I just bought this from my mechanic who bought it from one of his customers. He did some work before selling it to me, including replacing the radio/touchscreen unit (with a used one). The radio and discs sound terrible. I know a lot about home audio sound. I don't need premium sound in my car, but this is outright distortion and clipping that comes and goes, and a very shrill/piercing/unlistenable treble. I want to figure out what is wrong: the radio unit, the amplifier, or the speakers? I probably need an expert in car audio to debug it. Any recommendations how to proceed on this? If it's the radio unit I would probably ask him to replace it again, or split the cost with me on a new rather than used unit. Note: I could put an aftermarket radio in there, but I would miss the disc player and the volume control knob. Perhaps I could upgrade the amplifier or speakers. I don't need premium sound, just something that plays classical music nicely without a shrill treble.
tough to diagnose over the net. a lot of people have upgraded the speakers, but idk if that will help your condition. as an aside, how many miles, and has the egr circuit been cleaned?
It has 120,000 miles, and I don't know about the EGR circuit. I'll ask. I know you can't diagnose it specifically, but are you familiar with the devices in the circuit path? For example, does it have a separate amplifier? Would the three possibilities be (1) head unit, (2) amplifier, (3) speakers? Is there anything else in the circuit? Maybe if I could narrow it down to one channel or front/back speakers that could reveal something.
