Successful Speaker Upgrade Details

bazooka tube for $199?

 

Sounds like you've got a desired result. Here's a few things I learned:

There are better products than dynamat (like "Brown Bread") which are a lot cheaper and car audio magazine reviews suggest there are some products better for given applications (in the case of the Prius, it would be weight and thickness versus sound-deadening instead of outright sound controlling performance.)

Products like Cleansweep are tedious with compromises that don't necessarily work intuitively (such as handling nav instructions, muting for the phone, losing the fader. : )

For more bass, in a car like the Prius (where road noise and NVH rise quickly with road speed) it's a difficult thing to get a balance of bass. Having a sub instead of a spare wheel is a good compromise for example. Getting the right balance of bass drivers is my preferred approach, but I don't like the level of bass that some types of modern music demand. My car has a combination of a/d/c and McIntosh that is not cost-effective, but I tend to keep my daily driver cars until they're over 100K miles and I can still carry some of the components forward to the next car, so that's a fair deal as far as I'm concerned. And the Prius audio is so incredibly bad, it was one of the things I factored into the initial purchase.

 

Thanks for the post Noah.

Adding a sub does bring up the bottom end and helps strengthen the midbass snap a bit. Assuming you choose a good sub setup and amplifier. I regularly take my subs in and out of the car for various reasons and while it still sounds nice without them, the sound with them is much more balanced and pleasing. I'm an old school basshead though so some might find my system a bit too loud and bass heavy which is why I have a bass control knob so that I can quickly make others happy.

I used Dynamat in the doors because it's what I sell and I agree, it does help a lot.

I'm currently running the top end Diamond Audio equipment (before they sold out) and thus far I didn't have to do any permanent modifications which is cool considering I have 7" mids in the doors and my tweeters didn't fit in the stock location and I'm running 1,900 watts. lol The Prius seems like it was almost designed for aftermarket car audio!

Did you take any pics?

 

I don't remember specifically. They were sharing a warehouse with MTX or JBL? They did their big change over during a period I was not working in car audio (class load was too heavy) so I didn't get into the specifics. I do know that their product has lost a lot of it's following on the high end car audio forums and many people complain about the quality, they remark that it is not like the old Diamond Audio quality pre-2006? My contacts at the main officer no longer work there either so the only info I can get is from other reps (Morel, Kenwood, Jl Audio etc.). The general buzz is such that we are not going to bring the product back in. Besides, I have Morel and ARC Audio to sell now. Great component speakers and great amplifiers.