Newbie wants to learn the best 'Original' aftermarket audio system for BRZ
 

By original I mean works with the OEM unit signal input and hopefully power supply so I do not have to run wires through the firewall to the car battery.

Pls advise! Thanks a lot!

For just a head unit, there is no need to run any wires through the firewall. With the exception of the overhead microphone (the factory mic doesn't seem to play nice with anything other than the OEM HU) all of the power and speaker connections are present in the dash and usable by most any aftermarket HU. The easiest thing to do is buy from Crutchfield and pay the extra few dollars for them to supply a plug-and-play wiring harness. No cutting of factory wiring and you can return to stock in about 10 minutes if you want.

If you want to install an additional amp for a sub-woofer then you will likely need to run a cable to the battery.

It sounds like you mean a subwoofer amp not a head unit.

Any amp even the optional factory subwoofer will still require you to run thicker power cable to the battery.

This is not as hard as it sounds. It just takes time. Look up YouTube vids on amp installs.
Buying a plug and play kit makes it easier and faster to install.

Thanks I think I will need the headunit and also a multi channel amp to power a set of new speakers replacing the factory speakers.
From my understanding there is a factory amp as well. I would like to use its power supply for the aftermarket amp if possible. Any recommendations?

yup 100% correct!
Any set you recommend?
Hopefully using the factory amp's power source.

I would recommend strongly against this. Any aftermarket amp you will likely get is going to require more power than the factory amp's wiring is designed to carry. While I understand the desire to try and just use what's already there, this is one of those times where upgrading the wiring is going to be necessary. If you don't want to run new wires, then honestly you don't want a new amp either.

There is a factory two channel amplifier in the trunk that powers the door speakers only. It does not produce a lot of power and the 12 volt circuit that supplies this amplifier is fused at 15 amps. Which means that the wiring itself is not heavy enough to carry a lot more. If you want to improve on the factory amplifier using the stock wiring your new amplifier will need to be fused at no more than 15 amps. One workable alternative is an Alpine KTP-445U.

Here is a link to it

Here is a link to another thread about re-using the trunk amp wiring.

Thanks a lot!

Thank you for your input!

FYI: Another post explaining more about how the factory system is wired.

A lot of people seem to like the OEM Audio Plus kit. I think it wires right up to the factory system with no modification.

you can't use that power supply for anything other than the stock amp.

yes, the oem plus is a good option, but it still requires wiring through the firewall. @8:00 in this video:

https://youtu.be/nMDDobyihyc


there are absolutely zero options to add an amp and not run power wiring.

Again no amp, factory or aftermarket amp will use the factory door amp power.

As for the kit, All depends on how much money you want to spend.

For $200 you can get a basic sub/amp combo. It's not sound super loud, but it will give you that bass bump you'll looking for.

For a basic system, you'll need at lest 150-200 watt amp and a sub that can match the power.

Heck you can get it at Walmart, $80 amp, $80 sub/with box, and a $40 wiring kit.
Or get an all in one kit sub, box with built in amp.

It's a total DIY you can do in about 3-4 hours.

Okay guys, I'm not understanding this. Maybe we are nit-picking over technicalities, but there is a 12 volt DC supply circuit fused at 15 amps available at the factory amplifier location along with ground and speaker level input and output wiring. No, you should not try to run both the factory amp and an additional amp on that 15 amp circuit. No, you can't run a great honking sub-woofer amp on that 15 amp circuit. But, the Alpine KTP-445U (and similar units from other vendors) is rated at 45 watts x 4 channels or can be bridged for 90 watts x 2 channels all while requiring no more than a 15 amp 12 volt supply circuit. I'm guessing the factory amp produces something around 30 watts x 2. Going to 45 watts per channel on the doors really isn't an upgrade but 90 per channel would be noticeable. Or, how about getting a dual voice coil subwoofer and sending 45 x 2 to the doors and 45 x 2 to the subwoofer? The sub isn't going to be (obnoxiously) loud but it would certainly fill out the bottom end.

Would I do this myself? No, I ran 4 gauge from the battery to the sub amp in the trunk. But as long as the OP understands the limitations with this implementation I think it would work. Thoughts?

These are bare-bones, bottom of the line, not doing much more than the factory amp solutions.

Considering he's trying to amplify upgraded door and dash speakers, those types of "amps" (if you can even call them that) are not doing much that the factory amp isn't already.

You're going to want a real amp to power real speakers, which is going to require real wiring.

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EDIT: Reading through this thread again, it seems the OP has no idea what he really wants. He went from wanting an amp setup that would power new door speakers from the OEM head unit, to getting a new headunit, to saying he wants to power a subwoofer with it. If we add all this up at face value, it sounds like he's replacing all the door speakers, putting in a new headunit, and adding a subwoofer. No way are you powering that off the factory wiring. Unless he tells us exactly what he's wanting to do, we can't find solutions.

Let's consider good practices in upgrading your audio system:

Headunit is preference, you can make it work with OEM or aftermarket. Most find better results with aftermarket, but in the end it doesn't matter when it comes to wiring. Just keep in mind that with an aftermarket unit, best quality is from running appropriate RCA wires from the matching level outputs on the rear of the unit along with a remote turn-on wire. So, new set of wires #1.

New door and dash speakers should be run with new wiring. Factory wiring is notoriously bad with anything beyond factory signals, so you want something that can carry a beefier signal. So right there, you already want to run new wires at least in the interior. New set of wires #2.

Adding a new amp is going to play directly into this. A good ground is essential in all equipment, so utilizing a factory ground may or may not pose problems. Best way to avoid any potential issues with that is to run a dedicated ground for the new amp. To do all this, and not consider upgrading the source of power, is useless. A dedicated power supply of appropriate gauge wiring will protect the circuit and ensure the amp gets the juice it needs. New set of wires #3.

All that, and then adding a subwoofer, is going to increase the power draw and ground requirements of the amp. Depending on the setup, maybe even a second amp and power distro blocks with a larger gauge wire from the battery to the blocks.

So yeah, run new wires for your audio system. Don't try to use stock wires.

I agree with you. My only thought is that if the OP's most important criteria (for whatever reason) is to use the factory wiring, there is a way to gain a little more power for the doors and add a minimal subwoofer function without new wiring. It's not what I would do but it fits his one clear criteria.:iono:

you're right, the ktp-445u would connect to the existing power. but it's a ton of money and headache for an almost immeasurable performance difference.

there are no adapter harnesses for the factory amp connections, which means that every wire must be cut into, risking potential irreversible damage that would require a whole-vehicle body harness if anything got cut too short, or to re-connect the factory setup.

the ktp-445u will work at 90 watts rms bridged-- so it could potentially work for a sub with a ton of caveats. but it only contains high pass filters, which means that a line level converter must be used, as well as an external crossover. line level converters are non-powered, but most external crossovers are powered, which can potentially be powered by the same existing circuit, but leaves extremely limited headroom in the circuit, posing a potential issue to the sound cutting out and blowing the fuse, from enthusiastic turns of the volume knob.

so basically, to avoid wiring through the firewall, it's functionally possible, but one would end up rewiring half of the existing system, using a bunch of gear that has limited use for any other purpose-- a purpose that this setup would fill better on paper than reality, and end up costing roughly the same as it would to just simply run a power wire through the firewall to a proper amplifier setup.

and if i'm going to do all that work, jamming my big body into a trunk to do all those connections, it'd better be friggin worth it!

I don't suppose you have or know where I can find the wiring diagram for the 2020 speakers? The amp in the trunk is totally bypassed and it seems that the door speakers are powered with the dash speakers from the HU alone. This of course makes the door speakers sound horrible. I don't know if there is anything that can be done about it but I would just like to use the stock amp if there is a way. Other wise I will rip it all out (well somebody will not me) and then stomp it into little pieces out of sheer frustration.

These are the installation instructions but of course they don't go into any wiring detail.

http://toyotaparts.sparkstoyota.com/...190-20inst.pdf

The first thing that no one has really determined is if the hakone radio is turning the amp on.

If it's not, more wiring would need to be done behind the radio to force the amp on with the ignition.

Besides that, it shouldn't be extremely terrible.

The assumption I've otherwise made, assuming the radio is properly telling the amp to do it's thing, is that the radio is sending out high level/speaker level audio, when the amp is expecting low level audio.

To convert it, you need to cut a line output converter into the factory wiring before the amp to make the right signal, and then a rca interconnect cable needs to be cut up and connected to the amp to give it the signal it wants.

Given your wireless subwoofer preference, just about any competent car audio shop should be able to handle it all in less than a day and about $50 ($862.41CA) in parts

But i can work up a diagram later if you would prefer to shoehorn yourself into the tiny recesses of the trunk for a fun weekend project.

We have totally determined it doesn't turn it on since part of the installation is to pull all the plugs and remove the fuse! It is literally dead weight in the trunk.

Yes, but there's 2 'power' wires. There's the main power and then theres the 'remote turn on/trigger' wire, which is basically the radio telling the amp to do something.

In digging some more, it appears the factory amp uses speaker level inputs, so it 'should' be even simpler in that all that needs to be done is connect the trigger wire to the accessory wire behind the radio.


According to this for a 2013:
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24658

On the 10 pin connector behind the radio, pin 3 is supposed to be a black/blue wire, which should be the ignition circuit.

On the same connector, pin 9 is supposed to be a brown wire. That is supposed to be the amp trigger. Connecting this with pin 3 should turn the amp on whenever the car is on(after reversing the
Hakone installation method).

But i would first meter the connections to verify, as those guides are consistently wrong with their colors, though they are usually pretty good about connector locations.

i should also add, getting the amp working is only to potentially fix the music audio problem. it's not going to correct the bluetooth issue you talked about, where a disembodied voice is still trapped within the door.

The question is, why didn't (or can't) they use the factory amp? I'm wondering if the the new HU has a higher speaker level output level than what the stock amp can handle. Does anyone know what the advertised output wattage is for the new HU?

Also:

The diagram below shows what the jumper with the yellow wires is doing. Up until now, the dash midrange and tweeter speakers were 4 ohms each which when connected in parallel results in a 2 ohm load. The door speakers always used to be 2 ohms. With the jumper in place and if they are using the same drivers we would have 2 ohms in parallel with another 2 ohms resulting in a load of only 1 ohm presented to the HU amplifier. That is almost a dead short across the front speaker output of the HU and hopefully not what they did. If so, this may explain poor sound quality due to the HU amp distorting.

Perhaps the Hakone (or all 2020 models) have different door speakers of a higher impedance value (4 ohms at least?) and may not sound the same as what came before???

that's a question i'm not sure we'll ever get answered. but it has crossed my mind since the hakone issues started popping up. they very intentionally changed things, for what appears to us to be no significant benefit.

but note that tcoat has said that bluetooth calls go only through the lower door speakers, meaning that there's some other significant changes made for the wiring as well.

i have been curious to try a 4, 6, or 8 ohm speaker in the doors just to see if it makes a difference in the final quality, but i'd have to find a willing hakone victim first.

I wasn't aware of this:

But now I am:

Which leads to a couple questions:
1. As Tcoat posted above, there are dealer installation instructions for the Harmon radio. What is in the dash when the 2020 models arrive at the Port of Entry? Some other HU? A hole in the dash? The Toyota web site seems to indicate that all 2020 86 models have a HU with "Clari-Fi" which is a Harmon trademark. So, no more Pioneer head units?

2. I can come up with two ways that the phone audio can work as Tcoat describes:
a. The door speakers are wired directly to their own amplifier channel in the headunit.
b. There is a low pass filter being applied to the phone audio eliminating the high frequency audio

If 2a is the case it would explain how Harmon is dealing with the "short circuit load" concern. It would also require completely different wiring of the D49 dash junction connector AND four additional conductors to the rear of the HU. The usual 6 and 10 pin speaker plugs are already fully used. The 28 pin connector has a few available locations but it usually only carries low level signals, not speaker outputs. The instructions don't indicate that there are any new connectors on the rear of the HU.

If 2b is the case, it might be some part of the "Clari-Fi" processing but reviews suggest that Clari-Fi boosts the highs, not eliminate them. And, eliminating the high frequencies from audio causes it to be muddy and unclear, the opposite of what would help clarify it.

Conclusion? Someone needs to either find a 2020 wiring diagram or take a 2020 dash apart and make a few measurements.

my conclusion is to rip the entire thing out and run wire that i know where both ends go. but some call that excessive for some reason.

I'm going to ask this here, while theres a current thread about audio going:

My driver door speaker is on it's way out, getting rattly. I was looking at interior partouts for a replacement, but I generally upgrade when something needs replacing

Is there such thing as a drop in upgrade main door speaker upgrade? I am 100% not looking to get a new head unit, bigger amp, or anything else. I appreciate sound, but i simply am not invested that much.

they are 2 ohm, 6.5" speakers. as far as i'm aware, there is not an upgrade available within those specifications anywhere in the world.

it might be worthwhile to consider changing to a 4 ohm speaker, but the output will suffer to some extent that i don't fully know until someone tries it.

i hesitantly suggested this speaker as a replacement to another person, but haven't heard if they've even tried it.
https://www.parts-express.com/peerle...-ohm--264-1148

could also try these:
https://www.parts-express.com/pyrami...oofer--290-270

like i said, there really aren't any direct replacements/upgrades, unless oem+ starts selling individual speakers, and the options i'm listing will have an 'output tax' of a currently-unknown amount because of the different resistances.

Ok, awesome, I'll probably just replace with a oe door speaker in that case. But before I do that, I found that a rattly drivers door is quite common, so I'll try some foam before I say the culprit is a blown speaker. Thread I found called rattly driver door, or something or other.

yeah, i forgot to add that-- a little bit of sound dampening can go a long ways.

Totally piggy-backing off this and using this thread instead of starting a whole new one as it seems to somewhat pertain:

I want to put a sub into my car but I'm not really looking to upgrade anything else. If I install the sub and amp, does that "take away" some of the load from the door speakers (from what I can gather are more just "subwoofers" rather than speakers?) or does it make no difference at all?

I am going to do some deadening as well, help try and clean up the rattles and sound

no, it would just come through louder.

imagine each and every speaker in the car is a person singing a song in a group, but you're not particularly happy with the singing of one of those particular people.

what you're proposing would add another singer that you're hoping to sing louder, over the person singing that you don't care for.

a number of people do it, but because it doesn't fix the underlying issues, it's generally not recommended-- you will eventually have more problems because of it.

That's the answer I was expecting, just not the one I was hoping to hear, hahaha.

So it would seem the best bet is to get component 6.5" speakers up front, put those in the door, put the tweeters up in the factory spot and then have the subwoofer in the back and just leave the rear speakers as-is cause they don't do much of anything anyways

there's a number of ways to do it, but that's probably the most cost-effective :)

That's really all I'm looking for. I don't need anything super amazing, I'd much rather listen to the supercharger and exhaust with the windows down whipping through the PNW twisty roads but for long road trips or whatever it would be nice to not have this absolute dumpster fire of a sound system :lol:

Can you get any double din head unit to fit in our cars or do they have to be a specific size?

Double-din head units are what fit in these cars best. But in order to make them look at least halfway decent, you should use the Metra or Scosche kit that fills up the left and right sides of the dash opening. Just do a search for the kit online for your make and model of car.

There are a few head unit manufacturers out that build modular units with even larger “floating” touch screens, but I’ve not seen any installed in our cars that fit properly.

The correct Head Unit for these cars has what is called a 200 millimeter nose piece. The opening is the same height as a double DIN but would require a mounting kit with filler plates for the 3/4 inch gap that results on either side. Crutchfield is one good resource:

https://www.crutchfield.com

Unfortunately, 200mm head units are hard to find but there are some available:

https://www.fasmoto.com/audio-video/...ead-unit-200mm

I read through some of the audio threads. I want to add a trunk subwoofer, but don't want a new head unit or take apart the dash at this time. In light of that, maybe someone can add insight to the below questions?:

1) I can tap into the audio signal wires coming to the stock rear amp, in order to provide a subwoofer with that same audio signal?
2) Is the above mentioned audio signal full spectrum at that point?
3) Is it better to ground the sub for the power return, or run a dedicated return line to the battery negative terminal?
4) How are people adding high-pass filtering to the door speakers after a sub install (since bass is no longer needed for the doors)?

Answer 1) Yes, just make sure that your speaker wires' positive and negative leads are connected properly so that your subwoofer signals are in phase when you connect them up to your aftermarket amp to avoid signal cancellation.

Answer 2) On the input to the amp, you'll have a full spectrum audio signal. The output however, has never to my knowledge been tested for where the built-in low-pass crossover is set at, nor is it's slope value known.

Answer 3) Just ground your subwoofer amp to a bolt somewhere near the amp location. I used the bolt that holds down the OEM amplifier since it's no longer used in my setup.

Answer 4) Since I went all aftermarket, I'm using all active crossovers either built into my head units or built into the amplifiers. You may want to add some passive crossovers to the door speakers as a high-pass filter. In effect, you'll have a band-pass setup in your doors like I do, but in your case you'll have very little adjustment potential. You won't be able to adjust the low-pass setting at all built into the OEM amplifier, and you have to physically replace the passive high-pass crossovers every time you feel the need to make an adjustment. Just remember to design your passive crossovers for 2-ohm drivers.

Just letting you know what you're getting yourself into by trying to integrate existing factory equipment. It may be easier for you to install another amplifier to power the door speakers that has a band-pass crossover built into it. That way you'll have a much easier time making adjustments. Keep us informed of what you end up doing.

I think back now that I could have probably gotten away with removing the passive crossovers from my stock speakers and ran them all off of the active setup that I have now instead of replacing them all with aftermarket drivers. Hmmmm.......