Speaker Upgrade with Beatsonic

[sirdizzle]

One of the rav4 threads recommended reverse polarity if only changing dash speakers and nothing else. If changing doors too, there’s no need. Just make sure all are using the same polarity (e.g. positive - positive, negative - negative)

Can confirm changing polarity on a Rav4 is recommended. Before I upgraded the front tweeters, I checked phasing with an app and checked it without reversing polarity and after. Can confirm that tweeters were out of phase without switching after the upgrade.

Would recommend use an app to check phasing for any and all speaker upgrades on an LC.

 

[bkral]

I have 2 dash 4"

Can confirm changing polarity on a Rav4 is recommended. Before I upgraded the front tweeters, I checked phasing with an app and checked it without reversing polarity and after. Can confirm that tweeters were out of phase without switching after the upgrade.

Would recommend use an app to check phasing for any and all speaker upgrades on an LC.

What app?

 

[sirdizzle]

I have 2 dash 4"

What app?

I think I used this: ‎Speaker Polarity

But I'm sure there's a free one somewhere.

 

[jptruck]

My experience with Beatsonic and Speaker upgrades has been a bit frustrating, but it's coming together. Here's a bit of what I learned.

Real quick: I upgraded all the speakers to Focals (Focal 165 AS3). They all fit fine except the center and left dash. You have to do a semi-custom mount to get them in there (shaving grill also helps). I also sound-deadened the doors. Have not messed with the sub, but will in the future. The Moral people are recommending seems to be backordered everywhere. I also added the Beatsonic, setting the "gain" to just past 2.

So, the issues:

1. I got some crackling on right side. Minor distortion on some songs. This was attributed, primarily, to hard wiring the speakers versus using a Meta connector. The spliced line seemed to cause an issue, and my installer swears it is because the lines are tin, not copper (dash only). Added Meta connectors and then hard-wired after them, and that seems to fix the issues. Don't try to cut into these wires, unless it's after the Meta (one pole of Focals is too large for Meta for whatever reason. Damn engineers.)
2. Whole left side would kick out, on the dash. Door would still work, but the dash would not. This was noticeable on phone chats.
3. Bass is much different from Sirius XM to Bluetooth connection. Almost requires different settings.

So, a few things that seems to have cured the Gremlins:

1. Aforementioned meta connectors. This is a must. If you hardwire to speaker, do it after.
2. Sound settings: A lot of the issues went away after I did a factor reset on settings (centering speakers, centerline on bass and such). If you push the line on centering towards the dash (any), it seems to cut out the door speakers where bass is coming from. You get more "dash-forward" sound, but you also get more tweeter noise. It's not balance. Keep the cross on the middle, and things seem to balance out.
3. I'm back to center on bass, and barely added any mid or high end to the mix. Centering the whole system seemed to cure ills.
4. I'm probably a hair high on my Beatsonic. I don't really think you need to add much gain (front only) to the system. Maybe go to a one, that's it. I'm blasting music at 20-24 on dial. Anything above that is just too loud. Tempted to back it down a hair, but I don't want to rip the dash out again.
5. Replace center speaker. It was the weak link because I couldn't find a stock option that fit there at first. I ran the stock one until I could get the new focal installed. However you do it, get it gone. It just can't handle the extra juice as well.

Anyway, I'm sure others will have different problems. I have not checked the polarity issue. Not sure I want to tinker any more now that I have it sounding reasonable good.

 

[sirdizzle]

Does the Beatsonic “replace” the existing amp on the JBL system, or does it just up the amps? Talked to a speaker guy about it, and he thought it wouldn’t add much because it’s just swapping out the JBL.

Was consider adding the amp to up what’s pushing my new speakers. Not sure now

my understanding is that it just ups the amps, so to speak.

 

[Rubicon15]

OK. I added the Beatsonic to the system on my FE Cruiser. Got it at 11:00 today, grabbed tools to install it at lunch Started at 1:00 and finished at 2:00. I think you can certainly do this faster, but I was being cautious and trying not to damage anything.

I'll say this, the video on Beatsonic's website is very useful on the install. They really know where to push and pull on the panels to get them to disengage properly. The amp doesn't seem to want to go into the spot they show, but it does. There's also wire right in front of the location that can be easily moved to the right (even has a clip-in spot for it).

A few recommendations from the install:

1) You don't need to go to more than 1:00 on the gain. I went to 2:00, and it's very loud. I can't listen to the system above 30 now. Speakers can handle it fine (Focals), but that's concert loud above that.

2) I tried to test run it before I re-installed everything. I believe I started the car, but it lit up the Christmas tree of issues on the dashboard. I got everything re-installed, and the parking brake still was saying "not functional." Thankfully, that's easy to get to (only two parts need removing). I unplugged and re-plugged them, let the car sit, and the faults are now gone.

3) Got back to work and got this email, "Good Afternoon- This is Marissa contacting you from Toyota of Southern Maryland, in regards to your 2024 Land Cruiser. We have received notice that there may be a light on your vehicle's dashboard concerning a malfunction in the parking brake system. If this issue is occuring in your vehicle, please bring your vehicle in for service, or give us a call at your earliest convenience so we can diagnose and address the issue. Thank You, and have a great rest of your day!"

Didn't realize Toyota was tracking faults. I guess that's a good thing?

Anyway, the system now sounds more like a real stereo. I won't say it's perfect as far as being able to equalize the system, as those functions are pretty limited. If you aren't replacing your stock speakers and adding deadening, I can only imagine what this does.

Let's hope that's the last time I have to take the dash apart, though.

Which Focal speakers did you install? What speakers did you install in the dashboard?

 

[jptruck]

A final note about this set up:

1) I had to take the dash apart and LOWER the gain on the BEATSONIC to about 1:00. I had it closer to just past 2:00, and it was causing some distortion in the system. The problem then becomes you have to take the dash apart to access the unit. I could see it, but couldn't get a tool to it to manipulate it. The 2nd time around removing the dash took all of 15 minutes, start to finish. Props to Toyota for making that a breeze when you know what you are doing.

2) It's just come to my attention that there are different "SOUND" settings for bluetooth/CarPlay and Sirius. If you change the settings while tinkering with CarPlan, the settings for Sirius don't change. That's useful because they sound very, very different. I have to lower the base to negative levels on Sirius. It's neutral or +1 on CarPlay. Nice little nugget to know now.

Overall, I think I finally have this thing dialed. I was getting distortion on some songs, and that was directly tied to the gain being set too high. There's plenty of juice coming out of the Beatsonic on "no-gain" settings.

Again, I can't recommend enough getting rid of the stock speakers, including the center. I'll admit that the underside of my grill covers are shaved a bit to fit the Focal speakers. It does take some customization. If there are stock options out there that fit these holes with no modification, it's really, really easy to swap them out. Toyota doesn't make that simple, though.

 

[jptruck]

Which Focal speakers did you install? What speakers did you install in the dashboard?

 

[Onandoffroaddriving]

I finally got around to installing a subwoofer. I went with an under seat JBL BassPro Nano. It puts out a pretty good amount of bass, considering it's compact and fits under the passenger seat perfectly. I have a manual seat and I can still lower it all the way with no interference. It fills in the bottom end quite nicely, probably how it should've been from the factory. It's not going to blow away the car next to you, but it's sufficient for full sound in the car. I gave up on the hatch subwoofer due to lack of space. There's only 3" +- depth, and due to the non flat surface, there's no way to mount a spacer ring. I could've gutted the factory sub and used the bracket, but I didn't have the heart to do it (yet). Someone with more skills could probably make it work with 3d printing a mounting ring.

The sub is available here: JBL BassPro Nano

I didn't take too many pics, but the install is pretty straight forward. I ran the power wire under carpeting, and under and around the big battery cover to the 12v battery in the rear. I grounded to the chassis under the door sill, and tapped into the rear speakers Metra adaptors and ran the wiring through the factory b-pillar harness. There is an opening on the bottom of the harness that is perfect for this. You do need to take off the rubber grommets and unplug the connecter to do this. All the wiring (save for behind the rear seats) is under the door sills and ran under the passenger seat. There is a hole in the carpet you can fish wires through. I tried tapping in behind the head unit first. You get sound, but there is no volume control, so don't waste your time. I believe I read this on another thread too. The sub turns on with speaker level inputs, so I didn't need to run a remote-turn on lead, which was great. Because I didn't want to tap/cut into any factory wiring.

Overall, a worthy upgrade. A pro (and maybe me) could've done a little cleaner install. But that would've required stripping most of the interior to hide the wiring better. Something I really didn't feel like doing. I'd say B on the sound quality overall, and my hearing isn't the best. I'd say the limiting factor is the factory amp/ equalizer. You'd basically have to bypass it, but looking at the wiring diagrams, a whole lot of things run through it, so probably not possible. It works for me, for now.

Would you give more information about where you ground the sub? I’m installing a sub and external amp this weekend. Sounds like you didn’t need to remove the seat..

 

[Legman71]

OK. I added the Beatsonic to the system on my FE Cruiser. Got it at 11:00 today, grabbed tools to install it at lunch Started at 1:00 and finished at 2:00. I think you can certainly do this faster, but I was being cautious and trying not to damage anything.

I'll say this, the video on Beatsonic's website is very useful on the install. They really know where to push and pull on the panels to get them to disengage properly. The amp doesn't seem to want to go into the spot they show, but it does. There's also wire right in front of the location that can be easily moved to the right (even has a clip-in spot for it).

A few recommendations from the install:

1) You don't need to go to more than 1:00 on the gain. I went to 2:00, and it's very loud. I can't listen to the system above 30 now. Speakers can handle it fine (Focals), but that's concert loud above that.

2) I tried to test run it before I re-installed everything. I believe I started the car, but it lit up the Christmas tree of issues on the dashboard. I got everything re-installed, and the parking brake still was saying "not functional." Thankfully, that's easy to get to (only two parts need removing). I unplugged and re-plugged them, let the car sit, and the faults are now gone.

3) Got back to work and got this email, "Good Afternoon- This is Marissa contacting you from Toyota of Southern Maryland, in regards to your 2024 Land Cruiser. We have received notice that there may be a light on your vehicle's dashboard concerning a malfunction in the parking brake system. If this issue is occuring in your vehicle, please bring your vehicle in for service, or give us a call at your earliest convenience so we can diagnose and address the issue. Thank You, and have a great rest of your day!"

Didn't realize Toyota was tracking faults. I guess that's a good thing?

Anyway, the system now sounds more like a real stereo. I won't say it's perfect as far as being able to equalize the system, as those functions are pretty limited. If you aren't replacing your stock speakers and adding deadening, I can only imagine what this does.

Let's hope that's the last time I have to take the dash apart, though.

Yeah...1 hour is pretty damn quick. I imagine your skillset is a little higher than the rest of us (OK well me at least). It took the guys at Beatsonic approx 2 hours to do mine granted they ran wiring to the rear hatch for my upcoming sub. Good job man. It'd take me 3 hours...but then again I'd never do it myself. My stereo now sounds much better like you said though

 

[jptruck]

Yeah...1 hour is pretty damn quick. I imagine your skillset is a little higher than the rest of us (OK well me at least). It took the guys at Beatsonic approx 2 hours to do mine granted they ran wiring to the rear hatch for my upcoming sub. Good job man. It'd take me 3 hours...but then again I'd never do it myself. My stereo now sounds much better like you said though

It's really not that hard. The second time took about 15-20 minutes.

 

[Altitude]

my understanding is that it just ups the amps, so to speak.

It’s replacing the power.

There are only two ways to add an aftermarket amp to a car stereo -

One way is if the head unit has preamp-level outputs that bypass whatever internal amp it has and sends a line signal for each channel to the aftermarket amp. Our head units do not have preamp outputs.

The other way is to intercept the speaker-level outputs, convert that signal back to line-level, then output that to an aftermarket amp.

The Beatsonic amp is doing the second thing, plus it is also the aftermarket amp. So it’s actually “discarding” the power coming out of the head unit (no big loss, I bet it’s only 7 to 10 RMS watts per channel) and replacing with its own amplified output.

 

[ranma21]

View attachment 36527View attachment 36528

Interested in the 3 way you use. Looking to upgrade my 26 JBL. So you just swapped out factory 3 ways with the Focal 3 ways without the Focal crossover? Does the tweeter fits good? Thanks