The best factory car stereo...

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Toyota does good. Scion has alpine and pioneer. Yota has jbl. Lexus has mark levinson

If you pick the right Subaru you get a McIntosh HU.

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Toyota does good. Scion has alpine and pioneer. Yota has jbl. Lexus has mark levinson

If you pick the right Subaru you get a McIntosh HU.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

If you pick the right Subaru you get a McIntosh HU.

this was going to be my response as well. hands down the best factory deck on the U.S. market. those head units are sought after and still sell for a good amount. it is worth while to search your local salvage yard for them.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

BP

but to take it a step further, those HU's commonly sell for $400 used, and they are basic.

most factory "premium" systems are a flat out joke. you spend $1000+ for nothing at all. if you've ever removed those "premium" speakers, you know what i'm talking about.

this is a Scion tC Pioneer premium system speaker next to a Hertz 165XL.

Bose is just a marketing sham - you get speakers that are identical to what they sold in 1970.

Camry's with 6x9 woofers front and rear with 2" full range mid-tweets in the dash are decent. they have lots of midbass and the mid-tweet keeps the soundstage high. toss a decent HU with T/A on the factory speakers and you have something many people would be happy with (better amplification and some tuning options). i did just that in the wife's Camry. but I eventually upgraded the speakers.

some JBL systems i've heard were ok, but nothing i could live with. I haven't heard a Mark Levinson yet (i like his home audio stuff) and i'd like to hear a few.

the biggest downside is see to factory systems is poor amplification and very poor speakers.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

My step dad's 01 camry sounds very nice. With a little bit of tweaking I think it would sound very good for a factory setup. As for my pathfinder, I blew 2 of the speakers within a week lol.

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

MY wife's JBL system in her Solara doesn't sound bad. My father-in-law had a 2008 BMW z4 and it had one of the best sounding stock systems I have ever heard. My vote would be the Z4 but my experience with stock systems is limited

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

My tc didnt sound bad with the stock sub. The new models have a nice alpine deck option. The wife's rav4 limited jbl system is pretty good. Keep hope I think the upgrade only changed the HU.

 

[thevic24 5,000+ posts]

Toyota does good. Scion has alpine and pioneer. Yota has jbl. Lexus has mark levinson

The Mark Levinson system in the LS460/600h's are one of the, if not the best factory sound system you can get.(7.1ch)

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

i hated that rockford system that was in my spec v i used to have. sub was horrible

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

The best stock system I've ever heard was a 2006 BMW 760i. Still was nothing special, even though it was a "premium 17 speaker system" or whatever ridiculous amount of speakers they used in it. I have an '01 Denali with the "premium Bose", and at moderate listening volumes, it sounds pretty good, once it gets turned up though, it turns into all mid bass and midrange, the tweets seem to disappear. Pretty good mid bass though, deadening the doors, changing the locations of the tweets, and adding a good sub would make for a pretty decent system for 98% of the population. I plan to add a sub and call it good for now.

On the flip side, I've heard "$1000 custom systems" in friends cars that sound worse than my Denali does stock. If car manufacturers, and people putting in custom stereos, worried more about install and quality than the number of speakers, we would all be better off.

A good 5 speaker system is all people really need: 2 tweets, 2 mid basses, and a sub... Or a good 7 speaker: 2 mid basses, 2 mids, 2 tweets, and a sub... Quality>quantity, 20 crappy speakers is far inferior to a properly amp'd set of comps and sub.

I'd really appreciate a "factory stereo delete" rebate, that ships the car without a HU, amp, speakers, etc... And gave us the option to outfit the stereo ourselves. If I could save $500, I would. When I buy a car that I plan on keeping for the long haul, the first thing I'll do it strip out the stock stereo and do it my way anyways.

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

one of the Cadillac stereo's scored very high when iasca checked it out

 

[JoshC 10+ year member]

My mom has a 4runner with the upgrade JBL system. It dosnt get to loud but it has great SQ and decent bass. My dads dodge has the Alpine system in it, it gets pretty **** loud, for factory system of course lol

 

[Ecky]

The best stock system I've heard is in my friend's Dodge Caliber. It sounds a lot better than the one in his mother's Jag. I think it's supposed to be ~450w Boston Acoustics.

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

The best stock system I've ever heard was a 2006 BMW 760i. Still was nothing special, even though it was a "premium 17 speaker system" or whatever ridiculous amount of speakers they used in it. I have an '01 Denali with the "premium Bose", and at moderate listening volumes, it sounds pretty good, once it gets turned up though, it turns into all mid bass and midrange, the tweets seem to disappear. Pretty good mid bass though, deadening the doors, changing the locations of the tweets, and adding a good sub would make for a pretty decent system for 98% of the population. I plan to add a sub and call it good for now.
On the flip side, I've heard "$1000 custom systems" in friends cars that sound worse than my Denali does stock. If car manufacturers, and people putting in custom stereos, worried more about install and quality than the number of speakers, we would all be better off.

A good 5 speaker system is all people really need: 2 tweets, 2 mid basses, and a sub... Or a good 7 speaker: 2 mid basses, 2 mids, 2 tweets, and a sub... Quality>quantity, 20 crappy speakers is far inferior to a properly amp'd set of comps and sub.

I'd really appreciate a "factory stereo delete" rebate, that ships the car without a HU, amp, speakers, etc... And gave us the option to outfit the stereo ourselves. If I could save $500, I would. When I buy a car that I plan on keeping for the long haul, the first thing I'll do it strip out the stock stereo and do it my way anyways.

Most companies don't do this.. although When My grandma was buying a car she bought a base model accent with no h/u for atleast 300 off which was great Cause we had an extra alpine laying around and they still had speakers in the car so we gave her that..

 

[truckramrod 10+ year member]

I heard a nice harmon kardon system in a 2010 mercedes and a nice sony system in an 09? F150. I mean great sound and they got reasonably loud!