Best radio upgrade for Gen 3.

There are a few things I've seen online that look like they could be reasonably okay Not sure how all of the car would integrate with some of these stereos the buttons on the steering wheel so on and so forth especially if you're trying to get into Bluetooth and streaming and all the new aforementioned stuff and car audio for your Prius couldn't something be taken out of a generation 4 or is that not good enough? I don't really do a lot of the stereo change outs anymore. Kind of left all that in the '90. Actually my generation 2 radio WMA player with new speakers installed and doors and tweeters clipped into there respective housing sounds quite decent I'm not looking to tear up the car with enough bass to rattle everything or anything like that I actually like the car where the doors and windows don't rattle in things that seems more important today than vibrating everything hell the not too many years from now I won't be able to hear anyway so there's always that.

 

I got one off AliExpress and it's working pretty good. I got the 8GB 128GB model that works with the GPS/JBL radio. I had to get some different adapters to tie into the original GPS antenna, the GPS antenna that it comes with wasn't good. Sounds is great as long as I don't try to adjust the sound speaker setup (moving the sound more to the back or front, if you leave it 50/50 on front and rear and left to right it works great.

I also had to get a different backup camera. The only downsides are the radio signals don't come in quite as strong even with a antenna signal booster, when the radio is very hot the screen will black out every few seconds until it cools down, but it's only happened when I'm on long 6-8 hour drives, if I turn off the screen but leave it doing GPS navigation and playing music it's fine and it helps cool down in those circumstances.

I mostly loaded it with 40gb of music, audio books, and podcasts and 8 mostly listen to those and also I use the XM radio app to listen there. It has a lot of flexibility and there are a lot of tweaking of settings to get things working how you like but I feel it's worth it. One thing I had issues was I couldn't get GPS voice working until I found a special volume adjustment setting that fixed it

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SM-S918U ?

 

I'd get the 5G model just cause that's where things are going and the 4G model I got, kind of stinks. I'm on T-Mobile and their better bands aren't supported on this Asian radio so reception and speeds aren't that great. I usually use my phones hotspot, but 5g could add more compatible bands

SM-S918U ?

 

The screen was another thing that bothered me initially. It collects smudges from your fingers and there is a bit of a glare. I was going to try to find a glass covering or something to help, but now I just have a micro fiber cloth under the console that I use and quickly wipe the screen a few times a week and that's helped out a lot. I can try to get some pictures to show the glare maybe in the next day or two.

I also have had a few scratches, not nothing that bothers me since like you've said, a radio under $300 with all the features is a pretty good deal.

SM-S918U ?

 

Bluetooth receiver to FM transmitter so YouTube music/phone apps plays in car

 

I'm not thoroughly impress "as far as sound" when it comes to the new stereos besides they have all the features. They cannot touch the warmth quality sound of the old school analog like the 80's Alpine. They are very nice to upgrade and even set it up to Tri-amp. I have a 2007 with the premium JBL system with all the bells and whistles. Originally it has a bi-amp harmann amps with 4 jbl speakers. I added a single 10 dual voice coil JL audio sub with Rockford fosgate punch. It sounds "good". tons of bass.
My system in the Austin Healey with 80's Alpine 7347 and bi-amp sounds light years better. Very close to the warmth of a home high fidelity. I wish they still make those kind of head units today.

 

Yes you can use Bluetooth to run apps on your phone and send the sound to the radio. Mine also does Android Auto through the USB wire every time and sometimes I can get it to do Android Auto wirelessly.

In the settings they're is a boost gain where you can go from 0 to 50 or 60, I run mine in the middle and I get the same punchiness as the stock jbl head unit.

One day I might go with a name brand but odds been working well so far for 2 years so I'm hoping to keep it how it is for however long it goes. I don't expect much from AliExpress but I've been surprised at it running well still. Even though I got the 8gb ram until the music player I use Media Monkey, since the last major app update sometimes it lags 4-8 seconds between pressing the next or pause button until it acts on it. I don't use it much but it might be because I've got I think 40gb of music/podcasts.

SM-S918U ?