Speakers

The Prius has four speakers, two in the front doors, two behind the back seats. This is not good for high quality audio tone, as the high frequencies are absorbed before they can reach the ears of the driver.

So I have mounted two little tweeters in the plastik covers of the side-mirrors. They are connected to the output amplifier with a capacitor of 33 microfarads, and the doorspeakers are connected with an inductivity of 560 microhenry. So every speaker gets its frequencies. Seperation frequency is 1.3 kHz.

For the connection one must remove the door covers. First remove two screws and one plastic plug. The main trick is the plastic under the door handle. After removing the screw, it must be lifted a little bit on the back side and then pushed to the back side: it has a notch at the bottom. If it is removed, the door cover can be unclipped in the bottom and then pushed upwards. Before that a little plastic clipp, which is visible in the right picture right to the speaker, should be removed.

I was somehow disappointed after the installation. The frequency response was good, but there was a noise as if a connection was loose. It turned out, it was the radio. There was a short interruption of the sound every 5 seconds. Without the tweeters and on driving its not disturbing. Then I remembered, that

poorly constructed RDS radios show this interruption when they scan the different stations. I switched the AF feature off and the noise had gone.

There is another design flaw in the radio. With AF off the radio selects not the programmed frequency, but randomly very often a week station with poor reception. The only way out is, to switch AF on and when the radio has found a good station, to switch it off.

In the end I am happy with the speakers. The sound is much better. The handling is a bit tricky with the switching between AF on and off, but its worth it.