Started Sound System upgrade today

Thanks liquid_g

that’s what I’ll do! Are you still running the factory dash tweeters, or did you replace them? What about the centre speaker?

I dId manage to get one new speaker installed. Can’t work in the garage, cuz our boat is in there for winter and It is too cold and rainy to continue. Did test out the pioneer component in the back compared to the factory jbl. Oh my, so much more clarity! Not just to my ears, but my 17 year old son who is helping me with the install agrees. And that is only 1 of 4 new speakers! It is gonna sound so good once I finish the speakers and sound deadening/insulation in the doors! The cherry on top will be when the sub box arrives next week and I drop in two 12” subwoofers. This tundra “is gonna bump” as my son put it!



Going in to warm up and sip on a nice glass of red wine.

 

Yes, absolutely! This what James recommended I do. My only remaining question is for the center dash speaker, there is a speaker input wire on the TO3 harness for the center speaker and presumably, there is a wire running from the factory harness to the center channel - why can't we just piggyback the center speaker wire (Input 3 or 4 on the TO3 harness I think) to say one of the rear door channels (front door channels will already have the dash speakers piggybacked) to power the center channel?

 

@Sleeper16plat I'm using factory dash / door speakers for the time being. Will probably replace them eventually. I did not connect the center speaker. Just did the JBL 4505 amp and single JBL WS1200 sub in a Soundbox enclosure. I Didn't do any soundproofing yet either. It hits pretty hard with the single 12 I can't imagine what 2 of them are going to sound like, that's gonna be awesome.

 

I'm not sure on the JBL, but there is no true center channel on my non-jbl. The wires run from the left and right channels to the combined speaker in the center.

 

I think James recommends to either disconnect the center channel or run the front sound stage as mixed mono. So the center channel would be bridged between the left and right channels on the front. I’ve seen a couple people do that on here and they seem to all like it

 

Thanks...is that literally running a positive from one side and a negative from the other and connecting it to the center channel speaker? Do you know how difficult it is to fish wire between the right and left dash speakers and the center speaker? I have no desire to take the entire dash apart.

 

Take input 3 from TO3 and run positive to FR + and negative to FL-. You should be all set

 

....and no issues with impedance as far as having door mid woofers, lateral dash and center dash speakers all on the same two channels? Would it be better to piggyback the Lt/Rt dash with the door mid-woofers and the center with rear door mid-woofers?

 

Most likely going to be a bit softer, especially if you update the speakers up there. I also just updated my dashes to the jl’s that James sells and the front definitely quieted down which I personally liked. Check out this thread:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/2019-1794-jbl-to-tech12volts-gb-set-up.40187/

 

Lol...the hand-drawn picture confused me even more. I have Jame's JL double tweeter for a center speaker with a harness that looks like it takes two speaker wires from the stock wire harness and makes them four - two for each tweeter. To be clear and I do not need to do anything at the tweeters - just take Input #3 and setup as bridged at the front speakers? Having the dour speakers piggybacked with the dash speakers and now the center speaker bridged with the front speakers isn't too much for those tow channels?

I apologize again if this is obvious....thank you for your help!

 

FYI I tried doing this when I was connecting speakers to the amp. It put my amp into protect mode. Couldn't handle bridging the center speaker and providing power to FR and FL speakers at the same time.

 

Running stock or JL?

 

@dittothat Stock JBL headunit and stock speakers powered thru DSR1 and JBL 4505 amp with a single JBL WS1200 sub.

 

@liquid_g Nice! Yeah, hooking up the center channel probably provides a little too much resistance for the amp. Haven’t looked up the numbers but just a guess. JLs are 6ohm. I had the same setup as you for a while and it sounds great!

 

this is good stuff. I'm not sure I follow exactly how the mixed mono works for the center speaker, but I'm trying to follow along.

I understand running the dash tweeters in parallel, so I am going to try that out for a bit once I have the new doors installed and working.

For anyone following, I finished the two back doors yesterday. The pioneer component speakers bolted right in and the tweeters fit perfectly into the door panel with a little bit of super glue to hold it in place. Sound proofing is also done in the back, so I put all the panels and trim pieces back into place in the back seat area.

Passenger front door is wired and Polk Audio components installed, but ran out of daylight to finish the sound damping and insulation. There is lots of room behind the panel, so I mounted the crossover box to the door panel.

Sound with three new speakers is so clean and the sound stage is starting to take shape. Going to keep working on this today between working form home work stuff. Fed ex has the sub box arriving Friday, so by the weekend I should be done! Gives me time to figure out the amp rack and clean up the wiring under the front passenger seat.

 

I know its subjective, but with only one front speaker replaced, do you notice any loss of low end going from a 6x9 to a 6.5?

 

I would say no. The 6.5 holds it own, what is really noticeable is the responsiveness. When a Kick drum hits, it is a distinct smack with a defined start and stop. This is subjective as you say, but compared to the factory 6X9, the new 6.5 equals or surpasses the low end.

 

This^
Non-JBL dash speakers run straight off the HU, not thru factory amp
Not sure about the JBL either
2015 wiring manual

 

What about bridging the center channel across the rear outputs?

 

Another interesting finding today is on the JBL HU turning off either the Surround Sound or Automatic Sound Levelizer cuts out the subwoofer - so both of those need to be on for my sub to work. Probably a setting in DSR1.

 

Maybe try using the FL+ and FR-. Left hot and right ground is how most amps bridge. I don't believe it works the other way around.

 

Whoops! Had it backwards, going off memory

 

All speakers in. the front components fit nicely in the factory brackets with the crutchfield supplied adaptor plates. I am very happy with the sound quality and staging and I can see the finish line!

 

I'm so bored with home confinement I pretty much retune my truck daily...lol. Today I learned:

1. Input 3 can be bridged across the rear speaker outputs with no problems. I initially had only the 2 JL C1 tweeters connected (just to see if they work - they always get drowned out) and while nice tweeters they have a truly tiny sound and I can't help but think a more full-frequency speakers would be better there. They do move the highs more in front of you - hi-hat doesn't localize to the left dash but sound in front of you. I ran the system hard and loud and no issues.

2. I set the gains again but at a volume of 52 instead of 58 with the DD-1. This did allow me to turn up the gains on the front and rear speakers a bit. The subwoofer though was weird. Playing a 40Hz tone if I touched the bass adjust knob at all (the one that plugs into the amp) it immediately showed distortion. If I touched the gain on the sub at all it immediately showed distortion. I tuned the volume down to 48 and that gave me some more room to adjust the sub gain and I could actually use the bass adjust knob before it distorted. I'm confused because last week I didn't see distortion until 59. I think the HU starts to trail bass off as you approach max volume - I wonder if I was at a high enough volume that the HU started trailing off bass that was present at 52 but went away at 58 due to this HU "feature"?

Anyway....sound good. Input appreciated.

 

Sleeper16plat ....nice job!

 

Done! Well, almost. Sub Box still on fed ex truck and the passenger front door interior handle does not open the door. I'll have to take the panel off tomorrow and see what I missed.

72 sq.ft. of sound deadening mat and about 50 sq. ft of closed cell foam insulation used. There are three layers on every door. dampening mat on the outer skin with a layer of insulation closed cell foam, then a layer of deadening mat on the inner skin. Here is the last door panel, I used every last scrap piece of the mat!

Man I can't wait for the box to arrive!

 

Looks sweet! What sound deadening and closed cell foam did you use?

 

from Amazon


Noico 80 mil 36 sqft car Sound deadening mat, Butyl Automotive Sound Deadener, Audio Noise Insulation and dampening

and

Noico RED 150 mil 36 sqft Noico Liner Car Heat and Sound Insulation,Heat and Cool Liner, Self-Adhesive Closed Cell Deadening Material (PE Foam)

 

I'm not sure if there's too much power going to the 2 JL tweeters in the center speaker position having them bridged across the rear speaker outputs but it sounds like crap. When you turn up the volume the center tweeters are much louder than the door tweeters/dash speakers and they get kind of ear piercing fast. I may just disconnect them.

 

Do you have the tweeters running series or parallel?