Figured it out. Was using wrong USB wire. Thanks though!!!

 

The stock pioneer unit sounds amazing in my 2012 TC.

I just installed a BRAND NEW 2012 Pioneer deck - the AVH-P4400BH. It has bluetooth streaming, app mode (so you can stream netflix to your deck and pause etc), youtube as well... HD RADIO.
I paid $385 at SALSA electronics in Clifton, NJ. This is BY FAR the lowest price you will find it for. I searched everywhere. Car audio shops in my neighborhood want $499, and Crutchfield is the same. The lowest eBay price I found was $420. He gave me the deck and a warranty, and he even threw in a free parking brake bypass wire that he does himself. Really a great guy.

Anyways, the new unit sounds just as good, but unfortunately not better than the stock one. The subs are definitely hitting harder due to the change in pre-amp volt out- stock does 2V, the new unit does 4.4V out.

The DSP settings on the original actually do work, especially the ones that are custom-EQed for the car. Also, the original factory model picks up my bluetooth streaming iPhone in under 1 second while the new unit takes about 5 seconds to do it.

I can post some pics later. I'm really anxious to get the USB wire spliced into the stock USB port but it's seems like more of a pain in the ___ with this new Pioneer cable because its WICKED thick.

And my rears will be Alpine Type R's with a Alpine MRP-350 amp bridged to give them 100W a side.

 

New photo's of Stinger Roadkill Extreme Installation. So far the results just tapping on the metal everywhere are amazing. Unfortunately I ran out of material and have another bulk pack on order to do the front floor area and doors. I've done the rear quarters all the way up to the glass roof, the rear hatch area wheel wells on both sides as well as the floor, pretty much covered everything. When done I'll probably have added 60 - 70 lbs of weight to the vehicle which is the only downside. Just means I'll have to ride around with a 1/2 tank of gas to compensate for the weight! Been looking at Hertz Energy ESK 163L's as possible replacements for the fronts to match up with the Hertz Rear speakers I installed, but those will have to wait a few paydays.

http://flic.kr/p/cddtkA

http://flic.kr/p/bVRbFP

http://flic.kr/p/cddtuq

http://flic.kr/p/bVRbyg

 

That is a REALLY good head unit. I had the 3300 in my 2007 TC and it sounded great. With the Pioneer Premium head unit in my 2012 I didn't need to upgrade, mostly listen to IPOD connected to it.

The Alpine R's are good speakers, are you matching it with an Alpine R Sub? The Alpine R Subs are really smooth, very good. If I didn't go JL with mine I would have went Alpine R's.

I was going to do alpine R's in the back as replacements for the stock speakers but after demoing the Hertz Audio's against the Alpine R's at the local shop I went with hertz. Plus they gave me a frequent customer discount that I could pass up!

 

I have two kicker 12s in the trunk now, but I'm downsizing to one 12 inch alpine. It will be louder, hit lower, and will save me trunk space. was thinking about getting 2 type r's but it would just be too much i think....

I have an alpine mrp-500 amp to use with the type r sub


After further testing and some EQing, the new MVH-P4400BH unit sounds miles better than the stock 2012 pioneer.

 

Was your pioneer stock unit the premium package one or the stock standards one?
A single 10 or 12 alpine r sub will sound great with that amp. Small hatchback interior does not take much fill.

A 10" is really all you need in the Scion. Plus the 10 has a smaller enclosure than the 12 Fits nicely and still lets me get my 4 ball roller bowling bag in the car next to it! : )

 

Whew. That is just goddamned beautiful.

Baffles look good too! Well done.

 

Thanks... another box arrived and was waiting for me when I got home from work. Finished the passenger door and 1/2 of the drivers door tonight. Really turned out well, covered the entire door outside skin, the bars in the doors, and brackets. Then did the inside of the door on the inside around the speakers and everywhere... Was tough getting some areas of the door, my hands are definitely raw and chewed. Tap factor and closing the doors is night and day... Will probably finish the other door tomorrow then finish pulling the center console and carpet and do the floor boards. Once that done just cut the stinger roadkill sound blocking carpet pad and lay it on top of the roadkill expert covering, then put everything back in... Almost there and hope to be test driving this weekend!

 

Well the job is complete on the Stinger Roadkill sound deadening and stinger vinyl foam padding. Very time consuming job, I ended up using 120 Sq Ft total and two large sheets of the stinger vinyl foam sound barrier packs. I covered the entire back end of the car and everywhere I could get in on the hatch, did the front entire floor areas and covered the stinger road kill up in the front and rear seating area with the vinyl sound barrier padding. In the trunk I cut another sheet of the sound barrier to set under the panel that covers the spare tire. Doors lined the entire exterior panel and interior panel from the inside.

The difference? HUGE! I could not believe how tight the mid bass from the speakers improved and how tight the bass is coming from the sub. The system sounds even more amazing and the Hertz Audio rear speaker upgrades are very nice. Ton of power and clarity, killer bass response. I'm completely happy with the stereo now, no more upgrades there! Driving the car it feels heavier but I think this is mostly due to how QUIET the interior is now. Total with the amps, sub and sound deadening I've added about 90 lbs to the car which isn't more than having a passenger in it. The car just feels so solid now due to the quiet interior. Really gives the car a luxury feel, and the stereo is so amazing now, don't have to turn the volume up when on the highway at speed either. No rattles, vibration or anything... Just clean clear car audio.

Highly recommend doing this, yes expensive but the results really are amazing. Was hot out today and another added benefit was how cool the car stayed inside! If you do this job, plan on taking your time it's not a 1 day job, do it right, plan on 3 bulk packs, 108 to 110 sq ft. You can try to wear gloves but I found them to be too restrictive so I went with the cuts and scrapes on my arms and hands... Wear old clothes, you will get the black butyl on your clothes that may or may not come off. Start in the back of the car and work your way forward, do the reverse when putting the interior back together. While putting the car back together wipe down all your panels and vac everything before you put it in and as your working.

Photo's of completed front and doors.

http://flic.kr/p/cfS8Hh

http://flic.kr/p/cfSht5

http://flic.kr/p/cfShdw

 

whats the preamp voltage output to this premium pioneer deck unit?

 

It's a nice deck but two thing that I don't like about it.

1. The preamp voltage is only 2.4 volts.

2. DSP instead of Eq. Hate not having control and having to use "Hear" "Feel" "Natural"

Fortunately my car was equipped with the premium system and I got the car at 19,500 so I really don't feel like I paid extra for it. I was lucky using good high end wires and RCA Interconnects I didn't end up with any whine or other noise in the car. (a risk with 2.4 vs 4 volt). With proper installation I can't tell the difference between my old unit which was 4 volt.

The lower your preout voltage, the higher you must set the gain sensitivity on your amps. This makes your amps more prone to picking up outside interference such as alternator noise. Not to say that it's guaranteed to happen if you get the 2.4, it's just more likely. Higher is always better.

The DSP mode does well in the car and I have the treble turned up 2 notches, bass is fine. Even the installer at digital car audio who tuned the system said it was setup very well for the car and it surprised him.

BUT if money were a non issue and if I had to choose between paying extra to get the premium system at the dealership or buying my own, I would get an aftermarket with 4v and the EQ instead.

So if your car has the stock head unit and your looking to upgrade, don't pay the premium price they want for the premium pioneer head unit. Get a good high end one in the 400-600 range online.

Fortunately the system turned out really well for me and everyone that has heard it is amazed so far.

 

Well i sold my alpine premium unit on ebay and got a real deck unit. I'm actually surprised that I was able to sell it.

 

Good deal, what deck you going with as the replacement? I was actually talking with friends at Digital Audio today in regards to my system. Again after putting 108 sq feet of Stinger Road Kill in the car he said the system sounded amazing, said to leave the speakers alone as well as the head unit, said the only thing he would recommend is an Audio Control Matrix 6 Channel line driver to bump up the line signal from the head unit. He said that would really set the system above the rest and that the stronger signal from the head unit to the amps would with proper gain settings would really make the system sound great. I checked prices on the unit and *OUCH*. around $170 bucks! I could sell the premium head unit for 200 or 250 add the 170 to it and get an upgraded unit with 4 volts. But the stock unit is integrated nice and the audio control would allow adjustments of line voltage from 3-12 volts, probably a setting of 5-9 would work best along with upgrading the RCA to twisted pair higher end cables. So that will probably be my next move. For now though I'm pretty happy with the system and need to just chill on spending money for a bit before making the next decision in regards to the upgrade. Head unit would limit me to 4v line voltage but give me better sound control through EQ settings. But the Audio Control line driver would give me the ability to bump up the line level beyond 4v to send the signal to the amps... probably easier to just order the audio control vs selling the unit, but have to think about it.

Another downside to upgrading the head unit is the purchase and setup of the vol control with the steering wheel control, additional cost. More than likely for simplicity I'll just get the line driver and cables send stronger cleaner signal to the amps to increase SQ.

Another note, I'm also looking seriously at the Kicker Big 3 upgrade kit...

 

The solution your friend at Digital Audio suggests with the Audio Control device is hardly what I'd consider to be quality sound at all. The noise filtering that the device does may not sound quite apparent to you at first after you listen to what it does the first few times, but once you listen to it enough times considering you will be the main listener in your car, then you will be able to spot what the difference sounds like from this device filtering the music you play and from other devices elsewhere that don't filter the same music. This difference is further recognized for the other simple fact that you have set 108sqft of sound dampening material in your car to block out alot of ambient noise.

Another thing. This device isn't even actively powered by a separate independent power source such as the battery or another live connection. It's powered by the same RCA Pre-amp voltage from the deck unit that its trying to filter and amplify. That to me is even more proof of an inefficient process since it's using what little voltage the deck unit has from the Pre-Amp just to supply power to this device which in turn could could generate even more noise from the source. Also the 2.4v is just a paper rating on the box, not every deck unit operates at the stated 2.4v or whatever voltage is shown. There is a variance between units.

The noise generated from the deck unit alone can not be isolated. Therefore to filter the noise by any means once it passes the deck unit, you will have to sacrifice some amount of tones with the original source. You can get the gist of it by doing the same thing on a computer by running an audio file that has alot of noise through an audio editing app like Adobe Audition, Goldwave, Audacity etc etc which all have filtering processes. You'll notice that no mater how much you play with the filtering process to get rid of noise, the original source is still altered and affected. You simply can not isolate just noise alone without affected the original source.

Also as you stated, this device is mad expensive for what it does. I'd rather sell the deck unit the car came with and put that money + this money for the device towards a new aftermarket deck unit.

Now as far as the aftermarket solution goes, the steering wheel module to maintain the volume and track control is around $50. That's purely optional if you want to maintain that function. I personally don't since I replaced my deck unit with a **** volume version which to me is far better than a button volume adjuster.

The dash kit is like a mere $10 and it does blend well with the center dash. It looks quite OEM like to be honest.

There are a wide assortment of deck units out there. I personally got the Pioneer FH-P8000BT because I didn't want things to look too flashy. I wanted high quality output of sound since that's all I will be using it for.

 

I think maybe I communicated something wrong... go to google, crutchfield and look up Line Drivers, JL Audio makes them as well as Memphis Audio.

I'm not talking about a noise filter, or ground look isolator. The Line driver has its own power source and simply takes the rca level going in and sends a stronger signal out. The point of doing this is the same as buying a head unit with 4v pre out vs a head unit with 2v pre out. mounting as close to the head unit as possible.

Basically your taking the line voltage going in (my case 2.4v "advertised") and increasing the signal voltage from the head unit to the amps. There is no signal processing. The advantage to having a head unit with 4v is less chance to pick up noise through the rca cables running from the head unit to the rear of the car. Same thing with a line driver. You can set it to the desired signal output voltage and along with a twisted pair of high end rca connects have a good strong signal going from the front of the car to the rear thus reducing chances of picking up any noise associated with low voltage signals traveling through the rca's to the amp and allowing you to set your gain controls lower. Also check out the specs on these very high signal to noise ration, very clean.

Audio control line driver

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_161MATR...rv=11629213225

Rockford Fosgate line driver

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...te-RF-BLD.html

Memphis Audio Line Driver

http://www.woofersetc.com/p-4349-16-...ne-driver.aspx

Read the reviews and do some searching online. I haven't found anything negative about installing one close to the head unit and running some high end twisted pair RCA interconnects yet.

One other thing the plastic panel in the HATCH by the latch assembly started buzzing from the sub back there today, everything is STONE silent except that one panel. I took it off and checked everything, then took some Stinger Foam padding I had and put it between the panel and the body with roadkill extreme. It helped get rid of it but then if I have something up really loud and it hits a certain low freq it still has a tiny buzz from plastic panel... I will try padding it more tomorrow and may add some more roadkill extreme. At normal to loud listening levels there's no noise but when I crank it... and who wants to have a plastic interior panel making noise when someone wants to hear your system and you crank it!

Anyway, let me know what you think of the line driver based of the links I posted up.

Looking at twisted pair wire sets..

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...er-SI4617.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...es-ZN7450.html

If I did upgrade the head unit this is what I would have to get.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130P440...H.html?tp=5684

4v pre out and eq built in.

 

Been reading some more on line drivers, I think I'm going to do the big 3 first and upgrade the RCA's to twisted pair. See what I think of that before playing with a line driver. If the Big 3 and better audio connects make a difference then I leave it alone, if they don't then it's really not wasted money in that I'm just upgrading for added assurance and not too expensive.

 

The power source taken from the 2.4v coming out of the RCA is not a separate power source. Therefore it's not independent. Also it's not the same as getting a deck unit with a 4v preout. A deck unit isn't amplifying a lowgrade signal such as 2.4v in the first place into something its not. It's always best to get a high grade preamp output from the actual source and not put something in between to piggy back a signal.

http://stason.org/TULARC/entertainme...ne-LC-IDB.html
"The line driver will increase dynamic range in certain cases where
excessive noise is masking the lower level signals. However, a line
driver will not increase the dynamic range when used in a system with little noise to begin with."if you don't have a serious case of induced noise, a line driver will do little good since it might add enough noise to offset what little noise it "takes away.""

Another thing..
The Alpine premium unit in the 2011 TC2 Clipped in the mid 40s. No line driver in the world is going to help matters when the deck units low grade components cause it to do that. I'm quite sure the Pioneer is the same.

 

Good read, I was reading last night as well, some of the BMW forums guys keep the stock units and add the line driver due to the stock head unit having very low voltage and when adding amps the signal is so weak that it picks up noise.

I think I'm just going to do the big three and high end RCAs and call it a day, the system sounds extremely good as is and I can turn up the Pioneer and it stays clean without clipping/distortion up to about 45 and with my amps it's way too loud to listening to for any period of time. When I do crank it I can hear my ears ringing which is telling me not to listen to it that loud. When I'm alone in the car I usually listen to it at 26-28 and when I want it loud I have it set typically on 35-36.

Don't think I want to take a chance with using a line driver, the cost, risk of possible noise by adding it in or undesirable results is just not worth it. Will do the Big 3 and an expensive set of RCA's and call it a day. Everyone that has heard it says it sounds incredible so I'll leave it alone and not give into the temptation to go completely crazy.

I'm ordering another 3 bulk packs of Stinger Roadkill. My neighbor, really nice guy has an RS 7.0 really liked my setup. After driving my car and hearing the difference in interior noise he wants to do his. He also commented on how much colder it was inside my car than his with the AC going. I told him where to order it and everything but he wants me to do his car the same as mine... I told him 350 in material and if he wanted me to do it I would have to charge 500 in labor and that he should really do it himself. He said he didn't have time and wanted me to do it... so here I go again... What did I get myself into... Money will be nice but it's definitely work. Hoping to start Friday after work stay on it steady and have it done in one weekend. There is a possibility I may sell him my head unit and upgrade, he has the standard TC head unit...

 

The asphalt based roofing material that rivals any type of sound dampening stuff from big brands called 'Peel and Seal' can be purchased at Lowes for a ton less money to do the entire floor panel of the car. You can use it on the side panels, but some people have claimed that it peels off due to heat and some claim it doesn't. To be on the safe side, I would only use this stuff on the floor panel which is a far better alternative to Dynamat.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_154017-81326-PS625_4294934297_4294937087_?productId=1018733&Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Building+Supplies_4294934297_4294937087_?Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=&state=R%23prod-tabs&stop_mobi=yes

 

Nope that's something I won't touch, peel and seal. Researched that one some people said it left a freshly paved road smell in their car especially when it's hot out. Sure it's the poor mans sound deadening but in a brand new car I'll stick by buytl based products and leave tar on the roof and roads where it belongs!

Besides it's hard to beat the Amazon $99.35 free shipping deal on a 36sq ft box of Stinger Roadkill Expert.

Ordered 4 boxes. Will use most of it in the RS 7.0 TC that I'm doing and some of whats left over on my hatch lid which I wasn't fully happy with definitely the hardest area to cover.