Anyone attempted to switch out to a 4" audio frog or other 4" after market speakers in dash? Also use a tilt ring to tilt it more away from reflecting off the windshield?

Matter of fact, install a tilt ring on current speakers?

Another question, do you think that installing an 8" midwoofer on the kick panel will help or hinder aound quality?

I installed two 12" jbl mkii and it totality over powered the other system and sounded like fece. I'm thinking of disconnecting it and installing 8" mids in the kick.

 

Have you tried turning down the gain on the subs?

 

Yeah, all the way down. I've now limited the sub to just play mids fir now. Currently just wiring and testing. I will mess with it some more when i get time.

 

Yea two 12s will definitely overpower our systems. Simplest way to think of audio is that the range will be smoother, and less defined, the closer the speakers are in size.
For example:
- 4" speaker will sound fluid with a 6.5" speaker
- A pair of 8" subs will sound fluid with 6.5" speakers
- A single or pair of 10" subs will sound fluid with 6X9" speakers, or 8" mids.
Combine them all (4", 6.5", 8" mids, single 10") with a single 12, and you wont be able to tell them apart, or which is producing which sound.

With the acoustic glass in our cars, a single 10 will sound incredible. I'm thinking of fitting one in the rear deck firing in the cabin. At the very least, theres a hole for an 8" even if you don't have a speaker there from the factory.

 

Sounds like your amp is not tuned properly. What's the low-pass set to? Is the bass boost off?

I do not think changing speakers will make a big difference. It might even sound worse because of all the tuning and sound shaping the stock amp does.

 

You are correct. If your going to switch speakers like I did in the doors ans dash your going to need a more powerful amp to power them, and a Digital Sound Processor to re-calibrate and correct the factory set EQ.

And yes, make sure your not using any bass boost, set your low pass filter to around 80 hz on that sub amp.

I use the Audison Bit 10D (DSP) software and set time alignment delay use of cross over filters on each speaker and the improvement is night and day over the factory base no ML system I had prior. Now everything blends beautifully and the imaging and staging is unreal. But I'm also about $5k deep into my system build so yeah...



On the other hand I have just one 10 Hertz Hi-Energy in a sealed enclosure with a Hertz Audio 600 watt RMS amp on it in my wife's 2010 RX with the base stereo and for the $900 I spent on a high quality sub,amp, and having it professionaly installed it sounds fantastic. I keep the bass on the head unit set to 0 or flat and have a gain **** to adjust the volume of the sub. Honestly this is the best bang for your buck to just add a sub and amp to factory vs. a complete overhual as I did in my GS.

 

This is a good suggestion for OEM systems, but my set-up in my 4runner is 2x 6" mid's on 100w rms each and a 12" IDMAX at 600w, and the speakers keep up no problem.
Now, the 12" IDMAX in the GS would likely overpower the stock system.