Stereo Upgrade Advice - Hu/speakers/amp/sub?!

[astrobhoy]

have a 54 plate D-4D, and I've always hated the stereo on it! Not to mention the fact I do not own any CD's any more and have iphone/ipod etc. Have been thinking of changing for a while and got a quote from Halfords to change to an aftermarket stereo HU and replacement facia (facia costs about £55 apparently)

I love my music, and am certainly no boy racer - but has anyone on here upgrades Speakers, or added an amp, or even a sub to their avenis? If so how much did you spend on the whole system upgrade? Would love to hear anyone's experience.

Cheers

[Sam29]

have a 54 plate D-4D, and I've always hated the stereo on it! Not to mention the fact I do not own any CD's any more and have iphone/ipod etc. Have been thinking of changing for a while and got a quote from halfords to change to an aftermarket stereo HU and replacement facia (facia costs about £55 apparently)

I love my music, and am certainly no boy racer - but has anyone on here upgrades speakers, or added an amp, or even a sub to their avenis? If so how much did you spend on the whole system upgrade? Would love to hear anyone's experience.

Cheers

It depends on what sort of music you like. If you like heavy bass, then go for bass box and amplifier.

But if you like simple muscis, then simple change the stereo.

You may have following options:

Easist and cheapest way:

Get Tape cassete with input and connect it to your iPhone.

2nd Option:

If you do not have navigation in your avensis, then get iPhone kit from e-bay for around 50-60 and fit it. Again good to stick with OEM stereo and you will have less problems.

IF considering these two options are no good for you then

3rd Option:

Get Double DIN stereo from Halford (but buy fascia from e-bay for about 20-30 pounds).

If you are happy with after market chinese DVD, And GPS then snatch one from e-bay,

There is one which is specially made for avensis costing about 375 including navigation (no need for fscia).

Or there is one lad who is selling very good priced DVD's, iPhone connector GPS unit for about 250.

Now you got to remember that you keep your bass bit down as toyota Speakers are not realy made for heavy bass.

4th Option:

Whatever stereo you have, get OEM toyota sub-woffer which fixes in your car for about 300.

Never tried it.

5th option.

Get bass box and amplifier.

Honestly I tried all different brands and I would stick with Pioneer, Kenwood or Sony only.

All others...dump them. (no offence to anybody).

Cost about 400-500 for very good sound system.

If you have saloon, dont get this, as it will create too much resonance, but if you have hatch box, less resonance.

For the time being I guess this is enough for today.

I had tried all option except toyota sub-woofer. Honeslt with this car, I would rather stick with option 1. Cheapest, easy and well managed.

Best of luck.

[astrobhoy]

Thanks Sam - really appreciate your lengthy reply.

I've had the tape/ipod cable and thought the sound was terrible - very very hissy. I'm not sure if changing the stereo and just the front Speakers would make a real difference to the sound, but I like the idea of having bluetooth, mp3 , ipod and iPhone compatibility. I plan on driving this car into the ground so rekon that I've got at least another 100k miles of driving to go!

Ilisten to a real mixture of music between rock/dance. I guess my love of a good stereo came when just before getting the avensis (it's a bought company car) we got a VW Golf V5. The stereo in it was sublime, but the bass was just amazing! The drive was incredible too - and it even persuaded me to buy a VW TDI as a second car a few years later - only to discover that the stereo wasn't nearly as good (must have been an upgrade with a bass unit fitted).

I wouldn't be able to fit it myself so would have to rely on likes of Halfords guys to do so.

Cheers for advice - really appreciate it.

[Rossi46]

I've got a Dension IPOD kit, as well as a Rockford Fosgate Sub and an amp in my 53 plate D4D Avenesis.

The Dension unit allows control of my IPOD whils driving, as well as displaying song text on my head unit too.

I wired the amp and Sub using a filter which takes the low frequency outputs from the head unit and feeds the Sub, through a mono amp. It's not as good as having a dedicated sub pre-out but it's still very effective.

It's a family car obviously (it's a gold avensis after all) but I do 650 miles a week in it, so I wanted a nice stereo system , without reverting to a non-standard head unit.

It's the best thing about my car. If you need any more info feel free to ask.

[bmwe30m3]

if in birmingham can supply and fit boxed 15inch 1000 watt sub with kenwood amp to your standard head unit £250.00

[dransfield]

Hi, I have been looking at upgrading the stereo on my 04 avensis and have looked at the double din options with replacement facia (such as those supplied by Halfords) and was put off by the facia adapter being black moulded plastic and does not match the existing brushed metal finish and, as there air con unit would remain in place, would look a bit odd. Pioneer make a fantastic unit which is on my wish list so if anybody knows of a company that makes a matching facia let me know!

[bestseany]

I've fitted a Kenwood single DIN to my Avensis, and the black fascia actually looks ok next to the grey air con unit. The fascia was only £15 or so and was quite easy to fit.

I was going to replace the Speakers, but the adapters needed to fit them to the door are difficult to find and no-onie can confirm that they will fit properly. The old ones are riveted to the doors, so are a pain to drill out.

I will admit that the standard Speakers do sound better with the Kenwood headunit.

[Jas16]

hey, just to pass on my experience

I use a fm transmitter. the one I brought from Halfords (sendai) worked really well in the previous focus I had, but in the avensis, it didn't work; turned out that the 'transmission' couldn't reach the aerial at the back window.

anyways I digress, I am using a £10 one from Amazon. Not brilliant, I admit and more of a temporary solution I suppose, but I have been using one for a while now and no issues, but I don't do many miles

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-MT-096-Transmitter-iPhone-Players/dp/B001F32OKK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1296594037&sr=1-1

don't know what you think of that, but I use a different one with a usb input.

hope this helps and doesn't confuse you too much

[badboys44]

I've fitted a Kenwood single DIN to my Avensis, and the black fascia actually looks ok next to the grey air con unit. The fascia was only £15 or so and was quite easy to fit.

I was going to replace the speakers, but the adapters needed to fit them to the door are difficult to find and no-onie can confirm that they will fit properly. The old ones are riveted to the doors, so are a pain to drill out.

I will admit that the standard speakers do sound better with the Kenwood headunit.

no need to look for adapter as you already have one, i did the same thing on my avensis remove oem speaker and use universal 16cm spacer then adjust the speaker on but the sound was not what i expected with a pair of 4way pioneer 280watt speaker. after doing some research i found that my speaker was a bit far from the door panel and it was not centered so wat i did is, i just cut the inside of the oem speaker ( as i never gonna use it again) and fixed my aftermarket speaker in it and fixed it with bolt as i have already drilled the rivet. ok wat im trying to say is that i used the oem speaker as spacer and fixed my aftermarket speaker and the sound was o lot better compare with the universal spacer. try it and let me know wat u think hope it help..

MY AVENSIS T25 AFTERMARKET STEREO SPECS:

DONE ALL BY MYSELF

WILL POST SOME PIC LATER,

PIONEER AVH-P5900 (HEADUNIT)

PIONEER CD-BTB200 (BLUETOOTH)

PIONEER CD-I200 (IPOD CABLE)

PIONEER DEQ-P7650 (MULTICHANNEL PROCESSOR)

PIONEER CD-DD25 (OPTICAL BOX)

PIONEER TS-STX99 (SATELLITE SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-CX7 (CENTER SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-A1683R (4 WAY FRONT REAR SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-S20 (TWEETER)

EFX HD7004 1200WATT 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER

HIFONICS BRUTUS 1200 WATT MONO

2X 2.0F CAPACITOR

2X KICKER SOLOCLASSIC S12C (12" POWERING AT 1 OHM)

[Sam29]

I've fitted a Kenwood single DIN to my Avensis, and the black fascia actually looks ok next to the grey air con unit. The fascia was only £15 or so and was quite easy to fit.

I was going to replace the speakers, but the adapters needed to fit them to the door are difficult to find and no-onie can confirm that they will fit properly. The old ones are riveted to the doors, so are a pain to drill out.

I will admit that the standard speakers do sound better with the Kenwood headunit.

no need to look for adapter as you already have one, i did the same thing on my avensis remove oem speaker and use universal 16cm spacer then adjust the speaker on but the sound was not what i expected with a pair of 4way pioneer 280watt speaker. after doing some research i found that my speaker was a bit far from the door panel and it was not centered so wat i did is, i just cut the inside of the oem speaker ( as i never gonna use it again) and fixed my aftermarket speaker in it and fixed it with bolt as i have already drilled the rivet. ok wat im trying to say is that i used the oem speaker as spacer and fixed my aftermarket speaker and the sound was o lot better compare with the universal spacer. try it and let me know wat u think hope it help..

MY AVENSIS T25 AFTERMARKET STEREO SPECS:

DONE ALL BY MYSELF

WILL POST SOME PIC LATER,

PIONEER AVH-P5900 (HEADUNIT)

PIONEER CD-BTB200 (BLUETOOTH)

PIONEER CD-I200 (IPOD CABLE)

PIONEER DEQ-P7650 (MULTICHANNEL PROCESSOR)

PIONEER CD-DD25 (OPTICAL BOX)

PIONEER TS-STX99 (SATELLITE SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-CX7 (CENTER SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-A1683R (4 WAY FRONT REAR SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-S20 (TWEETER)

EFX HD7004 1200WATT 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER

HIFONICS BRUTUS 1200 WATT MONO

2X 2.0F CAPACITOR

2X KICKER SOLOCLASSIC S12C (12" POWERING AT 1 OHM)

Would love to see youtube video if your system or at least photos of it.

Cheers.

[badboys44]

I've fitted a Kenwood single DIN to my Avensis, and the black fascia actually looks ok next to the grey air con unit. The fascia was only £15 or so and was quite easy to fit.

I was going to replace the speakers, but the adapters needed to fit them to the door are difficult to find and no-onie can confirm that they will fit properly. The old ones are riveted to the doors, so are a pain to drill out.

I will admit that the standard speakers do sound better with the Kenwood headunit.

no need to look for adapter as you already have one, i did the same thing on my avensis remove oem speaker and use universal 16cm spacer then adjust the speaker on but the sound was not what i expected with a pair of 4way pioneer 280watt speaker. after doing some research i found that my speaker was a bit far from the door panel and it was not centered so wat i did is, i just cut the inside of the oem speaker ( as i never gonna use it again) and fixed my aftermarket speaker in it and fixed it with bolt as i have already drilled the rivet. ok wat im trying to say is that i used the oem speaker as spacer and fixed my aftermarket speaker and the sound was o lot better compare with the universal spacer. try it and let me know wat u think hope it help..

MY AVENSIS T25 AFTERMARKET STEREO SPECS:

DONE ALL BY MYSELF

WILL POST SOME PIC LATER,

PIONEER AVH-P5900 (HEADUNIT)

PIONEER CD-BTB200 (BLUETOOTH)

PIONEER CD-I200 (IPOD CABLE)

PIONEER DEQ-P7650 (MULTICHANNEL PROCESSOR)

PIONEER CD-DD25 (OPTICAL BOX)

PIONEER TS-STX99 (SATELLITE SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-CX7 (CENTER SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-A1683R (4 WAY FRONT REAR SPEAKER)

PIONEER TS-S20 (TWEETER)

EFX HD7004 1200WATT 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER

HIFONICS BRUTUS 1200 WATT MONO

2X 2.0F CAPACITOR

2X KICKER SOLOCLASSIC S12C (12" POWERING AT 1 OHM)

Would love to see youtube video if your system or at least photos of it.

Cheers.

here some pic will post a video as soon as i got my 3rd amplifier which will power the satellite and the center speaker

headunit

center speaker

tweeter

multichannel processor

voltmeter guage

hifonics mono + cap

both amplifiers

efx 4 channel + 2 cap

satellite Speakers

subwoofer

[Bigchow2011]

On 28 January 2011 at 1:26 PM, Sam29 said:

It depends on what sort of music you like. If you like heavy bass, then go for bass box and amplifier.

But if you like simple muscis, then simple change the stereo.

You may have following options:

Easist and cheapest way:

Get Tape cassete with input and connect it to your iphone.

2nd Option:

If you do not have navigation in your avensis, then get iphone kit from e-bay for around 50-60 and fit it. Again good to stick with OEM stereo and you will have less problems.

IF considering these two options are no good for you then

3rd Option:

Get Double DIN stereo from Halford (but buy fascia from e-bay for about 20-30 pounds).

If you are happy with after market chinese DVD, And GPS then snatch one from e-bay,

There is one which is specially made for avensis costing about 375 including navigation (no need for fscia).

Or there is one lad who is selling very good priced DVD's, iphone connector GPS unit for about 250.

Now you got to remember that you keep your bass bit down as toyota speakers are not realy made for heavy bass.

4th Option:

Whatever stereo you have, get OEM toyota sub-woffer which fixes in your car for about 300.

Never tried it.

5th option.

Get bass box and amplifier.

Honestly I tried all different brands and I would stick with Pioneer, Kenwood or Sony only.

All others...dump them. (no offence to anybody).

Cost about 400-500 for very good sound system.

If you have saloon, dont get this, as it will create too much resonance, but if you have hatch box, less resonance.

For the time being I guess this is enough for today.

I had tried all option except toyota sub-woofer. Honeslt with this car, I would rather stick with option 1. Cheapest, easy and well managed.

Best of luck.

Hi which lad is selling the Nav for avensis 

also is there anyone changing the Nav into a tablet do you know of anyone 

also which would be the best double din deck to fit also from who 

is Halfords a good option please help

thank you

[+robster+]

I got very decent Halfords double din jvc with bluetooth and usb front and rear aux for little money.

The fascia trim was Amazon for 20 quid

Better stereo has better omphh for standard crappy Speakers.

Could upgrade Speakers but tgat is as far as id go as these cars wouldnt like tons of bass. They would rattle door cards and rear tailgate plastics and sound crap

[Konrad C]

16 hours ago, +robster+ said:

I got very decent halfords double din jvc with bluetooth and usb front and rear aux for little money.

The fascia trim was amazon for 20 quid

Better stereo has better omphh for standard crappy speakers.

Could upgrade speakers but tgat is as far as id go as these cars wouldnt like tons of bass. They would rattle door cards and rear tailgate plastics and sound crap

When I changed the Speakers on my Mk1, I mounted the 6.5" JBL's onto special shaped baffles in the doors. This reduced the vibrations and increased the sound quality. The Mk1 came with a Sony double din head unit as standard for the GLS model.