Has Anybody Experienced "BASS ROLL-OFF" After Installing New Speakers?

I did the same speaker upgrade you did. Kicker 6 CS upgrade with the Subaru tweeters. A couple of notes:

1) When you pull the stock speakers out and see how thin they are, it's going to make you angry. Stay focused.
2) Look into sound deadening your doors while you have the plastic panels off. Will increase sound quality / register leaps and bounds alongside the speaker upgrade.
3) If you haven't already, buy one of those kits with spare door clips and what not. You will break a clip. More towards that, if you lose one in the door stop what you're doing and fish it out. You'll hear it rattle later if you leave it in there.
4) eat breakfast beforehand and start early in the morning.


I'm planning to add a Kicker Key amp. I like low bass a lot, but with the speaker upgrades and sound deadening the bass does alright. I think adding the amp should satisfy me. As much as I like good audio, I think a sub would be overkill in my setup, once I've got the amplifier upgraded. Really happy with the upgrade overall though, and it's along the same lines of what you're getting ready to do.

 

I ordered these kicker speakers through Crutchfield and drove to my local Subaru dealer and picked up the tweets.

Thanks for that tip on reducing the higher frequencies if need be.

I will install the 6x9's, 6.5's and the tweets and hear how the range of frequencies sound.

I like Metal, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Funk, Motown, Country Western, 70's Soft Rock Etc...

With only a three band equalization in the Head Unit there is only so much adjusting I can do, but I will see how it sounds.

I may need your input again!

Thanks a bunch!!!

Kicker 46CSC6934
CS Series 6"x9" 3-Way Car Speakers
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC693/Kicker-46CSC6934.html

Kicker 46CSC674
CS Series 6-3/4" 2-Way Car Speakers
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC674/Kicker-46CSC674.html?tp=78072

Genuine Subaru H631SFJ101 Tweeter Kit (1 Pair)

$87 Subaru Genuine Tweeter Kit Kicker WRX STi Forester Crosstrek Impreza H631SFJ101

https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Subaru-H631SFJ101-Tweeter-Kit/dp/B00PV6F8I2

 

The roll off is present in all factory car audio. Its there to protect the cheap factory speakers. The only time youll get a better quality audio system is from an expensive luxury vehicle. Which our Tacomas are not. The Entune and JBL systems are junk. If you want to keep the factory radio youll need digital signal processor like the JL audio cleansweep or Audison bit 1 to flatten the signal. Swapping out the headunit will be cheaper. Adding some mids or maybe a sub will help but your system will always be as strong as its weakest link.

 

I just thought I would add some observations to the system as I have upgraded it.

With the factory speakers the sound was decent, but it definitely seemed to lack range. Installing the Kicker set up, I found the range was improved. I didn't find the highs too bright despite others complaining they where with tweeters in the dash and on the 6×9's.

I found per amplifier that I usually had the headunit at 15 to 20 with the windows up and at 35 to 40 with the windows down.

After the amp I now find I am listening at 5 to 10 but the lower frequency drops off below 8. Without a 'Loud' function on the head unit, this is understandable. With the windows down 20 to 25 is a good volume.

While tuning my gains, I found 42 was the max volume before I started hearing clipping without the amp, so I set my volume to 40 and adjusted my amp gain there for the best quality and volume.

These are my observations, you may find your's different.

Good luck.

 

The tacoma doesnt have a software based rolloff, we hear it due to limits of the speakers and limits of the headunits internal amp. The signal coming from the headunit actually boosts bass through out the volume range. There is a cut in midrange, but that stays steady through volume range and we suspect it is used to make the system sound louder without actually being louder (its the same as the "loudness" preset on many EQ systems.

As for getting a dsp to flatten the signal, on these radios that will actually reduce the bass coming from the headunit.

 

I completely went in a rabbit hole with all this. I also asked the same question about bass roll off after my final installation. Started with the subi tweets. Then the better Kickers. (DS I think?). Then added the kicker amp everyone recommended. Still wanted more. Then added an NVX amp and under seat Alpine powered subwoofer. Thought this was going to be it. Cranked the volume and had my ear to the sub and just nothing came out. Adjusted the bass knob for the Sub to max and turned it up again and still nothing. When I say nothing I mean there was sound which did respond to the volume control but it got to a certain point then nothing more. Verified front to rear was right with the fader and everything lined up. Did this because the source signal from the HU is considerably lower to the rear. I had the sub on the front though. What finally got the bass out was an Audicontrol LC7i which allowed me to tune the signal in the HU. Now this is what worked for me. I mentioned this in a post before and I was shown how the bass frequencies don’t roll off but actually increase which made no sense for my application. I now have the stock Entune HU with a NVX VAD4M amp ALPINE type R component speakers in the front and Hertz 6.5 in the rear (forget the model) with a Alpine PWE S-8 subwoofer under the drivers seat. I’ve had this setup for about nine months and I am pretty happy with it

oh and the LC7i LOC forgot to mention that in the end

 

It's a pretty easy install. I followed the directions on this site for the kicker key install. Same idea for the power pack.

I have the kappas too. Never listened without the alpine power pack installed though. I will say once you really turn it up you can tell the speakers can handle more than the power pack puts out. Still a great combo and I don't want to run dedicated power for a bigger amp. I do have a kicker hideaway so that helps too.

 

https://youtu.be/aDEaEeuwGKM

Theres increase bass coming in on the fronts. Reduced for the rears. There’s some kind of tuning Toyota did for their audio system. An LC7 would be the minimum required to retain the stock radio.

 

That just shows that there is no bass roll off on the front, the rear doesnt output as much bass and you should use the front as your signal for subwoofers. Thats something we have all known as the rear has very little output already.

See my link here, I graphed the front outputs from volume 10 to 40.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-entune-audio-curve-graph.608790/

 

I have a 2018 with the same head unit and just a couple days ago I replaced the tweeters with the Subaru version and the front door speakers with Kicker 47KSC6904. I can honestly say I am blown away by the sound quality. The vocals are crystal clear as well as the piano and violins. You can hear a singers breath and Country music is spot on and to my surprise I ran everything from Pantera, jazz, classical, blues, to drake and I was stunningly surprised by the bass response. The driver door starts to rattle when the hip hop bass engages so it looks like I will install some noico to quiet down the doors. I'm no boom box kind of guy but I initially thought I would have to add an amp and a sub woofer but I am very happy with this setup and it was a relatively inexpensive upgrade.
I like all kinds of music so my goal was to enhance clarity and dynamic range. Volume is plenty loud and unless your under 21 I would guess you might want ear bleeding volumes.
I'm going to give a review to kicker on how happy I am with this set up.

 

You didn’t have to tap into any of the wires? Those two harnesses make it completely plug and play? I’m just thinking about adding this amp but I don’t want to have to cut any wires. Any insight you have to offer would be much appreciated.

 

No factory wires were touched. I connected the adapter harnesses to the amp harnesses, found a ground behind the dash and plugged it in. One of the simplest amp installs I have ever done.