Hey so I don't know sh*t about audio

Most car audio sales folks I run into are, well, idiots. Not necessarily in a nefarious manner, but ignorant.

 

Yeah thats why i came on here went to the shop yesterday and they couldnt give me any straight up answers after waiting an hour cuz the dude was on the phone with the cable company. Highest rated shop in town lol

 

Hifonics used to make really nice stuff, but not so much anymore. It's maybe some level above Boss, but they sold out some time ago & that was the end of the goods. If you can get some of that older gear however, that's a different story.

 

The car audio maze can be a difficult one to navigate. Here's a list I found some time ago that's mostly spot on. I'm pasting this from another forum, but you can find the original here. I added a couple, but otherwise the list is unmolested.

Edit, I see some glaring errors with this list as it's a bit old (2012) & am gonna make some repairs. I'll put an asterisk* by the things I've changed. Lemme know if I've missed something.


Bad

Absolute
American HiFi (Rockwood)
American Pro
Audiovox
Automobile
Becker
Blackmore
Boschmann
Boss
Craig
DHD
Dual
Emerson
JDL
Jensen
Kenford
Kole
Kraco
Kronik
Legacy
MA Audio
Optimus (Radio Shack)
Pheonix Digital
Planet Audio (Boss, by any other name)
Power Acoustik
Profile
Pyle
Pyramid
Rockwood
Seicane
Sound Storm
Sparkomatic
SPL Audio
Stetsom
Thump
Ultimate Sounds
Urban Audio
US Amps- the newer stuff
Visonik
Volfenhag


Questionable

Alphasonik
Autotek
Audiobahn
Audiopipe
Blaupunkt
Aiwa
Crunch
Elemental Designs (eD)
Hifonics (new stuff)*
Hollywood
Kenwood (amplifiers)
Lanzar
LA Sound
Lightning Audio
Matsui
MB Quart (newer stuff)*
Nakamichi (newer products)
NVX Audio (except X-series)*
Onyx Mobile Audio
Panasonic
Phoenix Gold (newer)
Pioneer (amplifiers and most speakers)
Precision Power (PPI) (newer non-US made amplifiers)
RE Audio- newer stuff
Rockford Fosgate (lower series products)
SAS Bazooka (all products)
Sony Xplod
Soundstream (newer)*
Vibe


Good

Alpine (amplifiers, Type-R speakers and subs, some head units)
Altec Lansing
Alumapro
Ampere Audio*
Ample Audio
Ascendant
Audio Control
Audio Development
Avionixx
Boston Acoustics
Cadence (questionable under new ownership)*
Cerwin Vega (subs)
Clarion (head units)
Clifford (alarms)
Cliff designs
Coustic
Crescendo Audio
Crossfire
Crystal
DC Audio
Directed (DEI)
Dynamat
Earthquake (some good some junk)
Eaton
Focal
Ground Zero
Helix (lower series of products)
Hifonics (old school)*
Hushmat
Illusion
Incriminater Audio
Infinity
JBL*
JVC Digifine
Kenwood Excelon (HU)
Kicker
Kinetik (batteries)
Lunar
Massive Audio
Memphis Audio
MTX (amplifiers)
NVX X-series drivers*
Orion (newer products)
Phoenix Gold (some models)
Pioneer- HU's
Polk Audio
Powerbass (older...new stuff is questionable)
Rockford Fosgate (Power Series amp and subs)
Second Skin (deadner)
Skar Audio (owner/company seems to be very shadey/unethical)
SoundQubed*
SSA Audio
Streetwirez
USAcoustics
Viper/DEI (alarms)

Highest Quality

a/d/s
Adire
Alpine (head units, signal processors)
Arc Audio
Audax
Audiofrog*
Audison
Brax
Butler Audio
CD Technologies (CDT)
Concord* (out of business)
Diamond Audio (HEX)
Digital Designs (DD)
DLS
DynAudio
Eclipse (Fujitsu Ten)
Esoteric Audio
FI Audio
Gladen
Harrison Labs
Helix (Higher series of products)
Hertz
Hybrid Audio
Image Dynamics (ID)
JL Audio (W6v2, W6v3, W7. ZR components,Slash and HD series amps)
KEF Kar components
Kove
Linear Power*
Luxman
MB Quart (old school)*
McIntosh Laboratories
MMATS
Morel
Mosconi
Nakamichi (Older products)
Ohio Alternator
Orion (older products)
OZ Audio
Pioneer Premiere (head units)
Precision Power (PPI) (Older PowerClass and Art series)
Rainbow
Resonant Engineering (RE) Older Stuff
Rockford Fosgate (older 1980s and 1990s models)
Scanspeak*
Sinfoni
Soundstream (old school amps)
Sound Deadener Showdown* (deadening)
Stereo Integrity
Stinger
Sundown Audio
Treo
Tru tech
US Amps (older amps)
Wrangler Alternators
XS Power (batteries)
Xtant
Zapco (Not sure about some new stuff)*
Zed Audio

 

Helpful list, thanks! Any suggestions for a midlevel 5 channel amp?

 

What price range?

 

Thought you'd never ask I've used this guy in several builds for friends. Never an issue, never any noise. Very easy to wire up and adjust. Should be small enough to fit under your seat, and pretty darn cheap for $250.

Alpine MRV-V500 5 Channel V Power Digital Amplifier

https://www.amazon.com/Alpine-MRV-V...70063597&sr=8-2&keywords=alpine+5+channel+amp

 

Yeah, hard to go wrong with that Alpine. Beyond that, if it goes tits up after warranty, Alpine will repair or replace it for $85 including return shipping! Their repair folks are easy to work with too and work quickly. Nice to have that peace of mind going into a purchase. You may not get a warranty purchasing through Amazon though...depends on the actual seller. Make sure you use an authorized retailer if that's important to you.

Power output's a bit on the low side, but if that's what you need it's a good amp.

 

I like that Alpine, looks perfect for what I want! Thanks for the suggestion TurboGT & Rob.

I'm at a crossroads and maybe you guys could help. I'm looking to improve my system (2016 DBCB Premium & Technology package) while keeping stock HU. Definitely need more volume/power, clarity & bump while not using up much space. Also the easier to install w/o having to splice a bunch of wires the better.

I found the OEM Audio + which looks ideal plug and play but I'm not sure an 8" will cut it but I could be totally wrong. Don't need to shake bass but something with definite punch.

 

I'm suspicious of the plug & play claim. See those big yellow wires? I'm guessing you get to run those through the firewall to the battery. Where else in the electrical system are you going to get enough juice for 360W RMS without popping fuses? And I'm 100% sure you get to run a ground and prepare the surface to accept it. That's not what I call plug & play. You can get way more for your money IMHO. This will be easier than figuring it out yourself, but bang for the buck looks to be pretty low. And again the plug & play claim is deceiving.

 

Just putting a aftermarket deck will totally increase the sound quality. Then if your not satisfied you can change the doors. Then if you feel the need for bass. Add a sub. Playing bass through the door speakers will eventually bring about their demise. They are vocal speakers.

 

I love their claim of a "Quad voice coil" sub

An 8" sub would be plenty fine, but for the $1,500 price tag... you can easily piece together a much better system, have a box built (locally from a shop, or talk to Mr Marv) and if you're not doing anything too tricky/crazy... anyone that can turn a wrench, use a screwdriver, cut & strip wires, and operate a soldering iron (stupidly simple too) can install a system in their own truck. Oh, and ability to use common sense/follow directions is a must

For about $150 you can piece together a "plug n play" setup for your stock headunit... at least as plug and play as you're gonna get

and if you want more info on that... let me know

 

Yeah, that too. I don't see the point. Maybe they meant 4-layer?

 

Your right, I knew it was expensive and no clue who even makes the stuff. I would like to easily be able to convert it back to OEM for when the day comes that I part with my Taco, which is one of my main reasons for wanting plug and play, well also because of time. Have so many projects going on right now, so much I want to do to this truck already lol!

It all seems pretty straight forward for the most part; a set of components for the front, coaxials for the back, 5 channel amp + install kit, possibly some sound deadening material, a sub and enclosure. However, what I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around is the whole no RCA's. Do I really need a LOC, especially with that Alpine amp it says it has speaker inputs. The other thing is, the wiring harness. Is there a plug and play one available for the 2016, I could only imagine all kinds of problems with the remote turn on, especially for the different audio sources...this is where my confusion lies. Lastly, do I need to replace all my speaker wire as well?

 

First off, by the time you go to part with your Taco, you're not gonna care to keep all that stuff, because 10 yrs down the road (which will roughly be when Toyota makes another major generation change ) you will have used all that you paid for it and won't care anymore to put it back to stock.

As for the "whole no RCA" deal, with that alpine amp, and many others, you don't need them, or a LOC. Would I tell you that you SHOULD use them? YES... because one day you will decide that "maintaining the stock look" doesn't work for you, and I've seen it hundreds and hundreds of times, and you'll want to change it out. Putting the LOC in behind the radio and running RCA's to the amp will save you the trouble of having to do all that later. The cost doesn't increase... 20 ft of speedwire costs you as much as the

$39 PAC LP3-4 L.O.C. PRO Series 4-Channel Line Output Converter

LOC will, so why not??

Yes, there are harness for the 2016, because Toyota thankfully hasn't changed the plugs that power the radio and supply the speakers in almost 30 yrs

Here's the list of parts I put together for another guy who was asking similar questions a few weeks ago... it's everything that you need to hook up a stock headunit to an amplifier, and get the signal back to your speakers, and power the amp, all for about $125. Only thing I would add would be another set of RCA's to feed the sub signal (I would NOT use the RCA's from the wire kit, but that's personal preference) for another $18.

No, for most applications you don't have to replace your speaker wires if you don't want... use the kit I put together to get signal to the amplifier and back to the headunit, stock wiring takes care of the rest.

EDIT: Oh, and someone posted a thread a couple weeks ago (??) about some Focal 6x9 Toyota replacement speakers for $300... so between the alpine amp, the install kit, and some quality near plug-n-play (front) speakers, you're talking about $700... I'm pretty sure for $500 you could find rear speakers (if you even want them) and a sub, and get a box built (if you're unable to do so)