How's the stereo?

I just took a 2016 Prius Three (non-Touring, ATP package) for a long test drive yesterday, and one of my points of curiosity was to try out the Bluetooth streaming. The setup and connection was actually pretty smooth - worked more automatically than I was expecting. But my wife and I were NOT impressed with the sound quality at all. Only a small amount of the music on our phones sounded at all decent - most of it had WAY too much bass (even with the bass setting turned all the way down), the mid-range was too dull, there was almost no stereo separation (we might as well have been listening to it in mono), and overall it just sounded like a really low-grade stereo.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring an iPod with us, and we didn't use the FM radio, so I really don't have any comparison there. This model had the "Entune Premium" stereo kit with the nav, but not the expanded 10-speaker JBL option that's only available on the Four. The person who posted the video review in this forum mentioned that he thought the non-upgraded stereo in the car he drove sounded just as good as the 6-speaker JBL upgrade in the earlier models.

My current Prius is a 2007 Package 5, which has the ugpraded stereo and 6-speaker JBL. It's always sounded good, but of course it doesn't support BT streaming. Can anyone here vouch for the quality of the audio system in the Three? Am I going to be disappointed in it compared to my current car and wish I'd gone with a Four with the 10 speakers?

 

Thanks for the reply, Eric. I got a chance to check out a 2015 Prius, a 2016 Three, and a Four Touring (without the convenience package) today. I was not at all impressed with the sound in the 2015 - it sounded flat and tinny on all audio sources even after messing around with the tunings. (And I wasn't impressed with its ride either - didn't feel like a substantial improvement over my '07.) However, I was VERY impressed with the stock stereo and speakers in both 2016s (basically identical). Using an iPod, a CD, and a local HD Radio station for classical music, it all sounded very good in there - easily as good as, if not better than, the JBL system in my '07.

My only complaint was that in the non-Touring, the subwoofer was EXTREMELY loud - even with the bass setting on the receiver turned down all the way, the bass was overpowering the rest of the music on any track with bass notes or drums in it. (Tracks that were primarily higher-pitched sounds like strings and flutes sounded great.) For some reason, this wasn't an issue in the Touring.

I assume that the subwoofer (or its amp) can be tuned separately. Anyone know how to do that, or is that something I can have the dealer do if the car I end up with has that problem?

 

Now driving a Prius Three, and it has the same problem with the sub being too loud. Some songs are unlistenable even with the bass setting turned ALL the way down - if I have the volume set up to where I can hear the upper registers, the sub is literally shaking the car. Have to resign myself to music that doesn't have much bass in it - then it actually sounds pretty good.

Cool! Got a few questions on this: I'm currently using an iPod Nano (an older one) for my music, and it sounds "okay" - wouldn't call it great. HD Radio sounds better in general. However, almost all my MP3s are either 116 or 128 kbits - converted many years ago when storage was at more of a premium. I'm starting to suspect that the new stereo makes lower-quality audio sound worse. Has that been your experience at all?

Also, on your USB stick, how do you have your files organized? Is it possible to create playlists on the stick in a similar way to how you might on an iPod, Windows Media Player, etc.? Or do you only get to search and filter by attributes (title, artist, genre, etc.)?

 

Too late. Already got my Three. The stereo is a bit flat, unfortunately, and extremely boomy. Toyota seems to think there's no way to turn the bass down aside from the screen controls. So I guess if my dealership can't do anything about it, I'm looking at going to a third party to find a DSP and some better speakers.

I'd appreciate the better stereo, but I wasn't about to spend $5000 more for it and a bunch of other features I either didn't want or didn't care about.

 

When I have something bass-heavy playing, the mirror does vibrate a little, but not enough to cause any significant vision problems.