Complete audio overhaul on my '92 FJ80

[Jvoight]

so I'd like to share my stereo upgrades...and try to cover the install as best as I can.

I have had just enough stereo install experience to be pretty dang comfortable with most all stereo upgrade situations... I tend to go as high end as I can afford at the time and look for quality stuff on the closeout clearance table. I really am less interested in most cheap big box store stereo stuff... I've had a few real let down purchases... Which is kinda funny being I order most of my stuff for this project off Walmart.com... Not to be confused with the actual items sold in the stores. I learned while price checking for some selected items that Walmart.com now is (or has been) acting much like Amazon in being a central hub for more actual stereo stores selling their higher quality (we hope it's higher quality). All but one of items shipped from somewhere other than a Walmart distribution... bottom line is, higher end stuff is out there for near half price if you shop around a bit.

I like to stay same brand but have no problem mixing and matching when higher end components are found 50% off.

I'm really excited to get this stuff installed...

I'll list all items with pictures here in a few hours when I get home.

Kenwood Excelon deck (kdc-x599)
4 Pioneer 6-3/4" component speakers
Kenwood 4 channel amp
Pioneer 10" ib flat series sub with Pioneer box
Rockford Fosgate 500 mono block amp

 

[toyotaspeed90]

I'm not trying to come across as condescending, so I apologize if it is. Those brands are big box store brands...

The deck is a single din unit (looking around looks like it's around $100-120) with bluetooth. Being single din you'll need to buy a cup/dash install kit. I personally went with this double din unit and I'm quite pleased with it (came with remote, wired mic, and has bluetooth):
http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-FHX72...&keywords=pioneer+double+din+cd+player+fx720b

For those that don't even use CD's anymore - you can look for a media only player and save yourself 10-30% depending on what you're looking for.

Unless you got the Fosgate for a steal, I'd consider returning it and going with something else (unless you've plugged it in and it sounds great at about 70% gain).... Every fosgate piece I've had has gone bad (speakers, blew their top end 10" competition sub on a "non brand name" amp, amps).... I can't recall if fosgate falls in the category with pioneer, kenwood, sony (etc) but those brands- wattage outputs are overstated.... by far. Unless it specifically says that it's 500W RMS (and states what ohm rating) then there's a good chance it was bridged down to 1/2 an ohm then pumped with 20V or more, and ran 500W for a few seconds before dying... For instance a 500W (max) sony amp probably only puts out around 150-250W rms (depending on resistance capability).

I've had Sony, Fosgate, Phoenix Gold, Kenwood, Pioneer/Premier, Cusco, and other amp brands, and the best bang for the buck I've ever bought was one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Hifonics-Hfi1...1447363984&sr=8-2&keywords=hifonics+1500w+amp

That is the exact amp that killed a Fosgate 10" 3ohm DVC sub.... in my IS300 I paired it with a Pioneer Premier 10" competition sub (has a rating of 800W or 1000W RMS, can't remember) and it held up much better than the Fosgate did.... In my old 2 door AE92 I had a somewhat ridiculous setup (PG Amp, dual JL10W3D6" subs) which metered at 135.5db (windshield reading) and I'm pretty sure the Premier/Hifonics easily outshone them at 1/4 the price...

Now if only I wanted to put that in the FZJ80.... I do want a smaller free air 10" or even an 8" and a smaller amp... and I personally absolutely will go with another Hifonics amp!

 

[Jvoight]

Kenwood Excelon KDC-X599 deck
I chose the single din for the benefit of the pocket storage... this deck is reviewed with very high positive feedback. Also has aptX for much improved blue tooth sound quality.

Kenwood KAC-M1804 4channel Amp for the 4 door speakers 45w rms per speaker

New from Pioneer are the
TS-D1730C component speakers 60w rms. I'll be installing in all 4 doors. Claimed to be on par with the Kenwood Excelon components or Alpine type-s... I've had both so it'll be interesting to compare.

Pioneer TS-SWX2502 10" ib-flat sub woofer preloaded in Pioneer's enclosure... I have had this sub before and it is very impressive when powered properly. 300w @4ohm

Rockford Fosgate R500X1D 250w @4ohm to run the 10" thumper
(not pictured...yet). This amp comes with an output cert from factory and usually puts out more than said rating. I'll attach that soon.

This is my best effort to come up with a best bang for your buck system... I know there are endless opinions on stereo stuff a lot of them are well worth considering and researching.

I feel real good so far bout the purchases and will find out how they perform... Some I've had experience with previously and some are new to me

 

[Stout Hond]

Jvoight. Thank you for the pictures and details provided. I look forward to your install and more details on overall project sound, satisfaction, time etc.

I am certain many will provide audio ideas and response...this is what will make this thread interesting...keep posting progress

Subscribed.

 

[Jvoight]

So I got the last of my goodies... And now have everything needed to proceed. I've had an awesome relationship with my Rockford Fosgate amp in my boat for 3 seasons... which I have really put it to the test... Result has been hours of pushing a diamond 10" really really hard... Flawlessly! So for me this was an easy decision. I like how Rockford includes the bench test rating sheet... putting out more than the advertised rating. Got this delivered... amp and the wiring kit for under $150...

and here is da woofer...sealed box, Down firing, compact and durable as heck... Needs 300w@4 ohms to be happy. The amp should deliver ~ 320w@4 ohms if my second grade math is correct. .

Next post will detail the Kenwood head unit and how I'll be pairing it to the Pioneer component speakers...via a Kenwood compact 4 channel amp.

Cheers!

 

[Jvoight]

Made some progress yesterday. I am going to run the 4 door speakers off the kenwood 4 channel amp... So I'll run front and rear rca's from the head unit to the amp which I installed near where the factory amp was located. Then run the harness included with the amp back to the head unit location to connect with outgoing speaker wires.

Brought a copper 4 gauge wire from the battery in thru firewall on driver side via a nice hole that had a rubber plug in it, I just cut a hole in the rubber plug and feed the power cable on through. Then ran the power cable over to the driver side of the glove box where I installed the distribution block... Needed when installing 2 amps.

My stock system is a 9 speaker system. I won't be using the front dash speakers or the stock sub woofer. I plan to run the stock rear pillar speakers located at the 3rd row seat in headliner off the head unit. These will be the only speakers powered by the Kenwood head unit. I haven't picked out anything to replace those Lil ones in the back yet...I'll run the stock ones for a while.

Got the wires mostly ran for the sub/amp in the back... Which I ran under the edge of the carpet along passenger side. RCA cable, amp power cable, power on signal wire and the bass boost/punch level wire (to control bass level from the driver seat) All needed to make the journey.

Next post I'll show pics and details of rear amp wiring.

 

[Chris FJ80]

Nice install. Nice to know you can fit the amp in where the factory amp used to sit. I've been driving my speakers from my excelon head unit. Sound quality is ok but I think it is time to add the amp

 

[Jvoight]

Nice install. Nice to know you can fit the amp in where the factory amp used to sit. I've been driving my speakers from my excelon head unit. Sound quality is ok but I think it is time to add the amp

Substantial sound quality improvement when the amp is added in... Running speakers closer to their rated rms rating really wakes em up.

This Kenwood amp puts out 45 watts rms per channel. The speakers I'm running are rated for 60 watts rms max...
The Kenwood Excelon head unit puts out 22 watts rms per channel... So this setup doubles the watts going to the speakers ...

Seems like running off the deck will sound pretty good... Upgrade for sure from stock. Add the amp and then it goes to "man that is impressive. Running a 4 channel amp to the door speakers will spoil you... Once you go there it is unlikely you'll ever go back to a "just running off the deck" setup... IMO.
I know it has me.

 

[Jvoight]

Finished installing the sub woofer essentials... Ran the power cable, RCA cable, remote power on wire, and the remote bass/punch level wire... There is enough room to run under the edge of the pass side carpet...

After going back and forth on where I was going to install the amp for the sub I chose the third row pass cubby... Fit nice and it's out of harm's way.

I used a hole saw at the front of the box to run wires thru

I ran the speaker wire back out the hole and down past the old sub and came out at the floor to reach the sub box.

When I ordered the Rockford Fosgate amp it was a good price and bonus! It came with a complete amp wiring kit... Looks nice but it is very cheap stuff... Not too surprised... had hoped it would have been decent stuff. All of it is smaller gauge aluminum wire... May work good if you are doing a stereo in your kids power wheels... I didn't use any of it... Oh well.

I forgot to take a pic of the sub sitting in place... I'll get that this afternoon.

Up next will be the fun stuff... Installing the
6-3/4" speakers and the separate tweeter along with the remote crossover! Feeling like all will install without too much hassle...

 

[JCruse]

That's an awesome install! Wish mine was that clean.

What's that little speaker inside the dash in the second install pic? Please tell me it's not the door chime/buzzer that I spent days looking for behind the drivers kickpanel.

I like Pioneer HU's. I have the DEH-80prs and like it a lot. Too many parameters to control though. Makes my head spin lol.
I've been wanting to try those speakers for some time now. I put in the Polk components of the same size with a J&L 100w amp.... that in reality puts out more like 70w. I then popped an Infinity 12" sub in a small 1.1cu-ft box with the J&L bridged for 180w (160).

The speakers should go in no problem, the depth is good. It's gonna sound good when you're done.

 

[Jvoight]

That's an awesome install! Wish mine was that clean.

What's that little speaker inside the dash in the second install pic? Please tell me it's not the door chime/buzzer that I spent days looking for behind the drivers kickpanel.

I like Pioneer HU's. I have the DEH-80prs and like it a lot. Too many parameters to control though. Makes my head spin lol.
I've been wanting to try those speakers for some time now. I put in the Polk components of the same size with a J&L 100w amp.... that in reality puts out more like 70w. I then popped an Infinity 12" sub in a small 1.1cu-ft box with the J&L bridged for 180w (160).

The speakers should go in no problem, the depth is good. It's gonna sound good when you're done.

Thanks!

Funny...it does look like a tiny speaker...it actually is just the glove box light...

Pioneer does make some great head units as well... I'm sure you could flip a coin on many of them... Regarding quality and features...

I am pretty excited to hear these new pioneer components. Local stereo store guys said that they are awesome & way exceeded their expectations! Where did you mount your tweeters? I'm planning to flush mount mine above the arm rest... ish

 

[Jvoight]

Subwoofer in it's new home...

this really is a great performing sub...Good clean bass! Heavy enough to stay put... in most normal diving cases anyway... I'll prob anchor it at some point tho.

 

[Jvoight]

I'll start with the front doors... I used the spacer ring that came with the pioneer speakers and added a 1/4" ring I made out of aluminum to give me the clearance needed to clear the window track... The black plastic ring does go thru the door panel. I mounted the crossover using 3M automotive double sided tape. Clean mounting surface really well... I'd really recommend mounting it as far to the front of the door as possible... This reduces the shock from the door slamming closed. No metal trimming was needed on the front doors.

Door panels needed a hole cut for tweeter and and the main speaker hole enlarged.

The woofers will need a 3/8" spacer trim ring made to fill the gap between the door panel and speaker grill. They still mount up solid but there is a visible gap (but not super obvious). I ended up with a good 1/4" clearance between grill and dash when door is closed. Also the tweeters would have been better off being a 1/2" lower, centering it in the recessed track that the door latch rods run in...

the tweeters are very low profile and a non issue with grabbing the door handle.

Rear doors next

 

[Jvoight]

the layout on the dash... I like the pocket below... phone and or wallet fits nicely there... I did some unnecessary trimming on the dash bezel... Seemed like I needed to and turned out I didn't So the head unit opening had a lil gap on each side. I cut some black electrical tape to cover it for now.

The Mic for the Bluetooth calling works better than expected and is mounted above the vents... Wife could hear me just fine while driving...

The sub woofer bass level controller is mounted conveniently on the side of the center console. Although the blue power on LED is annoying at night with it pointing straight up like that...

The Excelon series head units from Kenwood are awesome. Super easy to navigate all the features.

 

[dcguillory]

Thank you Jvoight!

 

[Jvoight]

Moving on to the rear doors!

So a couple notes... Rear door 6-3/4" install will require enlarging the speaker hole by a fair amount... Cutting the metal part of the door... If your not ok with that a smaller speaker for the rear doors will be in your plan. Also plan on locating the third row pillar speaker wires while you're there if you plan on using them as I did running separate wires to a power source...in my case the HU. The small speakers are ran in parallel from the factory. Basically each corner quadrant of the rig... So the left front door speaker wires have the left front dash speaker piggy backed on them... And so on all the way around... Each rear door having the matching quadrant rear pillar speaker.

So this is what my method of enlarging the hole looked like... Using a saw-zall.

I used a hammer and tapped the cut tabs in

I pre drilled and ran new screws in the metal to mount the oversized speakers.

I mounted the remote crossover with the same method as the front doors. The speakers are currently mounted flush with door panel but that is all the lower the window will go down. I'll be making a 1/2" thick spacer ring to space them out to clear the window arm when rolled down. Seems like something I'll get to when summer rolls around. I did tell my 7&10 year old to not roll the Windows down past the tape I stuck to the door frame. At least I've got the window lock option!

Here is where I split off and ran separate wires to the deck for the rear pillar speakers. You need to identify the + & - on the actual speaker... The terminals were labeled on mine.

next post I'll report on her sound quality and performance

 

[decoco]

thanks for taking the time for the write up, it seems like you're taking your time. I particularly like the sub and amp part.

I have two questions:
a ) Do you re-wire all the door speakers to use with that "hidden" Kenwood Amp? Have you had any heat issues with it at all, being the place it's in. I've looked at that amp for a while.
b ) Can you please explain again the rear speaker (trunk headliner) wiring, I lost you on the explanation.

I re-did my doors, after trying out 4 different speakers as I wanted to keep the stock grills, put in a new a headunit... I get the sound of headliner speakers on the trunk still. Not sure if to install new ones, or find a way to de-activate them. This makes me think the original amp can still be powering all speakers, but I doubt it... therefore, your explanation of the piggy-back on the rear door speakers may be what's going on.

 

[Jvoight]

Thanks...

Answers... as best as I can anyway

I am just a do it yourselfer. I'm sure there are more experienced guys out there that can clarify better or even correct me on a few things.

A) I did not and you don't have to rewire the door speakers... I just located and verified each door speakers + and - factory wire and connected it to the appropriate output wire from the Kenwood 4 channel.
So far the amp seems to be running normal. Warm to the touch but not hot at all.

It was when I was verifying wires that I started seeing how the fine people at Toyota did it. I used an electrical tester just checking continuity (beeps when u have a connection). While testing the output plug at the factory amp and back to the wires at the speakers I saw the positive wire at the RF door speaker and the positive wire on the RF dash speaker beeped/ had continuity. Digging into the wiring loom a bit I found where the speaker wires had a second wire spliced and soldered to it going off to a second location. This is the case on all the door speakers (at least with my factory 9 speaker system) the right rear door had an additional 3rd wire split off and it went to the factory sub. Talk about stretching the power thin! I guess it's all engineered with low watt stuff so it works decent/good when new.

The rear pillar speakers in your case I'm sure are running off you rear door speaker power and are robbing power from them. Although it may not be enough to really notice... Or be concerned about. I wanted to keep things separate on mine. I didn't want any free loaders on my door speakers!

I hope this helps. Running a 4 channel amp to those door speakers is a really good upgrade. More sound output at a lesser volume # on the deck = less distortion & Better sound... IMO.

 

[Walletclan]

Well done

 

[decoco]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions...

I agree, with your advice, thanks!