Question For People Who Have Fitted An Aftermarket Stereo

[Squealey]

Hi All

I’m potentially about to return to the S60 fold having owned 2 previously. For me one of the main things I loved about the 2 i had before was the HU850 stereo sound quality, it was epic.

The problem I have is this. It has taken a lot of persuading to talk my wife into letting me have another Volvo, I had my fingers burnt badly on the last one I got from this very website and the Toyota Corolla Verso i currently have has (almost) been a paragon of Toyota realiabilty.

Because she was fully aware of how miserable the Toyota was making me she purchased a top of the range Sony double din stereo for it for my Xmas present (which she is still paying off) and she was quite hurt last night when I said I could put it in her Kia Picanto as the one in the Volvo is excellent already.

So what I want to know is, do aftermarket stereos sound anywhere near as good as the factory fit HU850’s???

Many thanks

Wayne

[bkulcsar]

Before fitting an OEM HU-803 along with a PA-300 amp and an OEM subwoofer, I had a Pioneer aftermarket single DIN stereo in my car.
Believe it or not, the Pioneer sounded better.
However I like the (steering wheel) buttons of the HU-803 much better, so got used to it. At least everything is OEM now

[Missing Lincs]

I replaced the basic factory audio with a Pioneer, even with the baseline Volvo speakers the sound is better.

If you really want a lift to sound quality fit a Volvo OEM sub-woofer, that really does give a lift to the sound

Oh, and you can keep the steering wheel buttons with a suitable interface.

[bkulcsar]

The OEM subwoofer is too boomy for my taste. It doesn't go near as deep as a proper aftermarket one does. Plus it takes the signal from the rearest (D column) speakers.
I went for OEM because I need the space in the trunk.
A better option would be something like this.

[R-P]

I never had a OEM as the police car I bought had a massive hole in the dash where the police equipment used to live.

I have an afterrmarket double din in there (and have had single din's in there before) and am in the process of adding amplifiers (finally...) under the bootfloor behind the rear seats.

I wish I could see the pics in the link from bkulcsar, as I still want to add a stealth sub...



(2 x 4 channel amp and a sub amp, allowing either active 2 way front (250W+70W) and amped rears with a sub or a dolby 5.1 setup (yet to be determined, headunit can do both)

[barrybritcher]

no it doesn't sound as good with aftermarket double din but the convenience factor of having a nice touch screen with usb / dvd makes up for it.

[barrybritcher]

ie you can fit all your songs on one usb stick instead of using the changer

[bkulcsar]

Originally Posted by R-P

I wish I could see the pics in the link from bkulcsar, as I still want to add a stealth sub...

These are the only pictures I could find. They were saved in google's cache.

Btw... nice work!

[petey]

Originally Posted by barrybritcher

ie you can fit all your songs on one usb stick instead of using the changer

In terms of having all songs on one unit, a Grom BT unit will do all that for you if you have a capacious enough phone. Doesn't get around the holes in the dash and the rest, but I couldn't recommend the Grom solution enough.