What system is in your ride?

Mr Peabody

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Nov 19, 2013
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Location
St. Louis, MO, USA
I recently bought a Toyota Crown Limited which has a JBL system. I'm impressed for a factory higher level system. It has 11 speakers, tweeters in front pillars and some speakers in the dash area some place, door panels and rear deck. The drivers are good quality and I suspect DSP is used as I have a front sound stage with nothing I can detect from the rear although speakers are supposed to be back there, this is with fade in the center. I need to sit in the back to see what it sounds like. I can't find the size but a sub is in the rear deck. It's rare I've had a factory system with this amount of clarity and good sound from the mids/highs. Bass is good once I blended it, I do like a bit more punch, overall it's good. It's going to take a while to figure out all the tech.

A couple years ago I bought a 99 Lexus ES300. Not with the ML system, it was a Pioneer system. Speakers rattled and when they were removed they were toast, mostly disintegrating. This was just for fun. I had the windows tinted. I replaced the rear door with JBL coaxial and front dorr/pillar with a JBL component set. The sub was in the rear deck but integrated into the high back brake light housing. Nothing would have gone back in there unless I paid a good amount from Ebay for the exact woofer that would have been as old or had someone do major fabrication. I opted for just putting a powered Rockfor 10" sub in the trunk. The factory head unit had a working cassette deck and 6 disc changer. The cassette eventually died. Although from information I could find there wasn't supposed to be crossovers but I found I had to set the sub crossover pretty high to blend. This was surprising using the JBL. Nevertheless this system rocked when I got it set up. it would have done better with an amp on the cabin speakers. I ended up selling this car to one of my kids. Hence buying the Crown.

Many years ago I had a Cavalier I used all Infinity Kappa speakers, Mitsubishi head unit and amp, Kenwood EQ with crossover, I had two 10" infinite baffle subs.

My 95 VW Golf III had a Sony ES head unit Infinity Kappa components and PPI amp, Bazooka sub.

Today stereo is so integrated into the other tech systems it makes aftermarket more difficult.
 
I recently bought a Toyota Crown Limited which has a JBL system. I'm impressed for a factory higher level system. It has 11 speakers, tweeters in front pillars and some speakers in the dash area some place, door panels and rear deck. The drivers are good quality and I suspect DSP is used as I have a front sound stage with nothing I can detect from the rear although speakers are supposed to be back there, this is with fade in the center. I need to sit in the back to see what it sounds like. I can't find the size but a sub is in the rear deck. It's rare I've had a factory system with this amount of clarity and good sound from the mids/highs. Bass is good once I blended it, I do like a bit more punch, overall it's good. It's going to take a while to figure out all the tech.

A couple years ago I bought a 99 Lexus ES300. Not with the ML system, it was a Pioneer system. Speakers rattled and when they were removed they were toast, mostly disintegrating. This was just for fun. I had the windows tinted. I replaced the rear door with JBL coaxial and front dorr/pillar with a JBL component set. The sub was in the rear deck but integrated into the high back brake light housing. Nothing would have gone back in there unless I paid a good amount from Ebay for the exact woofer that would have been as old or had someone do major fabrication. I opted for just putting a powered Rockfor 10" sub in the trunk. The factory head unit had a working cassette deck and 6 disc changer. The cassette eventually died. Although from information I could find there wasn't supposed to be crossovers but I found I had to set the sub crossover pretty high to blend. This was surprising using the JBL. Nevertheless this system rocked when I got it set up. it would have done better with an amp on the cabin speakers. I ended up selling this car to one of my kids. Hence buying the Crown.

Many years ago I had a Cavalier I used all Infinity Kappa speakers, Mitsubishi head unit and amp, Kenwood EQ with crossover, I had two 10" infinite baffle subs.

My 95 VW Golf III had a Sony ES head unit Infinity Kappa components and PPI amp, Bazooka sub.

Today stereo is so integrated into the other tech systems it makes aftermarket more difficult.
Wind and road noise make me disinterested in pursuing audio in a vehicle. Add in the integration issue you raise and it’s the final nail in the coffin, although I do have a pretty nice ‘94 F-150 that I might consider putting something into. Things were far simpler then, and it’s not just about sound quality in this instance.
 
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Whatever the folks in Munich decided was best for my bimmer. I have a 3 series without the upgraded sound system. 99% of the time I am listening to podcasts or talk radio in the car, so it isn't a big issue to me. My Previous VW had a Dynaudio that was quite nice.
 
Whatever the folks in Munich decided was best for my bimmer. I have a 3 series without the upgraded sound system. 99% of the time I am listening to podcasts or talk radio in the car, so it isn't a big issue to me. My Previous VW had a Dynaudio that was quite nice.


I always wanted to hear the Dynaudio system. A guy I knew had crazy money in a Mitsubishi rally car system used Dynaudio speakers with some type of French amps and DSP, maybe one of the best car audio systems I've heard.
 
Bose! Works just fine.
Bose is in a good number of cars. Premium for Mazda and Honda probably others. We were looking at a CX5, the sub was in the back wheel well area, system sounded pretty good. Curious if yours has a setting called "center point" whether you use it on or off. Sounds to me like it's either a surround or spatial audio type thing.
 
I recently bought a Toyota Crown Limited which has a JBL system. I'm impressed for a factory higher level system. It has 11 speakers, tweeters in front pillars and some speakers in the dash area some place, door panels and rear deck. The drivers are good quality and I suspect DSP is used as I have a front sound stage with nothing I can detect from the rear although speakers are supposed to be back there, this is with fade in the center. I need to sit in the back to see what it sounds like. I can't find the size but a sub is in the rear deck. It's rare I've had a factory system with this amount of clarity and good sound from the mids/highs. Bass is good once I blended it, I do like a bit more punch, overall it's good. It's going to take a while to figure out all the tech.

A couple years ago I bought a 99 Lexus ES300. Not with the ML system, it was a Pioneer system. Speakers rattled and when they were removed they were toast, mostly disintegrating. This was just for fun. I had the windows tinted. I replaced the rear door with JBL coaxial and front dorr/pillar with a JBL component set. The sub was in the rear deck but integrated into the high back brake light housing. Nothing would have gone back in there unless I paid a good amount from Ebay for the exact woofer that would have been as old or had someone do major fabrication. I opted for just putting a powered Rockfor 10" sub in the trunk. The factory head unit had a working cassette deck and 6 disc changer. The cassette eventually died. Although from information I could find there wasn't supposed to be crossovers but I found I had to set the sub crossover pretty high to blend. This was surprising using the JBL. Nevertheless this system rocked when I got it set up. it would have done better with an amp on the cabin speakers. I ended up selling this car to one of my kids. Hence buying the Crown.

Many years ago I had a Cavalier I used all Infinity Kappa speakers, Mitsubishi head unit and amp, Kenwood EQ with crossover, I had two 10" infinite baffle subs.

My 95 VW Golf III had a Sony ES head unit Infinity Kappa components and PPI amp, Bazooka sub.

Today stereo is so integrated into the other tech systems it makes aftermarket more difficult.
I have a Lexus with a Mark Levinson system. Its very good. I traded an Audi about a year ago which had Bang and Olufsen. The Levinson system is much better-not close. Of course, nothing has ever matched the luxurious sound of the Panasonic 8 track system I installed in my 1969 Plymouth Fury a little over a half century ago.
 
My Toyota has the JBL system, it does a reasonably good job. I've certainly heard worse in other vehicles.

My wife has a new plug in hybrid Volvo with the Harman system, surprisingly good! Especially when cruising on battery so no engine noise. I really wanted the B&W system they offer but those were very hard to come by with all the other options we wanted (air suspension was the main one). The Harman will have to do, my wife won't notice anyway...
 
Burmeister for me. Is it better than stock yes. Is it super fantastic I don't know about that. Would I pay for it I'm not so sure about that. I bought it off the lot and it was already there.
 
I have a Lexus with a Mark Levinson system. Its very good. I traded an Audi about a year ago which had Bang and Olufsen. The Levinson system is much better-not close. Of course, nothing has ever matched the luxurious sound of the Panasonic 8 track system I installed in my 1969 Plymouth Fury a little over a half century ago.

I too have a Lexus with the ML system. It has 21 speakers and a 10 channel 1800 watt amp driving them. For car audio, it's a fine system IMO.
 
The HK surround system in my M4 sounds decent enough though could be better for a 6 figure car. The best setups were always the ones I installed myself going back to the 70s; those Jensen 6x9 coaxial speakers rocked. Nobody considered putting a sub in a car back then.
 
Not a big car guy, mostly ride motorcycles and wear earplugs to save my hearing my Ducati and Aprilia have Akrapovic full Ti race exhaust systems. But I did buy a car last year for rainy days and driving to DFW Airport as I travel a lot for work. Picked up a 2026 Nissan Sentra SR and it has a nice little Bose sound system in it that sounds lovely, mostly listen to Audible books and Radio Paradise Sirius too but that usually on the NHL channel and Bloomberg.
 
The HK surround system in my M4 sounds decent enough though could be better for a 6 figure car. The best setups were always the ones I installed myself going back to the 70s; those Jensen 6x9 coaxial speakers rocked. Nobody considered putting a sub in a car back then.

Hell yeah, Jensen was the stuff back then. Remember power boosters the EQ's with a bit of built-in power.
 
We have a few cars with various ststems.

BMW X7: Bowers and Wilkins option and definitely not worth the price vs. the standard Harmon Kardon spec. Lacks in mid-bass and sub bass and the tweeters are a bit bright.

Land Rover Defender: Meridian system that overall is not bad, but certainly not great.

C8 Z06 Corvette: Bose system that is actually pretty decent and the best sounding of the OEM systems that we own. Although the sound of the motor far surpasses any need for music most of the time!

Ford Ranger Raptor: complete custom aftermarket system professionally installed with all factory amps and speakers removed.
Completely sound deadened the roof, doors and floor. The difference is really incredible.
Has an interface that removes all factory equalization and subwoofer high volume rollback. This feeds two multi channel Audison DSP amps powering Hertz component speakers and a Hertz 10” subwoofer in a sealed enclosure under the back seat. Total power is around 1,500 watts.
All of the speakers are time aligned and equalized for the environment. This system images and sounds more like a very good home system.
I use an Astel and Kern DAP mainly for the source and it is hard to listen to the other cars after this experience.
 
Speaking of power I remember late 80's Rockford Fosgate had a Punch amp 35x2 that could power your entire speaker system. Car audio contests had power rating category, like weight class for wrestling. I think that was the Punch 45, under rated and stable probably to 1/2 ohm. Notorious for doing well in that low watt category.
 
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