How do you find your stereo?

[Selthy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Selthy]

New VX arrived on Friday. I feel my stereo is a little underwhelming. Specifically when playing the FM radio. The best way to describe it is that it does not sound very full. My Wife agrees. All tone controls (Hi, mids, lows) are set neutral in the centre position. The default position (left/right front/rear) was sending way to much to the front and sounding tinny.

I have tried turning the "surround" control off and on, along with the Auto Leveliung DSP. The manual does suggest that the auto levelling DSP should give an option of High, medium and low, however I only get an on/off option

I am intereested to hear those that have a VX or Kakadu with a "premium 14 speaker stereo" find it. I'm half thinking a speaker may not be connected properly.

If you have a GX or GXL, i am also interested in your thoughts.

I would welcome any tips.

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

I have a 2010 gxl and I put Dynamat in the doors for noise reduction but a Sid effect was a vast increase in sound quality. Sounds a lot crisper and deeper bass all still on stock system.

[Gasmanjc Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gasmanjc]

Move All the tone controls (Hi, mids, lows) across to the right to your liking. Lows will give you some nice base. Im pretty happy with the Kakadu stereo system

[Selthy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Selthy]

Cheers, I had been hoping someone would say they were happy with theirs.

[iDestiny Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close iDestiny]

This is an issue that I have pondered for a while, and few here have mentioned. While i have 'felt' like the music doesn't sound as 'rich' as it should when using (especially) the radio, I have found the sound to be quite good when using other sources i.e. my phone or CD (yes, this despite adjusting the settings for each source). But even on my phone, some tracks don't sound as fuller/richer as I thought they should... Admittedly i do have music from a lot of difference sources on my phone (dodgy youtube rips to CD rips using FLAC format)... SO differences in quality is expected... but the difference isn't that obvious in our other 'non-Toyota' vehicle..

So while I assumed this had to do with the quality of music from the source... I can't shake the feeling that there is a little but more to this...

[cuda Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close cuda]

Are you using DAB+? I have noticed especially with standard am/fm it seems very tinny. Try DAB+ it seems quiet good and has plenty of base. All other sources on my system are fantastic.

Regards

[iDestiny Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close iDestiny]

Are you using DAB+? I have noticed especially with standard am/FM it seems very tinny. Try DAB+ it seems quiet good and has plenty of base. All other sources on my system are fantastic.

Regards

Actually i find DAB+ the most disappointing... (maybe my expectations for the DAB were too high)... Some stations on DAB were OK at best... Pushing low, mid and high settings to the max didn't improve situation much...

[Selthy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Selthy]

I'm finding as I move the balance more towards the front, the less 'tight' and the more thinner the sound. I wonder if it is possible a polarity issue. I'm finding the stereo not so great at lower volumes, as I crank it up it sounds better. I will keep playing with settings and see how I go.

[iDestiny Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close iDestiny]

+1 on the volume angle... should not be like that though

[cuda Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close cuda]

This may or may not help. Have you noticed that each source defaults to equaliser set to nul (no bass, treble etc). This maybe why you are not hearing better sounds on different sources. Every device needs to be setup individually.

Might help...

Doug

[Selthy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Selthy]

Cheers Doug, I noticed this yesterday. It is a little unuasual but I can see some benefits.

Playing around today, I noticed that at volume level 45 bass magically starts to appear, up to 50 and the stereo sounds great (DAB+). Thius is good, but I don't always want to listen to the radio at moderate to high volumes... Especially breakfast radio on the way to work.

[pradokakadudavid Member Find all posts View Profile Close pradokakadudavid]

Stereo quality and your perception of it always comes down to what you are used to. I have a 2016 Prado Kakadu which is supposed to have "hi fi" quality but this is a joke to me as I find this supposedly superior JB system is little better than my clock radio. As someone who was used to a superb Macintosh system in my former Subaru GT Liberty B spec and also almost as good Mark Levinson system in my Lexus ISF, my Kakadu system is pathetic by comparison. It all comes down to what you are used to!

[Nik83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nik83]

I came from a BMW harmon/kardon system to the GXL Prado, I have to admit, it does sound very underwhelming - especially at high volumes. I'm wondering what my best option is for sound quality... Not entirely sure that I want to do an android unit yet as they don't seem quite there - I'm thinking of possibly upgrading the front speakers and putting a 2 way amp under one of the seats. This could be the solution but I'm dubious as to if the quality problem is the speakers or the head unit. I'd love a hema/maps enabled brand name unit but it's hard to justify with a wife. A best mate of mine installs this stuff for fun so maybe I'll go to his place "for some beers" and see if we can make the change happen.

The wife loves playing mariah carey/celine dion at top volume, it hurts my ears. It didn't hurt them on the old system - it's the treble/high notes and beating speakers that kills it for my ear drums.

For the record - I don't believe the home audio big names convert to the cars (ie. macintosh subaru, hk bmw). But they are good quality and great marketing.

[iDestiny Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close iDestiny]

I came from a BMW harmon/kardon system to the GXL Prado, I have to admit, it does sound very underwhelming - especially at high volumes. I'm wondering what my best option is for sound quality... Not entirely sure that I want to do an android unit yet as they don't seem quite there - I'm thinking of possibly upgrading the front speakers and putting a 2 way amp under one of the seats. This could be the solution but I'm dubious as to if the quality problem is the speakers or the head unit. I'd love a hema/maps enabled brand name unit but it's hard to justify with a wife. A best mate of mine installs this stuff for fun so maybe I'll go to his place "for some beers" and see if we can make the change happen.

The wife loves playing mariah carey/celine dion at top volume, it hurts my ears. It didn't hurt them on the old system - it's the treble/high notes and beating speakers that kills it for my ear drums.

For the record - I don't believe the home audio big names convert to the cars (ie. macintosh subaru, hk bmw). But they are good quality and great marketing.

There are (after market) car sound specialists who can quite effectively overhaul your system. As always it is a case of how much you want to spend. When I was researching upgrading the sound system on my Kakadu I was told the client before me spend 6K overhauling the sound system on their Kakadu... While I haven't done anything with mine yet, upgrading the speakers apparently results in a noticeable improvement in quality (with lower cost). The amp upgrade is apparently a little more problematic (can't remember the details now)

While i am not a 100% happy with the sound system in the car, I do remind my self (or at least i try to) that the money i spend on this vehicle was for it off-road prowess...and by fiddling with sound quality settings on my phone (using various apps) I have reached a reasonable compromise with my music database (some radio channels are still crap though)

Guess can't always have the cake and eat it....

[Bobcrusader Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bobcrusader]

Quite simply, the sub-woofer does not kick in at low-enough volumes to fill in the bass end. I don't know why, because at higher volumes it sounds pretty good. It does seem to be missing some kind of option for sub-woofer control.