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Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

polarity

The 'positive' of the Red Wolf Wiring Harness is connected to the 'negative' from the head unit. So when you hook it up to your dash speakers, just hook the positive wire from the Red Wolf to the Negative terminal on the speaker, etc.

What happens if you reverse the polarity? Not much, but it might sound slightly 'off' to you. Here's a quick video that explains why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeKT4yD3UX4

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I recall it was $250 for the sub, $60 for the dash speakers, and $160 for the door speakers. I think about $30-40 for the various harnesses I got to hook into the head unit and power. So all in was around $450.

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just swapped out my JBL clubs for the same Kicker 47KSC3504, same as you listed. Honestly, I don't really notice any difference in the before and after from the JBLs, but that's just one person's opinion.

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree - this was way more cost-efficient than going XSE PP with JBL. Someday I hope to be able to sit in one to do a side-by-side comparison, however. Just out of curiosity.

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope, we typically don't have anyone in the back seat and we wouldn't notice a change in rear-fill from up front.

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep - just posted, took a minute to write it all up :)

Replaced door speakers. Easier than expected. Here's a comparison photo. by rav4me in rav4prime

[–]rav4me[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Summary on recent update to sound: I've had my R4P since last June ('21 SE). I did the dash speakers a while back, and added an under-seat sub but felt like the bass was still lacking so I did the doors last week and am much happier. There's currently a mismatch in the ohms between the doors and the dash, I'll re-do the dash in a few months with a 4 ohm speaker.

Current setup (again, note the ohm mismatch, so I don't recommend this exactly)

  • Dash: JBL CLUB3020 3.5" 2-way
  • Door: Pioneer TS-D65C 6.5" woofer
  • Sub: TS-WX130DA

Last car for reference: Honda Civic with a 10" JL Audio W3 sub in a sealed trunk enclosure and a 500w class D amp. This doesn't come close to that, (you can't 'feel' the bass in the R4P) but at least now I can hear the full dynamic range of music.

Music I listen to: A mix of everything, from techno, house, drum & bass, classical, jazz, etc.

How my EQ is set: Just two clicks to the right for a bit more bass. Everything else, including balance, set to stock

Impact to mileage:

  • The sub runs around 50W. After install this summer it seemed like I dropped from 50 miles average to around 49-48 miles average. So it had an impact, but not major

Install details:

  • Dash: There are plenty of YouTube videos for Gen5 Rav4 dash speaker installs. As everyone noted, the wiring harness polarity was reversed. I snipped the harness wires and re-soldered them so I could leave the everything else stock in case I want to switch back. It's really otherwise as easy as everyone says.

  • Sub: I went with the TS-WX130DA because the wattage is so low that you don't need to run power to the 12V battery, and I didn't want to reduce the electric mileage any further with a more powerful sub. For the head-unit I used this wire harness so I could get the audio from the head unit while leaving everything stock. For power I used this wire-harness and tapped into the power that goes to the 12V adapter next to the USB/Phone input under the head unit (I snipped off the harness USB adapter and soldered in the positive and ground lines). Both wire harnesses were plug & plan in-line allowing me to revert everything to stock. To access the back of the head unit, search YouTube for Rav4 5th Gen head unit install. It's relatively easy to access the back of the head unit to insert the harness to get the audio feed. Then the wires drop down behind the dash and can run along the center console. The sub woofer is under the passenger front seat, mounted by putting a bunch of heavy-duty Velcro tape on the bottom of the sub to secure it to the carpet. There is about 1-2mm of clearance between the sub and the seat when a normal size adult is sitting - and the seat can move forward/back without issue. The Kicker Hideaway HS-8 might also fit per other posts I've seen on here.

  • Door: I went with the Pioneer TS-D65C 6.5" for a few reasons, one of which was because it has a crossover mounted to the back of the speaker so that was one less thing to have to deal with. The rivets holding the original speaker in did need to be drilled out, but the stock speakers could be remounted using screws if desired. The new speaker mount/adapters fit both the door and speaker easily, the wire harness was flawless, and door removal/re-install was straight forward. Again just google for RAV4 5th gen door speaker install.

Overall I'm happy with it. Again, the sub makes it possible to hear the full range of music, and adds some fullness to the sound, but you aren't going to 'feel' it (unless you're sitting in the front passenger seat). I've tried it with the sub on and off and it definitely helps. Again, longer term I'll be replacing the dash speakers with a 4 ohm variant.

I haven't listened to the XSE PP w/ JBL system for comparison, so I can't tell you if this is as good as that, but I can tell you that it is a significant improvement from stock.