2021 Prius Prime XLE Non-JBL Speaker Upgrade TIPS and OBSERVATIONS

Yes, something like that. It's a pain to install because there are lots of plastic braces molded into the inside of the grill so you have to cut pieces of the weatherstripping to fit between the braces, then, depending on the size of the weatherstripping, you might need a second layer tp actually get to the speaker. Annoying & tedious! I would have mounted the foam on the speaker, but there's no place on the rim to stick the foam to.

If you stand outside the car and look down at the speaker you should be able to look through the grill and see where the ring ends relative to the cone. Lighting isn't good - you might have to do it in the dark with a flashlight. Another test is to measure the diameter of the ring and compare it to the diameter of the cone. The ring is much smaller than the cone.

Bottom line is that even though the speaker fits, it isn't really compatible without some work. I'm guessing that the same would apply to other speaker brands.

Ed

 

Hi.

 

Hi. I bought the same Cerwin Vega VPAS10. Question: how did you connect it to the system? I have already organized battery power supply.

 

Any good leads or these still all in the upper price range?
Great write up and pics.
this is all I've got so far.
Neodymium Speaker Magnets Explained - Official Fluance® Blog
Saw a tube the other day bout how to get at the dash tweeters. thanks for the head up with the tweeter ring spacing.

 

A couple more links first one has a decent write up on the advantages of neodymium along with the same video linked below it.
Speaker Magnets Explained: The Power Behind Your Sound

 

This looks great.

I'm thinking of using a pair of Infinity Reference 4022i in my dash and a set of 6-1/2 Kicker ESC65 speakers for the doors.
I also have a pair of 5-1/4 Alpine SPS-510 unused that I was thinking of stuffing in the rear doors.

Obviously anyone who designs crossover networks is worth listening to. I have a 2017 Prius Prime Plus with the stock Panasonic Radio. (For now at least)

 

Has anyone done it?

 

The first thing I'd do is work on the sound isolation - dampen out the noise of other vehicles, and make it where your audio has less to compete with.

Sound insulation makes for a great Prius Two | PriusChat

 

This is an amazing post, OP, I'd be delighted to learn more. If you just replace the front door speakers and leave the rear doors as-is (and the dash tweeters as-is), would you say this would "ruin" the stock frequency response which is easy to listen to?

I've done the same in other cars (Chevy Cruze, Nissan Versa, etc.) and all of them had interesting processing in the stock head unit that caused aftermarket speakers to sound "off". The worst is my Vette, I put aftermarket JL Audio tweeters & a proper head unit and the stock amp had some crazy steep filters requiring insane cuts at 10kHz and a massive boost at 1kHz to even be able to hear talk radio & not have ringing ears.

I wonder if I just did speaker swaps would the stock processing work against me, and cause more issues? Looking to start by adding the following door speakers to replace my broken driver side door speaker: C 165 - Hertz car audio systems | The Sound Experience

I would look into crossover networks from Focal, Morel, Hertz if you can afford those brands. Much more cleaner sounding (IMO) than the steep, high-order crossovers designed by many car audio manufacturers to optimize "boom and sizzle" aka SPL. A less steep crossover gives the impression of a smoother transition when paired with the right drivers but provides less driver protection, so it's an engineering trade-off...

If you want to DIY your own, there are plenty of great articles on DIYmobileaudio and also you can go to your local Guitar Center and get a basic pro audio speaker cabinet design book (the principles are the same, whether you are designing PA crossovers or home/car stereo).

Best of luck, I am trying to do the same, and haven't found much info about the stock crossover setup or even what the dash speakers are high-passed at. If anyone has these values, feel free to post below!

I believe it's 20W RMS, but someone with more knowledge may be able to chime in here. It's probably looking for an impedance in the range of 4ish ohms, but I'm not sure if that's 20W RMS at 4 ohms or something specific (some cars have odd 2-ohm door speakers which I don't think the base Prius model has).

If anyone has replaced just door speakers with a much heavier speaker (e.g. 80W RMS) are they running the stock head unit into distortion before the aftermarket speaker gets to its "sweet spot" and sounds good? And what is the sensitivity of the stock door speakers?

Appreciate in advance if anyone has all (or some) of this info!

Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day!