Why does the audio suck in the 3rd gen? (Solved)

I really like the idea of the automatic calibration. That looks very promising.

 

Lol pretty funny. I was the same way. I had a nasty sound system in my old TJ when I was a teenager. I can’t listen to music like that anymore. Gives me a headache, and I’m only 32!

 

I dont think I would be complaining accept that my older civic with the basic audio sounded substantially better. It also costs less than 1/2 the price of my Tacoma

 

Yap kicker key. I went with the key and morels tempo Ultras, I love the sound now.

 

I agree. I have the step down from the JBL and I think it sounds pretty good. Then again, the audio isn't my primary focus anymore.

 

As a Chrysler, Dodge Jeep tech I will say entune is way behind in all audio, nav. telematics ect. Uconnect is leaps and bounds ahead with the exception of all types of software issues. Uconnect has been around for years now and still full of bugs. The one good thing about entune is reliability. That's about it. I still luv my PRO regardless.

 

I like it but don't love it. I'm hunting for a HU. Let's just say it's been the toughest buying decision for the truck.

 

I must not live a life of luxury. The sound system on my 3rd gen Tacoma exceeded my expectations. I thought the same about the back seat; another thing I see complained about. Then again, my previous vehicle was a 2001 Subaru.

 

They sound pretty good at first but start to degrade fairly rapidly.

 

Kicker key only goes down to 4ohms.

Reading the manual makes it look so good. My speakers are 2.5 ohms. Plus the 20mx Which are another 2.5ohms.

The manual says the amp supports a bi-amp mode.... "The Bi-Amp mode is
to be specifically used without passive crossovers.
Possible usages are with component speakers (two
woofers and two tweeters), or with door woofers
and dash speakers. Once the Bi-Amp switch is ON,
the KEY amp will automatically detect and apply Bi-
Amplification settings during the KEY Auto Setup:

 

ive replaced everything except the stock wiring and its much more improved. 8" JL audio sub , Speakers, 2 amps, Kenwood Headunit, subaru kicker tweeters and i have 2 doors left to put CCF and sound deadening in. Im happy with how it sounds after all of this.

 

Tiny magents on the factory speakers, cheap plastic baskets for their frames and thin cheap paper is all a factory speaker is even the JBL system they come with is still in all realities far from real JBL quality.

When i get my Tacoma I personally am looking at a kenwood nav head unit compatible with the kenwood dash cam,, kicker hideaway sub "had one on my 2010 access cab and it had plenty of power and was out of sight" and componet set in the front either 2 way or 3 way not sure yet and matching coaxals in rear.
Overk maybe but I used to do live show production so I know what live music and sound is supposed to sound like and I personally loath factory steros .
One other reason I plan to swap out the factory head unit is I am not really a fan of Alexa or Google home devices.
But thats just my 2 cents.

But any aftermarket speaker even with high sensitivity ratings will sound worlds better with proper power.
Most if not all factory head units can put out may e a total of 10 watta and without distortion maybe 5-6.
Underpowering speakers is actually easier to blow speakers as the factory amp cant provide enough clean power causing the amp to clip which basically is a short across your speakers.

Its safer to slightly overpower them then underpower as its clean power.

Also if i recall toyota factory wiring for the front speakers has the tweeters tied into the door speakera so if both are 2 ohms the factory stereo could be seeing a 4 ohm load but I need to do more research to be certain.

PS sorry for the book.

 

The audio itself isn't bad in my sr5, the siriusXM is great. its the fm radio that sucks, likely due to that joke for an antenna.

 

aftermarket radio w/ factory antenna picks up fine and sounds good. The headunit from the factory has terrible radio reception.

 

The factory stereos have HORRIBLE radio reception.
Not to get to techy/geeky but if you want good FM reception look at ones that have a lower dBf sensitivity. The lower the number the better it can pick up radio frequencies.
Even just for reference crutchfield.com posts the numbers for all their steroes so check them out even if you dont but from them they give great speca across the board for all their stuff.

 

Oem audio +. Best mod I’ve done to my truck

 

You need to add the 20mx midrange speakers. Check out my build using the JBL version of those speakers.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-audio-build-android-3-way-components-3-amps-wow.576729/

 

.

 

For 1600 dollars it should blow the doors off the truck. But you still have the limited functionality of the OEM headunit.

 

I've had my OEM Audio kit for, let's see. March of 2016 not long after they released for the 3rd Gen and it's been absolutely fantastic. Paid $1,499 back then for it and I feel that I've really gotten value out of it with as much use as it sees and I've had zero issues in over 4 years now. I crank it up and listen almost exclusively with my iPod (5th Gen with a hard disk) as the source. Lots of 256k AAC and a large amount in ALAC (Losless).

I mostly chose it because the research was already done for me and they had support for it vs building my own as I did in my tundra. Which was still fine and obviously cheaper. But it didn't tie together and have the fit and finish of the O+ system.

Buy yes. Factory was quite miserable. My 2002 Camaro with its old Monsoon system blows the Taco away.