERFECTLY through there. You will need a drill and a bit large enough to poke through the fiber mat insulation on the cab side and then you can route it down the kick panel and through the door jamb. I'll try to get some more pics when I get it back apart. It was really simple though. Like they planned it that way.

I bought a 9 wire cable to wire into the PAC harness and back to the amp. Routed it under the carpet by the glove box and then back with the power wire. There is a ton of insulation on both wires and so far so good. That covered 4 channels and an extra wire to use for a remote input. I drilled some holes in the underseat tub and ran the wires up into it from the passenger side. I used a ground under the existing underseat tray on the passenger side as well. All main power and ground are 1/0 Knu Conceptz OFC wire. Those go to a distro box 1/0 in and 4/0 out straight to the amp. I set it up for easily adding my subwoofer amp later. I plan to relocate everything to the back wall of the truck at that time.

I then routed 14g speaker wire from the amp under the single rear seat on the passenger side and back up each door jamb/kick panel. It's a straight shot up to the dash speakers. Be careful, I scratched the hell out of my window tint on the passenger side using a fiberglass rod to fish it through. Ran the 3.5" and the tweeter wires up the corner dash holes and the snuck the tweeter wires between the dash and poked them out where I mounted the tweets with their 45° flush mount on the dash just above the little corner vent. Obviously I showed some pics of the rear doors.

I'm about to admit defeat and use the return harness on the PAC to power the door speakers. However, I'm a bit confused on the wiring. The harness has a plug that you can wire in and it's just 4 wires with bare ends for the front L and front R. However, what's the Non-JBL power routing and does it incorporate the front center speaker like it did in previous models? I seem to remember someone showing a "jumper" wired up to provide continuity for the front door speakers that I assume they used to "jump" the center speaker location. Can anyone break this down for me?

My plan would be to use my new wiring for channel A (FL Midbass) and B (FR Midbass) from my amp and tie back into the harness with the provided wiring from PAC. However, I'm not sure if that will actually power the doors alone? If that works, all I will need are the plug adapters for the doors and while I'll be running stock wiring on my most power hungry speakers, they should work. If not, what do you need to build for the center dash plug? As I see it, there is only one plug there for the speaker but I haven't dug in too much and could have easily missed it.

BTW, I completed some time alignment last night, dicked with polarity which made a huge difference, and then various other small tweaks. She is breaking in and sounding amazing as time passes. I'm super happy with the Morel Sensus components and even the Maximo Ultra Coax I ran in the rear. They're quite surprising for an inexpensive driver. Just making me want to get my front midbass hooked up because I'm definitely lacking there and pushing the rears a little harder to make up for it.

 

just run through the existing passenger grommet. Fits fine.

 

Anyone running into a white noise problem? Switched grounds around and ran straight to battery to test but problem still exists. Ran into this with my previous taco and just replaced the headunit but got the 360 camera on this one so that's not an option. Played with the gains on the LC7i(almost turned all the way down) and amp(not even half way up), problem still there but not noticeable while driving or when ac is on. But I would like to be able to get louder at lower volume so I don't have to turn it up to 40 every time I want to get loud. Is the outputs from the non jbl system just that dirty or am I missing something, this was always a problem without bypassing a factory amp but I don't see an amp anywhere.

Power wire ran on opposite side of vehicle btw.

 

So it seems the oe doors, dash, and centre are all wired in parallel. I have pulled the center speaker and both FL and FR continue to work.

The doors however will only work lf the dash speakers are connected or jumped.

I too will be using takijg advantage of the one wiring to power the doors f and r and will run new wires to tweeters and dash. Will leave the dash harness I bought plugged (jumper) and seal off the wire ends.

 

Thanks so much for sharing the access info... I have main fuse mount mounted but haven't pulled the battery to run cable... Super helpful! Thanks!

Picked up some birch for the sub boxes I'm gonna make up/test.

Gonna try a Polk MM 842 I picked up for 40bucks! And see if that's enough.

Might save me from using the bigger amp and subs I will sell if I don't end of needing.

So you ran power and signal together up the passenger side and don't have any noise?

 

Thanks for sharing! Super helpful to know it'll work without having to drill through the metal.

 

I did the exact same power wire routing as shown above. Extremely easy and much better than reaming out the grommet in my 2.5gen.

Regarding the noise. I have noticed a tiny bit of white noise. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is as it seems to be dependent on each recording. However, it's there at idle as well on high volumes. I was worried about this since I've never used high level inputs before. It hasn't bothered me enough to rip everything apart and try to pinpoint if it's the ground or the speaker wire routing. The easy fix would be to route the speaker wires coming out of the underseat box, under the carpet and down each side of the center console up into the dash. However, I have a feeling that's not going to help. The first thing I would focus on is the ground as I just grabbed an existing ground that was accessible tied to the body of the truck.

Regarding the dash wiring. I do civil engineering, not electrical so I could be using this wrong. However, to me it looks like the corner dash speakers receive the power input and then the center is tapped from those so removing the center shouldn't do anything to the circuit. Since the corners pass the power to the doors, you would have to wire them together to provide continuity. I've ordered a pair of the corner dash adapters from AHH and am planning on wiring those together and then seeing if that will send power to my doors via the OEM wiring. If so, I'm going to call it a day there. If not, I'll mess with the center channel and see what needs to be done there. 1862ltz seemed to get it to work just wiring the corners together so I'm hopeful that's the solution. It will be interesting to see if there is any modulation of their output and I will check that through RTA on my DSP.

 

Make sure none of your speaker wire (from Headunit to LC7 or from the Amp to the speakers) is near any of the electrical components under the dash. There's a fuse panel under passenger side and bunch of components under the drivers. I even had a bit of alternator whine when I did the initial install.

I had this issue when I first installed my system and it was resolved by running the speaker wiring straight down from the head unit, under the center console, and then under the drivers seat, out to the sill plate, and then to behind the rear seat.

I also have a AudioControl Preamp and it was noisy as hell unless it was activated with a dedicated remote turn-on. I learned that the audio system is ALWAYS ON in these vehicles, because all the warning sounds for the 360 camera system are routed thru the speakers along with all the Carplay call and text notifications.

I hope this helps.