Need an expert.

I’ve done spent 3k letting shops install a sound system for me and it still sounds like crap. My front door speakers was popping and the guy literally turned down the bass on the factory head unit and said there it’s not popping anymore. I also didn’t have any bass going to my subs too. I had a new amp installed for the door speakers and it’s hooked up to the old amp somehow. That doesn’t seem right to me. I’ve read people say someone named 12volt or something really knows the sound systems for the tundra. Please can someone point me in the right direction.

 

https://www.tundras.com/forums/tech12volts.113/

 

Thank you!!

 

Is the old OEM amp still inline?
That should have been removed and bypassed.

Did they install some kind of LOC (line out converter) in between your stock HU and amp?
Or is your new amp speaker level input?

There are a ton of threads on DIY audio.
It seems overwhelming, but simple audio stuff isn't too hard.

Hopefully, we can get you going, but it might take some time.

Can you let us know everything you had installed?

And welcome to the forum...

 

Thank you for responding to me. How do I put pictures in a response. I’m new here.

 

Are you on a phone or a computer? If its a computer, right click the image, copy and paste.

On your phone there is a button at the bottom of the response box that says "Upload a File" that you use. Then select the file, let it load, and insert the image.

 

Description
Rhinobox Toy-404
Kicker CompRT 12" Thin Subwoofer
Kicker CXA Series Bass Knob
Kicker CXA Series Amp 800x1 at 1 ohm
Kicker 6AWG Amp Kit w/2-ch Interconnects
Line Output Converter
Focal Integration Series Toyota Specific 6x9" Compone
SoundShield 11 sq ft Sound deadening Roll
Sales Tax

 

DESCRIPTION
JL AUDIO 4 CHANNEL AMP
ROCKFORD FOSGATE 8 GA AMP KIT
ROCKFORD FOSGATE 16' RCA CABLE
INSTALL 4CH AMP IN 19 TUNDRA
Subtotal
JL AUDIO 6.5" COAX
METRA SPKR ADPTR
INSTALL REAR SPEAKERS
Subtotal

 

I’m not sure if the amp is inline. And I don’t know about the line out converter.

 

Welcome from TX!

You planning to keep the stock HU?

 

We’ll I was trying too. I was quoted 2200 to install a new head unit with wireless CarPlay. I’m 3300 in and my back speakers are getting hot a smelling bad. And my right front is blown now. All new stuff.

 

The only way to have things done right is to do it yourself. We can do anything with YouTube now days!

 

Ouch. I feel ya man.

I spent $400 to have an "audio tech" tune an amp for me and get my system sounding right. Come to find out he cut speaker wires then used electrical tape to poorly wrap the bare wire. He also made it to where I have no sound when I front left fade my radio. Oh and he didn't tune for sh1t lol. Needless to say I do all my own audio stuff now.

 

I'm close to Conroe, we can go kick his ass!

 

I'm down

 

Is this everything that they installed or quotes for replacement parts? Is your system the JBL or not?

Right out of the gate, you are pushing the amperage for those gauge of power wires, might be within spec, but i would go bigger. Ideally, i would run a 2ga to a distribution block and 4ga to each amp.

 

Yes this is everything they put in. My truck has the non jbl system. They’ve the old factory amp hooked up to the new apm for the door speakers. I’m not sure that’s right. I can’t turn up the radio without my speakers crackling. And there is a white noise in my front speakers now, even with the volume turned all the way down. I’ve got to replace the new front right speaker. It got blown before I even got to hear it on the new amp. It’s possible it was bad from the factory. But I really think there is a dirty sound signal. And that’s why I can turn up my radio without speakers popping and burning. I scared to turn radio up.

 

Look under the pass side front seat, thats where the factory amp is. It might have a black plastic cover over it. From other pics posted on this forum
a lot of shops will splice into the harness coming off the factory amp to install "their" aftermarket amps, which is not correct.

Im by far no expert, actually scared to work on my own stuff to be honest. But I did my own install at the end of 2019 and will post a pic.
I had a ton of help from 1lowlife, "Thank you sir" and everything is still running smoothly.

If you can post pics of your actual installed components, that will help folks provide some feedback.

 

I may be wrong but I don't think you will ever get quality sound from that factory HU.

You can get a really good HU with ACP for 700 bucks. These people seem to be ripping you off, unfortunately.

 

Yes it looks like they spliced into the factory amp. What is the other device in your pic?

 

Yeah they ripped me of and blew at least one speaker for me.

 

That is the LOC that 1lowlife mentioned in his previous post.

Someone else on this forum had a similar issue as yours and after he had done a bunch of research and advice from folks here, he went back to his installer and showed him all their mistakes and got it corrected.

I sure you will get it figured out. Try and post some pics if you can, so folks can
see what they are replying to.

 

They definitely ripped you off. They have zero idea what they are doing, properly. Can you get your money back?

 

I’m thinking I’ll need that if I stick to a stock hu. Right?

 

They (fixed it ) if you ask them by turning my bass completely down on head unit. The also makes me lose my bass to my subs though. And of course the blown speaker isn’t their fault. They tried to tell me it was my door plastic rattling. Lol. Also. Look at how they mounted the new amp. It’s blocking my floor air vent and I can’t get my floor mat to sit right anymore.

 

You need a lot more than that Brother.
But the LC7i is a start.
I'm sure they used some little cheap PAC LOC.

You are pretty much going to have to redo everything they did.
They should have removed the stock amp, used a harness to bypass it (making it all plug and play), and put your 4 chanel amp in its place.
Actually, a decent 5 channel amp would have powered all your stuff fine, no need to 2 amps IMHO.

I wish you would have found us before they ever touched your truck.
They probably hacked up your OEM wiring, and there is NO reason to do that.
As others stated, they didn't know what they were doing.

 

A few things about your Entune system you may not know;
All 3 dash speakers run straight off the HU, Toyota pretty much uses them as tweeters.
The signal to the front doors is mids and lows, which is done from either the HU or the amp.

With a good amp and your Focal 6X9s in the front doors, you could probably disconnect the dash speaker (that's what I did).

Your Entune HU has bass roll-off, meaning the higher the volume, the less bass it pushed out to protect the OEM speakers.

You are honestly going to have to redo everything they've done.
They screwed you and they are still screwing you.
I'm so sorry that happened to you.

If possible tell them to return the vehicle to stock and give you your money back.
But I'm afraid they've hacked the OEM wiring so returning it to stock would be a lot of work.

Tell them isn't right and don't take no for an answer.
They don't know what they are doing.
They don't understand how the OEM amp or Eworks, if they did, they would have bypassed it and removed it.

EVERY connection and wiring you need to replace that factory amp with an after-market amp is under that passenger seat.
Speaker in from the HU and output the doors, remote to turn the amp on and off, etc. using this $15 adapter.
AutoHarnessHouse

All that needs to be done is running a line from the battery to power the amp.





I haven't trusted local shops in Dallas for over 30 years.

 

Here is the schematic for the OEM amp..
This is a 2015 diagram, your's should be the same.

On top you'll read receiver assembly, your HU.
In the middle, you will see the stereo component amplifier assembly, which is the under seat amp.
You can see the dash speakers run straight off the HU and then the signal splits to the amp.
Since you have a double cab, like mine, there will only be one back door speaker.
Crewmax has a tweeter in the back door which is the rear #2 speaker that also runs off the HU.

 

Jesus H that's horrid. Was this a professional shop with quality reviews? I've seen flea market installers do better.....

 

Where are you located? Maybe someone here can recommend a shop thats local.

Barring some strange short or crazy wiring mixup, the problem is the factory amplifier and the LOC they used (also the head unit), everything after that should be fine (amps/speakers).
Cheap LOC's distort/clip right out of the gate.
here's a video with some LOC's on a oscilloscope


Your factory head unit applies a sound curve to try to make the cheap door speakers sound as good as possible. So in your case, an already altered signal is amplified by the factory amplifier (which adds some distortion), then the LOC amplifies the altered & distorted signal and adds more distortion, then to your aftermarket amplifier that takes that signal that has already been amplified twice and has tons of distortion is amplified yet again. I can only imagine what that sound curve would look like (probably just static at this point). When then happens any little adjustment in gain will make the sound curve Clip (take a smooth curve and turns it flat and jagged), this is why they lowered the bass on the head unit down to zero.

There are two solutions to the problem:
Cheaper: Remove the factory amplifier, find out what LOC they are using and if its a pile of shit in a plastic box, ditch it and buy a LC-7i (like what has been posted previously) or a JL Fix86 or a Rockford Fosgate DSR-1. Those are the only ones i would recommend. The LOC intercepts the Speaker Level output from the head unit, and converts it to an RCA output that your amp will like. You are removing one round of amplification/distortion from what i listed above but still have to deal with the altered sound curve and bass roll-off. The Fix86 and DSR-1 can compensate for that, but you are better off going with the more expensive option below. Ultimately it will sound ok. Many people have gone this route and been happy with the outcome. I'd say its going to cost around $200-$550

Actually Fixing the Problem: Pull the factory head unit out and put in a Kenwood head unit. I recommend the DMX-1037s, but you are pretty safe with anything from Kenwood. The head unit will take the perfectly flat sound curve (what you want) and send it straight to the amplifiers via RCA cables....no additional distortion or amplification added between the head unit and the amplifier. I know this may not be what you wanted to hear, i didn't want to hear it either. I went the JL Fix86 route and tried and tried and tried to make it sound perfect but i couldn't. Instead of throwing more money at it, i finally broke down and actually fixed the problem with the 1037s. You will also gain wireless android auto/carplay witch in my mind is a game changer (not sure if your 2019 has AA/Carplay), but the large screen looks great with the dash and sounds absolutely amazing. Along with the head unit, you will need the idatalink maestro and a few patch cables in-order to keep your oem functions like steering wheel controls. All in all its going to cost around $1000-1600 depending on which head unit you go with. At this point there is nothing left from the factory stereo except for the wiring that goes from the factory amplifier location to the door speakers (fine to use these as long as you aren't pushing more than 60w rms to each door). You should be able to close the book on this nightmare at this point.

I would be hesitant to let the shop that did this to you touch your truck again, but another shop is going to probably be hesitant to fix someone else's mess without starting from square one.