I hate the sound of my factory stereo! Upgrade w/o changing the factory dash look?
05-21-2003, 08:07 PM
#21
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Originally posted by furthur
Jeff,
I just added the infinity reference 6800cs componenets to the front of my 4 dr tacoma, running off the stock head unit, and had the same problem, harsh highs. I tried the -3dB out's on the crossovers, but the tweeters went AWAY, way more than 3 dB down... I asked around, and found little help, but finally put some 2 ohm resistors in-line with the tweeters (tried 1 ohm, not enough). My guess is I'm down 6 dB from full output on the tweets. I found another page on the web, talking about ballancing home stereo speakers, that suggested in-line resistors were better sounding, for tweets, than an l-pad, which is what I found also (I also tried an l-pad with 1 ohm series and a 12 ohm bypass resistor, and it was bad).
Anyway, the two-ohm by 10 watt resistors let me run the tone controls much more ballanced with this set. The new speakers sound much better than factory.
If anyone is considering the 6800cs set for your last-gen truck, be advised, they are not bolt-in. Toyota's mounting plates in the doors have the mounting holes slightly off of Infinity's, and you can't just drill new holes (trust me, or look at it...) I was able to egg the holes in the mid-bass speaker baskets out enough to get the screws in. You also have to cut some off of the 'magnet shrouds' on the back of the factory mounting plates to clear the magnets. The tweeters I just screwed to the door, inside, under where the factory tweeter grill is in the panel, (after removing the factory tweeter and bracket) with little wedges of foam to aim them slightly up and forward.
I also put the Infinity 6802cf coaxes in the back, and had the same mounting hole missalignment problem. For them, I made a new mounting plate out of MDF which gets rid of the factory plastic plate, but is a snug fit, inside the panel.
Sorry so long, Jeff, just wanted to warn others who were tempted to try to fit these into their trucks.
John
Jeff,
I just added the infinity reference 6800cs componenets to the front of my 4 dr tacoma, running off the stock head unit, and had the same problem, harsh highs. I tried the -3dB out's on the crossovers, but the tweeters went AWAY, way more than 3 dB down... I asked around, and found little help, but finally put some 2 ohm resistors in-line with the tweeters (tried 1 ohm, not enough). My guess is I'm down 6 dB from full output on the tweets. I found another page on the web, talking about ballancing home stereo speakers, that suggested in-line resistors were better sounding, for tweets, than an l-pad, which is what I found also (I also tried an l-pad with 1 ohm series and a 12 ohm bypass resistor, and it was bad).
Anyway, the two-ohm by 10 watt resistors let me run the tone controls much more ballanced with this set. The new speakers sound much better than factory.
If anyone is considering the 6800cs set for your last-gen truck, be advised, they are not bolt-in. Toyota's mounting plates in the doors have the mounting holes slightly off of Infinity's, and you can't just drill new holes (trust me, or look at it...) I was able to egg the holes in the mid-bass speaker baskets out enough to get the screws in. You also have to cut some off of the 'magnet shrouds' on the back of the factory mounting plates to clear the magnets. The tweeters I just screwed to the door, inside, under where the factory tweeter grill is in the panel, (after removing the factory tweeter and bracket) with little wedges of foam to aim them slightly up and forward.
I also put the Infinity 6802cf coaxes in the back, and had the same mounting hole missalignment problem. For them, I made a new mounting plate out of MDF which gets rid of the factory plastic plate, but is a snug fit, inside the panel.
Sorry so long, Jeff, just wanted to warn others who were tempted to try to fit these into their trucks.
John
As far as mounting, my Infinity came with a special mounting plate, where I had to screw plate to the Toyota plastic, and after that screw speakers on that plate. I also mounted crossovers on the rear of that plastic. Once that was done, the finish was picture perfect!
-- Andrey
05-21-2003, 08:27 PM
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Originally posted by Jeff_M
Dub: You mentioned a bracket to mount the speaker coaxially... any idea where to look for something like this? Or if I were to mount directly to the bullet, how would I affix it? These both sound like great solutions. Hopefully they won't affect SQ too much...
Dub: You mentioned a bracket to mount the speaker coaxially... any idea where to look for something like this? Or if I were to mount directly to the bullet, how would I affix it? These both sound like great solutions. Hopefully they won't affect SQ too much...
05-21-2003, 09:34 PM
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Exactly what Rymin said is what I've done in the past with other people's cars and it's worked really well. in regard to mounting to the bullet... Just be creative Hot glue, epoxy, some people even have removed the cone in the middle, and replaced it with a wooden dowel. Just make sure it can clear the cone when it's excursing to its max.
Hot glue, epoxy, some people even have removed the cone in the middle, and replaced it with a wooden dowel. Just make sure it can clear the cone when it's excursing to its max.
06-03-2003, 05:10 AM
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I asked around, and found little help, but finally put some 2 ohm resistors in-line with the tweeters (tried 1 ohm, not enough). My guess is I'm down 6 dB from full output on the tweets. I found another page on the web, talking about ballancing home stereo speakers, that suggested in-line resistors were better sounding, for tweets, than an l-pad, which is what I found also (I also tried an l-pad with 1 ohm series and a 12 ohm bypass resistor, and it was bad).
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...=004-2&scqty=2
Are these installed in between the crossover and the tweeter or the amp and the crossover? Do I need four total for the front two tweeter or just two?
06-03-2003, 12:55 PM
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to get the aftermarket tweeter to fit in the stock sail panel, i dremeled out the cheezey plastic tweeter grille and cut a circle to size to slide the tweeter in there. then sealed it with silicone....
if you don't like the tinny harsh bright tweeter, i wonder if you wouldn't be just better off getting a silk dome tweeter... the focal's have a metal dome tweeter, don't they? ( just an in general statement, but silk dome tweets seem to be softer more natural sounding than metal dome tweets.... in general...)
if you don't like the tinny harsh bright tweeter, i wonder if you wouldn't be just better off getting a silk dome tweeter... the focal's have a metal dome tweeter, don't they? ( just an in general statement, but silk dome tweets seem to be softer more natural sounding than metal dome tweets.... in general...)
06-03-2003, 05:24 PM
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The Focal tweeters are noticeably bigger than the factory tweets. Nontheless, I simply popped the pannel off and the Focals fit fine. Did you cut the plastic because yours wouldn't fit?
06-04-2003, 05:14 AM
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all I got was the tweeter itself, basically a circular tweet with its own metal grille over it -- it looked like the factory tweet after you remove that ( + its own grille). there was no "knob" on the back of the tweet that would allow the tweet to snap into place
so, ideally it would fit inside the sail panel behind the plastic grille, but it was too big and already had its own grille...
so i removed the sail panel, excised the plastic grille and a little more just enough to allow the aftermarket tweet to slide in there flush... then snapped the sail panel back in place..
do the focal tweets come with their own sail panel that snaps into place? ( the triangular piece?) or are you snapping the tweet into that location without the sail panel...
i guess if it snaps in there, leave it... though you lose the sail panel "factory look"... but it's not too much extra work to trim it if you wanted to... i even wanted to trim out the factory door panel grille 'cause I think the metal grilles supplied w/my speakers would sound better -- but the door is much bigger than the sail panel so I'm still thinking about it
so, ideally it would fit inside the sail panel behind the plastic grille, but it was too big and already had its own grille...
so i removed the sail panel, excised the plastic grille and a little more just enough to allow the aftermarket tweet to slide in there flush... then snapped the sail panel back in place..
do the focal tweets come with their own sail panel that snaps into place? ( the triangular piece?) or are you snapping the tweet into that location without the sail panel...
i guess if it snaps in there, leave it... though you lose the sail panel "factory look"... but it's not too much extra work to trim it if you wanted to... i even wanted to trim out the factory door panel grille 'cause I think the metal grilles supplied w/my speakers would sound better -- but the door is much bigger than the sail panel so I'm still thinking about it
06-04-2003, 05:28 AM
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The Focal tweeters come with a metal grill and are installed in a plastic cup designed to be mounted flush with whatever panel you deside to affix them to. Focal also includes a set of angled plasic cups that the tweeters can be mounted in should you wish to aim them more directly towards your ear. I used a paperclip to pop off the metal grills and finagled the tweeters out of the cups, leaving just the tweeters. I took the factory sail panel off of the 4runner, exposing the factory tweeter mounted using that metal bracket I'm sure you're familiar with. I unscrewed the entire bracket and then removed the tweeter from this bracket. The next step was to affix the Focal tweeter to this bracket. Unfortunately, the factory screw was too large to fit the hole in the back of the Focal tweeter so I had to make a quick trip to the hardware store for a smaller screw. So the Focal was inevitably attached to the bracket, which was screwed back into it's original position. The 4runner sail panel popped back in place and no one knows the difference (except for when the music starts!). Make sense?
06-04-2003, 07:52 AM
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Jeff-
I am curious to hear more about your in-dash single DIN changer. Do you have any pics of the finished project? How do you like the changer?
Inquiring minds...
I am curious to hear more about your in-dash single DIN changer. Do you have any pics of the finished project? How do you like the changer?
Inquiring minds...
06-04-2003, 08:12 AM
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Unfortunately, I don't own a digital camera. The system isn't entirely complete yet, so I'd hesitate to comment on the sound until everything is in place. I can tell you this much. I am in looooooooooove with the conservative Nakamichi styling. The two single DIN units are about as close to a stock look as you can get. They fit perfectly into the factory bracket that housed the original double din unit and the dash popped right back into place. The only gripe I have so far is that the changer is very slow. If I put the unit into shuffle mode, it takes roughly 20 seconds between songs. But then again, I'm getting the benefits of a 6-disc changer neatly packed into the size of a standard head unit. A technological marvel.
06-04-2003, 10:40 AM
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yah I get it ( I don't have a dig cam. too, this would be a lot easier to illustrate don't you think )
ah see, my tweet did not have a bracket to attach to its back, so I removed the factory tweet, did not use that bracket, and Dremeled out the plastic grille in the sail panel
then kept the metal grille on my tweet and pushed the tweet into the newly Dremeled hole in the sail panel, sealed the sides of the tweet to the sail panel with silicone...
it is flush and does look factory. and I have heard comments by hardcore audiophiles that plastic grilles degrade sound quality (hence my curiosity to remove the door panel grilles-- tho who knows how much a difference one's ear can detect)...
either solution works well... I however can't put the factory tweet back in nicely since the grille is gone, but I am not anticipating selling the 4Runner for prob. 10 years, and if it comes to that, it's easy to buy 2 sail panels.... ( versus me drilling out the grilles in the door panel and buying 2 more door panels at selling time hehe...)
enjoy your new stereo, it's like night and day... i'm still not tired of it and take the long routes to wherever i go
)ah see, my tweet did not have a bracket to attach to its back, so I removed the factory tweet, did not use that bracket, and Dremeled out the plastic grille in the sail panel
then kept the metal grille on my tweet and pushed the tweet into the newly Dremeled hole in the sail panel, sealed the sides of the tweet to the sail panel with silicone...
it is flush and does look factory. and I have heard comments by hardcore audiophiles that plastic grilles degrade sound quality (hence my curiosity to remove the door panel grilles-- tho who knows how much a difference one's ear can detect)...
either solution works well... I however can't put the factory tweet back in nicely since the grille is gone, but I am not anticipating selling the 4Runner for prob. 10 years, and if it comes to that, it's easy to buy 2 sail panels.... ( versus me drilling out the grilles in the door panel and buying 2 more door panels at selling time hehe...)
enjoy your new stereo, it's like night and day... i'm still not tired of it and take the long routes to wherever i go
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