[JoeMama]

Personally i wouldnt get a co-ax for the doors (speaker and tweeter) as well as tweeters in the dash (again coax). It just really opens the door to weird acoustic cancellation.

Sadly i dont have advice on the speakers. I am a fan of hertz and may eventually put some in my vehicle but my knowledge of their line up is a bit dated. from what ive known I would have 100% recommended their energy and hi energy lines and would say to avoid the dieci line. but it looks like their lineup has changed quite a bit from the speakers ive heard. If the dieci is built better than the old ones then id say get the coax for the dash and look for a 165 woofer with no tweeter (165mm-6.5in). the most plug and play setup it looks like they would have for our car would be the mille MPK 163.3. I have heard the older milles and they are good but hella expensive

Ok thanks for the advice, do you think it’s important to stick with one line of speakers, or does that not matter? The 3.5” coaxial Hertz were the only ones that fix my search criteria. Could I mix those with say a Polk 6.5” woofer in the in the door? Or will that have weird results?

 

[JoeMama]

I went with a component type of speakers for the front. The tweeter from the pair in the dash and the woofer in the door. I'd avoid a coaxial in the doors as well. The back speakers actually really helped on fullness of sound - just no bass. Check out my post on them in this thread. One thing I like about surface mounting the rears is that I never have to pull the panel to change out speakers later. I might be going with 6x9's and an amp in the near future.

Steve

I definitely like the idea of more sound coming from the back. Your setup looks clean, but I want to keep the stock appearance. Is there anything to be accomplished with a higher quality 2.5” in the back?

Unfortunately I traded in the 4Runner. Mine was a 2016 trail that took us to some pretty cool places before we had kids. I loved that thing but it had basically become my work commuter and house project truck the last few years. It didn’t make sense to me to be piling on the miles and banging it up with 2x4’s on such a valuable car, so I traded it pretty much straight up for the GR86.

 

[EmperorJJ1]

Ok thanks for the advice, do you think it’s important to stick with one line of speakers, or does that not matter? The 3.5” coaxial Hertz were the only ones that fix my search criteria. Could I mix those with say a Polk 6.5” woofer in the in the door? Or will that have weird results?

so in reality its not. you could use hertz for the dash and polk in the door. the biggest thing you want to try and match persay is price range. the 3.5 is a somewhat uncommon size so i wouldn't necessarily look at that but instead try and match the price range of the more common 6.5. so for example the hertz dieci is 140 from crutchfield then the 2 polk options are 99 and 179. so theres not anything directly comparable so you'd have to go with a likely better quality speaker (polk mm series) vs a worse quality speaker (polk db series)

the "best" route would be going with a 3 way component set with a dedicated tweeter, mid and woofer. or to just skip the mid entirely and go with a 2 way component set with just the woofer and tweeter. being a "set" they are designed to work together so should sound the best. even staying on the same manufacture and line of speakers, like the hertz dieci for example, the 3.5 and 6.5 coax arent designed to work together.... theres just higher potential or probability of things not working out as well.

if we had the room for 4in speakers in the dash we would have much more plentiful aftermarket options.

 

[TNcaveman]

I definitely like the idea of more sound coming from the back. Your setup looks clean, but I want to keep the stock appearance. Is there anything to be accomplished with a higher quality 2.5” in the back?

Unfortunately I traded in the 4Runner. Mine was a 2016 trail that took us to some pretty cool places before we had kids. I loved that thing but it had basically become my work commuter and house project truck the last few years. It didn’t make sense to me to be piling on the miles and banging it up with 2x4’s on such a valuable car, so I traded it pretty much straight up for the GR86.

I mainly did the larger speakers because I'm eventually going to get full sound back there and I had already bought the 5.25 inch speakers for another vehicle and changed paths on that. And with surface mount, simply unscrew them and you can access the wiring without taking the interior apart. As far as looks goes, you will never notice them. They are in the back.

Steve

 

[PhatFreshPrince]

I mainly did the larger speakers because I'm eventually going to get full sound back there…

I, too, would love to get a fuller sound in the back. I have the OEM+ with sub sound system. It sounds great, but there is no surround sound effect. What are you planning on doing to get a full sound from your 5.25 back speakers? I think the head unit filter the bass out of the back speakers, so are you going to tap off the door’s signal? Are you going to use an amp?
When saw your post, I tested the stock door speakers in the back. They did seem to sound brighter without their covers but as you said no bass, and these are 2 ohms speakers. How are you going to get bass in the back speakers?

 

[TNcaveman]

I, too, would love to get a fuller sound in the back. I have the OEM+ with sub sound system. It sounds great, but there is no surround sound effect. What are you planning on doing to get a full sound from your 5.25 back speakers? I think the head unit filter the bass out of the back speakers, so are you going to tap off the door’s signal? Are you going to use an amp?
When saw your post, I tested the stock door speakers in the back. They did seem to sound brighter without their covers but as you said no bass, and these are 2 ohms speakers. How are you going to get bass in the back speakers?

I'm probably getting a 4 channel amp and just use the front speakers as the signal source. Since I never touch the fader, I'll just fiddle with the levels and balance it out that way.

Steve

 

[pcchan]

Also I paid $59 for each set of 4” and $69 (priced matched to $59) for the 6.5”. I got these on sale from Crutchfield and they give you harnesses and speaker adapter rings for free. Walmart also caries the 6.5” in their stores.

View attachment 8026

How did you manage to add the harness for free regarding those 4'. Tried older 86/brz model too, just kept said it wont fit and wont let me get the harness as a package

 

[JoeMama]

How did you manage to add the harness for free regarding those 4'. Tried older 86/brz model too, just kept said it wont fit and wont let me get the harness as a package

I just ordered some 3.5” kicker KS series 2 ways for the dash of my base model. I chatted customer service about the wire harness and they wouldn’t give to me. I had to talk to the supervisor and explain that there was no modification necessary on the 22+. He had to call me to put my order in manually, but ultimately I did get the harness for free.

 

[GR86Talk]

How did you manage to add the harness for free regarding those 4'. Tried older 86/brz model too, just kept said it wont fit and wont let me get the harness as a package

See the first post of this thread:

“Also I got a metra harness for free with the speakers from Crutchfield and had to do a chat since they didn’t automatically include them for free at first. They fit perfectly.”

They basically had me add them and buy but then adjusted my charge with a credit after.

 

[shambles]

I'm confused about ohms. OEM+ uses 4 ohms tweeters and mids with 2 ohms woofers. Focal uses 4 ohms tweeters with 4 ohms woofers. Can I install 4ohms tweeters, mids and woofers all around or is that too much load on the stock amp? I am thinking about upgrading my 8 speaker BRZ with the Focal speakers and adding a 4inch in the dash as well.

 

[EmperorJJ1]

ohms is resistance. the lower the number the less resistance. in practice what that means is a 2 ohm woofer would get roughly double the power of a 4 ohm woofer connected to the same amp. it varies depending on the amp but you get the idea. so OEM+ is using the resistance of the speakers to get more out of the woofer and less out of the mids and tweeters. Focal being a more traditional company keeping it all 4ohm makes sense.

every amp has a limit on what the lowest ohm they can handle is. so if you are going with a 2ohm woofer and 4 ohm tweeters you are desigining for an amp that can handle 2ohm and leaving power on the table when it comes to the mids and tweeters. Focal however is designing for a much more broad audience and 4ohm is the lowest that most OEM amps and or HU can run. 2ohm is more unique in that space although most newer aftermarket stuff can handle 2 ohm no problem. (90s amps were built for 4 or 8 ohm)

 

[GR86Talk]

I'm confused about ohms. OEM+ uses 4 ohms tweeters and mids with 2 ohms woofers. Focal uses 4 ohms tweeters with 4 ohms woofers. Can I install 4ohms tweeters, mids and woofers all around or is that too much load on the stock amp? I am thinking about upgrading my 8 speaker BRZ with the Focal speakers and adding a 4inch in the dash as well.

This thread is for the BASE GR86 or Premium BRZ which use 6 speakers (tweeter and woofer on each side are each 4ohm) running in parallel, thus producing a 2ohm load and the rears are 6ohm.

You have a Limited BRZ if you have 8 speakers. The OEM+ is for the Premium GR86 or Limited BRZ that has the 8 speaker factory setup. Both the factory and OEM+ woofers in this setup use the small external factory amp that runs at 2ohm. If you swap the woofers out for 4ohm Focals, they will have less power and volume than a 2ohm speaker, especially if the sensitivity rating of the Focals is not as high as the stock.

 

[OddJack]

After installing these speakers with all the silk dome tweeters I can have treble and mid at 0 on EQ and it still sounds super crisp. Also bass from the door speakers is slightly less than the thin factory ones but these are new and not broken in (butyl rubber and stiff mesh of the spider need broken in). The bass is tighter and less distorted. I changed bass EQ from +2 to +3 and they sound good. I have fader set 3 to rear (rear are only 4 ohm vs 2 ohm up front, rears are high pass filtered at head unit, and rears are further away from ears) and have the virtual vocal sound stage set to low (helps with balancing sound direction and increasing vocals). I also have the virtual bass and beat enhancements on low. I think the extra mid bass from the dash and door speakers helps. With my sub the sound system is perfect! Overall because these speakers have high sensitivity, they sound really loud for a factory head unit.

Did you try the Beat Sonic unit in combination with these speakers?

 

[GR86Talk]

Did you try the Beat Sonic unit in combination with these speakers?

No, I haven’t. That would be a good possible next upgrade, although I am satisfied with the volume of these speakers. If I did a Beat Sonic unit upgrade, at that point I could probably replace the speakers as well. The Polk speakers I chose were mainly chosen for efficiency (as factory speaker replacement with factory head unit as power source). They were also chose for size too as noted previously. The bad thing about this car’s head unit is that the rear channels are high pass filtered. I wish this could be configured at the oem head unit/dsp. So you are not going to be able to get any lower frequency in the rears.

 

[Shoggy]

Just in case if you wonder what happens when you go all in🔊🤯

This is the plug n play V4 Masterpack (scroll down for English description) from Car and Audio Germany which has been installed in my car a while ago. Not shown in the photo is the damping material, which was also installed. This is their largest set. They also offer simpler sets.

They made a very detailed video about the installation in my car. Unfortunately it is all in German. Maybe use the automatic translation if you are interested in the details.

This system has a nice and unique feature: the engine sound generator runs through the audio system now which means it was possible to tweak it through the DSP of the amplifier and I can switch it between on and off in 25 steps through a rotatable control unit which can also adjust other things.

I recommend to jump to 48:35 in the video where he accelerates without the engine sound amplification. At 49:45 he turns on the new engine sound amplification which runs through the whole audio system now. A direct comparison is possible at 50:25 where the system is turned off and 50:28 where it is turned on again.

A few interesting technical takeaways about the OEM system which he mentions in the video:

• bass is pretty much dead below 50 Hz
• the frequency range about 6 kHz and above has a crazy amplification (not a problem of the radio)
• the radio has has a really nasty distortion at volume level 29 and above
• distortion-free max power measured on one of the front channels is 16 watt
• the frequency range from the radio for the front speakers is quite linear (not perfect, but "good")
• the frequency range from the radio for the rear speakers starts to drop at about 500 Hz and lower because the rear speakers, due to their size and an installed capacitor, would not be able to reproduce this range in a meaningful way anyway

Since the used amplifier is fully programmable, pretty much all of these problems can be corrected. A sensitive microphone was also used to cross-check the settings. The following screenshot is just a random example (no settings of my car) to get an idea of the software. More of it is also shown in the video.

Just in case someone is interested in such a system: the amplifier comes with a preloaded configuration. So, there is no need to measure or adjust anything yourself. Of course you can still attach a notebook to the amplifier and make your own adjustments.

Well, the overall sound experience is on a completely new level now. Everything sounds balanced and just right. Hard to imagine that it could get any better. The tuned engine sound is a fun thing and inside the cabin it sounds like I have upgraded the car with some fancy exhaust system. Sometimes I completely forget about it and feel slightly ashamed when I drive through a quite area and then just realize: wait a moment, those bozos out there can't hear it - pedal to the metal! 😎

And a few more photos...

 

[GR86Talk]

Wow, very nice @Shoggy!

 

[JoeMama]

I just ordered some 3.5” kicker KS series 2 ways for the dash of my base model. I chatted customer service about the wire harness and they wouldn’t give to me. I had to talk to the supervisor and explain that there was no modification necessary on the 22+. He had to call me to put my order in manually, but ultimately I did get the harness for free.

Figure I should update this in case anyone out there wants to go this route. Swapping the 3.5” 2-ways into the stock tweeter location made a big difference for me. The highs are a lot less harsh and you can actually hear the mid range now. I’m happy with it for the $50ish it cost me.

Some types of base can still sound really bad. I’d like to swap out the door woofers, but there don’t seem to be many 6.5” component speakers for sale on their own. I’m thinking of buying the Focal IS Toy set and just using the woofers? Does anyone of another solution that isn’t crazy expensive? Anyone have experience buying the cheaper Focal IS TOY sets out there? There seems to be a big variance in price. I don’t want to end up buying some fake trash.

 

[OddJack]

I hate to mess with door panels. They hardly sit back in place as firmly as the first time.

I would probably just do the Beats Sonic with stock speakers. If I do, I will report back here.

 

[EmperorJJ1]

Figure I should update this in case anyone out there wants to go this route. Swapping the 3.5” 2-ways into the stock tweeter location made a big difference for me. The highs are a lot less harsh and you can actually hear the mid range now. I’m happy with it for the $50ish it cost me.

Some types of base can still sound really bad. I’d like to swap out the door woofers, but there don’t seem to be many 6.5” component speakers for sale on their own. I’m thinking of buying the Focal IS Toy set and just using the woofers? Does anyone of another solution that isn’t crazy expensive? Anyone have experience buying the cheaper Focal IS TOY sets out there? There seems to be a big variance in price. I don’t want to end up buying some fake trash.

what do you define as crazy expensive. im a huge fan of hertz so buying just a set of woofers id go with these.

Hertz C 165

Cento Series 6-1/2" component woofers

www.crutchfield.com

decades ago you used to be able to buy OEM versions of popular speakers from this website. but looking at their offerings it seems like they really dont have much to offer. anything that looks decent isnt really that cheap. may not be worth the gamble

Nominal Diameter

Discover peak audio reproduction quality with pro woofers, subs, and midrange drivers. Go for the best in live sound speakers from trusted industry brands.

www.parts-express.com

 

[Ritter]

Awesome system and report, @Shoggy! I'd say you have the ultimate system now for our car.

Very interesting details about the OEM system. I'm watching the video at 0.75 speed with subtitles in German (no English). I can understand about 25% of the words, so I have some idea what he is saying. He said the high frequency gain above 6 kHz is +20 dB! Of course the OEM system sounds horrible! Now I know why unplugging the tweeters improved the sound in my car so much.