2020 Factory (non-JBL) Integration - Full System

I'm adding this build thread because I see a lot of questions and comments relating to the stuff I've done in my 2020 TRD Off Road. This build has evolved over time, and I have been documenting it at Tacoma World since I've been active there for a very long time, and the sound systems between Tacomas and 4Runners is nearly identical. It is a large post, with a ton of information, equipment swaps, and pictures. I'll do the best I can to answer any questions.

A couple years ago I bought a 2020 4Runner. I still have the 2009 Tacoma with all its stereo stuff, and I was thinking cool, I have a work/utility truck and now a nice SUV, and when I want to listen to music I'll just drive the Tacoma around, the stock Entune in the 4Runner will be fine... Nope. I just couldn't take it anymore so I started thinking about what exactly to do. I DO like the Entune head unit, its functionality, the Carplay is pretty good (no wireless though ), the car settings menu, and bottom line is that I'm not ready to rip it out. So, this is basically an integration with replacement speakers.

Speakers
Removed - AP 2 in the dash - https://www.audison.eu/products/prima-ap2-wide-range-speaker/
Audison AV 1.1 - https://audison.com/product/av-1-1/
AP690 in the doors - https://www.audison.eu/products/prima-ap690-woofer-speaker/
APX6.5 rear doors - https://www.audison.eu/products/apx-6-5/
Sundown SD4-10 D4 Subwoofers - https://sundownaudio.com/products/s...s-10-400w-neo-car-audio-subwoofer-sub-neo-sd4

Amplifiers
Removed - AP8.9 Bit Amplifier/DSP - https://www.audison.eu/products/ap8-9-bit/
Audio Control ACM-2.300 - https://www.audiocontrol.com/car-audio/power-amplifiers/acm-2300/
Soundigital 800.4 EVOX2 - https://www.soundigital.com/en/product/800-4-evox2/
JL Audio HD1200/1 - https://www.jlaudio.com/products/hd1200-1-car-audio-hd-amplifiers-98250

Processing
JL Fix-82 - https://www.jlaudio.com/products/fix-82-car-audio-oem-integration-98100
JL TwK-88 - https://www.jlaudio.com/products/twk-88-car-audio-processors-system-tuning-98101
Audio Control Epicenter Micro - https://www.audiocontrol.com/car-audio/the-epicenter-processors/epicenter-micro/

Dash Speaker Replacement

** I am leaving this here because it is good information, but I have since swapped out the AP2 speakers for Audison AV 1.1 Tweeters and bypassed the factory speaker harness in the front.**

I chose the AP 2 because it looked like the perfect speaker for this location. There's no physical modification of the space required, the bracket works, and this speaker handles 150Hz to 20kHz. It's like putting the entire sound stage in the dash. My only eh on these is their power handling, 25W RMS - 50W peak, but paired with the AP8.9 Bit, I think they'll do fine. My plan was a lower power SQ system for this truck anyway. If I don't like them, the AP690 goes up to 5000Hz and I've got some Voce tweeters I can toss in.

Here we go. At some point I'll install the amplifier and run new speaker wire, but I wanted to put these in, listen to them, see the difference, and assess them using the OE stereo's tune.

Toyota parallel wiring harness -


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RMZ4CR6/

Metra 2.5" Speaker Adaptor -

https://www.amazon.com/Metra-82-4201-Chrysler-Speaker-Adapters/dp/B01LXF9JNQ/

I used a 1 1/2" electrical conduit knockout to make the hole in the Metra tweeter mount plate for the AP 2 and mounted it onto the OEM dash speaker bracket. The fit is snug and I ended up having to make a rectangular notch on each side to make room for the terminals on the speaker to fit through. I also trimmed off one of the plate's mounting holes.



Here's the AP 2 compared to the OEM dash speaker.



I went ahead and soldered in the filter capacitor because for now I'm not bi-amping the front.



Here it is all wired up with the parallel speaker adapter harness. I used silicone on the back of the mounting screws, as well as a dollop to hold the capacitor in place.



This is what it looks like all mounted in there. The alignment with the dash cover is perfect.



Here are some measurements I took after installing the AP 2 speakers in the dash. It looks to me like the Entune system is definitely aligned to the driver's seat based on these results. All the audio balance/fade and High/Mid/Bass controls are set to Null.

Microphone is on the center console - Stock Dash Speaker



Microphone is on the center console - AP 2 installed



Microphone is in the driver's seat - Stock speaker



Microphone is in the driver's seat - AP 2 installed



The AP 2 is definitely more sensitive. To listen to music I had to turn the treble down several clicks. Without being able to do any EQ it's hard to say how smooth/flat I can get them, but I will say that they sound much more competent than the OEM dash speaker and I quite like what they sound like so far. It looks to me like they really want to be high pass around 500Hz. I think the filter capacitor is a 6dB Butterworth at 300Hz.

Door Woofers

Toyota speaker wiring harness -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BBP7Y/

Metra 6x9 adaptors -

https://www.amazon.com/Metra-82-8146-Speaker-Adapter-Vehicles/dp/B00IIC6CPE/

1/4" thick 6x9 spacers -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016YS6OF6/

Vapor barrier w/ felt -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D5VTMXG/

Noico -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZKPVHCB/

Butyl tape -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005UPLJCS/

So the Metra adapter isn't tall enough to make a good seal between the weather strip I was adding to the speaker, and the oval flange that seals against the speaker on the back of the door panel. Once I took the OEM speaker out, I made measurements and decided I needed a 1/4" spacer to make up the difference. So I mounted and glued the spacer onto the Metra speaker adapter to get the right height.



Once the glue was dry I took a router and cut off all of the extra material so the spacer matched the top profile of the Metra adaptor. Then I painted them with FlexSeal. I don’t really like the Metra speaker mounting brackets because they are so cheap and flimsy, but after adding the spacer and painting them, they were more rigid and less overall shitty so I didn’t worry about it. Maybe next time I will look for or make something else.



I put Noico on the inside of the outer door skin. I didn't go crazy, I just did whatever large pieces I could on the large areas without getting too nutty about piecing things together. I probably have more than 75% covered, but I found that the 4Runner already had a large square of something stuck there for the same reason I assume, and a piece of structural foam is bolted in there too so I removed that, put Noico behind it and bolted it back in.

Here's where I did something a little different. I planned on replacing the vapor barrier but wanted something a little extra. So I looked around and found this product that is designed to go under laminate flooring that is a vapor barrier, but is also a layer of felt for noise reduction. The description said tolerant to extremes so I decided WTF and got it as well as some butyl tape to install it in place of the OEM vapor barrier. I put some weather stripping on the speaker and put the door back together.



After the door woofers were done I took measurements again. To the ear, it sounds a lot more tight/controlled. The factory speakers were really boomy, but I'm sure all of the door treatment is a contributing factor. I've been listening to this setup for about a week and all I feel like I'm missing is some of the area where you hear musicality in bass guitar, which is probably that dip area between 160Hz and 315Hz, and there’s nothing I can do about it right now because the center frequency for Bass in the Entune is 100Hz and there’s nothing until Mid, which controls 1.25/1.6kHz.

Microphone is on the center console - AP speakers installed



Microphone is on the driver's seat - AP speakers installed


Rear Doors

Mosuch 6.5" speaker mounting bracket -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZQGZWO/

Rear doors were a repeat of the front. I removed the vapor barrier, put Noico on the inside of the outer skin, and replaced the vapor barrier with new butyl tape and the stuff that's felt lined. I did not like the Metra speaker adaptors however, and used an alternative that I found on Amazon. The inside angled flange of the new bracket interfered with the terminals on the speaker, preventing them from seating so once again I used a router to trim it down for a perfect fit. I used these same materials and methods for the rear hatch speakers as well.

Metra on the left, Mosuch on the right.



Mounted and wired for installation.



Amplifier/DSP Installation

The Audison Toyota T-Harness vs. the connectors on my 2020 OEM stereo. I hadn't taken the stereo out to look at what the connectors looked like, and I didn't think necessarily that the Audison plug and play harness would work in this application, but I wanted to get my hands on it and see.



So I made the guy at my local audio shop aware of my harness situation and he dug around in the cabinets for a minute or two and handed me this and said "K, use this one." He didn't charge me for it, probably since he assumed the Audison harness would work when he ordered it. Another reason to have a good relationship with your local shop.



Just normal solder and heat shrink for sending signal back to the OEM harness to the speakers. Essentially I chopped the connectors I needed from the AX DSP harness and replaced the Audison plugs that were wrong for this stereo. Conveniently, it looks like all of the speaker terminals are combined into one plug on the stereo, so it was a straight single connector swap on both ends.



Since I like to change things up often, I decided to put these connectors on the output of the Audison amplifier. This way I can wire up different configurations and make changes to the speaker side and not have to get into this pre-made pigtail that plugs into the amp.

Over time this configuration has gone through several changes and these connectors have come in handy for changing what each amplifier channel is doing. For a while I was using a hybrid configuration where some channels were bridged and others not, some channels wire back through the factory harness, some to replacement speaker wiring I added so I can run active crossovers to the front. I now have a separate amplifier for the tweeters and I'm using this amplifier bridged to 4 channels to power the front woofers on two channels and the entire rear from the other two through the factory harness.



All loomed up and ready to install.



I wanted to get the thing in there so I installed it dirty until the rest of my supplies show up. Primarily I wanted to check out the de-EQ function as well as get a basic tune in the truck. Let me first say that I'm still not a fan of the BIT software. While it is perfectly capable, it's just a pain in the ass to use and there are some things you can only do inside the Wizard, which pisses me off because I like to try things and do A/B comparisons. That being said, it's connected and I was able to run through a few of its features.

This is a comparison of the response in the vehicle with and without the deEQ function activated. Based on these results, IMO the deEQ is total shit. I ran through it several times and I just don't understand WTF this piece of shit is trying to do because every time the results were worse than just leaving it disabled. I connected the speakers and took a listen to the Audison test files, the Pink Noise is band limited, which is fairly normal for setting levels, and it uses a Sine Sweep for the de-equalization process. You can only run the deEQ inside the Setup Wizard, and as far as I can tell, if you disable it and disconnect, you have to perform the process over so I don't think it keeps this file on standby in case you wish to enable it again. Annoying.

Microphone is on the center console - deEQ on



Microphone is on the center console - deEQ off



Microphone is in the driver's position - deEQ on



Microphone is in the driver's position - deEQ off



Let me just say that personally I believe deEQ is a flawed concept irrelevant to these results. Often, at work when I'm setting up a large sound system there are several components in the signal chain that have the ability to manipulate the signal and I try really hard to only use one device rather than stack anything. This is simply because I think LESS EQ IS MORE, taking an input that has been equalized and then adding more equalization to it runs contrary to my philosophy of "leave it the hell alone if possible" because more EQ is just more potential distortion, more unnatural manipulation of the waveform, and in the case of deEQ, you could very well be turning something down that was turned up in the previous device. IMO this should be called counter-EQ, as that is a more precise description of what's happening.

The same reasoning applies to crossover filters. When you have crossovers in your stereo and also on your amplifier you have to pick one. When you set a low pass on the head unit, then stack another crossover filter from the amplifier, even if it's the same frequency, all you are doing is skewing the signal's phase even more. Consequently, if you want to time align, you're making larger adjustments.

Anyway...

After I decided to leave the input equalization disabled, I ran a quick tune and here's what the result looks like. I left the microphone in the driver's seat for this.




Equipment Update

Like I said earlier, this is a constantly evolving project and as such, more changes have been made. After installing the JL TwK-88, all of the crossovers, routing and EQ have been relocated from the AP8.9 BIT to the JL DSP and I wired the 8.9 as a regular amplifier bridged to handle four channels. I never really liked its connectors and eventually I started getting a little sound moving around when I hit bumps, which to be fair is probably more of a consequence of how shitty I installed it. Nevertheless, I wanted to pull it out and install a good four channel amplifier. Conveniently, companies are all the time improving and adding things to their product lines and in the time between relocating my amplifiers to the rear and now, Soundigital has expanded and improved their selection. Behold, the Tiny-Punch-Packing 800.4 EVOX2. No lie, this thing is small and finally there's something out there that can easily fit about anywhere with decent power, 4x 132W @4Ohms.

I remade the plastic mount for everything under the front passenger seat. My original one was not adequate after all of the changes. I mounted the DSPs all there and moved the amplifiers to the rear.

Final piece ended up being the Epicenter Micro. GET AN EPICENTER!



I took this opportunity to clean up my shitty amplifier mounting, it all fits in the oddly convenient channels located under the rear seats.




The 2020 4Runner battery terminal is total bullshit for trying to bolt on one more big fat wire. My god what a massive plastic block over the positive terminal, wonder what’s underneath?



Oh WTF! Where am I going to stick the power cable for my amps?



After digging around I finally found a solution and threw it on.



Fuse holder mounted and beefed up factory ground.



Penetration into the cab.



Alright so there are times when you wanna know when your stereo starts clipping, usually this happens automatically when you have one of those new fangled amplifiers and it gives you lights and shit and you don't know what's going on but you do know GREEN = GOOD! So, I'm here to show what's happening to the signal, but also to figure out where the factory radio begins to distort. Interestingly, and annoyingly each channel begins to clip at the same voltage but the fader is slightly different for each channel when it reaches this voltage... You may or may not care, but generally, aftermarket stereos can reach full volume and not send a distorted signal. Nice ones anyway.

I put on the 1KHz sine wave and with the speakers disconnected, I connected my oscilloscope to the amplifier input connector for each channel and checked the fader setting when each begins to square off.

This is what a 1KHz tone looks like with no clipping.



This is what a 1KHz sine looks like just as clipping begins, note the slight square shape of the wave at max amplitude.



And here it's just damn obvious the wave is square and definitely distorted.



Here's the list of fader settings for each channel where the signal just begins to clip, one notch down and no clipping occurs.

Front Left - Fader 55
Front Right - Fader 49
Rear Left - Fader 52
Rear Right - Fader 51

I guess the only explanation for these differences is that the output is attenuated for the driver position, or some position anyway, as the right side of the vehicle reaches voltage sooner than the left side, and the driver front reaches voltage last which makes sense, being the closest set of speakers to the driver's seat.

I took screens of the factory signals so you could see what you are sending to your amplifier from the factory radio (these are not acoustic measurements). It's very sad but good to know.

Front L/R Factory Stereo output spectrum response.




Rear L/R Factory Stereo output spectrum response.



Subwoofer

I opted for JL Audio HD 1200/1 and a pair of Sundown Audio SD4-10 subwoofer drivers. I want to run at 4 Ohms, hence the JL amp, since it puts out rated power anywhere between 1.5 and 4 Ohms, but also the JL HD amplifiers are nice and compact. I've been running the HD 900/5 in my Tacoma for about 10 years now and it's been flawless, powerful and clean.

I opted for MDF because it’s universally agreed upon as one of the most uniformly dense materials, a trait beneficial to subwoofer performance. Originally I was thinking fiberglass pods over the wheel wells but I was kind of sold on this once it was suggested to me by a friend to add a tray on top and try to match it up with the wheel well trays. The built in tray has been extremely useful.

The shape of the legs matches the shape of the 4Runner grille, and the carpet in front mimics the hood line. The paint on front looks remarkably like Magnetic Gray. The rest is just trying to make it look like it belongs instead of tossing a generic sub box in the back.



















Subwoofer amp installed. I’m annoyed by how long that took but I didn’t really have a plan until I figured out under the rear driver’s side seat is the only place it would go.



Signal Path
Toyota Factory Radio Speaker Outputs > JL Fix-82 High Level Inputs
JL Fix-82 TOSLINK Digital Output > JL TwK-88 TOSLINK Digital Input
JL Fix -82 Analog 2 Channel Output > Audio Control Epicenter Micro Input
Audio Control Epicenter Micro output > TwK-88 Input 7/8
JL TwK-88 CH 1-2 > Audio Control ACM-2.300
JL TwK-88 CH 3-6 > Soundigital 800.4 EVOX2
JL TwK-88 CH 7-8 > JL HD1200/1

I didn’t know until I tried it, but you can concurrently use the digital output and two channel analog output of the JL FiX, which was really nice because that gave me the full range signal for the Epicenter loop while keeping everything else in the digital path. Just as convenient, the TwK enables you to use two analog inputs on channels 7/8 concurrently with the L/R digital optical input so I was able to still loop sub through the DSP. I thought I was going to have to run subwoofer around the TwK directly to the sub amp and use the crossover there, but nope, full DSP functionality on all channels. Two thumbs up to JL.

I think this thing is in its final form so I'm going to go through setup and tune. I'll update this post when I do that.

 

Very impressive. Really dig the subwoofer enclosure as well. Super clean install.
I was torn between AudioControl and ARC when it came to the DSP, but ended up with ARC primarily due to really liking the shop that had the ARC.

While I am quite pleased with the Morel speakers I have now, getting more tempted to use AudioFrog’s 6x9 components as well as being a big fan of the Audison that you went with.

 

I’m pretty interested in the ARC, I just need another project so I can try it out. About the only one I won’t touch is the Dayton. There are a couple mediocre ones like the Kicker and JBL that I probably won’t ever take a look at either.

I like the Audison speakers because you can use them for upgrading in stages since there is an immediate benefit even without amps or processing. They’re just so incredibly efficient.

 

Witcha about Dayton going back to when I was a mod on a Home Theater forum. While I struggled with that much of an investment in DSP while the speakers (Morel Ultima) and amplifiers (Morel for the speakers, Gladden for the sub amplifier were relatively modest. I came around when I thought about how much thought and money I used to put into headunit selection.

Forgive the ignorance, but looks like you did the work yourself. In which case, major props. Since my first ORP got totaled, my shoulder just screams too much to countenance it.

 

Kind of the point of such a huge post was my effort to show people what can be done at home, and demonstrate that you don’t have to go “plug and play” for upgrades. You can go full ass custom, make stuff, create a harness, buy nice equipment and end up with a premium result, even if you keep the factory stereo.

Literally that was the second subwoofer box I’ve ever made. The first one was a more basic one I made for my Tacoma that conveniently, I could hide behind the rear seats. This one had to be more thought out and carefully executed since there was no hiding it.

Granted, not everyone has all of the RTAs and oscilloscope equipment. That’s just a perk of my occupation. So, I wanted to provide the extra info like clipping points and what a speaker only upgrade looks like when measured as reference material for those that don’t.

Hopefully fewer people will toss in a Kicker Key and Subaru tweeters, or feel forced to buy the OEM+ if they see all of this information.

 

Truer words and much admiration. That box is killer for providing some utility and double woofers!

Adding killer sound to a vehicle meant for adventure is money well spent. Even farting around at OHV’s, it really adds greatly to the experience.

While I get others reticence for cutting into their vehicles, the OEM is flaming trash.

 

To beat a dead horse… yeah, the OEM system is really bad. The JBL system is also really bad. I’ve only heard one worse, the basic bitch system that comes in Kia, which doesn’t have the boomy bass and you have to turn it up a bit to even hear any body at all.

Reality is, however, some people never think twice about it, some think they sound fine. It’s why I try not to get too militant on the internet with my opinions.

I do hate Kicker however.

 

Samsies about Kicker. Really having a inflammation of upgraditis after seeing what the ARC has wrought.

While the Morel’s are super smooth, starting to contemplate going Focal Utopia and replacing the 4 Channel Morel amplifier I am currently using.

Focal’s Beryllium tweeter is simply amazing. My younger brother has them in a ridiculously over the top home system where he is running them 7.1.
While I thought it ridiculous to extend beyond the center channel considering just how expensive the BE tweeter is, nothing exceeds like excess…

 

Honestly for home theater I just use Klipsch speakers and call it a day. Movie theater audio is part of my profession and that’s really where the bang for buck is at IMO.

 

They are so efficient that it almost feels like cheating.

Before I moved West and still sitting in climate controlled storage is my HT. As I tried to move the scale far to the music side, running 5 channels of Martin Logan electrostatic speakers being driven by a Parasound HCA-2205AT.
Now that I have a house again, it might be time to have it sent West. Currently using a Sonos Play for tunes which is pretty rough comparatively.

 

Nice install!!!!!
But why did you keep the factory deck? I'm gonna replace mine with a Pioneer deck with Android auto.

 

I didn’t want to lose any of the functionality that comes with the factory radio and I haven’t seen anything on the market yet that would compel me to replace it.

 

Working on a 12 channel system for mine soon, and found this thread. That enclosure looks great!

 

nice

 

I am new to the audio world but I am a custom cabinet maker would you mind sharing the cut list for the sub box ?