Bigfieroman

You are making 3 points that have no factual support;

The stock 2008 HU is only 6w RMS.

The stock 2008 HU the same as the previous units.

A speaker change will offer minimal benefit if not accompanied by a HU change.

What are you basing these points on?

I am making one point backed up with direct personal experience.

The Polks sounded much better than the stockers with the same input.

Actually, here is a second point based on direct personal experience:

When I switched the HU from the stocker to the AVIC, I noticed an improvement in SQ, but the major difference was the better balance in volume between the fronts and rears.

LVMYXB

Well the holy war I dreaded has begun, and sadly I am not smart enough to stay out of it, audio is close to my heart. You speak of the 6w RMS radio in the Scion line, I will let that be for now as I haven't tested personally, knowing you haven't either so I can't dispute that, yet. Now you also state that the after market HU will give you 25 extra watts, to which I hope you have more proof that what the AM HU companies print on the front of the radio. Looking at some of the AM HU websites, no names to protect the innocent, I find that the wow factor of the 45x4 printing on the 120 radio is truely a wopping 16 watts x 4, and when you make the massive cost increase to the 500 retail radio the power increases to a mamoth 18 x 4 rms. Now we can argue about that all day long if you want but the human ear is completely uncapable of hearing a difference of 2 watts, as a matter of fact the 3db change required to hear a sound level change requires double power, of which we are not even close here. So spending 3 times the dollars on the radio increases your power output that you so highly hail by 2 watts, inconsequential.

Couple this with data that Dave Navone and Richard Clarck gathered almost 10 years ago from factory HU from companies such as Visteon and Delco, two of the major manucaturers of factory HU's, at the time the factory HU produced an actual 13.7 watts for Visteon and 17.6 watts for Delco. Neither are barn burner numbers, but compare the Delco 17.6 watts 10 years ago with the 18 that the AM HU gives today and I really begin to question base of your argument.

You then go on to mention the tuning of the AM HU to the factory, at last glance both provide only Bass, Mid, and Treble adjustments at the base level radio, noting that as you increase in dollar you may also gain some crossover or BBE type of functions, but the basics still show that the same functions are comparable.

Sadly this has already turned one Scion owner around and convinced him not to go messing with his car, which was never the intention of any of us I am sure, but sadly this is the result and for that I appologize to TheMirthfulScion. The point I am trying ot make is that if you pocket book has one upgrade in it, and that upgrade is anything below adding a full amplified system with HU, speaks, and subs, then your money will be best spent on speakers. Agreed the factory radio is not GOD's gift to the car, but until you start purchasing very high end audio systems, not jus better HU's, the factory option will do you just fine in all respects.

TheMirthfulScion

Honestly, the sarcasm is not necessary. I'm a guy on a serious budget at the moment. I just bought two gen2 xBs (one for me, one for my wife) and my pockets are pretty bare. I realize everyone encourages you to go for broke and buy the best stuff, and I can understand where they're coming from. Normally I would do that.. but after purchasing two vehicles and working on starting a family, I'm looking to cut some corners and just have something thats liveable.

If I can spend a couple hundred and get a boost in the sound quality, enough to satisfy my ears, I'll be happy. I don't have a ton of cash to throw around on high end equipment and labor to have it all installed.

Thank you LVMYXB for the advice. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything at all after reading all this, but I appreciate the "best bang for the buck" breakdown.

Bigfieroman

Fine. Sure. I didn't help at all. I am going to go scream into a pillow and cry myself to sleep now...

J/K...whichever you choose, good luck with the family.

TheMirthfulScion

LOL sorry man.. I had mentioned you in an earlier post so I didn't wanna over-do it

Thanks for the well wishes!

jimmbomb

so what's the verdict?? if you only had say a hundred or 2 to spend........do you....A) stick with stock speakers & go with a different HU, or B) do what the broken record is endorsing... change your speakers out??..... let's vote..... reply with A) or B)..... jh

chadfo

I can definitely understand keeping in a budget. I suggest turning off all the built in equalization including the type car SSP setting. I put all of mine to flat to get a good starting point and haven't changed it. It really leveled out the sound and the front to rear imbalance I've seen many posts about. It's still not perfect by any means but it's worlds above the over tweeked SSP settings.

medullaman

I agree with that. I was actually amazed how much better it sounded after turn all those settings to flat.

I am no audio expert, But I am a musician and have lots of experience with audio in general. My take is this.

Speakers will make a bigger difference than head units in the small budget situation. i agree that signal source can prevent the best speaker from sounding good, but I think in this case, the weakest link of the stock audio system is the speakers not the Head Unit.

BozzMan

How is this accopmplished? I know how to change the car type from xB to xD or tC but there is no option to choose none of them. The same holds true for the SSP settings, I can switch from one to another but not turn them all off.

chadfo

I don't remember exactly because I did it two months ago but I think it was just one of the options. It cycled through all the car types and then to flat or none or whatever it was called. Same for the SSP. I just went through all the settings until I reached flat. Give it another shot. If you can't get it to work, let me know and I'll go fiddle with mine to see. I do have the premium stereo so if you don't have that I don't know what options are available.

chadfo

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in even though I know the debate is over. I agree that speakers are the best investment to get better sound. The speakers are what actually creates the sound. It doesn't matter what you do before the signal gets there if the speakers aren't good.