2014 Prius Speaker Upgrade Kicker CS and Hideaway Subwoofer

Just wanted to share my experience in upgrading the factory speakers to Kicker CS series speakers and adding a Kicker Hideaway powered subwoofer.

I replaced all six speakers, four door and dash tweeters with the following:

Dash: Kicker 40CS354 3-1/2" 2-Way Speakers
KICKER | 3.5" CS Coax

Front/Rear Doors: Kicker 40CS674 6-3/4" 2-way Speakers
KICKER | 6.75" CS Coax

Subwoofer: Kicker 11HS8 8" Compact Powered Subwoofer
KICKER | Hideaway Powered Subwoofer

For the dash speakers I removed the factory speaker connector. Just pry it off the plastic mount attached to the factory speaker. It is glued to the clear plastic cover. The plastic cover is glued to the speaker but also has a screw attaching it to the magnet of the speaker. The screw is covered by the speaker connector so you will not see it until you pry off the connector. I had to cut-out about 1/4 inch of plastic from the forward most end of the factory speaker hole in the dash. I used the aft factory bolt, and a self tapping screw for the forward most tab of the speaker. None of this is not visible once you install the factory grille. The factory grille hole is smaller than the Kicker speaker, but there is plenty of sound passing through it.

I bypassed the factory capacitor on the connector and used a 120Hz bass blocker AC BB-150A2 Bass Blockers 1 pair with Terminals, 150hz/4ohm on the Kicker dash speakers.

For the door speakers, it was a straight forward process, since I used the brackets Metra 82-8147 Speaker Brkt Toyota 02-up for 6-1/2" or 6-3/4" , Metra 82-8148 Speaker Brkt Lex/Scion/Toy 98-up for 6-1/2" or 6-3/4" and cables provided by Crutchfield. The only tricky part is removing the rivets from the factory speakers. You can easily accomplish this by drilling them out with an 1/8 in drill bit. Before installing the Kicker CS 674 speakers, I installed a Dynamat 12" x 12" pad to the inside of the outer door skin. I applied it centered on the door exterior panel. Finally I installed the new speaker with rivets, similar to the factory installation. I used the cable adapters provided by Crutchfield Toyota Wire Harness speakers, 12" Leads. Instead of using the spade connectors on the speakers, I cut them off, stripped and soldered them to the male spades on the speakers. Be careful to use the correct polarity. The only difference on the rear doors was that the Dynamat pad was cut in half before installing to the door skin, because of the safety bar running sideways in the door.

Finally, I installed the Kicker Hideaway subwoofer underneath the passenger's seat. I wrapped the wire bundle from the subwoofer in spiral cable wrap 10-Ft. 3/8 Spiral Cable Wrap : Cable Wraps | RadioShack.com. I routed it underneath the passenger's door kick plate, over the glove compartment, and connected the four (L/R/+/-) wires to the factory wire bundle (see attached cable/color legend) using Posi-Tap Connectors Posi-Tap- No Crimp Tap. The 20-22 AWG model work great. You will need four of these.

I wired the positive cable directly to the 12V battery in the cargo compartment using the supplied fuse/holder, and the ground cable was attached to the column dividing the front/rear passenger using a self tapping screw, washer and supplied connector. I used the DC setting on the subwoofer to power it up when the radio is turned-on. Alternatively you can also use a 12VDC ignition signal, but it would require tapping an additional wire. I did not wanted to alter anything more than strictly necessary. So fat it works very well.

Finally, I tuned the subwoofer using the instructions provided by Crutchfield; How to make the bass in your car sound its best. It really makes a difference. If you follow these instructions you will not have any distortion from the subwoofer. It will be clean and powerful.

I had a 2010 Prius with the JBL radio. The sound quality, and frequency range/response of my upgraded 2014 base model Prius using the original base radio is significantly better than that JBL and any other high end radio I have ever had in a car. Definitely the best upgrade and overall sound system I have ever owned in a car. Well worth the effort/money invested.