Started Sound System upgrade today

I took the input #3 wire on the TO3 harness and plugged it into the "bridged" outputs (I can't remember but it's clearly marked on the amp - Positive to one side of the rear speakers and negative to the other side of the rear speakers outputs) which are also running the rear door speakers and tweeters.

Now the custom harness takes the two stock wires wires and turns them into four wires - one pair for each tweeter.

 

How are the tweeters wired to connect to the factory wiring? I'm wondering if you have them running both positive wires together and both negative wires together?

 

Not a clue...James sent me the harness...all I know is two wires become four. Sorry I can't be more help (I don't really know what I'm doing although I fake it sometimes).

 

You're good I am about to dive into the center channel and talking through this with you is helping me. It's four wires because the left is one set and right is another. The stock speaker combined the two channels to make a center. If you use the left positive and right negative, at the dash it should provide the blend that you're looking for.
The wires from the right side to the center are pink/green and pink/pink. The wires from the left are pink/black and solid pink(no line). I'm not sure on the polarity yet, but I know someone will have the schematics to help.

 

I've seen some attempts at explaining tweeters in series. Here's a representation I through together:
Silver/positive from amp to the positive on the left tweeter, negative to positive from left to right, right negative to amp. You run the tweeters in series and reduce the load and overall volume. If yours are parallel(both positives and both negatives) to the amp you've increased load and volume.

 

That makes perfect sense...thank you!

 

I did the modification to the center tweeters and it sounded better but it is the center speaker that causes my amp to go into protection mode at higher volumes. When I remove it everything is right as rain. This seems to be the speaker stressing my system. Don't really notice much of a difference out either.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head @Army_of_One. @PWMDMD, I think you’re going to have to alter the harness that James sent. If you have both positives and negatives running to the amp I’d be willing to be the load will be too high as army said. You’re going to need to cut and splice the outputs from the tweeters. So when all said and done it should be two speaker wires running to the tweeters (one to left, one to right) and one wire between the two. Hope that makes sense.

sorry for dropping off, too. Trying to land a Kenwood HU and debating whether it’s the right move or not. Decisions decisions

 

This still causes amp to go into protection mode at high volume.

 

Try using one crossover and bridge that at the amp. Having two crossovers could be the issue.

 

James' dual 12" sub box arrived today! Oh ya! it sounds fantastic! Fits like a glove and completes the sound system upgrade! I am very happy! To my ear, the back seat has a better sound stage. The pioneer component speakers in the rear doors sound better to me that the polk audio components in the front doors. I have not connected the dash speakers, yet. Planning to listen to this set up for a while first.

I used a scrap piece of plywood for an amp rack. Functional, but will have to go back and do something about this later.

 

ha what a monster that box is. jealous!

 

Is that box sealed or ported?

 

Sealed

 

Order some 1/4" ABS plastic or hit up a local sign shop for ABS or Sintra (blown PVC) for the amp rack. Thin, rigid but bendable with some heat - perfect for an amp rack.

Saw your post that the back sounds better than the front - I'm not a fan of rear fill at all as it tends to pull the sound stage back, but on these trucks in particular running rear components is a bad idea and does horrible things to the front sound stage. Running coax in the rear (if anything) is going to sound much better than components. Reason being is the rear tweeters are waaaay closer to your ears than the front door or dash tweeters which drastically pulls the sound stage back and makes it really hard to get a good front sound stage.

You could get some incredible sound and staging using the DSP functions of the DSR1 along with the front stage being run active with the EQ and time alignment dialed in. In my Tundra experience with Morel Tempo Ultra components up front and coax in the rear, running the rears didn't seem to add volume and overall made it sound worse due to the funky staging.

 

aparker813, Thanks for the comments. I have two weeks to return/replace speakers and have been looking. I was thinking of returning the polk audio componentsj and moving the pioneer components to the front and putting pioneer coaxial in the back. I had a similar setup with JL Audio in my 2011 tundra.

Also, have not tuned the amp yet. Had a quick play with it, but need to spend some more time and get the crossover and gain dialed in.

the DSR1 tuning looks to be pretty slick. I have not dabbled with that yet either.

 

Take advantage of that return period and go big up front where you spend all your time! You got a lot of nice gear going in and that DSR1 is for sure real slick. The capabilities of a good DSP far exceeds my knowledge or tuning abilities.

So exciting when it all starts coming together and you get all the big pieces in. Enjoy it!

 

My opinion, don't mess with the crossovers on the amp. Use the DSR1 for all your adjusting.

 

Strongly agree. If nothing else, adjusting at the DSR1 will be much more accurate/precise than setting at the amp unless you're using an SMD CC-1 or something.

 

Thanks for the feedback regarding use of the DSR1 for adjusting levels. I played around with the app on my iPad last night, the possibilities are mind boggling! Band pass is a very interesting crossover function and the ability to adjust frequency to each speaker individually offers a level on tuning so far beyond a high pass filter on the amp. I am going to have to go sit in the truck and play with this app for an hour or two.

I did spend some time with the pioneer amp settings and have it set up to levels that are happy to my ears. the front polk audio tweeters are no longer too bright for my taste, and the rear components are not overpowering the front sound stage.

BTW, also discovered that the perfect tune app has functionality on my apple watch. Not the full tuning app but lets you control Sub Level, Punch Bass, Master Level, aux source, and Master Mute. Cool.

The real question is, how much time do i want to spend fiddling with this? Too many options is a slippery slope of time spent! But, it is time in my tundra, so not a bad thing!!

 

Curious since I am in the install stages of this as well, if you say don't mess with the crossover settings on the amps, what should they be set to? Max, all the way down to 0 or half way etc?

 

Leave the highpass all the way down and the low pass all the way up. The dsr1 will prevent the amp from getting signal below a certain hz on highpass and above a set hz on lowpass. Setting the app's crossover point could prevent the hz range the dsr1 is sending.

 

Sometimes there is a switch for full or pass. Otherwise, like Army_of_One says.

 

Im trying to understand this thread. One thing that I do not understand is that on the dsp there are 8 output channels but we are only amplifying 4 plus bass, right?. Cant the other 3 be for the dash? Lets say a mid on each corner and two tweeters on the center? They need to be separate in order to have the voice commands on the dash. I do not want a phone call all through put the cabin. Maybe Im over thinking this.

 

On the JBL stock system I believe every speaker was powered by the stock JBL amp. When I replaced the stock amp I did so with a 5-channel amp which I'm using to power 7-channels (Doors x 4, dash X 2 and sub X 1). My front doors and dash are piggybacked. So while there are 8 output channels on the DSP, there is no way power those channels on a 5-channel amp unless you use more amps.

 

Understood. With this piggyback install, where are the voice commands and phone calls going to? Im guessing they are going on all front speakers; doors and dash, which I think is a little bit too much. I was thinking of doing a small amp just for the front dash and center.

 

Sound comes from all front door and RT/LT dash speakers. It’s sounds perfect. Zero advantages to powering a center channel with an amp...unless the goal is to simply waste money.

It sounds perfect!

 

I'm pretty sure there is no way to isolate the center channel. It's a mix of left and right, so you're going to end up with everything through all of the speakers any way you cut it.

 

So here is my idea. There are 8 output channels from the dsp. One for each door, one for the front right dash (spare 3), one for the left dash (spare 4) and one for the sub. Total of 7. Center will be piggy back from dash right and left. Wondering if this can be done. Spare 3 and 4 must work as mids.