2011 Prius (no-JBL) audio upgrade options

I replaced all six speakers, and the front door 6x9 speakers made the most difference. I used some nice JBL's there. Great sound.

It's true that the rears sound bad. And replacing them with new Polk 6 1/2 inch speakers didn't do wonders, because 6 1/2" is still pretty poor. You can try replacing the rears with component speakers instead, or maybe find a deeper 6 1/2" speaker than the Polk. The replacement Polks definitely sounded better than the stock speakers, no doubt, but nothing really great.

The other issue is that sound in the rear doors isn't as important because, you don't sit back there.

 

There's a sticky post in this forum from a member named Spiderman. He explains very clearly how to replace the door and dashboard speakers. For a clean replacement, use 6x9's in the front doors and 6 1/2" in the rear doors. You can use components with 6 1/2" + tweeter in the rear doors. On my 2012, the rear doors were pre-wired for the second component speaker.
If you follow his directions, you have to buy a pop rivet tool. Buy the good one made by Stanley, not the really cheap "kit." I bought the really cheap kit from the auto parts store, and it broke before completing the speaker install.

If you follow the Spiderman instructions, the 6x9's and 6 1/2" speakers can be installed without any cutting, drilling or speaker adapters. The car comes with super-cheap speakers mounted into robust plastic brackets. You cut the speaker out and re-use the bracket with your new speaker, and then you pop-rivet the bracket into the door. The bracket has a connector for the speaker, so I cut the copper leads from the paper speaker, and after I mounted the speakers into the bracket, I soldered them to the speaker terminals. This way I could re-use the car's speaker connector for a very clean, reliable installation.

The dash speaker is only about 2" and you can fit a 3 1/2" replacement in there... the tweeters will improve sound somewhat. There's already a bass blocker, so I re-used it, but you could install your own instead. I cut the bass blocker and its connector off, and soldered its speaker leads to my new speaker. This let me re-use the existing cable connector in the car with my replacement speaker. The dash speakers require some cutting of the soft plastic material inside the car. The Spiderman guide shows you very clearly.

Maybe two sets of these Infinity's would be ideal:

Infinity Primus PR6500cs 6-1/2" component speaker system — also fits 6-3/4" openings at Crutchfield.com


I don't think anyone makes a component 6x9 + tweeter, but if they did, it would make sense to install a tweeter in the dash, because you can't even get midrange out of a tiny 3.5" speaker anyway. Let me know if you have any more questions. I just finished this up last week, so it's pretty fresh in my mind.

 

Yes, it's that sticky, but there's four PDFs, and one describes the door speaker install and another describes the dash speaker install. I'm not saying that the dash speakers are good, they are terrible. But a replacement is mostly going to be just a tweeter. I think you could most likely get those Infinity component speakers to fit in the front door (6 1/2") and dash (tweeter).

So the speaker wiring is like this: The Fronts are wired to the dash speakers, and then to the front door speakers. There's a bass blocker on the dash speakers. So you're totally pre-wired. If I would do a crossover, I would put it in the dash opening, where all the wires are located. You'd just need to secure it somehow, but I don't think that would be too hard, like double-sided tape or velcro or a cable tie.

When you get the cover off over the dash speakers, you can see all the way down to the carpeting. So it's very easy to fish new cable through if you want, although I used the existing cables and connectors 100%. The only hard part is fishing it through the rubber tube into the door, which probably isn't too difficult (I didn't try).

 

The front door install is exactly like the rear install, except that the opening is a different size.

Using component speakers with a crossover is quite simple. The wires are in the dash speaker area: One pair from the radio, and two pairs to the dash and door. You just attach those speaker wires to the crossover and that's it, easy. You think this crossover is something fancy, but it's just six speaker terminals wired to a couple of capacitors inside. Very simple little thing.

 

Bah... no need to fear @&*! stock speakers
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You can just peel the paper cones off with your hands... But that looks like a fast approach, keeping the bracket riveted in place and just screwing new 6x9's directly on. As long as no material falls inside the door.

 

The most important speakers to replace are the dash speakers. The next most important are the front door speakers. The least important ones are the rear door speakers. The problem with door speakers is unless your ears are on your ankles, you won't notice a significant improvement. For me, the most noticeable difference was improved bass when replacing the door speakers,

The OEM speakers really, really suck. Compared to the OEM speakers in my 2002 camry, the 2012 prius OEM speakers suck. They use much smaller magnets, and are far less substantial. Even cheap pioneer or JBL speakers are great compared to the OEM speakers. I have pictures comparing them, and a long, boring description of my prius stereo upgrade, including amp and decent subwoofer here: weasel.com: 2012 Toyota Plug in Prius Stereo

 

Traditional speakers that are not round make absolutely no sense for sound quality.

 

True enough, but using sheet metal for a speaker enclosure makes even less sense. Then adding plastic film that flaps about in the enclosure makes it worse. And then there is the road noise problem...

And using 2 ohm speakers is far sillier than oval speakers. There are zero quality speakers for home use that are 2 ohm. You need wires that are twice as thick as with 4 phm speakers. Eventually, cars should migrate to 8 ohm speakers...

There is no inherent problem with oval speakers. They will not be as ideal as round speakers, but the larger surface area can help in a car stereo.

 

I am glad that I replaced my front door speakers with 6x9's and not 6 1/2" round speakers (which I have in the back). The 6x9 JBL's output bass considerably better than the Polks. If you give them a listen, you'll definitely agree that the 6x9's sound better... not saying they're the ultimate speaker, but They do very well in a direct-replace scenario.

 

Given the construction is the same...6"x9" ovals have the effect of "sounding" better than 6-1/2" rounds because they are larger. The ovals have appx 54.8 sq/in and the rounds have appx 33.2 sq/in. In other words, it takes an 8" round to match a 6"x9" oval...and an 8" round will sound so much better because it is symmetrical. The only reason I can see any traditional speaker is made "other than round" might be space restrictions. You get what you pay for, but I will take the 6-1/2" woofer on my front 3-ways over any 6x9 I've seen to date.

HSK 163 - Hertz Hi-Energy car audio speakers system

 

I'll take your $900 speakers, too!

 

$750 MSRP for the fronts in 2010, but I never pay MSRP...for anything.