the worst sound ever

Odd.

Unless you are accustomed to high-end sound systems, most STOCK sound systems blow old car audio away.

What kind of problem(s) are you having in sound reproduction that it hurts your ears?

 

With the default settings on my Prius (not a Persona), the excessive bass triggered an occasional an inner ear spasm. I have an inherited ear condition that easily triggers motion sickness, but also doesn't get along well with some heavy low tones. The bass adjustments had to be turned down.

In this case, loud bass didn't mean good bass. I suspect someone tried to use software to make up for hardware inadequacies.

But there are plenty of other issues that could be hurting your ears.

 

I'm not going to argue this.

I think people have a wide and diverse amount of expectations concerning their vehicle sound system.

I guess I'm getting old. But I don't need my vehicle audio system to be able to shake the ground.

And perhaps my hearing is just getting dull enough that I can't really make out a great distinction anymore.

So I get to enjoy the savings that comes with really not wanting to upgrade, nor being able to really appreciate it even if I did.

I would guess, if the OP wants to keep the stock system and just try new speakers, it's just going to be a matter of trying higher end quality aftermarket speakers.

But I would also guess, that within the arena of DIY'ers, the recommendation is going to often be.....a lot more involved than just trying new speakers.

 

I have a 2013 persona and believe it or not the head unit is made by harmon kardon. I also thought the sound was awful but knew it is not the speakers. I bought an Alpine INE-Z928HD with perfect fit kit. I also installed the least expensive alpine back up camera. The install was a little challenging but went together well. The result is great sound (did not replace speakers) and really good NAV. The back up camera video is amazing (you can also play DVD'S ).

 

I've owned three Prii over the years and each has had varying levels of poor sound but I'm okay with that.

The other day I visited a quality audio shop looking for recommendations to improve the sound (In my old Gen II I'd added an amp, sub, new speakers and Dynamat). For the reasons below, he advised against spending any money and by raising the treble a few clicks, mids one click and backing off the base, it sounded better for my use.

Without remediation the cabin noise in a Prius is factor against great sound and as someone who listens to XM 95% of the time, the audio source works against high-quality sound.

That said, if you are going to make as large a purchase as the Alpine, why wouldn't you upgrade the speakers - even nominally? IMO, they are the weakest link.

 

Answering your question about replacing the speakers. At some point I will replace the speakers but the head unit replacement for me was huge.
Now that I have a head unit that has a decent amp in it and low total harmonic distortion the speakers sound quite good. You would be very surprised at the sound quality. Also the Alpine NAV is very easy to use and map updates are done by usb (no charge).
Priuslovers.

 

Look for reasonable efficient speakers. The factory head unit isn't very powerful. I would not consider any speakers under 90db efficient.
You can do pretty well for under $200. All of my speakers cost about that. The dash speakers are the most critical to the overall sound.

You might want to look at weasel.com: 2012 Toyota Plug in Prius Stereo to see what I did, and to see pictures of just how crappy the OEM speakers are.

 

I don't doubt that the head unit screws with the frequency response. That is why the JBL MS-8 has a cd that is played through the head unit, and is used to remove the equalization. However, paying $279 for the taco tunes unit, seems a bit expensive.

I only paid $400 (on sale) for my MS-8 and it includes 8 channels of amplification, and microphones to calibrate the speakers in the car. Even not on sale, it is about $500. It is also a lot less bulky than the recurve ezq plus an amplifier. It is the digital era, and equalization should be done by a DSP, not by a bunch of analog filters in a big expensive box.

 

I feel the same way about the stock system in my car. After upgrading the system in my summer driver this year, the poor quality of the stock system became much more apparent, to the point where I wasn't really enjoying music in it anymore. It's a lease, so I don't really want to spend any money on it. That said, I just this week made a rather amazing discovery. I purchased an HRT iStreamer to install in the other car. This is an outboard DAC takes the pure digital signal from the iPhone and feeds it into the auxiliary input. I decided to try it out in the Prius before installing it permanently in the other car. Frankly, it makes a HUGE difference. No, it's still far from great, but at least I don't cringe as I turn up the volume. The sound becomes much more focused and the ability to discern individual instruments is greatly improved. It actually makes this system sound something like music.

The bad thing is that you have to use the aux jack, which means you lose album art, headunit control, etc. But at least this unit still charges the phone and pauses the music when you turn the car off. With the Prius's center console it makes installing this dead simple if you don't mind it sitting in the cubby under the armrest.

I'm still considering upgrading the speakers in this car, but I really can't believe how much this helped the sound.

 

Picked up my first Prius yesterday and drove the 8hours home. Agree the stereo is awful (only listened to FM radio). Mine is the factory Nav.

Going to listen a bit longer but my first thought is there needs to be a sub installed because the mid-bass and below is non-existant.

I wouldn't change door speakers. From past experience replacing factory speakers with high end has limited result unless you change the speaker environment - ie how it's baffled to the door and addition of sound deadening. Strangley, it's easy to make a system sound worse by installing high end speakers.