Key Questions to Ask When Ordering Toyota Car Stereos

5. Just How Much Stereo Does Your Toyota Need?

If you've ever experienced a car audio competition, you'll know that what's possible when it comes to a car stereo is quite remarkable. As cool as these wild car audio systems may be, there not typically recommended for the average driver. Not only can these stereo systems damage your hearing, they can also draw unwanted attention from law enforcement and neighbors who were napping. Remember, many towns and cities throughout the Pacific Northwest have sound ordinances, and you could pay a price for having a car stereo system that's too loud.

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For those who would just like to have a better stereo in their Toyota, the service and parts department at an authorized Toyota dealership can make your car audio upgrade and installation easy.

4. Difference Between Aftermarket & Factory-Approved Car Audio

Technically, the term aftermarket refers to anything intended for a vehicle after it's reached a dealership. However, our dealership technicians typically think of Toyota accessories as being in one of two camps. First, there are the parts and accessories that have been approved by factory engineers to work flawlessly with your Toyota. Then, there's everything else in the aftermarket like what you'll find at the generic auto parts franchise or from that mega online store. The difference is often between confident reliability and simply throwing money away.

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3. Is Your Car Audio Upgrade Approved To Work With Other Car Systems?

It used to be that a car stereo system was essentially its own thing. If you had the power wired properly and a fuse somewhere in the circuit, you were usually good to go. Today, car audio systems are far more complex and integrated into a variety of other systems in your vehicle. Now, there are steering wheel controls, satellite telematics, and driver assist technologies all integrated with sophisticated infotainment systems that do a lot more than tune in your favorite FM radio frequency.

When it comes to car audio installations on modern Toyota models, you're best bet is to trust the factory-trained technicians at an authorized dealership service center like ours at Capitol Toyota.

2. Make Sure Your Car Audio Installation Is Backed By A Warranty

When dealing with sophisticated things like modern car stereo systems, it only makes sense to get some manner of warranty behind the products and their installation. Most independent car audio shops will offer some type of warranty, but you'll likely find that it's not as good as what you'll get from the service center at an authorized dealer like Capitol Toyota. Here, we stand behind any and all work that our factory-trained technicians perform. What's more, we only use factory-approved parts and components that are guaranteed to work seamlessly with the rest of the vehicle's systems. The result is an expert installation of quality audio components that you can trust.

For more Toyota Car Stereosinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

Hi all. I will be buying a soon without the JBL system. My question is about the stock head end unit. I do not want to replace it. However, I have read that it does not put out a full-range frequency response, deliberately removing or demphasizing low frequencies from the back door and tailgate speakers. I also have read that it has significant "equalization" curves built into it. Those things are not good. Can anyone confirm or disprove this on the or at least the stock head end unit? If true, has anyone measured the output frequency response to see exactly what the output is?

I have a very hard time believing that there is anything special going on in the head end unit that actually does this equalization or rolloff, and I suspect it may be due to simply having awful factory speakers. The install videos for the Kicker and OEM Audio speaker sets make no mention of this issue, and it seems like they would not sound very good if any of this were true, yet people like both of those upgrades very much.

In my FJ Cruiser, a head end unit "feature" called ASL (Automatic Sound Leveling I think) can be turned off. It's sort of like a loudness control. With that disabled in the head end unit, which was made by Pioneer according to the sticker on it, and a decent power wire run to it, it actually works pretty well, and it's still in there after 13 years.

Get the ds18 plug n play speakers… got them off eBay. Better than the Subaru kicker alternative

Stock tweeter is so bad it's hardly a yardstick. And you are still replacing a tweeter with a tweeter.
A tweeter is no match for a full range 3.5 inch speaker in the dash.
I have heard this tweeter. It improved a little on clarity but it was still thin sounding, was shrill and did nothing for vocals. What just a tweeter would do.
Now if you ran a 3.5 and cut the lower frequency with a capacitor, you gain clarity as well as vocals from the dash speakers.

I'm not really interested in the speakers right now. I will use the same approach that I used in the FJ Cruiser. I will not be using the typical solutions.

What I am interested in is whether anyone can prove that the output of the / head end unit has some sort of roll off or built-in equalization and if so, the exact values. In other words, outputs applied to an analyzer on a test bench, not in-truck measurements using speakers. Everyone said this about the head end unit in the FJ Cruiser, and it all turned out to be false. It has a feture called ASL that works sort of like a loudness control. It is variable and can be turned off. It actually works OK, but I ended up leaving it off.

That's what everyone said about the FJ Cruiser until I reengineered the system. It has been sounding great for 13 years now. Yes, I am an audiophile, the type who builds his own amplifiers and designs speaker systems and acoustic room treatments. If I like the stock head end unit in the FJ Cruiser, rest assured it is just fine when used properly.

You really putting the cart before the horse. For most folks, they either swap out the head unit and build from there or add a DSP/amp to the stock head unit and go from there. The rest just swap the speakers running the stock head unit and are satisfied.
If you have decided to buy a 4runner, the information you seek should be available to you once you take delivery and spend time with the head unit.
Now, if your buying decision is predicated on how good the head unit is, that's a different thing.

If I can't find proof, I'll test it myself. It proved to be totally false in the FJ Cruiser.

No, engineering an audio system has to be done from the ground up to be done properly and that is exactly where I am - engineering phase. I don't need the truck in my possession to do that. First step is to find out if any "correction" has been applied to the output of the stock head end unit. I seriously doubt it. The JBL system probably does as they are known to try to tune their system to produce a desired result. The non-JBL system is probably just a low-power 4 channel internal amp like any other.

I did note that the head end unit has a fan, just like the one in my FJ Cruiser. As I said, it's quite good when used properly. One key to success with that one was running a power wire from the battery directly to the head end unit. Most people never think about this and condemn the head end unit unfairly because they are running it without proper 12 volt power. Would you use 22 or 20 AWG wire to run power to an add-on amplifier? No. Ditto for the ground wire. There is an amplifier inside the head end unit. People just don't think of it that way. People just love to trash factory head end units.

Now, if I could put a pair of these in the back, that would be awesome. Most people don't even know what these are. These two are on my workbench right now. The silver one in the back I am engineering from scratch. The one in the front will end up all black and is getting totally reengineered as it is my second one and an improvement on the first. No they are not designed for car audio, although it HAS been done in the past. They "only" throw off a hundred watts of pure heat each for 7-10 watts per channel at 1% distortion (GASP! ), which is all that is needed for normal listening volume with efficient speakers, and non-solid state distortion.

@Rob41 if that unit works and sounds good, you may have answered my question. That unit does not show any frequency response correction built in, and therefore if people use it and like it and don't complain about altered frequency response with it, then by definition the head end unit must not have any frequency response contouring and the online statements are false, just as they were false with my FJ Cruiser.

Again, there is little doubt in my mind that the JBL head end unit does have frequency response countouring as they often do that for specific vehicle interiors, but with the normal head end unit I am talking about, I doubt it.

Note to self: Go back and listen to the JBL system and see if it actually sounds OK. I doubt it, but I have not heard it.

So I can’t speak for the /, but I can for the .

Left and right are not in phase.
LF roll off begins at Volume setting 25+.
Left and Right do not output at the same voltage (each of the four channels is different as well).

I have screens of the electrical frequency response for both front and rear. They are nowhere near flat.

The LC2i cannot fix these things but they can be alleviated with something that gives you delay and independent L/R output signal attenuation.