new car stereo

[breitlings]

I bought an avalon a few years back after re-timing a range rover 5.0sc. i never really loved the car, but it was there when i needed, a car. There are a few things I don’t like about it, the seat comfort, the stereo, the steeringwheel. Its a bit over two years old about 36k miles and about to be paid off.

After spending some time looking at new cars i decided to keep my car for a few more years and change some of the things I didn’t like. Time to upgrade the stereo.

When I got the car I put new speakers in it, and the headunit worked, but wasn’t great. the signal was processed and compressed. the nav almost never worked.

so i got a top of the line pioneer, on sale, to replace it. Pioneer has wireless carplay, capacitive glass, may be a bit slow and has a somewhar low resolution screen— but it is the best they have.

i’m going to integrate it with maestro harness which is a programmable computer harness that interfaces wirh the car system. i’ll also add a small subwoofer and a 5 channel amplifier.

i realize this might be one of the last car stereo installs on a new car for me with the ever increasing sophistication of stereos and the fact i imagine buying nicer cars in the future that have better infotainment. will post pictures soon.

[darkside7]

I miss the good old days when putting in a stereo was simple. Get a head unit, speakers, a sub, and an amp. No worries of intergrating to factory electronics.

[Blansky]

I miss my 8 track.

And this.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by breitlings

i realize this might be one of the last car stereo installs on a new car for me with the ever increasing sophistication of stereos and the fact i imagine buying nicer cars in the future that have better infotainment. will post pictures soon.

i agree with this. My current factory setup is better than any aftermarket install i have ever had. I was skeptical at first, went with the upgraded option and was seriously impressed.

I do think partnering with car manufacturers is the way forward for this industry. When i was growing up stock setups were garbage

[GB-man]

I did this on my 4runner a few years ago. It was like I was back in high school. I went way over budget. Focal, JL amp, two small 8” subs maestro etc it was fun but I hope to never do it again.

When I sold the car a year later I Craigslisted the stereo equipment for half what I paid.

[Valenciawatchrepair]

Originally Posted by darkside7

I miss the good old days when putting in a stereo was simple. Get a head unit, speakers, a sub, and an amp. No worries of intergrating to factory electronics.

Same here. I used to put stereos in everything I owned. Even simple and cheap setups would sound good. Not worth the trouble to do it in today's cars.

[bdex75]

Used to have huge stereo systems in all my cars. 4-15” subs in one. 6-8”’s in another. I changed everything.

Stopped about 15 years ago as I started buying cars with Bose and other upgraded factory systems that were too complicated to mess with outside of spending way too much money.

My current Wrangler has the complete factory Alpine system with the subwoofer and it sounds really good and has a ton of bass, even with the top off.
Wife’s GX has the Mark Levinson system and while no where near as bass heavy it sounds wonderful.

When I used to compete there were the SPL guys and the SQ guys. I have been both.


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[AP8ESQ]

The good old days. Had 4 10" Kicker xpls in a box built into the trunk of my first accord teamed with a Kicker xs100 amp with the remote gain module.. ran mb quart component highs off a Kicker zx 460. worked my ass off for the setup but could hear that setup coming from miles away...

Nowadays I have the Krell system in my RLX hybrid which is probably better staged than even a custom setup but all digital so there's no sense in even trying to tinker...

[utc66]

I upgraded the speakers (4”) in my old Benz and added a Bluetooth retro looking stereo. Recently I’ve thought about adding a bass speaker, possibly under the seat. The speaker I found at Crutchfield is $599! I’m now thinking if I want better sound on a long trip, I’m just going to put a Bluetooth speaker in the back seat and be done with it.

[offrdmania]

The good ol days of my early 20s. My ears are paying for it now but those systems were the sh!t! Now im happy with the stock system that is in my truck.

[swils8610]

Ah...the good old days! Alpine head unit and Jensen tri-ax’s.


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[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by swils8610

Ah...the good old days! Alpine head unit and Jensen tri-ax’s.


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i remember my alpine with the detachable face so no one would steal it. Probably the most espensive part of my car in high school.

[breitlings]

Really nice reading the replies here. Sounds like there was some fun in the past, with 4-15"s whoa. I thought I went over the top once with my first car a taurus with a 18" JL w6 (which now takes on HT duty, really fantastic driver). As an aside, do you find certain sizes have sounds you like or don't?

I finished up the install after deciding I didn't have time to wait for an install put in a head unit which supports CarPlay and Android Auto. This head unit, w8400nex, sounded quite a bit better than stock Toyota, much cleaner, flatter, and fuller spectrum of sound. Maestro integration with the OBD II info is slick. Took an hour or two over two days partially because I blew a fuse and had to trace it down.

Took it thru NYC the next day and it was great with the onboard navigation. The lane information is great for an out of towner. There seems to be more info on the built in nav units, but it is not as good as Waze for traffic re-routing, which I'll use in heavy traffic when I have to be somewhere. When I use Waze it is really easy to pull it up and CarPlay, and it runs well, unlike Pandora which has some hiccups. Apple should allow integration of Siri at a deeper level with Amazon, Pandora, as I understand it I cannot just ask Siri to Play Pandora Avicii Station and at times you really need to use Siri for CarPlay tasks.

I later did the 5-channel amp, and it was a lot of work. More than expected perhaps 5 or 6 hours over two days, an hour or two taking everything out that I have to, and then another hour or less to fish the power cable up to the battery which I ran on the drivers side to try to shorten the length of cable in the cabin. The next step was running the 6 channel RCA cables to the trunk and 4 speaker wires that splice with the stock wiring. I did a really basic install for the first several days just to tune the system in. The infinity 4555a amp didn't need any increase of the gain on the 4 channel side of the amp, but on the subwoofer side, it did need need quite a bit of increase until I turned up the "sub eq" dial which seemed to attenuate the signal at minimal settings.

Once the amp was on it worked pretty well aside from the need to switch on of the RCAs on from rear to subwoofer. The amp took the clean signal and amplified it, it is more dynamic and exciting with reserves to run as Adele hits her notes. The Pioneer Auto EQ was very good and tuned everything to a very grown up flat level, surprisingly it completely turned off the rear speakers (a menu choice) and it does sound good with just the front sound stage.

I may save then re-run the auto eq settings with the subwoofer gain and eq turned down, then turn them up a bit as I like perhaps a bit more bass in my space.

[GerardoG]

Originally Posted by swils8610

Ah...the good old days! Alpine head unit and Jensen tri-ax’s.


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YES!!!!!!!!

And in the late 80's; the hottest item was the dual-led Clarion eq (EQB300)

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by swils8610

Ah...the good old days! Alpine head unit and Jensen tri-ax’s.

Dad and i custom built a cab for blue edge coax Jensens 6x9 in the late 70s. Loved the sound over stock. Had the Alpine with treble / bass slider on the top left. Replaced that with the AutoPC.

Was an IASCA SQ national judge back in the day with my friend Bill Burton. Before that was an installer when Soundstream intro'ed their blue amps, or great Nak gear in 86... too bad their defect head unit rate went sky high...

Miss those days, people actually cared about sound quality. Now the crap mp3... it all sounds like rubbish and generations later here we are.

Apologies for rant. Did lots of car audio stuff before it was fashionable, got fashionable, and now its pretty much dead.

[Fencer]

One of my cars, an older BMW, has the Intravee II system with 3 iPods and HD radio as sources, in addition to "normal" AM, FM and CD.

[Fat_ninja]

Originally Posted by Blansky

I miss my 8 track.

And this.

Lol

[brandrea]

Word of caution .... I did permanent damage to my hearing as a result of car stereos and now I’ve got tinnitus

Hopefully you enjoy the pure sound at reasonable levels

Sorry didn’t mean to be a downer. I LOVE music, just keep it real

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by Fencer

One of my cars, an older BMW, has the Intravee II system with 3 iPods and HD radio as sources, in addition to "normal" AM, FM and CD.

WOW.
I have over 1500 songs on an iPod and inch and a half square.

How many songs are there on 3 iPods?

[Fencer]

Originally Posted by Blansky

WOW.
I have over 1500 songs on an iPod and inch and a half square.

How many songs are there on 3 iPods?

It varies. I have about 100,000 tunes in my iTunes, and I load the selections into various iPods - I think I have seven of them. The three have different selections, for instance, the center one is classical, and the one on the right has mainly rock.

I work in audio industry, and music is part of what I do - I listen great deal to it.

[mfer]

I wish it was possible to do anymore. It almost always voids your warranty in most cases and the wiring is worrisome.

Back in the day, I was all mb quartz, jl and Rockford fosgate kind of guy.

Now I have a bmw with their premier system and it is laughable quality.

[kumar75203]

I’m not a huge bass guy but i do have an aftermarket stereo in both of my newer cars: an Alfa Quad and AMG GTS. Only required a $400 JL Audio Fix 82 in both cars to interface the aftermarket amps and processors with the factory signal. All the factory functions like parking assistance and lane departure still work.

I’ve got Focal Utopia components and a 12w6. Traffic is so bad these days that upgraded stereo has surpassed exhaust modifications when I get a new car.

[SpeakWithMichael]

I had a GMC Sierra about 10 years ago that was a concert hall on wheels. Sound deadening everywhere, amps under each seat, high end Polk speakers, big touch screen fitted in the dash, you could watch movies while you drove (yes, illegal, didn't care). It could move you to tears how good the sound was. Nothing in audio compared until I bought Dali speakers for my home many years later and learned about high end audio cables for the first time. OMG. Spend the money on cables, people.

[smak]

i have spent hundreds of dollars on all sorts of cable gimmicks but for my mid-high range where the tech counts, nothing has beat my homespun catagory five twisted pair that i braided from ethernet cable myself and tinned for conventional connectors.

google it up, they are a great alternative to the crazy speaker cable aftermarket.

[johnny80s]

I use to work at a shop. Selling flip phones for 1000.00 and pagers. I just found a box of my old stuff in the basement. Precision power amps, alpine head unit, mb quart speakers, and mtx subs with an epi center. Those were the days, we actually had two of the cars we did make it into magazines. Triangle electronics in the Chicagoland area.

[Fencer]

Originally Posted by smak

i have spent hundreds of dollars on all sorts of cable gimmicks but for my mid-high range where the tech counts, nothing has beat my homespun catagory five twisted pair that i braided from ethernet cable myself and tinned for conventional connectors.

google it up, they are a great alternative to the crazy speaker cable aftermarket.

That is correct. As someone who designs high-end equipment for living, I can tell you that most of that cable stuff is pure nonsense. You don't need to spend a lot on cables to get good sound. Speaker cables for $60K? Are you kidding me? Profit margins in cable industry are astronomical.

[SpeakWithMichael]

Originally Posted by Fencer

That is correct. As someone who designs high-end equipment for living, I can tell you that most of that cable stuff is pure nonsense. You don't need to spend a lot on cables to get good sound. Speaker cables for $60K? Are you kidding me? Profit margins in cable industry are astronomical.

Not suggesting one spends a lot, just a little more than whatever the cheapest option is. If you're spending $1500 on a home audio setup, spend $100-$150 of that on some better-than-average cabling. Work that into the budget, don't ignore it completely. It's worth it.