Tacoma OEM+ Stereo for those interested

Thanks for the info. I actually had messaged Daniel today and informed him that I would "likely" be placing my order tomorrow, but I may way to hear your thoughts on it before taking the plunge. Keep me in the loop please.

 

No problem, I will keep you updated. It is a lot of money to spend and I felt like I was taking a leap of faith because the schematics on the speakers, amp, and sub are not that impressive for the price point. However, I do think a DSP is necessary if you are using the factory head unit and those are expensive and I would never get it tuned right on my own anyway.

If anyone else has bought the system that has not already posted, what are your thoughts on how it sounds?

 

Yeah that were my thoughts on it as well. I read some reviews on their prior systems in the FJ's and Subaru's and a couple of reviews on the 2nd Gen Tacoma that all were positive regarding the sound quality. I'm not a "bass" guy but would like an upgrade in quality so I figured this would be the perfect setup for me without hacking up the existing wiring or replacing the head unit.

 

I have read many good reviews on them as well, but a lot of the reviews seemed very cookie cutter, which made me skeptical so I did some more research and found this on cnet :

http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/oem-audio-plus-delivers-car-sound-in-a-box-upgrade-for-scions/

It sounds like this is a system for people who are looking for quality and not quantity.

 

Nice find. Thanks for posting. Yeah this review though it does definitely seem like an upgrade over the stock does shine a lot more light on the downside of the system compared to the aforementioned "cookie cutter" reviews.

 

So I finally got my OEM system and got it all hooked up and here is my opinion on everything. If you just care about the sound, scroll to the last paragraph. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

After I ordered the product it took them 3 weeks to ship it, so I did not have the kit in my hands until almost 4 weeks after I placed my order. The speakers compared to stock are clearly more heavy duty, except for the tweeters. The original speakers are so light and cheap feeling that I would have thought they were a toy if I had not taken them out of my truck. With that said, the OEM tweeters actually felt like this, while the stock tweeters actually felt heavy duty (not sure why, and not sure how much that matters for tweeters).

Install:
The install was a pain in the a$$. It took me 7 hours because of a couple of mistakes I made. First off, OEM's video is helpful, but not very detailed. removing panels and other things are far more difficult than it looks in the video. I am guessing this is because they were already disconnected when they demonstrate. Here are somethings to learn from my mistakes. I did have two rubber pieces fall out of the door panel when I pulled them off and I can not for the life of me figure out where they go so I have spare parts now (at least there is not rattling).

Learn from my mistakes section:

#1 - After door panels are removed make sure the white circular clips are attached to the panel and not still in the door. If they are not, remove them and put them in the door. It took me longer to figure this out then I should have and added about 90 minutes to my install time.

#2 - Make sure the door handle is hooked up properly. I did not do this and trying to open a door with out outside or inside handles working set me back another hour.

#3 - Have the windows rolled up all the way when installing this. You could get by with them down, but putting everything back together with them up makes the process easier and ensures you have everything lined up correctly.

#4 - Do not put the bass speaker in the storage bin until it is connected and you are ready to leave it there. I placed it in to see how snug it was and it was snug. Pain in the neck trying to get it back out. Took me a good 15 minutes.

Other than than, take care taking off panels. They require a fair amount of force, but if you pull in the wrong direction the plastic tabs will snap off fairly easy.

Sound:

My one fear was that this system wouldn't be loud enough, but it was plenty loud. I turned it all the way up and it still it sounds pretty good and was plenty loud for me. The bass is not going to make your heart skip a beat, but it is plenty to make the system sound good. I am actually really happy with the bass. Not too much and not too little. If you are all about that bass, then this system will not meet your needs. While I did think this sounded good and was a huge upgrade over the stock, I did not think it was as crisp as I was expecting. I am not an audiophile, but I felt at high volumes I could hear distortion in the mids. While using bluetooth, there was some slight distorting in the background. It was that noise a record player makes in between songs.

Verdict:

The bass was better than I expected and the overall volume was better than I was expecting. The crispness and clarity was there, but not to the degree I was hoping for. With that said, I may just be being a snob and unrealistic. If you are looking for a system without changing your head unit than I would recommend this system. If you do not care about the stock look and want to buy another head unit than I think you can do just as good, if not better for the price. I really do not think youll do better for the price if you keep the stock head unit because I am of the opinion you would need to purchase a digital signal processor, and those are not cheap and are not easy to program for the lay man. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

Thanks for the tips and the review. I was expecting great sound and no distortion, the bass sounds like it may be better though. You've tempered my expectation a bit, but still looking forward to testing it out myself! Other than the door panels what led to the long install times? How difficult is the routing of wires and running the power wire to the battery for the amp?

 

Other things that cost me my time were adding sound deadening material behind the speakers, not having the windows rolled up and having to take the panels apart again to fix it, the door panels took me a long time to fix because I had it all done and then figured out I messed up and had to take them all apart again, and a good hour was spent on trying to open one of the doors that I could not open because I hooked the cable up that attaches to the handles incorrectly. Without the sound deadening and the mishaps, I think I could do it in 3 hours if I was motivated and surgical. To do it in 2 hours you would have to be well familiar with tearing apart cars, as there is definitely an art to it. Also, I probably took a bit longer to zip tie my wires because I am OCD.

Running the wires was not too bad, but you do have to get down on your back and become a contortionist to get them to go where you want. For the power wire it is really important to have a guide wire to snake it to the passenger side and then through the grommet into the engine compartment. I lost some time on that because I tried to wing it. I ended up using a coat hanger and that, surprisingly, worked quite well. Hooking the power to the battery was much simpler than when I installed my last stereo in my Subaru. The hardest part and most time consuming was taking off all the paneling. I had a hell of a time with all of that. Everything else was fairly easy.

When you get yours hooked up, let me know what you think. I wonder if my expectations were just too high, or if I am right that it is not as crisp as advertised. Also, I wonder if I will think differently after listening to it awhile and letting it break in. Anyway, I am rambling, if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

Dude!! Thanks for the feedback.. I've been watching this since it was a thing for the 2nd gen. On the topic of sound, you had mentioned you tested it with bluetooth. How does it do with radio and/or CDs (studio recorded vs burnt)? I curious because I experience similar artifacts / "distortions" when listening to compressed audio such as Pandora / MP3s, etc.. with my Westone UM Pro20 Ear Monitors.

Also thanks for the tips on the installation. I wonder how similar your notes are for the '11... I'm hesitant to touch my panels in fear of causing rattles.

Anxious to read more reviews.

 

Non-burnt CDs sound better than bluetooth, but I still can hear a slight bit of distortion when cranked up. Burnt CDs will sound find if the clarity of the track you put on it is good. I think a USB cord is going to be the way to go for my phone, even though it negates the wireless charging. I know I am being picky and have been purposely been trying to find distortions, but the advertisement was for crisp and clear audio so I wanted to see how well it did. The system sounds very good, but I think to say concert hall sounding is a bit of a stretch. With that said, give me a week to break it in and I will see if my opinion of it changes. I am not an audiophile, but my house and previous vehicle all have very high quality sound so I feel I can tell the difference, even though I may not be able to verbalize it in technical terms.

As far as install goes, I do not have advice for the '11, although I will be installing my old vehicle's system in my Dad's '11 Tacoma in a couple of weeks, so if you want me to get back to you on what I find I will be happy to let you know. While, disassembly was challenging, I feel that everything went back together snug and I have not heard, nor do I expect to hear any rattling. I did break 2 plastic clips throughout the process, one didnt seem to matter, and the other now has some super glue added to it, but it is all back together firmly and I hear zero rattles. My only advice is know that it will take force to get it off, but if anything starts flexing because you are pulling too hard, than you probably are not pulling at the right angles, or you forgot to take out a screw.

 

I just finished my install as well. No major issues, and took my time. The speakers were a significant improvement over stock (put those in a few days prior) and adding the amp and sub definitely filled in the low end. Not sure if they need to break in a bit, but as of now voices are a little bright and lacking some depth. I'm hoping this improves over time. I haven't really gone above "40" on the head unit as I suspect if you push that too hard, you'll start driving signal distortion into the DSP amp. I don't think this approach is quite as clean as a true pre-out signal as the head units amp is in the equation. Keeping the H/U volume reasonable and it is very "clean, crisp, and clear".

 

I'm a few weeks away from testing the stock HU for distortion... The plan is to use my oscilloscope .. I need to do this anyway to set my amp gains..

I'll post up what volume shows clipping..

 

Any updates to the system? I've been eyeballing a speaker upgrade since I got a manual and the base system.

Heres a question, if I install everything and decide I dont exactly like the base, can I tie in a different base system in the rear, or can I replace the speakers up front with something that hits a little harder. Im not in to super hard hitting base, but occasionally I do want it hit hard on some rock songs. I'm just saying, Thunderstruck sounds like shit without a good system to play it on

 

Any findings you can share from your testing the stock HU @bginvestor?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/my-review-of-the-oem-audio-reference-450q-system.426125/

That is a link to my thoughts/review of the system for anyone interested.

 

Did you end up getting one? I have one on order and listen to mostly metal and rock. Was wondering what you think. Slayer, Carcus, and Impalers are good ones as well.

 

Nope, ended up getting a full Hybrid Audio system from Mr. Marv since he's local, for the same price. Decided I didn't like the reviews about how its barely the JBL system, and if I'm spending over a grand I want something quality.

 

Just my 2 cents....

When you're installing aftermarket speakers you want the window all the way down, to make sure the speaker doesn't hit the window when its rolled down. If your window is tinted, it helps avoid the possibility of scratching your tint.

 

I'm going to pull the trigger on the OEM + system. Want a clean installed system with no headaches.

 

The install is really straight forward. Sounds great too. OEM+ is great to work with. Great choice and enjoy!