Upgrading the audio in 2025 TRD Pro

I am thinking of upgrading my audio system in my 2025 hybrid Tundra. I have a the following gear I would like to reuse if possible, JL XD600/1 amp, 10w6v3 sub, ads 630x amp. I am planning on getting some decent components for the doors. What do I do with the dash speakers? I plan to run the door and sub off the amps but not sure what use the dash speakers. Can I just leave it unplugged? Could someone with a good audio background provide some insights. Thanks.

 

Check out my link
https://www.tundras.com/threads/2025-tundra-audio-upgrade-dyi-vs-t-a-c-o-t-u-n-e-s.153075/
You cannot leave the dash speakers unplugged as they are wired in parallel to the door speakers (front) and the center speaker is part of that. I suggest buying three 3 1/2" NVX speaker that have silk tweeters in them. If you're using the JL XD 600 to power the sub, it won't cut the mustard for the other speakers at it is simply a mono block amp, not the four channel you need for the other four Channels FL/FR/RL/RR (front left, etc.). There's more work to be done, quite a bit more as you'll need to add wiring harnesses behind the head unit and wiring to a 4-channel processor and 4-channel amplifier. Check out the list I compiled in my PDF attached to the link above as a starting point. The stock speakers in the 2025 Tundra is absolute garbage, as I'm sure you have found out. If you need to bounce off any questions, let me know.

 

Thanks Bobby.i have the 6 channel amp from old school ADS that I would like to use as they were top notch amplifiers. Also, I would love to use the JL 10w6v3 I already have but could not find any box with enough depth for it. I would not mind getting a 4 channel JL amp to match the XD600/1. My goal is to build a good SQ system for the truck.

 

Can see the full audio wiring diagrams here to get an idea of how things are wired: All Years Complete Audio System Wiring Diagrams | Toyota Tundra Forum

Click to open the PDF's and you can zoom in really far since they're high-res. Things are wired differently for JBL vs non-JBL.

 

What’s your budget?

 

Around 5k

 

$5k is more than enough budget to build a high end fully active SQ system with a DSP and multiple amps. Not sure the extent to which people have modified audio in a hybrid truck. Crutchfield has this note regarding the hybrid system:

Not sure if that's a recommendation for if you're adding a 30 amp draw to whatever the existing factory system draws or replacing. Looking at the 2022+ fuse lists and I see a few different amp related fuses, probably for jbl vs non-jbl and hybrid vs non-hybrid. Looks like theres a 30 amp and 50 amp fuse option, could look at your fuse panels to determine what size fuse your factory amp has. Your XD600 calls for a 50 amp fuse by itself. Figuring out the factory JBL system draw would be a good place to start, and/or looking into adding a second battery, not sure if that's possible at all or an option in the hybrid. Looking for highly sensitive speakers/subs would probably be a good idea regardless of whatever you do.

Looking at the Taco Tunes systems for reference and their highest end build uses a 1000w 5 channel. For reference, the JL Audio XDM 1000/5 calls for an 80 amp fuse so between Taco Tunes and Crutchfields info, my guess is that about 1000w RMS is the limit if you're upgrading the system on stock battery etc., hence the question of adding a second battery.

Where are you seeing that the dash corners are wired in parallel to the door speakers? Looking at the 2022+ JBL diagram each dash corner and the center have their own individual channel, in which case you could remove/leave them disconnected or replace them. It looks the rear door woofer/tweeter are wired in parallel, the front door woofers are each a channel, the front tweeters are each a channel, the dash corners and dash center are each a channel, and the sub channels are bridged to the dual voice coil sub.



To utilize your existing XD600 amp and with your budget, the first thing that comes to mind would be doing a 3 way fully active front stage and coaxials in the rear doors for fill. I'd recommend looking at the Helix V8, 75w x 8 channels = 600w RMS, and then with your XD600 doing 400w @ 4 ohms you'd be at 1000w total RMS which again, based on the Taco Tunes system, would be okay for your hybrid. The Helix V8 could power a 3 way component set for front left and front right, coaxial rear speakers, and then it has RCA outputs that you could use to DSP control your XD600.

For speakers I'd look at either some higher end off the shelf 3 way sets, or building an a-la-carte 3 way set. Some off the shelf 3 way sets that come to mind: Focal ES 165 KX3E, Morel Hybrid 63, Focal PS 165 F3E, Hertz MPK 163.3 PRO, Morel Virtus Nano Carbon 63. For the rears any decent coaxials and if you're like me, I'd brand match the fronts and rears. The Focal ES 165 KX3E and Hertz MPK 163.3 PRO having the highest sensitivity.

For a sub, first one that comes to mind with your given amp is a JL12TW3, 400w RMS and 84.11 dB sensitivity. Other SQ subs like an Illusion Audio C10 or C12 (if you can get your hands on one), or the Hertz MPS. Other shallow subs like the Wavtech thinPRO12, the JL 13TW5, or the Audiomobile Evo 2410 might be too power hungry for the hybrid system unless adding a second battery is an option.

Example system/cost: Helix V8 $1600, Focal ES 165 KX3E $2400, JL 12Tw3 $550, box ~$100, Focal ICU 165 for rear doors $200, wiring/ccf speaker rings/sound deadening/heavy duty abs speaker adapters/misc. install parts $500 would ballpark to a total of $5350. Going with say the Hertz MPK 163.3 or the Focal Flax would cut over $1k from the total.

 

Lots of great information. Thanks Snert. I had not thought about the system power limitations.

 

I'm not familiar with the hybrid, but assuming there's a regular 12v battery charged by the ICE/alternator, and the hybrid battery is separate?

 

Correct, except there is no ICE alternator. Hybrid motor/generator performs that function.

 

Have the Focal Flax 3 ways up front and coax in rear, sounds amazing IMO and highly recommend. also highly recommend sound treatment if you opt for slightly lower tier items to stay in budget. The back panels rattle bad as does the under seat area if you don’t.


Regarding the electrical: i can’t speak for the hybrid but on my non-hybrid I have a JL audio Vxi800 for the doors/dash/tweeters and a JL 1000.1 pushing two 10in TW3s and I did get some dimming when pushing volume up to 30-40 area. This was resolved/eliminated with a JY capacitor and I upgraded the battery to an oddysey AGM because why not. No issues over a year later of enjoying.

 

Here's a situation I've run into. I installed active crossovers to the Front-Left (new 3 1/2") to (new 6 1/2") speaker in the driver door, and same to the other three zones. I replaced the 3 1/2" stock speaker in the center of the dash....but without a crossover to keep the mid-range and lows going to that speaker, what is my work around, it simply overpowers the other dash speakers. I can't disconnect it because it is tied into the F-L and F-R speakers. Any advice from someone?

 

the Tacotune solution does make it attractive. Who makes their speakers and amps?I assume they out some thoughts into the whole set up and not just put piece meal it together.

 

pfffft....over-priced and unimpressive but if you want to spend time watching Kaleigh, on that point I get it. BTW, none of their packages address the front center speaker. That's why I lobbed the question into the forum.

 

I believe it's all rebranded Image Dynamics stuff. The only thing I would buy from them (and have) is their heavy duty speaker rings. Much better value for your money going other routes imo.

 

Do you mean passive crossovers, i.e. little passover boxes that have inputs and outputs? If you have non-JBL, the front channels are wired like this like you said:

Depending on the impedance of your new speakers (assuming 4 ohm) and the impedance of the factory center and how things are wired, you might be creating a weird circuit and that's decreasing the impedance of those channels on your amp in turn overdriving your center speaker.

 

so it looks like there are some pre-built box solutions for the hybrid Tundra. ********* has a dual 10 with a volume of 1.65 cf. the Fox acoustics has one with 1.4 cf. Both of these solutions are ported. Ground Shaker has a sealed and ported box option with around 1.1cf. the ********* allow for an amp rack to be mounted next to the sub box. Thoughts?

 

Any of those boxes are probably good, depends on which sub(s) you decide to go with. Most of the shallow subs don’t need a ton of air volume so those might be overkill for the amount of power you could potentially send to your sub channel.

 

I honestly think the single 10 would be plenty for me. Wish there was a single sealed box that would leave enough room for amp rack. I don’t care too much for SPL. Please correct me if I am wrong but sealed box usually has better SQ but requires more power.

 

A single 10 or 12 is usually enough for most people, especially if you’re more SQ focused vs SPL or SQL. In general sealed boxes are associated with better SQ, but it kind of comes down to personal preference and then the given speaker/driver’s parameters and how they perform in certain enclosures, but yeah rule of thumb sealed is SQ, ported is SPL.

A shallow subs never going to perform like a full size driver like your 10w6, but in the right enclosure they can sound very good and play low, accurate etc.

If you’re looking at say the Taco Tunes box for example, if you cut it in half vertically and just had a tall wedge shape that fit into one of the nooks, you could probably have a box big enough for a single sealed 10” shallow sub and then the other nook could be for an amp rack, just a thought.

 

I have a question…when a box that has 2 subs, is the effective volume for each sub is half the box volume? How different will the box sound if the 2 sub volumes are divided? Also, would it be better to have a dual voice coil sub versus 2 subs with a single vc?

 

Yep, with 2 subs each sub “gets” half the volume of the box. If you halve the box by say either putting in a partition, or having 2 subs in separate boxes it probably changes the overall frequency response somewhat, but I’d be surprised if it’s drastic/noticeable. From my understanding in a sealed box so long as you’ve got the “correct” volume for a given sub it should sound the same no matter how many you multiply the number of subs/box volume by. Someone more knowledgeable than me would have to chime in, @blenton thoughts?

 

There are some nuances, but effectively yes. If you have two subs in one box, the airspace is divided between them (or at least we can look at it that way). Put another way, the airspace must be doubled for two subs to achieve the same tuning as a single sub. Sealed is very simple: you can model a single sub, then multiply volume by the number of subs you plan on adding. Vented is a little more complex as the port will change with more subs since a bigger box means the interaction between the port and enclosure changes. However, it is essentially the same situation - more subs = more space = more port volume to achieve the same tuning. It's not complicated to work out the proper port volume for tuning, just needs to be accounted for.

Going the opposite direction, you can stack two subs cone to cone in an isobaric configuration and put the backside of one driver in a box HALF the size of a single driver. It's not a very popular configuration these days, but technically possible.

There are some advantages to either a combined enclosure volume as well as separate enclosures, but separate volumes typically makes for an inherently better braced enclosure. Mounting multiple drivers on a single baffle can induce some box flex since you essentially Swiss-cheese the baffle; the partition helps mitigate it. Also, separate enclosures *can* have slightly better SQ since driver parameters have a 5-10% variance depending on how good the manufacturer. Placing each driver in its own enclosure can isolate drivers with slightly different parameters from interfering with the other driver. In reality, this is rarely a problem. I've built several successfully SQ home theater speakers with multiple drivers where the differences would be pretty obvious with the mid-range woofers in sweeps and scans. I can't hear a difference or measure a difference. A well braced enclosure - whether shared or divided - is more important than dividing airspace between drivers.

Hope that helps.

 

That is the indeed what is taking place. So what's the solution? I guess I could install an active crossover using the two wires as inputs and wiring the center speaker, which is a NVX 1" silk dome tweeter to the tweeter output terminals. Yeah, that's the ticket...right?

 

You would either need to have a separate channel for the center speaker and run new wiring to it, or leave it disconnected. Using the factory wiring and leaving it connected, crossover or not, is going to create impedance issues that could potentially cause damage to your amp.

 

Thanks. Since I wouldn't have the foggiest notion how to add that one speaker to a 6th channel (I already have a 5-channel amp), I just cut the positive wire to it and we'll se how it goes. I'd rather have a true left-right w/o the overpowering mono that has bugged the crap out of me ever since I put everything together.

 

Yeah you'd need an additional amp channel to power it, or to figure out wiring it directly to one of the head unit channels but then it's still an issue of tuning it to blend with the other speakers.

 

Goobax, how are you running the two 10TW3’s off the single channel JL1000.1. Is the amp stable at 1 ohm? I assume you are running dual 4 ohm in parallel on each and both subs are running in parallel to make 1 ohm.

 

If it’s the JD1000/1 it’s only 2 ohm stable, in which case you’d have the 2 ohm TW3’s, one coil on each sub wired in series, and then the other coils of the subs wired together in parallel to create a 2 ohm load with 100w of headroom for each sub

 

It’s an RD1000, stable at 1 ohm
2 dual 4s in parallel