Stereos Swappable? New Stereo w/Steering Wheel Controls?

Sorry this is off topic but could u PM me more info about this heated seat setup? Thanks!

As far as maintaining Steering wheel controls with an aftermarket stereo I'd suggest this ( Amazon.com: Scosche S3-1 Stereo Replacement Steering Wheel Controls for GM/Chrysler/Toyota: Electronics ) from what i've read it should solve ur issue.

 

i don't think you can use the jbl power amp w/ an aftermarket head unit, but a good car electronics shop should know for sure.

 

I'm new on the board here, (first post) but in my last job, I worked for Harman International, the makers of the JBL system in the systems engineering group. I also worked for some time at Fujitsu Ten in a lab that analyzed warranty returns of the Denso radio head that is part of the Prius system. Harman makes the amplifier and speakers, and is responsible for the tuning of the system. I know the guys who tuned your JBL systems personally.

I DO NOT recommend inserting ANY aftermarket components into a branded OEM audio system in any car produced in the last 15 years or so. Were you to replace the radio head in that '05 with an aftermarket radio head, the amplifier would not work. All commands from the radio head are sent to the amp in the form of digital command codes over Toyota's AVC LAN bus. This includes all volume, tone, and balance commands. Additionally when you select the mode (radio, CD, etc.) used on the radio head, a command is sent that causes the amp to change equalization curves, which are all a little different depending on the mode chosen. I know of no aftermarket radio head or interface product that can do any of this. They will almost certainly render the system unusable.

If MP3 playback is a must (I find the sound quality of MP3's to generally be lacking and rarely use them myself), your best option is probably an OEM (Denso) radio head from an '06 Prius. Bear in mind that the amplifier in your '05 does not have the EQ curve for MP3's, so it will probably default to some other EQ curve which may be a bit subpar. However, if you find the sound of MP3's acceptable, you are not likely to notice the difference. If you do find it objectionable, you can probably also buy the '06 JBL amplifier online and replace it as well. There is likely no difference in the harness wiring between '05 and '06, but I can't say for sure offhand.

Bottom line--improving the performance of a branded OEM audio system by adding aftermarket parts is virtually impossible today. Without serious depth of knowledge and effort, the result will almost always be a degradation in performace or loss of functionality. If you are determined to have something "better", the whole system usually needs to be replaces, and loss of functionality of some controls is almost a given.

Hope that helps.

dh

 

WOW! welcome! awesome to have people with engineering experience involved here.

 

wb9k So, what can I do to make the rear speaker/tweeter of my 05 prius sounds as the front speaker/tweeter????

 

Without special tools and proprietary software, there is really no way for you to tweak the system EQ's.

Getting similar sound in the front seat vs the rear seat is one of the most difficult challenges in car audio. Tuners have to decide to make a "sweet spot" for the driver (which compromises sound for passengers) or spread out the compromises among all listening positions in the car (which means nobody gets a real "sweet spot"). If you were to tweak the output of your rear speakers (I think the rear doors have coaxial drivers, each driven by a single amplifier channel), you would find that sound in the front of the car would change, and sound in the rear may actually suffer as well. These amps have DSP's in them and in addition to simple EQ, time delay and phase of the signal on each individual channel is adjustable as well. Tuning a car is not a simple process, an engineer will typically spend a week or more on site tuning a car with the customer (who often doesn't know much at all about sound) standing over their shoulder.

The biggest shortcoming in the Prius JBL system is the positioning of the center channel speaker. It is almost exactly parallel with the windsheild, which causes standing waves and wreaks havoc on spatial cues and midrange integration. Harman fought with Toyota to change this, unsuccessfully. If you really feel you have to improve your JBL system, the only recommendation I would make would be to modify the mount for the center channel so that the speaker is firing straight up or slightly back, instead of straight into the windshield. This is not a trivial task, and if you mess up you can ruin your dash panel, or the speaker, or both. Not really recommended at all, not by me anyway.

dh

 

I appreciate your useful information! I may stick to what the car is designed for and just fade it a little to the rear... Don't wanna be more adventurous and mess up on things I've no experiences... Thx guy for your help

 

mistah ya, some folks claim it improves the sound by removing the center channel speaker or at least disconnecting it.

 

Nice, now there's something you can try that is easy enough to reverse, and may indeed yield improvements in some aspects of the sound (it may also hurt other things--these kinds of changes almost always involve a tradeoff of some sort). I do tend to feel that the positioning of that center channel driver gives you a center channel that does about as much harm as good. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean you can just cut it out and not miss anything (without retuning what's left), but hey, there's not much to lose here if you're not afraid of popping trim off your IP. Try it, you may like it.You will lose some volume in the mid to upper range, of course. You may also try reversing the polarity of that driver if you're really feeling saucy, though improvement from that is pretty unlikely. I don't recommend even trying that with any other drivers, unless you have a subwoofer.

I helped build and demo'd a Gen II Prius with a Harman high-efficiency system (mostly prototype hardware and the Class-D amp from the Lexus LFA) a couple years ago. We took care to reposition the center channel and upgraded the drivers to hi-e all around. That system was very clean and very dynamic, a real killer. It's a shame they're not all that good!

 

^^^
Yeah, there have been threads here on Priuschat about disconnecting the center channel speaker to improve imaging. I've never bothered on mine.

Interesting, I'd never thought about changing where it points. If someone could fabricate something inexpensive to make it point upwards, w/o making the car look too strange...

 

We had a pretty good fab guy for that kind of stuff. Good as he is, he flubbed the first attempt and the upper IP had to be replaced. Bear in mind, we were changing speakers too, so it wasn't so simple as rotating what was already there. Anyhow, the idea was to set the driver deeper into the IP and change its angle relative to the windshield. It doesn't have to jut out proud of the dash or anything. There was some room to play with too. I'm not sure why Toyota resisted making that change.

 

Great to have such experiences folk around... Thank to wb9K

 

Glad to help!