Need audio help!

OK, so you've already got some Kicker components in the doors, a 5 channel JL amp and an Alpine H/U soon to be on the way. And what about a wiring harness. Did Crutchfield get you set up with one? You will still need three sets of RCA cables (assuming that you will be adding a sub or subs for that 5th channel, oxygen free stranded copper wire in 16 gauge for the doors, soldering gun, solder, flux paste, heat shrink, wire terminals, fabric tape and zip ties. Do you have any idea what gauge wire the stereo hack used for your amp hot and ground wires? You need to run MINIMUM 4awg hot directly to the battery and 4awg ground to the frame of the truck, if he hasn't already. And of course, you will be running your amp remote from your H/U, to the amp. Did I miss anything?

Now, I understand that the sub/s will have to wait, but did stereo hack install sound matting in the doors? If he did (and judging by his wiring hack job, he probably did not) it would make a significant difference in the bass. It's too bad your are not in my neck of the woods as I have two boxes of sound matting sitting around in the garage collecting dust which is more than enough to complete the all four doors. I would give you them to you!

With that 5 channel amp, you are DEFINITELY going to want to install subs sooner or later. When you do, you are going to want to go with a ported box from James @ Tech12volts. Most of us have gone that route and damn! His box fits perfectly behind the back seat and it really rocks. 300 watts is enough to run two 10" subs back there and sound fantastic.

Regarding your dash speakers. If you absolutely have to have them, I would recommend you NOT run them off the amp. Others who have done so have complained that when "amplified", they sound WAY TOO "BRIGHT" (probably due to their proximity and orientation to the driver and passenger). I simply ditched the all three dash speakers and am extremely happy with the door components for all my highs and mids. Can't speak for everyone here, but I know many who have done the exact same. Regardless, if you must have them, just power them directly from the H/U as I do not think you will be happy otherwise.

Sorry, I know I covered a lot, but just want to point you in the right direction.

 

Yeah I had the same ones in my Tacoma hooked up to the kicker key amp and it sounded good, almost like I had some 8’s .
On another note I just went to order my HU from crutchfield only to find out they’re not offering a ready harness for some reason or another. I just had it in my cart ‍♂️
I was being to indecisive on what HU to get lol

 

Man you are awesome first off! And very kind to help out.
I even supplied the amp kit to him, but not sure without looking but wanna say it is 4 gauge.

I appreciate the advice on the tweeters also. I was thinking about just hooking them up to the HU because I wasn’t sure having that amp with 75 rms watts go to them would be a good thing or not.

I did just get some Noico brand sound matting in today. I ordered 18 sq ft. Seems like a lot and hopefully enough for the doors. If you’re looking to get rid of a box of yours I’d be willing to pay shipping or whatnot through cash app or something. But maybe I’ve got enough ‍♂️
Looks like I’m gonna wait a few days until I hear back from crutchfield about why I can’t get the ready harness all of a sudden. Gonna take my time and make sure I’ve got everything and take a weekend to tackle it all CORRECTLY

 

I believe they make them for you....give them a call, I bet they will set you up.

 

Yeah like I said it was available and then all of a sudden wasn’t anymore. I emailed the guy

 

I even tried another head unit and it wouldn’t work. I’m guessing they ran out of materials or something lol

 

As long as you are competent at making good soldering connections, you can install the harness yourself. And, you have a couple of options. I know that Metra makes one. When I did my install, I used the iDatalink TO2 harness. Now, I went with this harness, because I was also installing a Maestro RR. If you do not know what that is, here is a video from the super cool guys over at 5 Star Car Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC5sHuGOwOs
I already confirmed that it is compatible with your Alpine H/U. Besides all of the real-time vehicle data that the Maestro brings to your H/U, it also acts as interface between your H/U and your steering wheel controls for the radio. Why am I telling you all of this? Because, You can purchase and use the TO2 harness now, for your Alpine H/U installation (it will make the installation soooooo much easier and does not require the Maestro), and later, when you want to drop the $$, you can add the Maestro (it's Plug and Play to the TO2 harness) to your already installed Alpine H/U and TO2 harness. I mean, what were you originally planning to use to integrate your steering wheel controls? Or have you already considered this?

 

Agreed. Hell, even *one* box sounds fantastic. I bought the same box (for one 10" sub) with a shallow-mount sub (I forget which one) behind the rear seats in my CrewMax, and I expected to either have to add a better sub in the future, or upgrade to a box using two 10" subs. Honestly...I'm happy as hell with just one. it sounds fantastic.

Agreed as well. I have the tweeters in the sail panels, and have my radio faded partially to the back for this reason - to equalize the 'brightness.'

 

I got an email back from crutchfield with good news. Attaching it with what I think I finally made my mind up up with. Let me know your thoughts on this one.

As far as the maestro, I’m just wanting to keep my steering wheel functions and backup camera. Don’t want all the bells and whistles or rather don’t wanna dish out all the cash for them lol. I’m just trying to be a baller with a budget

 

A little late to the reply game here... For what it's worth, I had the

$280 ILX-W650 7" Double DIN Touchscreen Digital Multimedia Receiver with Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

ILX-W650 in my 4Runner for about two weeks (along with an

$290 Alpine KTP-445U Universal Power Pack

Alpine KTP-445U); while it worked alright, Android Auto was anything but stable. I mean, across all platforms it isn't "stable", but the ILX-W650 would have a dropped connection or Android Auto would crash more often than not. Additionally, I was using the Crux harness and had a systemic whine/whistle; not RPM dependent, similar to what you said initially. I rewired the whole set up, two different brands of Speedwire, three different sets of RCAs, moved the amp twice, tried 3 or 4 different grounds, multiple power sources (including from the aux battery vs. the main), RCA noise suppressors, power line noise suppressors, ferrite cores on everything, etc. And nothing solved or changed it at all. I finally got so fed up of chasing this around and tearing the truck apart (I live in a townhouse, none of our trucks fit in the garage, so all of my work has to happen outside, and our street is a bit of a wind tunnel, so winter months are infuriating when stuff doesn't go right).

To try to shorten this all up, I called Crutchfield and got a return authorization for the entire set up (dash kit and all, because, on the 4Runner, once you install a Double DIN radio, the dash kit cannot support a single DIN). I switched to the (much) pricier Pioneer WT7600NEX, iDatalink RR, and Kicker KEY200.4 and the whine was gone. Now, the WT7600NEX is substantially faster in interactions than the Alpine, and while Android auto is more stable, it's still not perfect, or anywhere close to it.

A buddy of mine ordered a radio a few months back with the Ready Harness, and it made it fairly easy for his install; personally, I enjoyed following the Dean @ 5 Star Car Audio method and strip the harness of everything it doesn't need, and then re-wrap it. For the iDatalink (and Crux) harness, it really thins out the bundle. His T-shape method made it easier to fit everything into the dash of my 4Runner also; we'll find out how well it works on the Tundra when I get to that point of putting everything back together (hopefully tomorrow).

Speaking of his videos on YouTube, pretty sure I'm well into the dozens of hours of their install videos, how-tos, and 911's, and can definitely say it has cleared up a lot and taught me some stuff. They do have a number of installs on Tundras as well.

 

Until y’all mentioned the 5star guys I haven’t heard of them before. Gonna have to look into what you’re saying about the harnesses.

Do you have any objections to the Sony I’m considering? I can’t really spend too much on this considering I just lost big on this crackjobs install. Trying to stay in the 5-600$ range

 

I just looked at the pioneer that you got. That thing is sweet. Too rich for my blood though lol.

 

I don't think anyone really has bad things to say about the Sony head units, they don't seem to have the popularity of Kenwood/Pioneer/Alpine, but appear to be pretty decent. Honestly, one great thing about Crutchfield is their return policy, so if you get it and you hate it (or even just change your mind), you will get a return shipping label basically immediately and without question.

 

Totally understand about staying in budget. And good to see that Crutchfield is setting you up with the steering wheel interface. As far as the Sony H/U is concerned, I had a super nice one with DVD, GPS, blah blah blah in my 4Runner a few years ago. It was great. My only quirk with it was the touch screen was not very sensitive, but that is a nitpick on my part. And that unit was released about 6 years go, so they have probably improved in that time. Reading reviews of your H/U choice on Amazon, looks pretty good. Looks like there are several videos on Youtube about the same H/U. Anyway, looks like you are in great shape and looking forward to see how your installation goes! Again, any issues, just PM me.

 

Thank you sir! Got it ordered and will be in Thursday. Just in time for the weekend

 

Finally got it all fixed with the new head unit and it sounds amazing. Doing the dynomat now. Need a little advice on how to do it though. Do I need to cover the big openings in the door? I’ve seen other folks cover the whole thing is why I ask.

 

When I sound matted my doors, I did both the internal panel (that would be the inside of the actual door skin), AND I also matted the stamped steel door panel with the big holes that you are referring to. Yes, I would cover the big holes. This will help bring out the "lows" on your door woofers. It can be challenging getting large pieces of matting through the big holes to mat the inside door skins, but I wore gloves to save my hands and took my time. Some might say that what I did was overkill. Maybe, but the doors are now very quiet when I shut them and the frequencies that my door woofers put out are definitely lower than prior to sound matting. One word of advice: If you decide to cover the big holes, just make sure that you have all of your internal door speaker wiring completed first, for obvious reasons!

 

If you added an aftermarket amp you should not even have the factory amp in there, It needs to be taken out and everything ran thru the one installed.
I hope I am not messing anything and I hope the local business takes care of you. If you paid by CC you could dispute the charges.

 

Sad that was supposed to be a professional install, how do these guys stay in business. Check out 5Star on YouTube and look at the install 911 videos.

 

Just a little update for anyone interested. Shoutout to @james@tech12volts for the sub enclosure!

ps. Also got the family a new camper this weekend

 

Looking good, my man! I have that same sub enclosure. So, now that you have the new system (and presumably installed correctly), how do you like it? How do you like the Sony H/U? Anyway, so glad you got it all squared away, and hope your previous stereo installer hack begins to suffer from erectile dysfunction!

 

Lmao right!? I’m digging the head unit man! Love the CarPlay. The enclosure looks awesome but I just emailed him. Don’t know if I should’ve polyfilled it or not or either close off the ports. It’s not really hitting on the frequency I would like. Only subbing on the “high” bass notes.

 

Well, doing Polyfill is not that difficult, but getting the back seat out IS! And you can't tune your subs via the amp's crossover and gain to the frequency you like? Well, either way, James will help you sort it out.