Upgrades for Prius IV w/ JBL

Ok Venom, here is what I've experienced with my install and the shop who's done it. My understanding is that all 8ch. of the JBL system have their own X-over points and equalization. That being said, in adding an aftermarket amp you will certainly need a device that sums the channels together to get as close to a full range signal as possible. Sadly, the door speakers are crossed over at a fairly low point to where if you were to hook up a full range speaker like a 2-way 6x9 or 6 1/2 you would not get all of the sound out of it. Only the lower side of the mid-bass and bass out of them. No high frequencies. Same goes for the dash speakers, but the opposite. They are a upper midrange speaker called a squaker which only gets upper mid-range and highs. They probably would have too much mid frequencies to drive just a tweeter, but not enough lower mid range and bass to make a 2-way speaker or component set sound good. We have tried two different setups and what I have now seems to be the best but far from being as good as it could be just because the factory amp is done so strangely in our cars. It really isn't meant to be improved upon which is a shame.

So, what we tried were the JL Audio Clean Sweep and whatever the piece is to combine the frequencies( I forget the model) and it just flat out didn't work. Came up with an error message saying it couldn't read it properly. We started with and ended up going back to the Alpine PXE-H650 which is quite the amazing piece, but even it isn't able to fully correct the flaws in this system. You should read up on it. It uses a microphone with Audyessy software that you tune through a laptop to take away the factory equalization as much as it can, flatten it out and then read the acoustics in the car to properly align them to get the best sound out of your cars environment. An Alpine tech even came out and spent an entire day on my car on his day off trying to get it to find the proper setup and it flat out gave them fits. He spent from 10am to 8pm plugging away on my car. They figured out that bypassing the factory amp was best and it sounded amazing. It has been a very long time since I had ever heard something so good. Only problem after leaving that night is realizing my bluetooth and NAV voices went away.

The following weekend it went back in. Another day and a half went in to trying to figure out the best way to make everything work and sound its very best. That's where I'm at now, but it is really only maybe 80% of it's potential. If you haven't figured out by now I went full blown audiophile type system and once it's done it would blow you away in clarity and punch for being such a small system. I know you're probably not going to that extreme as I'm sure 99.9% of Prius owners ever will and with my findings it would be better off that they didn't.
​

I know this is long, but I had to explain as much as I could in what we have found out so far. There are in fact other pieces out there that do similar things as the Alpine and JL pieces and you might want to give them a try or at least see if the shop you take it to if you do would be willing to experiment with those other units. I would love to hear back about them but really feel for the money the Alpine piece is probably going to be the best bet. If I were you though since it doesn't look like you're going to add a sub, stick with 6x9's in the front doors. You'll get much better sound out of them with a decent amount of bass to make up for not having a separate sub. That is of course unless you decide to do a component set up front, then 6 1/2's would be your best bet.

I hope this helps and I hope I didn't confuse you too much. I tried to explain everything I could the best that I could. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

The MTX piece may work, but I have a feeling it's not going to do quite enough. There's a piece that my guy said may work as well from Rockford depending on what you want to spend is the 3SIXTY.1 or the 3SIXTY.2. They both do similar to what my Alpine does I believe although the second unit is actually more money than the Alpine and needs a palm pilot to be able to tune it which is why it costs more than the first Rockford piece. More features. As to how it compares, that I couldn't tell you as my shop isn't a Rockford dealer so we didn't get to try it. Sounds like a great piece though. If you don't mind not having the tech support of Crutchfield and are more concerned with saving a bunch of money on components check out a place that I go to quite often except for this last time just because I was not doing any of it myself. The place is woofersetc.com. They have a ton of stuff and they do have a store here in L.A. that I have visited quite a few times. The store front has a different name as woofersetc is just their online store. All the stuff is new unless otherwise stated. May be an open box item at a greater discount. They are great. You can get alot of higher end gear for similar priced lower end stuff at Crutchfield. So anyways, I would go the route of the Alpine piece that I mentioned earlier or one of the Rockford pieces. I think you'd be more satisfied with the end result. Keep me up to date on what you end up going with and if you have more questions, by all means, feel free to ask.