Dear List, I have searched around but I am curious, could I upgrade my speakers now (suggestions please) and upgrade with an amp later? Budget $150-$250 now. Should I go with crutchfield, sometimes they have supplied connectors or a different seller? I will look into an under seat compact sub or get an amp and mount it in the lower hatch and a sub in the cubby at a later date. I am looking for a fuller sound with out gutting the car and spending $1,500. But, I would rather not toss the upgraded speakers if I get an amp and a sub. Car might need signal processing but I would do that later. I have a 2012 IV with JBL and Nav. I would like to retain the HeadUnit and possibly add a sub in an inclosure (cubby) at a later point. Thanks, Ken
Yeah, I have mine setup so that I can easily switch my wires between running the speakers off the factory HU or my amp as needed. My Inifinity Kappa 62.9i speakers in the front doors sound just fine off the HU. Just not as loud as running off the amp. I ran all new wires from the HU to the amp and then back to the speakers. I'm not using any of the factory speaker wires. So I can't comment on the adapters that crutchfield might give you. But be aware that the front dash speakers (squakers) are in parallel with the front door speakers. Replacing the front doors will still leave the dash speakers running. Some people appear to have left them like that and are fine with it. Since I ran new wires, mine are disconnected. Also, the front doors are 6x9 but don't use standard 6x9 mounting holes. Crutchfield has adapters but I think they might have some issues as well. I built my own out of plywood + MDF.
Look for reasonably efficient speakers. I used kenwood kfc 16648 speakers in the door. 92db at 1 watt. I used polk dx i350 speakers in the dash 91db at 1 watt. Efficiency is really important with the head unit, as it doesn't put out much power. Even with an external amp, more efficiency means less power required. Add some sound deadening material to the doors, as there is almost none I am in the process of adding an amp, and it is much more work than switching speakers. I also put in a much bigger 'bass blocker' capacitor, and added 2 ohm resistors to the dash and front door speakers, in order to get lower frequencies from the dash and to avoid overloading the head unit with too low an impedance. The dash is a much better location than the door, unless you have ears in your foot.
This is what I'd do with that budget: 6.5" Components up front, 6.5" Coax in the rear. Up front: Polk Audio DXi6501 6-1/2" component speaker system — also fit 6-3/4" openings at Crutchfield.com or Focal R-165S2 Auditor Series 6-3/4" 2-way component system at Crutchfield.com Rear: Infinity Reference X REF-6502ix 6-3/4" 2-way car speakers — also fit 6-1/2" openings at Crutchfield.com That's $250 for both and you will get a VERY nice upgrade from your stock speakers. Day and night difference even if you don't power them with an external amp. On your front stage, put the separate tweeters on the dash locations, and your mids in the doors. Hook up the included external crossover and mount them somewhere under the dash. This separation of tweets and mids will give you sound clarity that the stock paper speakers will never match. Also, please don't go with the underseat sub. I ordered one (the Kicker Hideaway) and I returned it after listening for 30 seconds. It sounded like a loud 6.5" woofer that's permanently tuned to 250Hz. Basically, it doesn't sound like a "real" sub. There is no free lunch. Save your money and aggravation and start off with the correct enclosure the first time. Do the cubby fiberglass enclosure and use a 10" sub, with proper sub amp and it will sound a million times better. I went through this with my install and I will NEVER recommend any underseat sub to anyone.
I had the JBL system and removed the factory amp and HU and installed the Kicker Hideaway. Sure it doesn't punch you in the gut like a pair of 10's or 12's, but it's a HUGE HUGE improvement over stock. It has no problem rattling the mirror and I love that it came with a remote knob to change the subwoofer level on the fly. I am also powering my door speakers with a Pioneer double din and dedicated subwoofer pre-outs for the Kicker, so that may play a large part in the sound quality. There is also a setting on the unit for low input (pre-outs) vs an amplified input. It sounds terrible if that switch is wrong. If you don't mind giving up the space, of course go bigger, but for a big improvement with a good thump, I love my little Kicker.
I was reading your suggestions. How do I install the crossover to the speakers compared to using the passive already in the Prius?
You could use the existing wires to the front door and connect the crossover into that. You would then need to run new wire up to the dash for the tweeters. This will bypass the capacitor that's already in the wires up there which would affect the crossover frequencies.
