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

I think he is more saying that for the amount paid, the system should of been a little bit better. I think toyotas idea was in the right place, but finance made some cuts and the speakers were the first to get downgraded.

 

The stock speakers are made to give a minimum audio experience and maximum weight savings towards fuel efficiency. We had an Acura RDX with its "Premium" sound system. It was meh. The same type of components, low powered head units, small magnets, paper construction, plastic frames. I never expect a factory system to come close to what you can do with aftermarket components. Factory systems are underpowered, muddy sounding, and the speakers fry soon after you start to push the volume. If you like good tunes and quality sound, upgrading is the cost of doing business. It's just too bad you can't get a decent credit from the dealer and opt-out of the factory system.

 

Would of been nice if the toyota JBL system used off the shelf JBL speakers instead of the special made crap they put in there. Just give us a normal 5 channel amp, retail speakers and sub, RCA cables run from the headunit already. I feel like toyota could of gotten better speakers for their money if they got already made stuff like we upgrade to, than having JBL make a special speaker just for their car.

 

As long as my music is playing and it's not clipping/digital distortion from over compression, then i'm with fine it. I just keep it at a lower volume, digital file formats have no dynamic range anyways, it just fatigues your brain.

 

OEM Audio + was my very first mod. Then I replaced the head unit with a Dasita 9 PX5 unit with a wireless carplay dongle. I dropped a little sound insulation in the doors to kill the rattle and I am extremely happy with my sound. Everything was easy .... plug and play. I could have built a much higher end system for the money, but I would have been splicing and soldering forever. I no longer find that fun, and I'm too cheap to pay someone else to do inferior work. During my time in isolation, I upgraded the head unit to the Dasita 9 PX6 with built in wireless carplay. I sold my original head unit, mostly paying for my upgrade.

 

Did the new head unit make a significant difference with the OEM audio plus setup over the stock head unit?

 

I did the kicker replacement all around and added a pioneer powered sub under my seat. Muuuuuuuuuuuch better now.

 

Yes, both the Dasita 9 PX5 and PX6 units were significantly better than the stock Entune unit.

 

do you think he meant audio quality wise?

 

I didn't know that my audio system sucked, amazing all the things you learn on this forum.

 

Not everyone likes things to sound the same and some have different sound expectations/wants. You'd probably hate most of my sound systems. my 99 Camry LE had a 100% better sounding factory stereo than my 2020 Tacoma non JBL system.

 

Quality is considerably better with both of my Dasitia head units. Volume without distortion is light years better than the Entune unit. Audio controls and fidelity of adjustments is far superior in the Dasitia units. The one area the unit does not perform better is the sound quality during telephone conversations. Entune with the factory amplified microphone does work better.

 

I've got the OEM JBL system, pleased with it. However, my navigation is totally worthless.

 

I think factory stereos in just about all newer Tacos suck! Luckily my stereo is completely aftermarket; My friend’s ‘04 has an aftermarket head unit with what I believe to be the factory speakers, and it sounds pretty good!

 

Should have upgraded to the PT package with JBL. The system is great

 

Im pretty happy with the speakers. I actually think they are quite good. I do listen to XM 99% of time though, seems to be better quality sound. My buddy on the other hand, says they are complete thrash and cant wait to replace his.

After my 2007 Rangers' speakers, the sound system in the tacoma is high end haha!

 

Agreed. One of the best factory stereos we ever had was in our old 1986 Grand Am. At least I think it was '86 ish... It had a Delco/Bose designed system that was actually really good for a factory system. It gave clear sound and solid base, speakers could handle it if you turned it up loud. It was about the only good thing about that car.

Until I could afford my own car I would upgrade the stereos and speakers in my mom's cars, since those would be my drivers as a teenager. Pioneer, Alpine, Blaupunkt. Had to be able to pop the hatch on the red 1980 Corolla SR5 and play some loud tunes while we partied, or hanging out in the school parking lot between classes.

 

If they used off the shelf JBL that would actually cost them some $. I'm pretty sure that if you call JBL they tell you the Toyota amp isn't even made by them..It's as if they're just licensing the use of their name and logo.

 

I kept a crap home tower speaker I fished out of a dumpster in my trunk. It was hooked up to a amp, when we wanted to listen to music we just poped the trunk, stood the speaker up and hit play.

I feel like older cars didnt have very good placement of the speakers, but they had good speakers to make up for the lack of sound stage. Then car companies started locating speakers in good locations but still used nicer speakers, then they started switching to crap speakers in good locations.

 

He shoots and he scores.