Speaker and head unit upgrade options?

As far as I know, a stereo upgrade on the 2010 hasn't been tried yet. You might get some ideas from the Generation II discussions. If the new stereo is anything like the old ones, the sound quality issues likely originate with the head unit.

 

I know I'm a little late to the party with this answer, but let me tell you. I have a V w/ATP and NAV of course. Wanted to replace everything but the head unit and it has been nothing but a nightmare. I have been having a high-end car stereo shop do it and it looks amazing but that's about it. Long story, but to give you the base of the story, an Alpine tech came out to the shop on his day off to try and tune the system feeding off of the JBL amp and going through their processor to a JL Audio 5 channel amp and it's been a mess. JBL does some crazy stuff way out of the ordinary with their factory stuff. They spent from 11am to 8pm going through it all with his laptop and microphone adjusting and correcting the equalization and just came down to bypassing the JBL all together. Sounds amazing, but now not sure if it's voltage issue or a faulty piece but I have lost the majority of the sub output. I will have a write up and pics to go along with it all at some point, but for now I am trying to swallow the fact that my $1800 option may have to come out for an aftermarket option at over $1000 for something that plays nice with it all.
I figured if I'm going to spend that much time in the car I might as well enjoy it. Hasn't been enjoyable so far and quite expensive. Oh yeah, did I mention because they bypassed the JBL amp I don't have bluetooth or NAV volume at all anymore. Hopefully it will get resolved soon and hopefully it hasn't all been for nothing. That would be extremely upsetting. Wish me luck. It looks like the Venza dash kit by Scosche would work. Same NAV unit so I would only guess the mounts would be the same. Good luck if you decide to jump into this thing.

 

I think the easiest way to improve the quality of the sound is to send the radio output to a equalizer, then to a new amplifier and then to some new speakers.

This way you retain the stock stereo but can manipulate the frequencies via the equalizer and boost the new sound with the amplifier.

 

One would think so NASCAR but this Alpine unit is far superior to a regular EQ. It is a great piece but our factory amps are as weird as they come. It's called the PXE-H650 I believe. Check it out. It's an amazing piece. I will find out Saturday whether I will be able to get good sound out of it going back through the factory amp as the source compared to the amazing sound that I have now, but am missing the voice prompts and Bluetooth. I'll keep you guys up to date. I was going for audiophile sound but will probably have to do above average sound instead to keep all of the factory accessories working.

 

That is distressing shawn! I know we're still early in all this, but what I'm wondering is, since I have a trim II without the JBL system or NAV or Bluetooth or anything else, might my upgrade route be any simpler? I haven't been into car audio since high school, so I'm planning on doing a fair bit of research to decide which components would be best. And actually, I've only had my Prius a few days, and honestly haven't even played any music while driving around, just been listening to spoken word stuff. But with what we know about the base audio system in the Prius Gen III, would it be worth it to just upgrade the speakers? Or would getting a new head unit be the number one priority? I'm not looking for an audiophile-grade experience, and really, I need to just do some listening with what's in there right now. Just curios where to go from there.

 

See my post here. The short answer is: yes, with a trim II you can just add an amplifier and new speakers, leave the stock head unit and everything will sound incredible. Zero problems.

 

What he said is what I was going to say in a nut shell, being I haven't been in a Gen.III without NAV, but would certainly make sense. I have gotten way over my head in this project and it seems I am the first to take it this far at least with a NAV equipped model. It is going to be amazing if we can work it all out, but then again for the money I have spent it better be nothing less than amazing. Good luck and enjoy your new car. I certainly have except for this little hiccup.