I'm figuring out which Prius package to buy and wondered about this...Is the JBL upgrade stereo THAT much better than the standard stereo on a 2006? Thanks in advance for any replies.
I have the JBL in my 2005 and it's "all right." It added 3 more speakers. It works for me, but I'm not an audiophile. Others aren't that thrilled. Many have replaced the speakers (or disconnected the center speaker) or added subwoofers to make it better.
Depends what you're needs (or, actually, "wants") are. I'm fine with the basic (i.e. non-JBL) stereo, but the car I had before the Prius was a 17-year-old Jeep; we were lucky when the radio worked at all on that car. If you're a real audiophile or if you're coming from a car with a nice stereo, I'm sure you'll find the basic stereo (and maybe even the JBL stereo) unacceptable. I would characterize the basic stereo as "fine." I'm not blown away by it, but the radio works well, and CDs sound pretty good, too.
If you're an audiophile you will find the JBL unacceptable, as well. I would've been happy to pay less for the Prius to just have the non-JBL stereo since I installed my new system right away.
I've got the standard, non-JBL stereo and it's still the best stereo I've ever had in a car! I mostly listen to CDs or XM talk radio, so it's really not a big deal for me...
Depends. Wasn't the 06 to have better speakers for the JBL system. I don't know but this is not one of the best JBL systems Toyota have installed (the 6-speaker JBL audio in my dad's 02 Camry is waaaay better than mine)
The basic system sounds significantly worse than the $200 system I put in my old 4Runner. I listened to what I was told was the same JBL system they put in the Prius in a Camry before I settled on a package, and I wasn't particularly impressed with that either. I opted to get the basic with the idea that I would upgrade. I'm now researching how I should do that.
My 05 has the basic system. I added Infinity Kappa speakers all around and a Infinity Basslink powered subwoffer (No I don't work for Infinity ). It transformed the mediocre system into a very good system.
I concur on the stock stereo. It's nice, but I added subs (kicker 8"...and 2 Panasonic 6" under the front seats..well, just read my signature...), upgraded front speakers to real components with a real crossover network (Alpine 6" with tweeters) and the sound is greatly improved. Maybe an amp for those fronts would take it another notch up. Right now it's way better than stock with these upgrades.
I find the upgraded JBL adequate especially after I played with the sound output base, mid and trebble and adjusted the front back AND most of all disconnected the middle speaker alltogether. It's not a great system and way overpriced for what it is. If I were an audophile I would order a car without any system and have a good one installed. PLUS the AM system is very susceptable to static which seems like nothing more than an engineering fu**-up.
