Need advice on 2015 Prius front speaker

You have a couple of options with the front speakers. The stock speaker is a 6" x 9", that is riveted in place.

There are a couple of aftermarket brackets that can be used to mount either 6" x 9" or 6.5"-6.75" speakers in the front doors. The rear door speakers are 6.5"

Front speaker brackets:
For a 6" x 9" use a Metra 82-8146 adapter
For a 6.5"-6.75" use a Metra 82-8147 adapter

Rear speaker brackets:
Use a Metra 82-8148 adapter


An adapter is available to convert the Toyota speaker plug to spade plugs, if you are ever considering removing the aftermarket speakers.
Metra 72-8104 Speaker Connector(works on both front and rear)

Stock front 6" x 9"speaker:


Metra 82-8147 adapter for a 6.5" speaker:

 

I just bought the same car, same issue, typical budget stereo. Expected,they put their $$ where it counts, so I'm not busting on Toyota.

ANYWAY, IMHO and experience, I've had world class service and technical support from crutchfield.com. The 2015 isn't loaded yet, but from "what fits my car", simply pick 2014, Toyota, Prius, without JBL (Persona doesn't have this upgrade) and then on speakers, select front. There are many options and their instructions are typically outstanding. They also come with installation kits and looking, there are a bunch of options for less than $100. I'll be shopping there shortly. Best of luck!

 

I just upgraded my speakers. Best to purchase it from Crutchfield. They give you the mounting brackets and speakers adapter. When your getting the rear. Make sure you get Metra 82-8148. That for the rear speakers. If they give you 82-8147 is basically for the front converting from 6x9 down to 6 3/4. They ship me the wrong one but I got a free replacement. Don't forget to purchase sound deadener. Make a BIG difference. There are a lot of brands on the market. Hope that help.

 

When I bought speakers from crutchfield, they didn't have the 6x9 adapters.
As you can see in my signautre, the adapters and speakers are now for sale.
I decided to upgrade them to 6x9 and bought adapters on ebay.

I think upgrading the dash speakers will provide more bang for the buck than the from door speakers, unless your ears are located where your ankles are...
As for the infinity speakers, many are 2 ohm impedance, including the Infinity Reference 9633cf. While that may have some value for aftermarket amps, the dash and front door speakers are wired in parallel. With a 2 ohm speaker, you are presenting a tough load for the OEM amp. With a 2 ohm speaker and a 4 ohm speaker in parallel, you will have 1.333 ohm load at high frequencies. I can't imagine this doing the OEM amp any good.

 

How you manage to pull the dash speaker out and what size are those?

 

Found a link. This help.

 

Dash speakers are 2" speaker with enough space to allow a 3"-3.5" speaker to be mounted(if you are creative with Dremel tools and a small amount of metal/plastic fabrication) to enlarge the opening and to create a mount.

Easily accessible by removing the A pillar panel, the panel next to the dash(near the small triangular side window) and the speaker cover. There are two small bolts holding it in place.

I'd recommend disconnecting the battery before you remove the A pillar panel. There is an air bag located underneath, near the top.


I do believe the dash speaker is wired into a series circuit. I have disconnected the dash speaker and you lose power output to the front door speaker if you do not re-connect the wires together.

 

the dash speakers are in parallel with the front door speakers.
The connector if I recall correctly, has 4 pins, and the signal goes up to the dash and then back down.
It is generally crazy talk to run speakers in series.

 

Here's your crazy talk...

Have you accessed the tweeters in your car?

I have.

Disconnect your tweeters and see if your front door speakers work.

Mine didn't. I had to attach wire taps to complete the circuit.


If the tweeters were in parallel, disconnecting them would still allow output to the front door speakers.

 

If you look at your third picture, you will see 4 wires. If the speakers were in series, there would be only 2 wires.
You should also read about the 'bass blocking' non polarized electrolytic cap that is in series with the dash speaker. It only allows high frequencies through.
You are not disconnecting the dash speakers; you are disconnecting a 4 pin connector that has the dash speakers on the other end.
If you search priuschat, you will find wiring diagrams, all of which show the dash speaker IN PARALLEL with the front door speakers.

As for accessing the tweeters in my car, I did it 3 times. First putting in pioneer speakers, Second putting in polk speakers. Third putting in my MS-8 amp. Did you read my signature block, where it says 'all new speakers?'

 

What brand of speakers do you recommend for the dash? Polk seems to have better specs than pioneer.

 

Either will do. The pioneers are pretty hard to find. The polks are a few db more efficient.
I bought the pioneers, then replaced them with the polks and put the pioneers in a carmy I own.

In either case, you will want a much bigger 'bass blocker' cap than the OEM one. If I recall correctly, the polks come with one, which is a nice feature. You might want to add a series resistor, as the dask speakers are louder than the door speakers, and to educe the low impedance load on the head unit.

 

I was just wondering which sound deadener you used and where you placed it? Thanks...

 

I use FatMat

 

I'm also interested in changing the dash and door speakers. I found an interesting product, I was wondering if anybody had tried these:

Kenwood Excelon KFC-XP6903C
6"x9" component speaker system for select Chrysler and Toyota vehicles

I think that with all of the same modifications you would need to do for a proper component system, these may be an interesting option.

I do wonder about how they would wire up, as I can't seem to figure out how they are rated... All of the documentation shows them as 4ohms for the woofer, and 4 for the mid/tweet. Wiring them up to a single channel would end up at 2ohms... They have hipass/lowpass filters installed, but the wiring diagrams have me very confused.

 

Sometime back, in regard to my 2015 gen 3 Prius, I wrote this:

"I bought JBL speakers 6520. 2 way 6 1/2" speakers. Also with "Boom Mat" foam backers. The idea is that the head unit is minimal and help is urgently sought. For our Prius, we installed these speakers/backers and we're utterly pleased. Took a couple of hours...no more. Original speakers look like throw away trash--no wonder there's no quality sound emanating from them. Thankfully the new setup allows for comparison. The new speakers are 3 ohms to help bring minimal input a long way forward. The foam backup is to disallow sound escape out the back. So far: super pleased for modest investment to reverse Toyota's audio ignorance." Crutchfield evolved this solution and a we're still pleased, although I did follow that up with sound proofing all 4 doors, rear trunk and under rear seat. Then replaced rear door speakers. More info if needed....

 

Oh, I did want to mention that I left the dashboard speakers alone. I felt the door speakers were the ones in real need of replacement. Still pleased....

 

I'm trying to figure out of the 6520's fit in the rear doors? I'd like to put the 6x9 Club speakers (9630's) in the front, and the 6520's in the rear. (That said, maybe I should do 6520's in front AND rear.) Anyway do the 6520's fit in the rear doors? Thanks...

--

Bill

 

My one and only sensible answer to you is to call up Crutchfield and ask them for guidance. I went to them for my front door speakers and what I wrote (and that you quoted) was what they figured out for me. I ordered from them for these speakers, modifying brackets, foam backers, wires that hooked up with no problem. The rear door speakers I went on my own, saving a few precious dollars, and bought from Amazon. If I had to do it again, and had more informed thoughts as do you, I'd stick with Crutchfield. They know (or at least the guy I got on the phone knew) a heck of a lot about the substandard stereo system in the Prius (non-JBL) and all that jazz about lowering the ohms down a bit to boost the signal to the speakers. I would not have thought of that...not at all.

We listen almost exclusively to classical music in the Prius and while I'm seriously entering the aging zone with aging ears attached, I do feel that we've got some fairly sensitive ears for listening. These ears, at home, have grown accustomed to some fairly uppity upgraded classic speakers, and some pretty nice stereo equipment that keeps us near the analog world of nuanced sound . The Prius setup cannot compare to what's at home, of course, but the ears are relatively pleased with what we have on wheels.

BTW, I do hugely recommend sound proofing with adhesive stuff that cuts down the road noise. I did doors, rear trunk, under rear seats...every little piece from the package from Amazon was used. I did not sound proof under the front seats, the floor up there. It would help, would require another box of sound proofing. I'd run out of steam and thought: Heck, try it out and check the Happy Sound meter. It was pretty pretty much okay.

Good luck to ya! And...it IS FUN to fix up the sound system in this modest way.