Can I add an amp and new speakers to my 2018 Rav4 Limited

DWcdn · May 10, 2021

Can I add amps and new speakers to my 2018 Rav4 Limited with entune premium and subwoofer without installing and iDatalink Maestro RR interface or any other factory system adapters?

As much as I'd like wireless Apple Carplay I'm Ok with the head unit for now. (And the system I like is $2K).

Right now I rate my stereo about a 6 at full volume. I've replaced the dash speakers and that has helped to balance out the system, but at full volume it's inadequate.

I'm wondering if new door speakers (4), and possibly a new subwoofer, along with an amplifier would improve the system without interfering with all the computer electronics that marry the system to the other car functions etc.

RoLleRKoaSTeR · May 13, 2021

you only replaced the tweeters in the dash?

replacing just the head unit alone will remove any steering wheel controls, you know.
Yep, installing a car stereo these days are much more complicated than back in the 90s. and earlier.

DWcdn · May 13, 2021

The tweeters overpowered the other speakers. They were basically all you could hear, unless you faded the sound all the way to the rear.
There is a thread on here discussing this issue, and replacing the tweeters with the ones recommended made it possible to hear all 7 speakers.
I may try replacing the 4 door speakers to see if the sound improves even more.

If you want to replace the head unit and still have use of all the steering wheel controls you will need a product like the
iDatalink Maestro RR2. You can find it at Crutchfield.

Cheers

kensei · May 13, 2021

DWcdn said:
I've replaced the dash speakers and that has helped to balance out the system, but at full volume it's inadequate.

I have been wondering the same regarding door speakers recently. I, also, replaced my dash speaker with the Sound Ordinance ones that were suggested in the multi-page thread on the subject, and was pretty satisfied with the results.

After going over lots of prior posts, is seemed to me that the front door speakers are intended to be woofers only, so I though I would leave them be, but am considering installing a 2 way in the rear doors for better sound for rear seat passengers. I was thinking something with pretty good efficiency, since the consensus seemed to be that the factory dash were too efficient and overwhelming everything, so maybe the door speakers are too inefficient...? There doesn't seem to be anywhere near as much posting about this end of it. It seems as if most people are satisfied with the improvement the dash speakers make if they are not considering full system upgrades.

I don't know enough about the system to answer your amplifier question, but I though I remembered reading that there was already a separate amp on the system. Maybe that could be upgraded...or maybe I am imagining "remembering" that. There was a ton of discussion over several years of posts about the front speakers and to some extent it all started to mesh together...

DWcdn · May 13, 2021

I was thinking the same thing. But then I thought of replacing the front door speakers because I tend to get a lot "could you please turn that down" from back seat passengers.
I'm looking at Crutchfield up here and can't seem to decide which of their speakers to pick. If replacing 2 works out I'll probably do all 4. Maybe even the subwoofer in the back.

Have you got any recommendations for which speakers you would prefer in the doors?

kensei · May 14, 2021

DWcdn said:
I was thinking the same thing. But then I thought of replacing the front door speakers because I tend to get a lot "could you please turn that down" from back seat passengers.

I would think it would be easy enough to drop in a "normal" speaker in the front doors to replace the factory woofers to get some more sound up front for you. I think the only thing you would have to research is how the bass is controlled to them. I would think, that like most factory "component" speakers, there is no crossover or any other means of actually limiting those speakers to bass reproduction, they probably just put a woofer in there and let it reproduce what it can. If that's the case, then you would be good to go on a full range speaker and I would think it would work well for what you want.

DWcdn said:
Have you got any recommendations for which speakers you would prefer in the doors?

Not in particular, though in the interest of balancing things out, I would probably try to get one with the highest sensitivity that I could in hopes of it having the opposite, yet similar, effect that the low sensitivity dash speakers did. My front door speakers just don't seem to be pushing a lot of sound, so that's an idea.

Something else to think about is leaving the rear door speakers as they are for now. If your rear seat passengers want you to "turn it down" then maybe replacing just the front doors will fill in and balance with the new dash speakers, allowing you to listen at a reduced volume that would be acceptable to the rear seat passengers as well. Plus, you'd be cutting your new speaker cost in half!

I also read back through some of the old posts, and I think I mis-read the bit about a separate factory amplifier. In the post that I was thinking of the poster was actually referring to the size of some small aftermarket amps that he was suggesting could be added to the rear doors. Don't know much about going down that rabbit hole, but just wanted to clarify since I was able to re-read the post that I had in mind.

Here are a couple of good threads about the stereo, one of which is another of those multi-page, multi-year discussions... While they do concentrate on bass management, they include lots of good info on the setup in general.

Bass Improvement

Bass Response

Can I add an amp and new speakers to my 2018 Rav4 Limited

DWcdn

RoLleRKoaSTeR

DWcdn

kensei

DWcdn

kensei

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities