Front dash Tweeter removal

I think we're all waiting for someone to try yanking it out, haha...

 

Here are the speaker specs:

 

The "6.3 inch" rears are 6.5"s

 

I had the front tweeters replaced as part of my speaker upgrade. I don't know what was involved since I had the professionally installed, but it turned out well. I can't imagine it was terribly difficult or I'm sure they would have let me know (and charged for extra labor).

 

As I understand it, squawker is Toyota's word for a small coax speaker that does a bit of mid range in addition to standard tweeter duties. I've never seen a 2.5inch coax before, usually 3.5 is as small as they get. I'd be inclined to just put a nice tweeter in there as part of a component system...

Based on what I've seen in the other panels, those grills probably just pull out. I haven't tried it yet...if anyone does try it, take some pics while you're in there! :-D

Mike

 

I don't know how many people have read my other posts about my custom stereo install, but unless you have a model without the JBL system it's really going to nearly be impossible to get really good sound out of it. It's a shame that JBL did this stereo this way and makes it so difficult to upgrade the speakers and add an amp and sub if so inclined. Now I have the NAV 8 speaker system and unfortunately the factory amp is an 8 channel amp. Each channel has it's own X-over points, it's own equalization and to make it work with aftermarket gear has been an absolute nightmare. If I didn't have the ATP I would seriously go as far as pulling the factory headunit out, but instead it will be a custom mounted single DIN radio (probably the Alpine IDA-X305) with steering wheel controls in the center console to get the most out of my stereo system. Needless to say, if I would have known before jumping in with both feet that this was going to be a very expensive and time consuming journey, I probably wouldn't have done it. None the less, everyone else will be able to learn from what I've learned without spending the money. Hope this helps and will of course be adding more pics to my install in the photo pages under my profile name once they get installed.

 

ah.. we are all GenII owners. it's easy. first open the door and second, pull the black speaker housing strait towards the cab/away from the door. you can simply un-clip the tweeter's power and pop the tweeter out of it's casing. if your tweeters are not the same size you may want to unbend the mesh strips that hold it in (don't bend multiple times or they WILL snap off) dremel the size you need for the new tweeter, and epoxy your new tweeter in spot.

 

The tweeter is not coaxial. My installer gave me the stock speakers after installing the new ones and I looked at the stock tweeter just a moment ago. Nothing special about it, just a really cheap looking driver with a paper cone.

 

Here's another bit of info that might be useful. My installer removed and replaced the A-pillar plastic trim piece (I know this because he mis-aligned it and I had to come back for an adjustment). He got to the trim piece by pulling the rubber strip around the front door.

 

Hmm...is it a whizzer design? A paper cone with a another cone sort of glued to it? The toyota speakers gotta go...as soon as there's a good aftermarket speaker mount and a tweeter that fits up on the dash I gotta get to some upgrades...

 

shawnb2,

I am wondering if the JBL system is setting the crossover point from the head unit or in the amplifier? Wait is there a seperate 8 channel amplifier?? I would assume it is the amplifier is doing all the equalizing and processing since there are two different head units connecting to the same JBL 8 channel amplifier (nav and non nav). If that is the case there must be pre amp outs in the head units to tap into which is usually 4 channel. I have done that to other JBL OEM and Bose OEM system and it was not that hard. I wish I had access to a Prius III or IV to take some O scope readings on the harness to see what was going on.

To stay on topic. Why not just rewire the door speakers straight to the new amplifier to get the full range. Given you can get a full range sound from the head unit. Also I recommend abandoning the stock tweeter positions unless you can tune your aftermark amplifier to balance out the position relative to the mid bass in the doors. Without some kind of processing it would sound out of place. Just remember the JBL system has been tune and there is equalization settings to balance out the system with OEM speaker positions.


-Chan

 

Are you referring to the distance between the door speaker and the dash tweeter? I suppose there could me some delay/phasing issues, but they should be pretty mild. The distance from the floor to your ear and the dash to your ear should be close to the same, and if you're using a crossover there would not be identical frequencies originating from different places...certainly less of an issue than if you're running full range in the doors in the back.

 

Yeah that's the a-pillar....

You should get out to your car and just start disassembling all these places. You can have your door off in under a minute, and you could pop all the tweeter stuff out in minutes too. Take some photos and post them for us.

 

The tweeter doesn't have a whizzer cone. Just a normal old hemispherical dustcover with a radius about one-third of the total driver radius. It looks pretty crappy.

I chose to have the tweeters replaced since the door speakers are so deep in the footwell. As you're aware, high frequencies are more directional and more easily blocked than low frequencies. Thus even the best tweeter in the world is going to disappoint if it's aimed at your ankles.

I haven't measured the difference in distances between the door speaker and the tweeter, however I can't imagine there would be any phase problems. Recall that a half-wavelength is on the order of three inches at 2 khz and that you've got plenty of reflections inside the cabin to further even things out. And that most of the high-frequency content from the footwell isn't going to reach your ears anyway imho.

I'm afraid I'm not that interested in taking everything apart for pictures.... the whole reason for having it professionally installed was to avoid the time, frustration, and damage potential of doing it myself. The installer didn't seem to think it was terribly difficult though. I'd be glad to pm their contact info if anyone wants to ask them questions.

 

I don't know how I missed this post, but anyways we bypassed the JBL amp all together and everything sounded great. With that being said, the head unit also sends a digital signal to the JBL amp to send the voice for bluetooth and navigation through it as well. Stereo sounded great, had a full range signal to my JL amp but I had no voices for the other. Until JBL is contacted to find out if there is a way to bypass the EQ and x-over points whether it's through a hidden menu or something that can be done internally there isn't much we can do. Only other thing is to have someone that knows a bit about the JBL amp try and separate that signal so hopefully it could be decoded externally and amplified through an aftermarket amp. Other than that, we are at the mercy of what they gave us and trying to correct the mess that it creates when trying to go with aftermarket equipment. Down side to adding a component set is you will probably blow your aftermarket tweeters if you're going to use their signal as it's crossed over at too low of a point to allow some mid-range frequencies to come through as well. I have decided to go with an Alpine single DIN unit custom mounted in the center console and hopefully will be able to control it through the steering wheel controls. I'm sure they can get that to work, I just hope to not lose the touch tracer display when it is disconnected from the factory head unit. Will let you know what happens when I get that far. I am chasing after a new body kit that just came out so the stereo will probably stay the same for a bit.