Toothpick

First of I would like to thank Tecman for an excellent write up and everyone else who shared their experience with the speakers upgrade.

I went through the same process of replacing front dash and front door speakers. I replaced dash speakers first with Kenwoods reccomended by Techman - the result was excellent. Then I decided to alter a bit and installed Kenwood 6x9 speakers into the front doors. The idea was to have the same signature sound speakers. The result was devastating. The bass was worst then with the factory speakers.
Obviously , I missed the point , of what we want from the front speake upgrade in our GX. Lexus premium 9 speakers system doesn't have a dedicated sub. So if we don't want to change frontal "concert hall " staging of our sound system, then most of the bass if not all of it should come from the front door speakers. I Am not a "bass head" and prefer an accurate natural sound. But we should at least have an option for a good bass , which has to be as close as possible to a system with a dedicated sub. Then we can tune It down if needed.

After some home work I narrowed down my new choice to two candidates: jbl gto939 and alpine r-type ( alpine spr-69).
Beeng a jbl/Harman fan , I ordered Jbl gto939. And I love the result! Both mid and deep bass are there. The sound is clear and comes without any distortion all the way to the max. Is it as accurate as my BW headphones? Of course not. But it is definitely better then stock GX460 ML sound.

For Alpine fans... R-type definitely has more bass then s-type. so most likely Spr69 is a better choice for the front door speakers.

rattmobbin

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but I'm looking to upgrade my factory (non-ML) speakers as the sound is just pathetic.

I know folks are saying the Kenwood speakers Tecman installed in the dash sound great, but I just can't get on board with a pulp cone woofer.

I'm considering the MTX Thunder35 2 way speaker that has a similar power handling as the Kenwood, but an even higher efficiency rating (89db for Kenwood and 92db for MTX) meaning even more volume off the pathetic factory amp. Just wondering if adding 3 extra tweeters to the dash is gonna be WAAAAYYYY too much?

Another question is whether anyone is running a powered sub with this setup?

I'm thinking a sealed 10" sub in the cargo area would really help round out the system. Especially after upgrading the garbage factory speakers.

tecman

Best way to find out is to buy both dash speakers and compare. Hard to say which is best unless you test them. Please let us know your findings. I considered a sub when I was looking to pay for the installation (not sure what's involved with DIY for this).
I recently faded my system more to the rear to fill the cabin sound more evenly and it helps useing the needed higher volume level.

rattmobbin

Yeah I actually found some JBLs with an even higher 94db efficiency rating so I think I'm gonna try those out and see how it goes. Price for 2 pairs of 3", 1 pair of 6x9 and 1 pair of 6.5" right around $300. Less than half what I am planning to spend on a sub. Ha!

So Tecman, Metra doesn't make adapters for the front speakers?

tecman

I couldn't find the adapters at that time. The only reason I used them was the easy option to go back to stock if things didn't work out. I would just cut the wire now.

rattmobbin

Only thing I hate about splicing the wires is the potential for mixing up your positive and negative wires and reversing the phase on the speaker, which can lead to crappier sound. I say can because I've actually owned some speakers that sounded better in reverse phase believe it or not. LOL

Anyone have a GX wiring schematic showing which color wire is positive and which is negative???

rattmobbin

I swear those all look like mid-bass drivers. Huh, I may have to rethink my strategy here. Maybe THAT'S why you guys aren't getting any bass from the rear speakers, because you're replacing a (more than likely) low powered mid-bass driver with a full range speaker! And the factory system isn't putting out enough power to run the woofer AND tweeter in the full range speaker, so you lose the bass bak there. Hmmmmmm....

There are tweeters in the rear door, right? Can't remember off the top of my head and I'm stuck at work.

The more I think about it the more I think I'm right! I bet if you disconnect the rear tweeter and run the wires from those to the full range speakers in the door (effectively "doubling" the power now going to the speaker) you'll get your bass back! OH I'm SO excited to rip these door panels off and start playing around.

I'll post up results as soon as I have some!!!

tecman

Not on mine.

Looks like there is enough to meter with the radio on. Did this on my passenger rear where I have the door panel off already.


Reversed polarity.
Red is negative black is positive.

rattmobbin

So I'm ordering like 10 sets of speakers from crutchfield to test with. Lol. I'll return the ones I don't like and will definitely post up results once the install is complete.

Oh, and it turns out my truck has full range rear speakers, no tweeter in the door, but there is almost NO bass coming out of these things. Just FYI.

The speakers I'm ordering are...

Dash 3.5" speakers:

- JL Audio C2-350x $99.95/pair

- JBL GTO329 $79.99/pair

-Kenwood KFC-835C $29.99/pair


Front door 6"x9" speakers:

- Alpine SPR-69 $129.99/pair

- JBL GT7-96 $79.99/pair

- JL Audio C1-690 $149.99/pair (component set that include a separate tweeter with inline crossovers. wasn't planning to replace the stock tweeters but figured what the heck)


Rear door 6.5" speakers:

- JBL GT7-6 $63.99/pair

- JBL GTO629 $95.99/pair


My my focus was on very high efficiency speakers to make the most out of the (more than likely underpowered) factory amp. JBL makes some of the most efficient speakers around, thus the numerous JBL sets in my list.

I'm very excited for all this stuff to arrive so I can start tinkering to see what sounds the best!

tecman

Update please. Curious of what you found that sounds best.

ncblue

For the dash I used the kenwoods and for the center channel. I purchased from parts express faital pro 4 inch full range. The faital pro has a higher sensitivity. The faital pro are more detailed.

MrJamison

iTrader: (1)

Great write up! I plan to switch the front 3 soon. Have any of you added an aftermarket subwoofer? If so, where did they choose to get the feed for the line out converter? I originally had mine hooked to the rear speakers which was a mistake bc it provides almost no sound. I switched to the driver side front speaker on the low input and it's 10x's the amount of sound but still muddled. Any thoughts?

GoHuskers

@TECMAN,

I just want to replace the front 3 speakers (Left, Center, Right) so - is it just Pop out the grills, Replace the speakers, then put back the grills? Do I need any adapters?

Thank you.

Htony

Music listening is best with good stereo sound. surround system is for movie watching like in home theater.
ML sound quality is just so, so. Try B&O system Audi cars have. More crisp and clear sound for sure.

tecman

GoHuskers: No adapters needed for the dash. You will need to modify the connector. The only reason I used the splice part was so I could easily go back if the speakers didn't work out. I would just cut the wire and install the female connector. You can get a smaller pack at any auto parts store.