# Prius stock audio system 10-minute review



## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

Having been either unemployed, underemployed, or in grad school for the past few years I never had a chance to test the quality of audio in the newer rides. Today I borrowed my parents 2012 Prius (the most basic trim I think), and lo and behold, I am actually impressed with it. I am sure that an audiophile will have a long list of objections, but for an average person this audio system leaves no reasons to upgrade anything.

I believe the front stage consists of a 2-way setup, 6x9s in the doors, and a wide-band mid in the far end corner of the dash. I listened some random stuff from my iPhone for about 10 minutes. Car was parked. Since the review was short, this test wasn't extensive. First song, "Adorn" by Miguel. This is bass heavy song, probably more representative of pop/hip hop genres today. Second song, "Little Numbers" by BOY. The later was a pretty nice find, a better yardstick for judging SQ. (Check them on youtube) 

So what are my impressions from a 10 minute listen? To summarize, here is a proof that a cheap base system does not need to sound like crap if the manufacturer puts some thoughts into it.

The first thing that stands out is surprisingly airy sound stage for a stock system, as in the voices and instruments are not in your face but placed a bit away from you, with a good depth and width. This is probably due to the fact that the Prius dash extends way forward and the mids are many ft away from you. I think the mids are farther away than what you'd get in a kickpanel install. The stage is not centered, but this flaw is less noticeable, with PLDs being smaller than in other cars.

Next, the midrange is very nice overall. Voices sound very natural and detailed. I can hear details of each individual instrument and sound (separate claps in the second song, etc). The signature is bright but none of it sounds fatiguing. Distortion not detectable at moderate to loud volume. Dynamic range is good. I read somewhere that each speaker has a 45watt amp, so perhaps that's the reason. Finally bass is very good for a stock system. Very tight and with good impact down to like 60Hz. As expected, sub bass is lacking. Miguel's song has some pleasing body massaging parts but you need a subwoofer to experience that.

Overall, a satisfying sound system to listen to. I can only imagine what one could do with it by adding a good DSP and amplifier (and even leaving the stock speakers installed). Even if the speakers were changed, I'd leave all speaker sizes and locations stock. A knock test confirms that the large front door panels resonate like a tin can, so they could definitely benefit from sound proofing.

Once I went back to my DIY sound system in Taurus, I missed some of the "air" from the Prius sound system as well as tight midbass impact. As good as 6.5 inch HAT Imagine mids are, they won't keep up with the 6x9s in Prius. I played with the preset EQ curves in my Pioneer DEH-80PRS head unit, and the preset designated for "powerful vocals" seemed to give sound reminiscent of Prius sound. Overall, I feel like the Prius sound system designers did a good job because (1) they move the mids as far away as possible, (2) they use wideband mid as a point source, and (3) they use a large midbass in front doors. Overall, this must be a good car for DIY and fuel economy.


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## Serieus (May 27, 2011)

interesting. i may be buying my parents' 2010 honda insight ex w/ nav which has a similarly deep dash, although the stereo is total crap despite being the highest trim level. i believe it's running a 2 way up front with tweeters (i assume? might also be widebanders) in the dash firing up, though they might be angled somewhat -- never looked under the grill, and mids in the doors.

and you can bet that if i buy the car, it will have at least some sort of install started within the week  hopefully the deep dash helps. like you said, i think the stock location for either the tweeters or widebanders depending on which it has, actually has better PLD's than kicks would give you.


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

Some of the initial excitement definitely goes away once the car starts moving. This car gets noisy at speed, because of wind noise in particular. Doors sound like tin can if you knock. The car could definitely benefit from having a comprehensive sound treatment in doors, roof, and maybe the floor. Prius is a fine value overall. Riding at 80mph, the car feels stable, composed and somewhat slower than it's really going, perhaps because of less engine noise and responsive steering wheel.


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## avanti1960 (Sep 24, 2011)

ZAKOH said:


> Having been either unemployed, underemployed, or in grad school for the past few years I never had a chance to test the quality of audio in the newer rides. Today I borrowed my parents 2012 Prius (the most basic trim I think), and lo and behold, I am actually impressed with it. I am sure that an audiophile will have a long list of objections, but for an average person this audio system leaves no reasons to upgrade anything.
> 
> I believe the front stage consists of a 2-way setup, 6x9s in the doors, and a wide-band mid in the far end corner of the dash. I listened some random stuff from my iPhone for about 10 minutes. Car was parked. Since the review was short, this test wasn't extensive. First song, "Adorn" by Miguel. This is bass heavy song, probably more representative of pop/hip hop genres today. Second song, "Little Numbers" by BOY. The later was a pretty nice find, a better yardstick for judging SQ. (Check them on youtube)
> 
> ...


Nice assessment. Noise issues are probably because this is a vehicle optimized for fuel economy first- meaning reduce the weight of materials as much as possible. 

As the owner of a late model Toyota vehicle I too had a very decent OE system. It had very rich sounding bass and a decent stage. 

I had to spend much more than I imagined on hardware and labor on my system to surpass the original midbass output. Also running HAT Imagines. 

So how the heck do they do it? How do they provide such bass with these gaping holes in the door sheetmetal? 

I would like to understand the T/S paramaters of the original drivers.


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## analogrocker (Aug 1, 2009)

avanti1960 said:


> I had to spend much more than I imagined on hardware and labor on my system to surpass the original midbass output. Also running HAT Imagines.
> 
> So how the heck do they do it? How do they provide such bass with these gaping holes in the door sheetmetal?
> 
> I would like to understand the T/S paramaters of the original drivers.


I'm about 7 months late to this thread but I just so happened to stumble upon it tonight.

Stock speakers seem to all have these things in common:

- mid/high Fs
- high Qts
- high Vas
- high efficiency

It also has a lot to do with the way the stock drivers are mounted. The factory mounts always seem to have an airtight seal to the doors. The drivers themselves are also sealed to the mounts. Not only that, often the drivers themselves have foam gaskets that seal up to the inner door cards. All these things help the bass a lot.


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