2 or 4 ohms for front door speakers

[Manhattan]

Sorry for yet another door speaker thread - but my truck is disassembled and I want (need) to order speakers ASAP, and after reading a bunch of threads, I'm still unclear on what would be the optimal replacement... not what "should work."

I just pulled a speaker out of the front door. Specs: JBL 2 ohm 30 watts. After reading a bunch of posts and playing Crutchfield's "Best Fit" game, apparently I can just jam any speaker between 5.25" and 6.75" with ohms ranging from 2 to 8 in the hole and everything will work perfectly. In fact, most of the speakers Crutchfield recommends are 4 ohms... not 2.

Can you sense my skepticism and frustration? I know (I've read a &#$@load of posts) that as the ohms go up, the resistance... blah, blah... But surely Toyota's engineers made an attempt to match the amp with the speakers. And, I'm guessing they had an opinion on the 2 vs 4 ohms topic.

Can anyone tell me if I should buy a set of 2 ohm or 4 ohm speakers, i.e. which will be the best match for the system as is (stock amp, stock rear speakers).

I'm going to push my luck... what size speakers drop into the OE brackets? Oh sure, I could measure the ones that came out... then learn that i was supposed to measure from the outside of the foam, not the metal frame

Thanks!

 

[KershZ71]

2 ohm speakers are recommended but you can go with a 4 ohm speaker and everything will work fine. You may lose a little volume but if you aren't maxing out your volume while listening, you shouldn't be able to tell a difference. I had low volume issues (bad amp I believe) so I stuck with the 2 ohm speakers. I ordered the 6.5 inch PowerBass speakers from Crutchfield and they worked great and bolted up to the existing mounting holes (a couple plastic tabs had to be removed). I replaced the speakers again when I completed my nav delete because my headunit specifically said to not run 2 ohm speakers. You will have more options if you go with a 4 ohm setup.

 

[Pyrenees]

Have a look at the image gallery I linked in the DIY mentioned in my signature. I've got a lot of pics that may be helpful.

 

[abuck99]

Lower ohm speakers will deliver better sound with the lower wattage factory amp. I used 3ohm as that's all I could find at a reasonable price. Used these in the front- also replaced the factory tweeter still using the factory tweeter mount. The cross over works well.

https://www.amazon.com/impedance-Component-Speaker-NUTEK-EARBUDS/dp/B003KN2TF8

 

[toyotaspeed90]

I'm skeptical that the amp is 2 ohm, and more likely they used 2 ohm speakers in tandem with another 2 ohm speaker (either a 2nd set or tweeters... I don't think the 100 has as many speakers as the 80 did, but I do remember the 100 having a woofer and a tweeter in the door), combined to have a 4 ohm rating at the amp.

I recall when I swapped the front door speakers they were directly wired to the tweeters.

2 ohm doesn't provide any better sound, in comparison to a 4 ohm system it doubles the power output. You can have a high quality 4 ohm speaker tied to a 4 ohm amplifier that puts out 200w rms per channel that will sound worlds better than a cheap set of 4 ohm speakers run in parallel (down to 2ohm) on a 2 ohm stable amp putting out 200w rms. Most auto amplifiers are not actually 1 or 2 ohm stable.

 

[Manhattan]

Sweet... I'm more confused. So, do I replace my OE tweeter too? I really just want to drop another 6" round speaker in the hole... not reassess the entire sound system. Is the the door speaker a component speaker - the sub and the mid, with the tweeter (at the corner by the window) wired in to that speaker?

 

[KershZ71]

Here is the setup I was running. There is a woofer in the lower section of the door and a tweeter by the mirror. Most component speakers come with the woofer, tweeter and crossover. Lower end speakers will have an inline resistor on the tweeter instead of the crossover

 

[abuck99]

Mark

Unless your tweeter is blown, a stand alone 6.5” 2 way will suffice. One of my tweeters was blown so I replaced everything.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

Get whichever ohm speaker you can find easily. I highly doubt you will notice the difference between a 2ohm and a 4ohm speaker unless you are an audiophile... and if you were an audiophile, you'd be ditching the factory stereo anyways

 

[Murckman]

They are 2 ohm. You can find them.
The stock amp is grossly underpowered, so going 4 ohm when you could buy 2 ohm isn’t worth it. I originally put some 4 ohm alpines in the rear passenger doors and later replaced them with 2 ohm. I noticed a difference in volume after replacing.
Here is a pic of the old speakers.
Hope it helps.

 

[Njck22]

You can simply throw a 2-way speaker that works into the space of the old, and disconnect the tweeter.

The factory tweeter has a little resistor for only getting high frequencies. 2 way speakers will have this resistor/crossover built in. Any speaker equal or greater than 2 ohms will work, at a slightly lower wattage. Remember, half the wattage is NOT half the sound/volume.

In other words, not much of a difference. Don't worry about it.

The factory amp is not very powerful, obviously, and if you try to push loud music, it will clip and blow your new speakers. This is why replacing the amp is recommended.


Also, if you need mounting brackets / don't want to destroy your old, I think 2005-2012 Rav4 brackets fit perfectly fine.
Metra 82-8148 - Installs 5-1/4", 6-1/2" or 6-3/4" speakers

 

[Manhattan]

One more question - can I run 4 ohm speakers in the front doors and 2 ohm speakers in the back doors? Will this anger my amp?

I see where this is going...
- No. It'd be better to have all the speakers the same impedance.
- So, buy new back door speakers?
- Yes... and the sub
- So, 4 new door speakers and a new sub?
- And an amp. That factory amp will be under-powered with those new speakers
- So, all new speakers and a new amp?
- And new wiring. The factory speaker wire is very small - too much resistance for the new amp

 

[bdruff]

I just rebuilt my front speakers using the simply speaker repair kit. Less than $25 and back to new.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

It's not just what the impedance of the speaker is, but what the overall impedance (OHM) after wiring.

Again, I have a hard time thinking the factory amp is running at 2 ohms. Maybe it is, *shrug*.

However - if the factory setup has two 2-ohm speakers (per channel) that are wired in series, the impedance at the amplifier is 4ohm. If you remove a 2 ohm speaker and wire a 4 ohm in the same way, you will change the overall impedance and lower the wattage output of the amplifier (with that said it is safer for the amplifier, and will run cooler, like this).

If someone can test (I removed the factory deck/amp) the overall impedance and verify it's 4ohm (or around, the tweeter might throw it off a very small amount) then you could buy a quality set of 4 ohm speakers and bypass the other speakers on that channel. A quality 6" 2 or 3 way speaker will sound better than the factory 3 piece separate design.


Also, if you replace the amplifier, never buy an amplifier that slaps the "max" power rating across the top. For instance, Sony (and cheap/off brands) are notorious for this. They'll slap "2000W" on it, but in reality it's about 150wx2 RMS @4ohm and is not 2ohm stable. To get that "2000W" rating they will run something like 1/4ohm for a few seconds, test it out at 2000w before it implodes, and use that for advertising. Find quality units by a couple simple things - if they are 2 or 1 ohm stable, that requires better components and is a safe bet it's a quality unit (even if you plan to run at 4 ohms). Find an amplifier that doesn't splash it's max rating and only rates in RMS/continuous power - for instance 2x300w rms @4ohm, 2x60w rms @2ohm.

End side rant.

 

[Murckman]

Manhattan,
Meant to ask, what year and do you have nav?
I have nav and had a stereo shop bypass the factory amp and put in 2 JL Audio amps, 1 4-way for the main speakers and 1 mono for the sub for around $1000 installed. When I picked it up it was definitely way louder but had a terrible noise (like an alternator whine). They said that noise cancelers wouldn’t make it go away, and suggested a JL Audio Fix OEM integration digital signal processor. It sounded better but unfortunately the noise was still there. It was so bad that JL Audio got involved and eventually just told me that there was nothing that could be done and that some vehicles just produce this noise when integrating their amps are even with the digital signal processor. So I was $2000 into this whole mess and the stereo shop agreed it was so bad that they put everything back how it was for a small installation time fee of about $400.
The Alpine 4 ohm speakers I had put in the rear doors I could barely hear, and most all of the sound was coming from the front 2 ohm Sony’s 1-ways I had put in.
Long story short, ripped all the speakers out (again) and replaced with all matching CDT Audio 2-ohm components in the front including tweeters and crossovers; 2 way CDT Audio 2 ohms in the rear doors, and CDT Audio DVC 6.5” sub.
Then added a powered CDT Audio Mini Max subwoofer that connects to my rear panel subwoofer speaker wires.
I really wished I could have made the amplifiers work but they just didn’t. Sound is much better than stock now, but even with the 2 ohm speakers I wish I could get it louder. I was pleased with the quality of the CDT Audio speakers and subs but there are other brands that are 2 ohm and would probably have the same results.
Anyways, that’s my stereo and speaker story. 4 ohm or higher ohm speakers will work, I just don’t think you’ll be pleased with the outcome.
For anyone who has made a 2002 or newer nav system amplifier bypass work with no unwanted noise I’d love to hear about it.

 

[bdruff]

This is what I found when doing research. Lots of troublesome situations. That's why I went with the speaker repair kit. $25 and good

 

[Njck22]

I'd assume the whine is from a poor signal coming from the factory cd/cassette deck. You can buy the best amps/speakers, but if your source is bad, it will still sound bad.

I'm assuming the audio install shop did a quality job, did they run a fresh ground for the amps, new ground for the deck?
Also a whine can occur when using a discharged or failing battery

It's a shame so much had to be spent on this.

 

[Murckman]

This is what I found when doing research. Lots of troublesome situations. That's why I went with the speaker repair kit. $25 and good

Did you do the subwoofer also? I put in a Bazooka DVC sub (speaker only not the tube thing) and it fit with no modifications in the stock enclosure. I was really pleased with it, but ended up taking it out so I could have all matching brand speakers. Still have it somewhere, and if it wasn’t for my OCD it would still be in there. It was definitely an upgrade over the stock JBL sub speaker.

 

[Murckman]

I'd assume the whine is from a poor signal coming from the factory cd/cassette deck. You can buy the best amps/speakers, but if your source is bad, it will still sound bad.

I'm assuming the audio install shop did a quality job, did they run a fresh ground for the amps, new ground for the deck?
Also a whine can occur when using a discharged or failing battery

It's a shame so much had to be spent on this.

They really did a quality job and probably had 12 hours + into the install. They did run separate grounds to the new amps and high end RCA’s. Not sure if they redid the ground “loop” on the deck. The battery was only a year old then and is now 2-1/2 years old and holding strong, so it wasn’t the battery.
They really tried everything they could to make this work. It was a shame it didn’t work but they ended up doing the right thing by taking everything back they installed and wired me all back up to stock.

 

[bdruff]

I did the sub first, had great results and then did the front door speakers.