Last year I upgraded the FJ’s head unit and this time around I decided to upgrade the speakers. I had to order everything online except for the amp which I luckily found locally. Upgrading the car sound system is a complicated process in Kuwait because of the fact we don’t have any good quality components available locally so your only option is to order everything from the US which means you can’t hear the speakers before buying them and you also have to pay expensive shipping charges.
I went looking for the items locally first but I couldn’t find anything I wanted here. The best brands I found here are Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, Pioneer and Kenwood. X-Cite is the Alpine dealer but they’re currently revamping their entire lineup so I couldn’t find anything except for the Amp which was part of their clearance sale. They’re also the dealers for Rockford but their collection was very limited. Pioneer and Kenwood aren’t really know for having the best sounding car speakers either, their head units are decent but their speakers are just average. The brands I was interested in were MB Quart, JL Audio, Polk Audio and Massive Audio, none of which were available in Kuwait.
After doing a lot of research I ended up going with Polk Audio for the subwoofer since I needed to install the sub into the FJ factory sub enclosure and some guys in an FJ forum managed to fit the Polk 8″ sub without too much modification. Since I was going with Polk for the sub I ended up going with the Polk 6.5″ components for the front as well. I also ordered a pair of 3.5″ Rockford Fosgate speakers for the rear pillars, some Dynamat for the doors (sound deadening material), a StreetWires Amp kit and some RCA cables. Shipping cost me nearly as much as I paid for the items which was depressing. The biggest culprits were the sub, the Dynamat and the Amp Kit. I also ordered some speaker adapters from tacotunes.com which would allow me to fit the front speakers into the existing factory FJ mounts.
For installation I headed to Zaharat Al Naseem again. They’re the best local car system installers and I used them last year to install my head unit. It ended up taking around 4 hours for the installation which was longer than expected since I had a few things that needed modifying and customizing. The most difficult part was getting the sub to fit in the factory box (check picture below) but with the help of a Dremel tool we managed to get it to fit nicely.
My sound system sounds pretty cool right now even though it still needs a bit of tuning. The best part is that everything fit into the factory locations so the car looks unmodified until you turn the sound system on. I’m not sure why we don’t have a high end components available locally, I guess the market is too small or just not interested in quality car sound systems.
Update: They’ve moved, here is their new location [Google Maps]
19 replies on “Sound system upgrade”
Thats Saweeeeet bro I wanna try your system sometime … I am liking my JBL system with the ’12 Fj so far
I was liking mine until I heard Nat’s stereo and then mine just started sounding like shit hence the upgrade.
I’m Guessing Bang and Olufsen ?
And The Bose Factory system in my Pick up now sounds like crap next to the FJ 😛
Ow and yea Thats awesome that you installed the new sub in the Factory case looks neat !!!
yeah everything is installed in the factory spot. Tweeters in the dash, 6.5’s in the doors, 8inch sub in the factory box and 3.5″ hidden in the rear pillars were the factory speakers were located.
ppl in kuwait arent willing to pay money for this kind of shit…i guess that’s why ppl arent interested.
Are you even allowed to play loud music in your car without getting a warning or a fine? I think that’s why most people aren’t into it.
When my windows and doors are closed no one outside can hear what I’m listening to. Good sound system doesn’t mean a loud sound system…
Nice, I upgraded my BMWs sound system last year with Focal components in front and Focal composites in rear and a sub in the back, Alpine amps and Pioneer head unit. Also added dynamate on the doors. Sounds sick
Ah yeah also checked out some Focal’s as well but heard a mixture of feedback with a lot of people saying they were too bright. thats the problem with buying speakers online, you’re basing your decision on reviews but everyone hears differently. You’d find one guy saying this is the best speaker ever and the review right after him talking about how shit they are.
How are u fine tuning the system?
i’m letting the speakers break in and i’ve been listening to a variety of different music to see how the system responds to each one and i’m adjusting the gain and frequency response a bit every now and then and will stop once everything is sounding good.
aahhhh How much did you spent on your sound system already…??
ah i’ll do that next time. I just didn’t think they weight was going to be that much.
Dynamat is cool, need to get 2 more boxes so i could do the rear of my fj since i get a lot of wheel noise back there cuz of my MT tires.
I went with the MM6501 Polks in the front and the MM840 (single coil) in the rear.
Shit, you should listen to dub step with that thing 😀
Zaharat Al Naseem are the best. I’m assuming you got the Dynamat from over seas?
For many years since my first cars back in 1999 I deal with Zahrat Al Nasim. They’re really good. Even though that they might charge u a bit more, but their work is flawless. Last time I upgraded my twitters with the latest Kenwood. And although they charged me a little more than the market (even that I was a regular old client) , but they gave me quality work. Thats the only place in town which their head technician knows about Rock music and how to give u the best tune and equalizer for ur type of music.
Where are these guys?
From where did you buy the dynamat and how much was the total cost together with the shipping for one box