Door speakers:

Factory:

Replacements:

 

Where did you get them speakers so cheap? And was that the dash ones? Or the door speakers?

 

I was mistaken, the dash speakers were actually $27.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Kicker-DS35-DS-Series-Coaxial-Speakers/dp/B004PRUTLY[/ame]


Door speakers are $44 (you also need speaker adapters to mount them)

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-R169X3-Full-Range-Coaxial/dp/B00BF6HVG4[/ame]

 

great write up and pictures. any clearance issues with the 3 1/2" speakers or the grill not fitting?

 

No issues at all. There's plenty of depth. I was concerned the grilles might not fit back on because of the tweeters, but the grilles pop back on and sit flush. The speaker mounting holes line right up as well; no tweaking needed there either.

 

Nice upgrade. Since your door cards were off, you could've added sound deadener on the doors, it would have make a very noticeable improvment.

 

which brand would you use?

 

Did you use these to mount the door speakers?

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120828149/Metra-82-8149-Speaker-Mounting-Brackets.html?tp=2824

 

You'll need those for the doors as well as the rear deck if you're doing those.

 

OP I have the same setup in my car. I put the 6 3/4 kickers (DSC 654)in the rear deck though. I also hooked up one of the Apline 45x4 power packs and it sound awesome.

P-DUB I would just buy the speakers from crutchfield they look to be more money but by the time you buy the brackets it will be almost a wash out. Plus crutchfield includes the wiring harness that plugs right into your factory harness so you do not need to splice into the wiring.

 

You're right on the Crutchfield thing - I ended up buying the 6x9s through them so I'd get the bracket and speaker harness.

Heh. Thanks for making me want to spend more money now. That Alpine Power Pack is intriguing... I may end up getting one.

Is the original install done on a non-JBL audio with navigation? In that setup both Amazon and Crutchfields warn that the kickers don't fit. The 3.5's I have (2012 SE) look the same as the ones you posted, and they look like they'll fit.
Very nice post!

Yep, 2014.5 SE non-JBL with navigation. They probably don't list it as 'fits' because there aren't any plug & play wire harnesses available, but they do indeed fit and bolt in without any modifications. I'd imagine most 3.5" speakers will fit ok. For wiring, just use some tap splices on the existing wires and use the included wiring to run to the new speakers.

Crutchfield has a pinout available; the colors match the dash speakers. Just make sure you connect both positive and negative pairs together - http://crutchfield.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8763/kw/camry

 

Is the original install done on a non-JBL audio with navigation? In that setup both Amazon and Crutchfields warn that the kickers don't fit. The 3.5's I have (2012 SE) look the same as the ones you posted, and they look like they'll fit.
Very nice post!

 

how did you connect it without having to cut any wires? Please elaborate. I'm thinking about upgrading my speakers and getting the Alpine amp.

Thanks

 

Easy. Depending on what you plan to use, you can build a harness that goes between the factory harness and the radio; just splice whatever's needed there; the factory harness is untouched. You can easily remove and plug the factory harness back into the radio if you need to remove it later.


Here's my setup (I'm an Amazon whore):


Front door/dash speakers in previous post


Amplified Bazooka sub (100 Watts, with Installation Kit) - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003E4K7HU[/ame]


Bazooka Toyota Harness (where I spliced in front speakers and also powers/feeds audio to sub) - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BJM2WE[/ame]


Bazooka FAST extender (plugs into harness above to feed sub. Not needed if you buy the Bazooka with installation kit) - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BJJXZI[/ame]


Alpine KTP-445U - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VVYL46[/ame]


Toyota reverse harness - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007KK2LK/[/ame]


Toyota radio harness - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BEQJ8[/ame]




The reverse harness plugs directly into the radio, so your audio out comes from there, into the amp, then from the amp back to the other side of the radio harness. If you're using the Bazooka harness, just cut the front speaker wires on it and use that for the amp connection. If not, you can build your own harness for front/back speakers using the combination of the two above. Solder everything but the speaker wires then connect the amp in there.

I had to run some extra speaker wire for the input side of the amp, but you could also get some line-level converters and connect via RCA. It was an afterthought, so I didn't bother. Spliced power from the 12v lighter plug, and grounded it to the factory ground block that's in the void behind the radio.

I used quick disconnects on everything so I can easily remove the amp and use the factory radio's amp, if needed.'

I have a 2014.5 SE with Nav, but this setup should work for anyone, really

For $400 or so, definitely a worthwhile upgrade and does what I want. I couldn't care less about impressing the guy in the next car over anymore..

 

No it taps into the power supply from the radio. Everything basically taps into the radio. You just have to make sure the radio is 15 amp or bigger I think ours are 20.

 

It's a fairly easy installation. It essentially goes in-between the radio and the speakers; output from radio to amp, then amp to speakers. Plus power and ground.

Full installation manual is here - http://support.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/OM_KTP-445U.pdf

 

Great info in this thread.

If both the dash and front door speakers are running off of the same wires, aren't they going to be running at 2 ohms? Can the Alpine Power Pack operate on a 2 ohm load?

 

i just installed my speakers. thanks again @SE_DRVR for the tips! there is definitely a very big improvement than stocks. i bought the same set of speakers (rockford forsgate and kicker). the highs on the dash speakers are now very noticeable. i re-used the capacitor from the stock dash speakers. additional tip, remove the top guide rail from the door panel when re-installing. it's easier that way. also, i bought the front door speaker harness from ebay. it's part # Metra 72-8104 ($5). this is similar to crutchfield's Metra 71-035LC ($10).

here's the dash speakers with the oem capacitor. i apologize for the poor soldering technique lol

here's the guide rail i was talking about. you push the middle portion with a flat screw driver and then lift it up.

here's the guide rail installed.

 

How did you reuse the capicator and wire it up? What advantage did you get from doing that?

 

Looks good! Glad you finally got it done. When/if you get the Alpine KTP-445U, they'll really open up.

 

Sweet I want to upgrade my speakers now.
However can I just buy the kicker speakers with capacitors on them?? Are they needed? Audio newbie here.

 

I have the kicker in my dash with nothing on them just hard wired. They sound fine. Im just curious as to what the capacitors do if you put the factory ones on them. Im pretty sure those power packs are 2ohm stable. But how to figure out ohm levels has always been confusing to me.

 

The capacitors most likely block lower bass frequencies.

To figure out ohm levels, you can usually set a multimeter on the ohm setting and it will give you a general ohms reading. For instance, 4 ohm loads usually area around 3.5 - 3.8 on the display.

 

The capacitors most likely block lower bass frequencies.

that's what i thought so too.

How did you reuse the capicator and wire it up? What advantage did you get from doing that?

i cut the sides and de-soldered the terminals. then i use a pry tool to remove it from the stock speakers. they are just glued. i'm afraid to splice and that's why i re-used them. advantage is you hear more highs. on your setup, do you hear mids and lows on the dash speakers?

 

did the kickers not come with a capacitor? Most speakers that have a separate tweeter come with a capacitor built in. I don't know if using the OEM ones will provide any extra advantage if the kickers already have a capacitor built in.

 

it doesn't say on the specs so I decided to re-use the stock capacitor. I've seen other 3.5 that do have the built-in high freq filter.

 

Threads like this is why I love this site. I'll be ordering my stuff today hopefully and by the time it comes in I know you guys will have it all figured out what is best to do, you've already told me how to do it and what to get, life is good!

Thanks guys.

 

I'm not a fan of much rear-fill in my car audio setups, although I don't doubt replacing the factory rear speakers would make an improvement. I have the factory system faded mostly towards the front and I turned down the rear gain on the amp to protect the factory speakers a bit. When/if they blow, I'll just unplug them and probably not notice any difference; they're barely audible in my setup anyway.

 

$160 installed isn't a bad price. The installation isn't overly difficult, but if you don't have much experience with installing car audio equipment, or a resource nearby to help, it could prove challenging.

A regular 4-channel amp would be fine as well, albeit, it won't be as easily hidden and would likely require its own power cable run from the battery; not hard to do, but isn't as 'stealthy' I guess. The one you referenced is only a few more watts per channel (50W RMS), so I'm not sure it'd be worth the extra cost/effort.

If you do go that route, might as well look into a decent 5-channel amp if you plan on adding a sub at some point in the future; one less thing to add later.

 

the audio installer did quote me for $240 if I go the 4 channel amp and $400+ for the 5 channel. I really don't want to add more bass (subwoofer) because from where I live, people are conservative lol. personally, the bass from the coaxial speakers are enough for me. but since you guys have good result with the alpine power pack, that would be in my next to do (or to have) list

 

I'm far from a bass-head anymore, but I do find that a small sub adds quite a bit of depth to all types of music. My cheap bazooka won't impress anyone, but sounds pretty good to my ears, IMHO.

You won't be disappointed with the power pack though. Very clean sound and the wattage allows your speakers to work better within the range they're designed for. I'd imagine the factory stereo doesn't put out more than 5-10w per channel, but that's pure speculation.

 

i have the JBL system, and spoke to crutchfield, they suggested that I would not be able to do a direct swap of the speakers (while retaining everything else including using the original amp)

could someone verify that I could actually do a swap for the speakers for the JBL system?