Planning to replace front dash speakers ... what do i need?

I guess it would be an involved job, please take pictures for our visual entertainment and posterity.

 

It's going to depend on efficiency of new speakers. Most project's I've seen, including my own, needed a resistor (I used a 4 ohm) to balance them out with the door since the front door and dash are in parallel. A cap to protect them from the low end is a good idea. The stock units have a cap.

 

It is pretty straightforward to swap, not an 'involved job'.
You should refer to spiderman's pdf guide on how to do it.

If you want lower frequencies to come from the dash (which I think is a good idea), you will want a bigger 'bass blocker' capacitor. Be sure it is a non-polarized one if you go to an electronics store for it.
If you use a bigger bass blocker capacitor, you might consider adding a 2 or 4 ohm resistor. This will reduce the volume coming from the dash, but more important, it will increase the impedance (reduce the load) on the head unit. This will minimize the likelihood of the head amp failing due to a low impedance load.

 

I followed spiderman's guide and did solder in resistors, though I'm not sure that was really necessary. These speakers were a great improvement to the sound with the stock head unit.
Click here for my post with a few pics on the install on page 354 in the "What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today????" thread

 

I just did this last night.. You'll need to figure out how to replace the jumper at the dash speakers since it send signal back out the doors. I reused stock connector and bass blocker(capacitor). Connector is glued on the back. Just desolder THEN pry off gently.

Kicker 3.5" install by sfcyclist2012, on Flickr

Kicker 3.5" install by sfcyclist2012, on Flickr

 

Awesome...thanks for these posts...I just ordered some speakers for my 2013

OnePlus Two ?

 

I'm replacing the door speakers and I was thinking of just bypassing the dash speakers, because they rattle. What's your experience with higher-powered dash speakers? Do you get any rattling up there?

Or maybe my dash squakers are blown?

 

The dash speakers were a big improvement in the quality of the sound I hear, much better highs and mid-range that I really notice. I think you'd regret simply unplugging them.
I also replaced the stock front door speakers with good 6x9's and I left the rear doors with the stock speakers.

 

I had to reread your posts...grrrr! Didn't get the capacitors yet. My speakers and harness arrived but can't install it since I don't have everything.

I'll just have to wait

OnePlus Two ?

 

Although I did solder a capacitor in to block frequencies below 400Hz, I'm not certain that was really necessary, as these Pioneer's specs say they're good from 60Hz to 28kHz.

Definitely do not reuse the stock capacitors with these speakers because the stock capacitor on the blue connector is more for a tweeter and will eliminate everything below around 6kHz and you'll lose the nice mid-low and mid-range sound that these speakers produce.

Did you get a harness that fits the factory dash speaker plug? If so, I'd probably just install the speakers without bass blocker capacitors.

 

I installed what the stock ones had.. Removed them from sqwakers and soldered them onto new ones because the wire harness I got from Crutchfield didn't match up. They sound better from stock.

I will remove the stock capacitors once I get better ones like you got.

OnePlus Two ?

 

OnePlus Two ?

 

This sounds kind of what I want to do, looking forward to the end result.

 

It's a great upgrade. You have to do it!
I just shoehorned the 3.5" in there and was still able to snap the grille in place although with a little bump.
I will redo it, open up the hole slightly so the speaker is flushed in and flush the grille in also

OnePlus Two ?

 

I've been thinking about this, and I don't think you're taking the best approach. Of course, your ears should be the final judge.

As you know, you're sending the exact same signal to both the dash and front door speakers. But the door speakers are considerably larger. All things being equal, the doors should be able to put out much better bass.

When your radio sends out, say, 25 watts of sound, bass is a considerable portion of that wattage. What the bass blockers do is let you send higher wattage without distortion, because the smaller speakers will definitely distort first.

Just because the speaker manufacturer states his speaker can output 60 Hz, it doesn't mean that it will perform particularly well. In my home stereo, my midrange speakers are 4 1/2". And that's midrange. They can probably reproduce 60 Hz sound, but not very well.

I'm not expert enough to know what cutoff frequency will sound best. Ideally, you'd want to be able to dial it in. But a roll off around 1 kHz to 2.5 kHz probably would work well.

 

I powered my 3.5" Kicker squawkers in 2 ways, parallel powered together with the door speaker and then separately with amp for door speakers. In both setup I kept the stock capacitor. As Rebound noted, if in parallel, both speakers will receive the same power. I found this set up not sound so great amplified or not. The limited speaker being the 3.5" as the door speakers clearly needs more power. Once I powered this separately, with the 3.5" running off the head unit, it was a big improvement.

I would like to try a smaller capacitor to see if cutting off frequency lower would improve it. Overall, I am very happy with my setup as this new setup as it is in a completely different league. After spending about $200 total(speakers and amp), well worth it!

 

Can you explain what you did with the amp? I'm not quite following you.

I'm thinking I could get a 4-channel amp. But it would receive four powered speaker inputs from the Toyota head unit (which is all there is), and route the front outs to the dash/front door speakers, and the rear outputs to the rear door speakers.

Or, maybe I could run the front outputs from the head unit directly to the dash speakers, and send the rear outputs (just 2 channels) to the amp, then send that signal to the front and rear door speakers. Is that how you did it? I couldn't find a six-channel amp.

I did see that some people buy a second amp for bass only. I hear these damn cars rattle up and down the streets, playing very bad music and rattling the car's sheet metal apart. It seems like what a Neanderthal would do if you gave him a car, but they do it. I suppose that, if used more judiciously, the audio could sound very good.

 

I added a 4 channel amp. The feed for the amp are the front 2 channel outputs from head unit. The head unit also powers the front 3.5" speakers. So basically front channels from head unit is split to feed the amp and power the front speakers.

Why would you think that a "2nd amp for bass only" would rattle up and down the street?

 

Mostly because I see people who've installed giant subs in their cars playing loud thumpy music, and their cars rattle when the bass thumps.