'12 Prius III speaker upgrades

Have a 2012 Prius III with NAV. It's a non-JBL. Love the car with the exception of the stereo. Bought the car without hearing the stereo since the '12 was just trickling into dealers and none were to be found when I bought. I am surprised at how bad stereo sounds. Easily the worst sounding stereo out of my last few cars cars. I assume the factory speakers are cheap paper coned.

How hard is it to replace the factory speakers?

Can the factory NAV head unit drive most replacement speakers with 90db sensitivity? [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]


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Search showed non-JBL with 6 speakers for your model. You should verify speaker impedance and get Toyota effective wiring diagram before deciding. My Dealer's Service Mgr printed one out for mine day of delivery. If like the 2010-2011 base system, the speakers are 4Ω paper, and there are many examples on this forum to help with your options. If like the 2010-2011 JBLs using 2Ω and 1.8Ω, the choices are limited.

I have a 2012 Prius and the 6 speaker non-NAV unit. Yes the speakers are weak and you cant hear the two in the rear very much. There is another post on door panel removal and a mod for new speakers mounts. But I would not replace the speakers unless you had a better amp system to make it worth the work. 50 RMS PC is perfect for the car itself. Maybe just replace the door speakers and not the dash ones.

Attached is the print for the 2010 6 speaker Base system with 4Ω speakers. Yours may be similar, but you need the print effective to your year/model. Note the example shows front squawker and same side front woofer tied with a capacitor. Do your home work and you will get a lot of help on this forum.

I have a '12 III and it has the NAV so not sure about adding a amp? People refer to squawker. Are the 2 front speakers in the dash and doors component? The 2 rear are very weak, to be honest I did not even think the car had back speakers! The factory are 4 ohm, what sensitivity? I am hoping higher sensitivity speakers will do the job? A 90db-92db 4ohm speaker? I am hoping I can find something from Pioneer or Kenwood because I can buy them at cost through a friend who wholesales those 2 brands.

Last week I had new speakers installed. I went with some HERTZ 6 inch speakers in rear doors and then some Hertz component speakers in the front, woofers in doors and tweeters in dash.
The only issue installer had was the factory speakers were a different size s they had to make a custom frame for them.

I also had them install hushmat in the front doors.

Overall, install went well, speakers sound great.

Do you have the factory head unit? What kind of sensitivity do the Hertz speakers have? May I ask how much the speakers were?

Thanks

See album in my Profile.

I have the standard NAV radio system in my 2012 Prius Three.
The cost if I recall were $129 for the read speakers and $149 for the front.



Here are the specs for the rear speakers:

Product Overview:
DIECI COAX are coaxial speakers which combine a real woofer, the very good DT 16 tweeter and a special crossover. This mix insures excellent sound, in every kind of cars.

•60W RMS power handling (120W peak)
•High Density flux ferrite magnet
•Water repellent pressed paper cone woofer
•Neodymium magnet
•Mylar dome tweeter
•Frequency response: 60-21kHz
•Impendence: 4-ohms
•Sensitivity: 93 dB/Spl
•Outer diameter: 166mm
•Mounting hole diameter: 142mm
•Mounting depth: 61mm


Here are specs for the front speakers:
Product Overview:
Energy systems are the ideal solution to install a very good quality system in factory locations. Given with complete mounting hardware, these systems synthesize and fully represent Energy line sound philosophy. Listening to pure energy.

•6.5" woofer, 25mm (1") Tweeter
•100W RMS power handling (200W peak)
•Frequency response: 50-23kHz
•Impendence: 4-ohms
•Sensitivity: 912 dB/Spl
•Outer diameter: 165mm
•Mounting hole diameter: 145mm
•Mounting depth: 66mm
•Crossover included: 3.5kHz crossover frequency

Looks to be quite a impressive system!

I am not looking to replace my factory NAV, I want to keep it. I just want to replace the cheap paper speakers with something better.

This sounds like what I want to do. Was it a huge improvement in sound quality? How is volume?

Do you have the part numbers? About how much was installation?

Thanks!

I would add a amp to my factory NAV head unit if it was not too much work. I guess I need to find out if it is possible and who involved it would be. I will upgrade to high sensitivity aftermarket speakers if the amp is too much work or not possible. It sounds like shrktank did what I want to do.

Does the 2012 std head unit, no NAV have RCA outputs for a external amp?

Defintly a sound improvement. Much more clearer sounds. Very strong high and mid range tones. Bass is good for me, but I am not a big bass kind of guy.

I think install was like $100 and anouther $75 or so for adding the hush mat for the door panels

Thanks!

I'm looking to do this (replace speakers but keep HU). Do you have links (or part#) for the speakers you got? Did you just replace the 4 speakers (2 front and 2 rear)?

I can shoot over part numbers and such when I get home. Give me a bout 1.5 hours

Awesome, I appreciate it. just got my Prius on Saturday, and the speakers are a bit lackluster. Seems like a relatively inexpensive upgrade, and from the sounds of it your happy with the improvement.

I've installed speakers in my previous vehicles. I'm thinking about taking on the challenge here. Has anyone done this themselves? Any guides out there/info on how to get at the speakers?

Yes see this post, by Spiderman. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-audio-electronics/91508-squawker-upgrade-help.html

Well that had to be the longest 1.5 hours of my life!!! Sorry about that. Got home, sidetracked and then forgot. But here are the model numbers I also posted pics of the boxes:

Hertz DSK 165
Hertz DCX 165