Squawker upgrade, help!

If you want to take a look at the space available, this shows you how to remove the necessary trim. It's easy.
http://priuschat.com/forums/attachm...jbl-dash-speaker-upgrade-gen3dashspeakers.pdf
There is also a picture in it showing a 3.5 inch speaker in place. Spidy's writeup, which I believe has a link at the start of this thread also shows 3.5 a inch speaker in place. It helped me.

 

4" speakers would certainly fit into the opening, and the trimming necessary wouldn't be difficult because the plastic there is super-soft. Unfortunately, part of what you would be trimming away is the lip that gives this super-soft plastic enough rigidity to hold a speaker.  It might end up needing reinforcement to prevent vibration.

One of the trickiest parts of any speaker upgrade in this location is sealing the baffle (making sure no air can get from the back of the speaker to the front of it without going the long way--under the dash). The factory speaker seals against the underside of the grill panel, so when you change out the speaker, you have to make your own seal, either by covering everything under the grill panel (including the open space at the lower edge of the speaker) with dynomat or making a ring of some sort to seal against the underside of the grill panel (tricky because the gap goes from near zero on the top side to about 1" on the lower side).  Either method could be more difficult to do with a larger speaker, so be sure to take the baffle seal into consideration before you start cutting.

The 4" kappa handles more power, but it's rated frequency range only goes 10hz lower than the 3.5.  Also, keep in mind that the kappas are super efficient, and Infinity is known for having very bright tweeters anyway. Even if you are running a high power amp, you may want to try out the 3.5's and see if you don't end up dialing back the gain just to get them to blend with the other speakers in the system.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the tips. I like the write up of the 3.5 install, kudos. I may end up going with the 3.5s. I planned on also using the kappa 6x8 component set and like the tweet in the pillar idea that some of you have done. I suspect the 3.5 might give enough to fill the soundstage void between the door and dash.

 

I upgraded my squakers with the Pioneers 3.5's today, and here is a helpfull hint. Spiderman's documentation was a great help!! If you want to use your factory wiring harness, if you get some Blue spade connectors, they fit perfectly in the harness to bridge the signals, like Spiderman did. Hope this helps other people.

 

Would these work up in the dash of a 2010 prius without the jbl system? JL Audio C2-350x Evolution™ Series 3-1/2" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com I'm also considering getting these for the front and rear doors: JL Audio TR600-CXi Evolution™ TR Series 6-1/2" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com I have the Rosen deck, and I noticed the other day that my rear speakers are blown somewhat, so hate to just replace one set of speakers. Thanks for the help,

Chris

 

Cool, just ordered them up! Looking forward to the better sound with as much time as I spend in the car. I'm sure I'll be referencing your thread entirely here soon! Thanks again,

Chris

 

Hey guys,

I just purchased the above speakers for my 2010 Prius Non-JBL, and I discovered that the front door speakers look like this:



And the rears look like this:



Did I order the wrong speakers for the front? It looks more like a 6x9" speaker than a 6.5" round?

Chris

 

If you ordered them from Crutchfield, they should have supplied an adapter bracket. If they didn't, it might be worth a call to their customer service line.

If not, you might make an adapter like those in the attached photos. Just make sure it is waterproof and keeps the overall mounting depth to no more than 2.0 inches, so it doesn't interfere with the window rolling down. (Mine in the photo is for a 7" speaker. I used two layers of plywood to give it the necessary height, and painted them with an outdoor primer/sealer.)

 

It's weird to me that Crutchfield doesn't even list a 6x9 speaker for the front door, nor one for the dash. I'm going to look for a 6x9 that will fit up easier. Thanks guys...the rears are installed piece of cake...just wish I had the right fronts.

Chris

 

Going to see if the company I bought them from have these instead JL Audio TR690-TXi.

Chris

 

The problem is the 2" mounting depth. It's probably difficult to make a 6x9 with that little mounting depth, and most of the freebie adapters are made of galvanized sheet metal, so they don't raise the speaker at all.

I'll say this: It is a helluva lot easier to mount a 6.5" speaker in the door than it is to put a 3.5" coaxial in the dash!

 

Lol...it's always harder than planned, isn't it?!

Chris

 

I got the infiniti 3.5 for the fronts, and the installation was not that bad. It was very simple, but there are minor cutting involved. Total installation took 1.5 hrs.

I think the 6x9s in the JBL speakers are pretty decent.

How much depth do we have in the rears? I am thinking about adding 6.5 subs or even 6x9 subs in that area.

 

There are some 6x9 options out there with neodymium magnets that have shallow mounting depth and tiny magnets that would probably work in the front doors just fine. Check out the http://www.amazon.com/Boston-Acoustics-Coaxial-Speaker-System/dp/B0036N7SXK
or the SPR-69 - Alpine Type-R Series 6x9" Coaxial 2-Way Speakers at Abt

Ideally you would put in a pair of 6.5" round component speakers.

 

There is about 4" of depth (below the surface of the door frame) to work with in the rear doors. The driver in mine (8ch JBL) extends about 1"-1.25" above the surface of the door frame. One of the photos below shows a mounting ring for a 6.5 component being inserted into the opening, which probably puts the diameter of the opening at around 7".

As I recall, the window interference isn't much of an issue (and I can't see a window track inside the door in the photo), but if you are planning to put a sub with a large diameter magnet, you may want to pull it apart and check it just to be sure. You can probably just pull the door panel (2 minutes, tops), roll the window down, and peek through the plastic sealing material to see how low it goes. No need to drill out the rivets on the speaker yet.

The hard part of installing subs in the rear doors will be sealing and stiffening the mounting baffle (the inside door frame) and stabilizing the door panel well enough to play sub frequencies without hella resonance.

 

If anyone is interested, the Pioneer TS-A878 squawkers are still available through an Amazon re-seller. Picked up a pair last week - I will be upgrading the sound system soon.