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Front Door Speaker Upgrade

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by Prius_dude, Jun 13, 2013.

  1. Wiberg_d

    Wiberg_d Junior Member

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    how about upgradeing the JBL package with infinity speakers? will the bass be better?
    Im not happy with the bass on my JBL 9 speaker package (one in the spare tire area)
     
  2. Mr.Electric

    Mr.Electric Member

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    I have a set of mb quart 4" speakers with nice cross overs from a previous car. I am considering using a 6x9" - 4" converter plate. Any thoughts or advice on this idea?
    The stock JBL in my new to me 2010 IV does in fact suck. I'm not an audiophile but I have to do something about the front speakers. I'm wondering if they are blown or just sound this cheap from new.
     
  3. Perkolator

    Perkolator Junior Member

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    I am also looking to slightly upgrade the audio quality in my 2013 Prius. Just looking for some clarification/confirmation for this upgrade.

    I understand that most people are using a replacement 6x9 in the front doors and are placing them in the stock housing/spacer for ease of things. I have seen that some use a 2-way and others use a 3-way speaker. Since there are already tweeters in the dash, to me it seems most logical to use a 2-way speaker as the highs are already taken care of by the tweeters. I did not really read about anyone using crossovers for the component setup because it sounds like it's not this type of setup, but instead the tweeters have inline capacitors on the back of them as opposed to running through crossovers. Is this correct?

    Has anyone upgraded the entire front speaker system with a proper component speaker setup that utilizes crossovers? I was just wondering since I'm guessing access to the dash tweeters is not going to be easy.

    Thanks!
     
  4. lopgok

    lopgok Member

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    The OEM 'tweeters' are garbage, as are the rest of the speakers in the car.

    The best bang for the buck is to replace the squakers with decent small speakers.
    I used the pioneers and then eventually the Polk Audio DXi350 speakers.

    I also switched the capacitor with a 100uf non polarized cap. I also put 2 ohm resistors in series with the front door speaker and the squakers to reduce the load on the OEM radio at higher frequencies.
     
    sarals likes this.
  5. roger_d

    roger_d Junior Member

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    It appears that the front tweeters are in parallel with the front door speakers. There is no crossover network. There is a capacitor in series with each front tweeter that produces a "high pass" filter that blocks lower frequencies from the tweeters. The front door speakers are getting the full unfiltered output from the head unit.

    Several upgraders have reported good results using 6x9 Infinity 9632cf (2-way) or 9633 (3-way) replacements in the doors while leaving the stock tweeters in place These Infinitys are high efficiency speakers, meaning that they don't need a high powered amplifier to drive them.

    This sounds like the least amount of hassle and biggest bang for the money and effort. I've ordered a pair of Infinity 9632cf (2-way). I've also located speaker adapters at Car-Speaker-Adapters. I'll report back :)
     
  6. Mr.Electric

    Mr.Electric Member

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    I will look forward to your results. I plan on buying the infinity speakers and leaving the tweeters disconnected.


    Turn off signatures in Tapatalk Tapatalk
     
  7. VicVinegar

    VicVinegar Member

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    Also looking forward to the results. I don't like tearing my new car apart, but the speakers stink from any source I use.
     
  8. roger_d

    roger_d Junior Member

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    I completed the installation of Infinity 9632cf front speakers using brackets from Car-Speaker-Adapters. All went well. Sound is much better. No problems with the adapters.
    [​IMG]
     
  9. tassojunior

    tassojunior Junior Member

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    I got the 3-way 9633's (dirt cheap on Amazon). I left the dash tweeters on because I didn't want to mess with the setup. The Infinity speakers have a -3 tweeter switch if you want to turn the Infinity tweeters down a little. I didn't and I absolutely do not have too much high end. Amazing difference for about $120.
     
  10. CTitanic

    CTitanic Member

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    Is not the JBL a better one? My old 2010 Prius was using the JBL ones?

     
  11. joerockt

    joerockt Junior Member

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    Did you just use nuts and bolts for the adapter? If so, do you know the size needed?
     
  12. sutur

    sutur Junior Member

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    This concerns a Prius 2010 model with 6 speakers, 2 dash, 2 front door, 2 back door.
    A couple of months ago I replaced the front door speakers with JBL 3-way speakers. The objective was to get more mid-frequencies than the stock Prius front door speakers.

    However, the sound coming from the new door speakers didn't change much: Only low frequencies come out of the JBLs. No mid or high frequencies. So in fact, the replacement of the front door speakers did not improve the sound.

    And that's what I don't understand. Reading this thread, the dash speakers are parallel with the door speakers, with a capacitor in series of the dashspeaker to block low frequencies for the dash speakers. If that's the case, why do only the low frequencies come out of the door speakers?

    Thanks.
     
  13. psteudlein

    psteudlein New Member

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    I have a Prius 2013 with non-JBL 6 speaker setup and the stock HU. I just recently changed out all 6 speakers. I am no way experienced at all this car audio stuff but here is what I did. I got all my info from this forum.

    First I replaced the front door speakers with Infinity 6x9 9632cf speakers with adapter from car-speaker-adapters, also added dynamat to the doors. This improved the sound some, but still have to run/play the radio at 45-50 because of HU.

    Next I did the rear doors with dynamat and Polk DXi651S. This made no difference at all. I have read on this form that for whatever reason, you just dont hear the rear speakers. I can turn the radio to 45, set the fader all the way to rear, sit in the rear seat, and still barely hear the speakers.
    Not sure what is up with that...anyone know?
    I sure an amp would fix that.

    Next was the dash speakers. Although the stock tweeters are tiny/bad/sad they did not give trouble. They have a stock bass blocker on them 6.8uf(around 6000Hz and below is blocked), but full range is sent to the front door speakers. Just this weekend I decided to replace the dash speakers with Polk DXi350. I used the bass blocker that came with the new speakers, blocks 200Hz and below. Had to cut the dash holes a little so the new speakers would fit, just used a razor. Did not want to mess with the stock plug by the dash speakers so I just made my own wire connections from the plug to the new speaker terminals, one for the "-" and one for the "+" with the bass blocker on the "+" line. To connect to the stock plug, you can just get these things called "Spade Terminals / 4-6 stud / 22-16", sort of look likes a lower case "h", which will plug perfectly right into the stock plug holes. That way you connect the two "-" lines for the rear speakers and then can continue on to the new dash speakers...do same for "+" holes on stock plug.

    If you want to not used the front dash speakers at all , just plug in two of those "spade terminals" and the front door speakers will work just fine.

    Now that I have replaced the dash speakers with polk dxi350 speakers, even with the 200hz bass blocker on them, the front sound stage has definitely moved a lot more forward towards the windshield. I would like to move it back a little but not sure how...More/higher bass blocker? not sure.

    All sounds fine though, but limited by stock HU, still have to play at volume 45. Plan is to add an amp later on with sub.
     
  14. oldtone

    oldtone Junior Member

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    Psteudlein,
    You provided two bits of info that helped me: the crossover freq of the dash tweeters; and not to bother with swapping out the rear door speakers.
    For your sound stage issue, I would think that going back to a higher cutoff frequency would move the stage aft. When you went from a 6K to 200hz crossover you picked up much more voice and music information that was blocked before, and essentially have a full range speaker in the dash now.
    It would be interesting to try it with the tweeter bypassed as you mentioned. I've had cars with front door speakers and no dash tweeters and still had a sound stage that sounded like dash speakers were installed. Since you have full range speakers in the doors, it might work fine.
    Let us know if you try it, and before I buy new tweeters.....
     
  15. MikeInOrlando

    MikeInOrlando Junior Member

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    Any chance you remember what size screws and bolts you needed?
     
  16. Truck

    Truck New Member

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    Any chance you remember what size screws and bolts you needed?


    When I did mine I just took one of the screws that came with the new speaker to ace hardware. I went from the bottom of the bracket up then put nuts on the top and trimmed off the extra. I did it that way so the boots were straight up and down and more secure.

    [​IMG]
     
    #57 Truck, Sep 2, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2014
  17. MikeInOrlando

    MikeInOrlando Junior Member

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    Thanks Truck. Once you did that, what screws did you use to attach it back to the car? Also, what made you choose Polk over Infinity? Any advice to share?
     
  18. rogan

    rogan Junior Member

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    I wouldn't go with a coaxial speaker in the door. I haven't had a look at the factory wiring yet but I'm thinking the system uses the natural rolloff of the midbass drivers as a filter. Putting full range speakers in there will make a bit of a mess of the soundstage cos you'll end up with high frequencies from 2 sources.

    I've found some ID X69 midbass drivers in my cupboard. Epic midbass, last install they had 700w on tap to each and were incredible. For the tweeters/sqaukers I'm thinking Tangband wideband or Audible Physics NZ3.

    Anyone got a picture of the dash with speakers and or covers renoved please ??
     
  19. Truck

    Truck New Member

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    I went with them because they were on sale so far the front doors are all I have changed out. Things sound 10 times better than before and I'm looking at putting the ktp-445u to power the dash and front doors after replacing dash speakers.