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nerdstrike

Focal IS165TOY installation and review

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After the beneficent recommendations of those here, I ordered the IS165TOY kit (£130) made by Focal, along with a bumper pack of Silent Coat "noise isolator" foam from Audiovisual world. Shipping was prompt but package went AWOL, Audiovisualworld very quick to ship another after I informed them that I hadn't received anything. Annoying but all was well.

I took some photos, but in the end there were other photos of the same stuff on this very forum, so I've neglected to upload them.

On me:

I am a poor man's audio nut, liking classical, jazz and some occasional punk or rock. I've got some B&W speakers in my lounge and an amp to match, and my ideal instrument is 500kg of piano. I love it when the music grabs and involves. Not fond of massive volume but love quality. With that in mind, the GT86 is a dreadful place to spend lots of money on audio when I could be investing in my home setup instead! It's quite noisy, the speaker positions are a bit whack, and I like listening to the car as I drive. Therefore, I opted for the cheap-ass upgrade, as the default audio is truly painful to my ears.

Opinion on Toyota OEM system:

Barely tolerable, crashy treble, needs silly volume on the motorway to be enjoyable, and then it's exhausting. Headunit does ok, even over bluetooth, but doesn't do very well when you connect a different phone. That's what I thought before I took the door cards out and beheld the papier maché equipment they fitted! The tweeters look cheap, the rear speakers are like listening with your head under water, and the woofers... oh the woofers. They weigh next to nothing. I'm amazed they achieved as much as they did. Toyota obviously spent at least £3 on each of these.

On the Focal replacements:

The replacement tweeters are sturdy and much nicer than those they replace. Their better build unfortunately means they don't click fully into the speaker mounts, due to being a bit tall. I'm leaving them like that for now, but might want to look into more sturdy attachment.

The woofers are fibreglass affairs with more than twice the weight of the OEM. Much bigger magnet on the rear, a bit more depth to the assembly, but plenty of room in the door cavity. There is a foam layer where the mount fits around the cone which is very thin. I added a bit of extra material to make sure it seals properly. I'd have like something in kevlar or similar, but that would need more wiring, sourcing mounts etc. Lots more dosh!

A bunch of fittings are included in the box, but they're mainly intended for other Toyotas. The only bits you need are the wires (which only fit in one configuration) and the block which mates with the Toyota wiring.

On the fitting process:

Online videos quite informative in getting the lay of the land. I tackled the tweeters first. Nylon trim tools very helpful indeed! The dash material is weirdly spongy and very easy to scratch. Out comes the speaker cover with speaker stuck into it, now lots of swearing trying to release the tweeter cable. Likewise getting the tweeter from the grate is a forceful and made me nervous. New tweeter snaps into place, but not as securely as the original. Must be able to do this better!

At this point I had to stop and drive away to dinner. Just the tweeters alone made a big improvement to clarity of the audio!

Next to the doors. More action for the nylon tools. The door handle trims came away without feeling like they'd snap, but it would dead easy to scratch them. Door card needs to be pulled free from its mountings with moderate force. I found it easiest to start at the hinge side of the door and work outward. Then the whole card slides up and off its lip. Now comes the fun - unclipping the puddle light cable (easy), the window switch cable (easy once I used a large flat bladed screwdriver to release the plug), and the door handle/lock cables. I had to do this alone, but it would be a lot easier if someone could support the weight of the door card while you unplug everything.

If you take the door too far from the card without disconnecting the cables, they'll pull off the plastic liner which separates outside from inside. Driver's side is harder because of the mirror controls - that plug is connected in the most awkward position possible. Tricky on your own!

Speaker removal an absolute doddle, likewise fitting. I took some time to feed some noise-absorbing foam into the cavity behind the speaker, but didn't do the whole door because I didn't want to disturb the waterproofing - it had some moisture on it, so it has a purpose! Re-hanging the door card was nice and easy.

On the matter of sound deadening, dynamat etc.

While the tarry mass loading material provided by Dynamat or silent coat is useful for adding weight to a panel and damping resonance, I felt it would add both a lot of cost and weight to the installation. Some people suggest roofing material, but that will stink out your car with tarry odours. Don't go there! Yes, the boot floor and door skin boom like a drum when tapped, but as above, I didn't want to mess with the waterproofing and wasn't sure I would realise the benefits. Maybe I'm wrong!

The isolating closed cell foam is for taking out higher frequency noise, and I figured it was ideal for dropping the ambient volume of the car on the move so I could enjoy the music more. I placed some in the door cavity, while mainly focusing on the rear wheel arches.

On adding sound absorbing material to the rear passenger space:

  1. Unbolt seat. Just one 10mm bolt per seat! Makes those rear passengers feel all the more wanted as they lose sensation below their knees.
  2. Push down at the rear centre of the seat pad, where a single loop is hooked onto the chassis. This is tricky and took me a while. It doesn't help that you can't see what you're doing, and the seat is flexible. Now you can see the entry points to your fuel tank!
  3. Peel back door rubbers from top of door frame to the bottom, where you will have to lift the lip trim. It interlocks with the rest of the trim, but it comes up easily enough
  4. Unclip two trim clips that are behind the rear seat. You can do this by dropping the seat, or through the boot.
  5. Starting at the door, give it a heave-ho and pop the trim out. Force applied just right will pop one out, rather than trying to get them all at once. I found it easiest to pop the forward bits out, then half-drop the rear seat to release the rear portion and then slide it into the boot.
  6. You can also take the boot lining out to get to the rear part of the arch, behold the top of the teeny tiny rear suspension, and attend to some of the rattly wiring.
  7. You may now disable, or just plain remove the rear speakers and use them to occupy space in the refuse.

and so the results:

Decent step up in clarity, especially the treble, almost to the point where it rather exposes the lack of mids, and the fact that you are much nearer one tweeter than the other. Once the system had run in a bit, these issues were less obvious, but I definitely get the feeling a second speaker on top of the dash would help with integrating the sound. There's plenty of low end, but obviously not on a par with a dedicated sub. Sound is still lost a bit at high speeds, but you don't feel so aurally violated by winding up the volume.

+ Very happy with return on investment, listening pleasure is up, it lifts it from "car sound" to "hifi".

+ Easy fitting, provided you have a good way to avoid scratching stuff, and a helper at times

+ Focal have some credentials in audio gear manufacture

- Still far from premium speakers

- GT86 cabin is a poor environment to install in, and would take proper wonga and time to sort out.

+ Subaru/Toyota snap-together design is pretty easy going for strip-down and refit of interior. It's nowhere near as involved as some other cars I've crawled around inside.

As for the sound isolation, it's still plenty noisy at speed but I think some road noise is gone, helping to expose more of the creaks and ticks of the other flimsy interior parts! I didn't do a superb job, and certainly didn't cover every inch with the stuff, but it has made a difference. I was foolish not to try a controlled measuring of the ambient volume on a known piece of road! Putting the sticky stuff in place is a time-consuming job, so I'd not recommend it unless you know that you need it, or are going for installation to the max! I'll refine my opinion over the next few weeks as I persuade myself it was worthwhile.

Who is it for?

Budget-minded people who can't stand the OEM audio setup. Maximum bang for buck, really very easy installation, no messing about. £130, job done. Limited extra weight needed.

Who is it not for?

  • People who must have banging choonz - fit a sub in the boot.
  • People willing to get into the wiring, mounting cross-overs and supplementary amps. I reckon £300-£500 and some graft will yield another step up in quality. Think hard about adding a mid-range to the dash to compensate for speaker separation. This is what I would have done if I had more time and money to burn.
  • People who want high volume - The standard mountings are flimsy, and many body panels are completely undamped. You should be spending time and weight on the full damping and isolation in all key panels. This will add tens of kilos.
  • Full-time petrolheads. Rip it all out, swap out manifold and muffler for maximum brap brap bang rumble. You won't want that damped out with noise isolation!
Edited by nerdstrike
Added a synopsis to not oversell the setup

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Interesting report. I also find the Oem speakers horrible at speed, even my wife has complained which is saying something.

As soon as you start sound deadening it is a very slippery slope though, always room for a 'little more'. I'm not sure I want to start on it!

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Lack of sound deadening - simply to keep car lighter and cheaper. While indeed it results in crappy sound and uninsulated roadnoise even compared to much cheaper cars then twins, but due that reasoning i understand choices of Toyota/Subaru to do so, and just like maurice above, am not too hasty with decisions to "fix" it. It will start with few insulation here and there .. then there some extra .. and probably will end in 50kg heavier car :). Focal IS165TOY, while not ideal, seems good choice by price/performancy to fix very bad stock sound. While i hate stock audio, upgrading it is still somewhere in future. Simply because performance/handling upgrades or spending on track days are of higher priority in budget :)

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Glad you found it interesting. I'd say the total mass I've added to the car is around 5kg - the isolating foam doesn't feel very heavy per sheet, and the Focal speakers wouldn't pass the Hifi "heavier is better" test. I also took out the rear speakers and their pathetic mountings and plugged the speaker hole, so I've saved half a kilo, before putting it back in around the arches.

This morning on the motorway sounded a bit quieter than I remember. I think this modest upgrade will improve my wellbeing during my Scottish road trip later in the year, but I'm still finding the tweeter/woofer separation irritating. Hopefully I'll stop paying attention soon, as I get used to the new setup.

Also, big success! I've cured one of the rattles from the rear. The cable runs are raised from the metal, but in several areas it doesn't stay lifted particularly in the rear left passing the seat. Plenty of wiring comes through there and I velcro-padded the metal underneath it. Huzzah!

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Guest 86guns

Inspired by this thread, I took the plunge to upgrade my audio using the Focal IS165TOY kit. I also took the opportunity to add in some sound deadening and chose SilentCoat. I found the process quite straightforward with all the interior panels proving easy to remove and replace. I added additional SilentCoat to the rear side panels, the boot floor and boot lid. I also chose to leave the door moisture barrier in place but found I could pull the top quarter away and reach inside the door panel quite easily.

The total cost for my upgrade was £140 for the Focals, £80 for a bulk pack of SilentCoat (which was way too much) and two hacked knuckles. The results in terms of reducing the "boxy booming" of the car have been very impressive but I reserve my judgement on the Focals. Admittedly I've only had them running for a couple of hours but they seem a little disappointing considering the Focal name. 

My thanks to Mr Nerd for his write up. 

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Guest 86guns

 

35 minutes ago, Stutopia said:

Does the SilentCoat make much of a difference to regular road noise @86guns?

 Less boomy all round, from backing out of the drive to legal motorway speeds. Not in the same class as a non sports car obviously, but definitely worth the time and effort to put it in. Unfortunately I can hear wifey talking to me now. 

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@86guns  Let the speakers run in. They start off a bit strangled and round out over a week or more. Nothing you can do about the dash and windscreen geometry which rather funnels the treble, and the mids can get a bit lost behind the legs. It's worth playing with the EQ once they've settled, as the default is brash.

Ambient on motorways is definitely down a few dBs of white noise, so I feel less exhausted on a three hour journey. I'm content with the audio, though I'd double my budget for next time around. I'm glad I changed them AND added insulation.

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I actually disagree with putting tweeters im the door cards (sorry lauren). If you look at the competiton installs they either put then in the dash or make custom A pillar pods. I tried it in my corolla and sounded awfully bright.

 

Also I havent seen any issues with comb filtering off the windscreen (causing wobbles in the tweeter response), but you do get a natural roll off as it goes above 10k-ish.

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

 

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Guest 86guns

A quick update: after a couple of runs, the speakers are "bedding in" and sounding a little more pleasing to the ear. Still not top notch though. One other little mod that did work wonders was plugging the sound hole from the intake sound generator thingy with the cover from the 12V socket behind the glove box. That's the best and cheapest sound mod so far.

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I fitted a set of these this morning, Car Sounds And Security in Epsom is selling them for £119.99 if anyone is interested.

Not even driven with them yet tbh. I'm leaving on Friday to drive a couple thousand miles around the Alps so looking forward to bedding them in. I'm not expecting miracles - to get good sound you need to do a lot of work on these doors, but hopefully it'll be a worthwhile improvement.

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Guest 86guns

Another update: after discussion with a local audio outlet (Ian at Leeds Car Audio - very helpful) I fitted a sound absorption tile behind each speaker. These are the foam egg box things you see in recording studios. This has made a big difference, tightening up the mids and making the bass more punchy. Coincidentally they are doing a full audio installation on a GT86 on Monday (21st) so I'm going to pop over and poke my nose in. Wonder if it's anyone on here? 

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Interesting. You mean inside the doors or under the dash covers too?

Perhaps that's why I'm happier with mine as I went with absorber rather than mass loading material when I lined the doors. Perhaps I should have mass loaded too... but as I originally stated, I didn't want to add more weight than I had to.

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Guest 86guns
1 minute ago, nerdstrike said:

Interesting. You mean inside the doors or under the dash covers too?

Perhaps that's why I'm happier with mine as I went with absorber rather than mass loading material when I lined the doors. Perhaps I should have mass loaded too... but as I originally stated, I didn't want to add more weight than I had to.

Just inside the doors, one tile each side about 10" square (I'm getting a dab hand now at taking the door cards off). 

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I guess it just disperses or drops the amplitude of reflected negative phase frequencies bouncing off the door skin. When they carry through the door card they'll muddy all but specific frequencies that match the wavelength to the door cavity depth (say 4 kHz?).

It's a tiny amount of material for a big improvement. Like it!

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For an update on my side, after a week of driving including a 1000km stint to the Alps the Focals have loosened up and are definitely a decent improvement over oem. :)

I found the equalizer needed some drastic changes, dialling the treble right back and increasing mid and bass. Now the speakers actually have a little kick to them. I didn't bother fitting any sound deadening. 

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Guest 86guns
24 minutes ago, maurice said:

For an update on my side, after a week of driving including a 1000km stint to the Alps the Focals have loosened up and are definitely a decent improvement over oem. :)

I found the equalizer needed some drastic changes, dialling the treble right back and increasing mid and bass. Now the speakers actually have a little kick to them. I didn't bother fitting any sound deadening. 

I would echo those settings as well especially winding the treble down.

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Guest 86guns

Another update from me (apologies if I’m hogging someone else’s thread). 

In an attempt to better drive the Focals, and in conjunction with Ian at Leeds Car Audio, we decided to add an amplifer (Hertz) and sub (Audison). This has really brought the speakers to life. The sub frees up the Focals from having to handle too much base and so the mids come across a bit stronger. Of course with this setup the Focal IS165TOY upgrade is now the weakest link but this setup will do for a while.

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Guest 86guns

The audio dealer recommended a Hertz Mille Pro front speaker system. Shame there’s no real demo facility with car audio other than listening to other people’s installations.

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I think adding several hundreds of pounds of additional gear to the car does go beyond the initial scope of the upgrade, but fair play to you. You're still quids in on the dealer fit JBL setup.

I am starting to feel like any further speaker upgrades would benefit from more rigid mounting than the relatively flimsy door cards and speaker grilles. At least judging by how they pulse in time to the music.

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