Completed Speaker Upgrade

Personally I believe Toyota has built a pair of "3 way" speaker systems using discrete speakers, possibly with a crossover system to send high frequencies to the dash, middle frequencies to the driver's door and low frequencies to the back. By the book it could test well in the lab. Obviously the back does have a fade and many of us fade to it and increase the volume to 45 or 50. Unlike the v, most car radio systems are setup in an X pattern with left rear tied to right front and full response going to the back speakers which are mounted on a rear shelf allowing the sound to bounce off the rear glass. The X pattern produces more of a spacial sound when everyone is sitting close to one speaker instead of in a centered home listening environment. The v's rear speakers are down in the rear seat's foot well being muffled by carpet and seat material. Toyota designed their own GPS for this display audio system; they probably designed the audio as well meaning both are compromises and "Version 1" from a hardware standpoint.

The lack of bass on most sources minimizes the Prius v's use of the rear speaker. Some good HD radio stations (received in HD) and selected XM stations (Classical for one) have good bass at times and the rear speaker can be heard. Otherwise, even with full fade, little is heard as would be expected with a crossover circuit when the source is limited by compression. Finally the lack of a bass boost or equalizer (common on almost all car systems) magnifies the problem. Most systems have boost to artificially increase certain frequency ranges. With that said, some recommend amps with speaker level inputs that feed the four door speakers independently with more power and individual control. Shopping around you could find a shop that could install it for maybe $600. While inexpensive parts might be used, the change would be substantial.

 

?? No X pattern in any car I've ever worked on

 

HA! This is strange but I happen to like the sound of my 2013 v speakers. Compared to the crappy JBL speakers in my 2007 RAV 4 they are night and day.

Maybe the speakers were improved in 2013. Or maybe it's my geezer hearing. ;o)

 

First, thanks to the OP for describing your upgrade. That sounds boss. However, since I just dropped $25k on a Prius v when I was really hoping my Camry would last two more years until I'm done double-dipping with work and college, I'm looking at more what the quoted poster did.

The only thing I ended up doing to my 2007 Camry before I traded it in was putting some Kenwood Excelon 6.5's in the front doors and some 6x9 speakers that were so deep I had to make them fit in the back. They weren't THAT deep, but Toyota went stupid and put a bar controlling the trunk opening right below it. Sigh.

I've only had this car a couple of months and I'm still learning about it. If I'm not mistaken the main problem is I'm used to cars with speakers in the rear pointed at you versus the Prius v with a speaker in each door and two tiny ones in the dash. So I'm guessing mere physics says I won't be able to get as much volume in the driver's seat with the same speaker setup in the back as I could in any car.

I'd like to start as cheaply as I can without screwing up any future upgrade possibility. I drive my car a ton between going to classes one direction (about 15 miles each way) and then work the other direction (about 30 miles each way). In the past the most I have ever done is all new speakers and a new head unit. I'm not going head unit any time soon because I'm waiting to see how CarPlay works out -- i.e. if we get it an update that allows use of it in factory units.

So what I would like to do is start with ripping out the 99-cent factory speakers in the doors and replacing them with some decent aftermarket ones. I'd like them to keep the amount of bass I have with the factory speakers, which isn't all that bad. I just know that when I went with some 6.5-inch Kenwood Excelons on the last car I lost a LOT of bass before I dropped in the 6x9 Excelons in the back that could shake the car so much my crappy fitting job rattled the back of the car. Yah.

After looking at bit at Crutchfield and Amazon, it looks like what I'd like to do is similar. The front door looks to take either 6 1/2 or 6x9 speakers (was 6x8 a typo?), and the back takes 6 1/2. So I could add 6x9 in the front, 6 1/2 in the rear and I believe not lose the bass because a pair of 6x9 3-way would provide enough of that. Is that correct?

It looks like all of this would allow me to later go the amp/subwoofer route, which is something I've never done before. Let me know if I'm right about that. I'm also wondering if you have recommendations on the speakers. I hardly know what's "good" without using it for a month or so. It looks like with the Kickers you got you only got set back about $120, which would be a great start. I spent $175 on the first two I bought for my Camry before getting the others for $75.

Thanks for all the info!

 

Where did you get the input for the amp??

 

The auto does not have to be expensive to have a very good sound system. Our 2012 Kia Soul and 2013 Elantra GT have excellent sound systems in their base models, as confirmed by my daughter's college age friends. Toyota may have met design intent with the low non 20-20kHz full output to the rears, but their design is totally flawed.

It's just like they had to finally change their firmware for the brakes to override the accelerator pedal, instead blaming the customer for its problems from mats to customer error. But nothing is going to be done with the audio since it is not a safety issue.

 

I can see your very series about sound quality! Like myself I took a difference approach with JBL system . since the JBL worke with toyota to design the sound system which sound very good! But 99% of the time you encounter road noise and lots of rattles! Reducing unwanted background noise so have clean sharp clear audio driving down the road instead of blasting the volume to cover-up the road noise! After sound proofing, doors floor panels, rood panels , wheel wells, engine compartment hood, rear hatch, window tinting and fixing so many possible rattle areas yes I repair rattles in a dealership for over 20 years! Yes my Prius is very quiet and stable down the road. Just replace the front 6x9 with pip Focal coth cone speakers delivers soft deeper bass and left the stock tweeter delivers softer highs.

 

So for the non JBL cars, does the OEM headunit do any odd things to the audio? I see some of you have bought an LC6i which is a sound processor.

 

Heya! I recently upgraded my system from factory. I'm wondering if you guys/gals have run into any power issues? It seems I'm losing some power somewhere. My dash has suddenly gone very dim and it's taking more volume to get a clean sound.

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