Audio Upgrade

If you've seen my other posts here on my path to decent sound, you've seen that I have given up on the stock HU after doing my homework and putting in a lot of tuning time and equipment changes.

Silk purses and sows' ears and all that . . .

Jason

 

Reading this thread made me buy even MORE shit for my SloRunna:




I should get it in a week.

Edit: They already shipped! Damn they're fast.

 

Nothing will change the stock eq curve of the OEM headunit. Even adding an amp with dsp will be off little help, because it will not be able to create a signal that does not exist from the source.
The only way to truly make it sound good is to get an after market Sony or Kenwood.

 

That’s for power savings and so you don’t hurt your ears.

 

Yeah, adding a DSP was terrible to try and solve this. And i replaced all the speakers and amp. It was just sooo bad.

Went Kenwood DMX

 

There are situations where that's true, but it depends on what problem you're trying to address. Taming excess gain in the low-midrange doesn't require creating a signal that doesn't exist at the source.

 

It's doing other time shifting and all pass shenanigans besides the low freq cutout. A Keyloc helped and a DSP/tune worked better (once I figured out the levels, before that it sounded like crap) but if I was a smart man I'd bypass the head unit entirely for music. This is a really easy way to double check your "factory fix" tunes, by the way.

Side note, I refuse to add another amp but I'm toying with switching to an active front stage. High powered/signal processed rears are kinda fun for tailgating but otherwise add so little that I can just hook them back up to the HU without missing much.

 

https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...2q2jhfuBAxU2L1kFHUyyAmYQwg8oAHoECAQQHA&adurl=

 

I did not understand the comment. Are you saying that Toyota set the equalizers on the stock OEM in such a way so it saves power and does not hurt my ear?

 

Nice. Any idea if those are the same Subaru/Kicker tweeters? This may be the way for me to go.

 

I'm sure that setup sounds better than stock but seems like a bad deal. The adapters and harnesses are like $70:



Their front tweeter and "crossover" looks exactly like the marginal OEM scheme.



I'd spend like $100-150 on a decent set of 3.5" coaxials with some 600hz caps first then reevaluate. There's a giant thread on here somewhere suggesting just that before it devolves into audiophile tomfoolery.

 

Suggestion. https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...luDsm_uBAxWcEVkFHX6eATAQwg8oAHoECAMQDA&adurl=
It might still sound “tinny” that’s just the way audio is these days.

 

I’m running 3 pairs of these with their competition x-overs. Plus an adjustable x-over on the amp to fine tune what you want. No distortion no matter how loud it is. But hey they were made in Germany.

 

Not in the 4R I kept it stock it’s bada$$ and I listen to cassette tapes.

 

My new Trail Grid Pro speaker package arrived last night, and I checked their site today (Not sure what prompted me to do that, but I did) and boy am I glad I did.

The same setup I ordered was on SALE. I bought it for $528.00. Today it's $499.80. I called them up and asked "Hey, can I get the sale price difference refunded to me?" They didn't argue "Sure, we will do that if it's within 60 days of purchase".

They put it back on my CC right away. Man, it's refreshing to get easy-going customer service like that.

 

Much appreciated. I just pinged them about a refund too.

Thanks,
Mike

 

I replaced everything in mine. I also bypassed the speakers in the hatch, because, well, I didn't need them. I wouldn't be able to hear them anyway.

 

Actually, if you running everything off the OEM headunit, swapping the hatch speakers actually adds weight to the sound quality and adds mid range to the overall sound signature. Probably due to the way stock EQ curve is set that directs the midrange to the rear speakers and treble to the dash and low end to the front doors.
Experienced it first hand after I swapped all speakers.

 

I'm not. I replaced the head unit with a Pioneer deck that has Android Auto/Apple Carplay.

 

Best thing ever, getting rid of the OEM headunit.

 

Always.

 

What did you go with? I’m thinking of the floating pioneer soon.

 

Everyday I add the pioneer 509, the Kenwood 1370 and the Sony 9500 in my cart and everyday I remove it.
I am on the fence, I want better sound but I like the OEM look.
The pioneer 509 is indeed good looking, but this whole' floating unit' thing is holding me back.
I would love to try the 2020+ headunits , they look so good but have absurd re sale pricing right now. It's still a Toyota unit with crappy eq curve at the end of the day.

 

I felt the same way, really didn't want a floating display. But then i started waying the advantages over OEM look. Unbelievable upgrade features like 4 camera inputs tire pressure and temp, superior audio controls. and so much easier to see with my old eyes. And i went big with my Kenwood DMX, figured just go all out.

 

Kenwood has the best audio quality among all of them.
But that 10.1 is huge for that space.

 

I was hoping they had a 9” version. Good word on the Kenwood

 

Trust me I know. lol

100% worth it though.

 

That is a nice head unit, but daaaaaamn it's huge and blocks the front air vents. I would have to have the vents pointed directly up to get any airflow out of them. Any other position and they'd be worthless.

In Texas it gets so hot I need all the vents pointed directly at me while driving.

 

Okay, that's a Tesla right there. But it sure looks good.
The Texas heat does not let me indulge in such extravagance.