Speaker options for a gen two?

I’ve heard it’s hard to upgrade the JBL system for some reason. Trying to find the same info myself. I have a 2005 with JBL system and a JVC head unit. I want to upgrade all speakers and add a subwoofer but not sure how and which speakers to buy.

 

Just to update this, i ended up going on the pricier side. Got 4 door speakers with a pair of tweeters for $270, powered P300-12 subwoofer with wiring kit for $250, alpine ILX-W650 head unit ($300) with dash kit ($90) and a little amp for the door speakers which pairs to the back of the head unit ($225) along with $100 of sound deadening material. All together I think I’m in it for 1200 or 1300. Should be a rad system though.

 

I bought a pair of JBL GX628 speakers to replace my the mids in my front door. They were cheap at Best Buy, plus I had gift card. They are the same impedance as current ones (I have JBL system), look to be a bit better build quality. I haven't installed them yet, will report once I do.

 

TL;DR: upgrading speakers will be a good improvement but speakers+amp will transform it.

Yes, yes it will!


I recently configured a similar type system for a Mazda 5: sony headunit, westcoast 6x8 component (front), rockford-fosgate 6.5 inch rears, a Sound Ordinance 75w x 4 channel amp to power them all (under drivers seat), a Sound Ordinance 8 inch powered sub (under front passenger seat) and Crutchfield harnesses and steering wheel controller. I had both sets of speakers and the head unit from previous projects so that really helped with costs.

I spent about 3 days ripping the interior apart and putting it back together to A) install sound deadening mats (Nico) and home sound insulation anywhere I could stuff it in because the cheaply built 5, like other boxy car designs, is known for being loud and B) to install the new speakers and head unit anyways.



It was a crazy amount of work but boy the results were worth it. I haven't built a full system in decades so I was amazed at the difference in quality. The front doors combined with the sub now sound like quality home floor speakers. WOW. I set the head unit (all RCA outs to amps) first at the 90% volume level and then fine-tuned the rears with the amp's controls, next the fronts (more bass+lower crossover points than the rears) and finally the sub-woofer last and use its controller knob for individual fine-tuning of each input source (or song for that matter). Final settings can now deliver 90+% volume before distortion/over-driven occurs (R-F's give up first).

Now, even FM sounds "decent", higher bit-rate Sirius XM channels sound "very good" and CarPlay sources simply sound "outstanding". I now think of the system's performance in an audio term that I haven't used before: Presence. As the saying goes, "You'll know it when you hear it."


Back to the Prius, Crutchfield suggested the R-F 6.5's for it but I never got them and just installed that Sony head unit in the Gen2 w/o JBL. It really woke up the car even with stock speakers and all steering wheel controls still worked by using the suggested controller hardware interface.


GOOD LUCK!