97 Corolla, upgrade from factory sound, many Q's.

hawkman71 said:

Hi,

A noob to car audio, other than replacing a few factory decks, straight up.

I have multiple questions and don't know whether to flood the forum with many threads, or try to put them here, in one. I'll start with the latter...

I have a 97 Corolla with an aftermarket Sony stereo that sucks. It has a flip-down face that is acting up. Sometimes I can hardly touch any button and the thing shuts off. Very frustrating. The remote allows me to get through most issues w/o touching it.

ANyway, I want to replace it, and be able to plug in my iPod touch to it.

Other issues include bad sounding speakers which I assume are factory. *Supposedly 4" up front and 6.5s in back, according to Crutchfield. Also, I have TONS of ROAD NOISE. I have to have the stereo up pretty loud to make out lyrics, talk radio, etc. I hate it. My 91 Camry was much quieter....

I am also not heavy with money to spend. Actually, much of this is a dream, or a plan that i'll work on, maybe starting with some speakers, a new deck, and later, an amp etc.

I listen to everything from talk to folk to rock to metal etc.

So, the questions.

1) Is it worth trying to dampen the sound with something like dynamat (or others that I have read about...)? I have read much of the sticky threads on sound dampening, but I'd still like to hear about anyone's experiences with a tin can like a 97 Corolla. Where did/would you start?

2) Should I / Is it best to just start with the recommended factory-size speakers? I thought I'd replace the 4s in the front first. I've read I can go 5.25" there, but maybe there's no need to go bigger there.

2b) Bass blockers in front?
2c) Baffles up front? Or dynamat speaker kit?

3) Go with stock size in rear? Something to gain from putting 6x9s in if possible? My rear deck seems to have 6x9 holes closer to the center of the deck.

Other less important questions involve how to rig your stereo so that it can run while key is not in car. I like the buzz to remind me a door is open, but I hate it if I'm trying to listen to music outside...

I'll save the amp questions for later, seeing as that isn't a short-term replacement option for me, unless I find a deal on Craigslist...

Thanks folks. I'm excited to make my daily commutes of 60 miles roundtrip a lot more enjoyable...

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums! I'll try and answer some of your questions.

1) Yes, sound deadening mat such as Dynamat works remarkably well. You can buy the equivalents of Dynamat at a much cheaper cost, which do exactly the same job, the only difference in most cases is that it doesn't have the Dynamat brand name stamped on it. Just avoid spray on sound deadening or material that gets used for roofing on houses etc. The best thing to do would be to use it on each front door, right the way across. You'll get gains from just doing the metal behind the door panel, but you'll get even better gains (particularly when it comes to lowering the road noise) by also putting sound deadening on the outer side of the door (behind the glass, on the side nearest the door handle).

2) You should be able to fit bigger speakers up front by grinding out some of the factory plastic speaker bracket. Just be wary of the depth of the replacement speakers as you might experience clearance issues between the door panel and the window glass. My JDM Corolla comes with 6.5" front speakers from factory, but the door card flares out a little bit to stop anything from hitting against it. I actually sent a pair of 6.5" OEM speaker brackets to the US the other week, as they use the same mounting holes as the USDM Corollas. That could be an option if you want to upgrade to a larger size, otherwise go for custom brackets.

2b/2c) I'd stick with sound deadening like Dynamat in the front. I haven't had any experience using any other sound deadening methods up front so they may work just as well, but the Dynamat is the simplest option.

3) The whole point of rear speakers is to fill in the sound and make the system sound 'complete'. A very common mistake that people make is to put large wattage rear speakers in. All you want back there is some low wattage speakers that are going to fill the sound in from the rear. If you have high wattage speakers back there with a lot of bass then it will sound unbalanced and will make your head hurt after a while. Plus, 6x9s tend to distort the sound a bit due to their shape. It's best to just stick to the factory sized speakers in the rear, without going too crazy with the wattage as your money is better spent on a decent set of front speakers. You'll no doubt be choosing to fade the sound more towards the front anyway, essentially making your rear speakers run at half of their capacity.

4) You can rig your stereo up to have power when the key is out by joining the 12v switched wire and the 12v constant wire together when wiring it to the harness. The only downside about this is that you will have to manually press the off button when you want to power the head-unit down.

The sound set-up in my 93' Corolla consists of a Sony USB head-unit, Sony Xplod 300w (75w RMS) 6.5" front speakers and a Sony Xplod 444w 4-channel amp driving the front speakers (bridged to 2-channels). The factory rear speakers in my Corolla were large box type speakers (similar to surround sound speakers for a home stereo) but they were removed before I bought the car. I haven't installed any rear speakers yet as my front ones are 4-way which produce more than enough treble, but when I eventually do install some I'll more than likely be going for 4" speakers just so that it fills the rear in a bit.

There are many other things that you can choose from, such as component speakers with crossovers or a small sub to give an extra bit of bass, but if you're not planning on building a competition car then a bit of sound deadening, some good quality speakers and an average size amp will be more than sufficient :thumbsup: