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02-12-2012, 03:59 PM | #1 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 310024
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Rocklin, California
Vehicle:2012 Impreza Sport Marine Blue Pearl |
2012 Impreza Sport stock stereo good?
Hi guys, newbie here with some questions as I just did a factory order for a 2012 Impreza Sport hatchback. It comes stock with a 6 speaker setup but I am wondering if the speakers are any good? Also has the HU with ipod/USB port. No Nav. No Sub. I really don't want to add a sub so was thinking maybe some better quality speakers and a small amp will help? Any recommendations or experience with the 2012 Imprezas? Thanks!
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02-12-2012, 08:41 PM | #2 |
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it doesnt sound great. but, if you wanted, you could add some newer door speakers, which would help. I'm planning to do just that in the spring. for now I've added this
with this added, the stock unit sounds pretty darn hammy. |
02-12-2012, 08:56 PM | #3 |
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Vehicle:2012 Impreza Gray |
I have the upgraded kicker speakers and it sounds like crap. I think the HU is weak. Also the bluetooth music is crackly.
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02-12-2012, 09:03 PM | #4 |
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02-12-2012, 09:10 PM | #5 |
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I wonder if it's my phone. I should try my ipod. Thanks for your input.
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02-12-2012, 10:17 PM | #6 |
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Vehicle:2011 WRX Limited Black |
If you're using Pandora, set it for high quality. Standard is crackly.
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02-13-2012, 11:46 PM | #7 |
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Ipod sounded great. That's crazy the difference between the 2.
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02-14-2012, 11:17 AM | #8 |
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I have a question but can't start a new thread yet due to my low reply count. I just picked up my 2012 4-dr limited last week. I had a G35 with a Bose upgraded sub which wasn't the best but when I got my new impreza I noticed a big difference. It's not terrible but it will take a little getting used to.
I got the upgraded speakers and tweeters but did not get the sub because I didn't want to loose the trunk space. In fact I almost got the 5-dr till I realized it was a few inches shorter, all from the trunk. I kinda wish the 4-dr had a sub option that was in the rear dash behind the rear headrests (between the other speakers?) instead of taking up that whole side alcove in the trunk. My thoughts about my set up is that it lacks volume. I have to put it around 75% to really enjoy music. Talk news is fine at 30-50%. It is all very clear though. bluetooth, ipod-usb, radio, with HD stations being a little clearer. I have no rattles or cracks (which was an issue in my last car). Since I didn't get the sub, I only feel the bass when I really turn up the volume and finally have a fuller sound. The bonus is that the door speakers have a nice kick at high volume that I enjoy, especially if my knee touches the door. My question: I was reading the manual and it mentions SRS Trubass and SRS Focus. I have SRS on and illuminated but never the trubass or focus (and I dodn't see an option to turn it on). Is this because I didn't get the sub? I could understand not getting Truebass but why not Focus? I guess I'm hoping there was a way to force it on and enjoy a fuller sound. |
02-14-2012, 03:56 PM | #9 |
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People seem to be complaining about the non-navi sound quality. I have the nav unit and i think it sounds acceptable after you set the EQ where you want it. It's not bassy or real loud, but it's not anything i would complain about. Maybe some other navi equiped owners will chime in.
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02-14-2012, 04:48 PM | #10 |
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Location: Rocklin, California
Vehicle:2012 Impreza Sport Marine Blue Pearl |
SURE WISH WE COULD GET BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST and not hi-jack it.
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02-14-2012, 05:36 PM | #11 |
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ok, OP, i tore out a door speaker today to replace it. what i found was a whippy, flimsy little POS. Max wattage: 35. nuff said.
what i was able to do with it though, that was noteworthy and useful, is gut the speaker housing of the entire driver and use the spacer and wiring harness to properly install my new speaker. Im going to install another one tomorrow, so I will take pictures and write up what i do. there is some clipping and shaving of plastic bits, a little soldering, and removal of the door panel. presto. new speaker. I'm going to have an amp installed to push it all soon too. that seems to be necessary. |
02-14-2012, 08:17 PM | #12 | |
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Quote:
Excellent....thanks.....I was told to get some Polk MM6501 components for the front doors and Polk DB651 for the rear doors. Will have to research amps I guess. I doubt the factory HU will have enough power. |
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02-14-2012, 10:37 PM | #13 |
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Sorry for the hijack. Thread title makes it seem like you want our opinions on our new factory systems. Like I said, I just need to get my response count up so I can start another 2012 impreza audio thread specific to the other issues, which I guess I am doing by posting this response. Cheers
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02-15-2012, 12:16 AM | #14 |
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I like the look of those speakers, saw them on amazon last week for a decent price. As for the HU, it is not too good. Might be worth changing it out too. And for streaming BT, it was not intended to stream music, just kind of used for that, hence the low data flow to the HU. Try streaming pandora then plug it in to the aux, big difference. Also found out by streaming stuff off my phone, then playing the same music on the ipod, huge difference.
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02-15-2012, 09:00 AM | #15 |
Scooby Specialist
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Vehicle:2011 WRX Limited Black |
Factory speakers = OK
headunit = JUNK |
02-15-2012, 11:15 AM | #16 | |
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Vehicle:2011 WRX 5DR Satin White Pearl |
Quote:
Upgrading even the "premium" OEM speakers to basic aftermarket speakers was a significant upgrade fro me. I went with some fairly good speakers in the front of my 2011, but some fairly inexpensive Polk coaxials in the rear were a significant upgrade over my OEM premuim speakers. (By premuim, I mean the true-coaxial speakers with the woven cones. They were considered an upgrade in past years but were standard in all WRX models for 2011.) I can't say for sure what came stock in the '12 models, WRX or otherwise, but these were the top-of-the-line for OEM speakers in '11 and the Polks were better than what came in the car. My install: http://www.subaruaudio.net/my-wrx/audio-system/ If you went with something as basic as a small 50w x 4 amp and Polk dB6501 components in the front and dB651 coaxials in the rear you'd be very impressed, I would think. This is particularly true if you go to a moderately-priced headunit to send a cleaner signal to the amp. I saw an upgrade over stock when I changed out the HU and speakers- BEFORE I added an amp. One additional note- minor door deadening when you do the install will also pay big dividends. |
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02-15-2012, 11:19 AM | #17 | |
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Quote:
Just buy or make spacers and do it right. |
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02-15-2012, 11:58 AM | #18 | |
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02-15-2012, 08:28 PM | #19 |
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I am new here, I just bought a 2011 wrx limited and noticed the sound system sucks. I know the previous owner swapped out the navi head unit for the base unit. Is that my problem? If I buy a navi head unit, will that give me better sound or are they both terrible? any help would be appreciated thankyou.
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02-15-2012, 11:47 PM | #20 | |
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02-16-2012, 09:38 AM | #21 | |
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Quote:
It is not the non-Nav unit that is the issue. Neither one shounds great. Why not? First, the TUNER sucks in the OEM headunit. If you care about the radio, upgrade the headunit. If you don't care about that, the HU is really not that bad. As far as functions, it is a pretty good unit. As far as how well it executes those functions...not so much. My 2 biggest gripes:
Also, the stereos in MANY Subarus suffer the same fate as those in other cars- the headunit has a built-in equalization curve that is designed to keep people from overdriving their speaker. That means that it actually changes the EQ curve at different volume levels to limit certain frequencies to keep the speakers within (or closer to within) their mechanical limits. The problem with that is that if you add outboard sound processing it is nearly useless as soon as you change the volume or switch modes. Even if you set it up to be "perfect" at a certain volume level, all of that tuning and adjusting goes out the window for other volume levels. |
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02-16-2012, 12:12 PM | #22 | |
Scooby Newbie
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Quote:
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02-26-2012, 07:57 AM | #23 |
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Good morning gents....I am also a new prezzie owner, consigned to thread jacking hell.
I also just completed a 6 speaker type b radio upgrade to 6 speakers plus both kicker tweet and door speaker. Here are my thoughts: when I first fired it up, I thought the oem radio was awful. My family, who was with me at the time, thought it was great. So I guess subaru was aiming it at a more general demographic than us audio snobs. . It's "Hungarian Mother approved". After purchase, I tuned it as much as I could and got it to sound decent with a good V-eq: high treble, high bass, low midline with a slight rear bias. It was even surprisingly bassy for a factory system but not crystal clear. I later bought both of the kicker speaker upgrades and installed them yesterday afternoon. The tweeters made little difference from what I could hear. This is with my head up against the speaker too.The only observation is the kicker tweets have a metal grille and the connector socket quality on the bottom is poor: I could barely coax the connector to snap locked. Even then it looked crooked. Even, worse....when playing bluetooth audio test music, the above reported crackling manifested. Not always, not all the time but it never happened before the upgrade. The door speakers, on the other hand, were a great purchase. I was impressed with the oem speakers, to be honest, once I pulled them out and saw how insubstantially thin and plasticy then were.....how could these featherweight objects with no magnet driver to speak of.... produce the half decent sound they did? The kicker speaker are a few pounds each. Good solid units. The cone material seems a lot more durable and the units look like they will last the life of the car. Results.....the audio now sounds much more clear, not washed out as before. It did the job the tweeters were supposed to do. Volume control seems to be a lot more reserved now, though. I need to dial more furiously to make volume increase. This must be the dampening mentioned above. Its a bit annoying. I also got the kicker trunk sub...mostly because I was told it was pre wired for it with wires waiting in the trunk. I was dismayed to find a 20 foot wiring harness when I opened the box. Now 10 years of suping, rewiring and rebuilding 5.0's makes me no stranger to tearing up trim panels to route wires but I had hoped to avoid this on a brand new car. The fit is...ok at best. It clips to the trunk pad side flap (lame) and then uses one of the corner trim-pin holes to mount a large thumb screw. But its near impossible to get the thumbscrew lined up to actually screw into the provided clip since the reinforcement arm is at an angle. Doesnt feel like too much thought went into it. Plus, I was dismayed to find that one needs to remove the sub to get into the spare tire well. I would love to report on sound quality..not expecting too much... but I cant figure out how to get the factory radio bezel off gracefully to make the final connection. Since this isnt a used project car, prying it off with a screwdriver is a no go and its on pretty tight. Anyone have any ideas, btw? So, in conclusion....the speaker upgrade is worthwhile and recommended but I would leave the tweets since they introduce crackling and make little difference in audio quality and the connectors are poorly cast. I'll report back when I get the sub working. |
02-26-2012, 08:29 PM | #24 | |
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Vehicle:2012 Impreza Sport Marine Blue Pearl |
Quote:
I have been doing some research with using factory head units and found some people are keeping the factory HU but adding an Audio Control LC6, amp, and upgraded speakers/sub, and seem to be very happy. Is the LC6 that good it will help the factory HU to sound better? |
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02-28-2012, 02:50 PM | #25 | |
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Quote:
If you don't think there's enough bass, add a sub. I have the Subaru underseat sub with a Pioneer headunit and Infinity speakers and find it good. If you like the speaker sound and want them to be louder, deaden your doors If the radio keeps cutting out when you turn it up, upgrade your headunit. I would do this in order: Headunit Sound deadening Sub (if necessary) Amp (if necessary) |
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