Just got my TSX this afternoon. I've been reading this board for a couple of months, but nothing prepared me for how truly rotten the sound was--it may be the worst factory-sound I've heard (and I thought nothing could be lower than the Bose system that came with my Audi A4). I've been listening mostly to talk and some soft music, but everything sounds muddy and boomy, even with the bass turned into negative numbers. No mid-range that I can detect at all. Didn't Acura do any testing /listening at all when they designed this thing? I'm really disappointed, especially as I contemplate the various options for upgrading (buying the car, and the enormous rise in insurance--unfortunately, I live in New York City--stretched my budget to the limit as is). Sorry, just needed to vent.

 

Ummm.. yeah it's not that bad. Muddy and boomy with the bass turned down?
ok maybe you need to take it back to the dealer?

 

Yeah... the sound isn't fantastic, but I wouldn't call it bad. It's far better than most stock sound systems.

 

Oh, great, another one of these threads... : )

Most people have not listened to very many stock sound systems critically... but our personal car ALWAYS sounds better to us than to anyone else...

And the TSX stereo speaker system IMCO is the biggest letdown about the entire car. Good HU, crappy sound. If you think it's good, no offense, but you're saying more about your expectations than you are about the stereo...

 

^^ I thought it was interesting to hear some people say it was a great system over in the TSX discussion section.

IMO, the bass really needs to changed. I think the bass from the rear x9s are terrible. I've made one or two upgrades to my TSX stock system , and you should think about making some upgrades depending on what kind of sound you want.

Eld, what's the word on those 6x9 woofers?

 

THey're in the mail... the lower-power ones are supposed to be shipping, and I meet with the factory guy tomorrow about the higher-end ones.

 

Oh... congrats on the new car!

 

yea.. congrats on the new car! And as for being unhappy about your sound.. let's just say you are on the right place to fix that problem hehe

 

I'd be interested to hear what upgrades you made to your system.

 

sounds better then my prelude i came for.

also sounds better then the solara i currently have

sounds like you need to take it back to the dealer for checkup

when you test drove, didnt you check out the system as well?

 

ya, its not the greatest, but to say its the worst factory sound you've ever heard, well you must not have heard many factory systems.

 

 

You're right--my knowledge of factory systems is limited, and I guess rather biased towards foreign cars. My 1970 Volvo was, for its time, superb. 1977 Accord was OK; I upgraded the sound in my 1984 BMW 525; and my 1996 Audi was listenable (for a Bose, which goes a long way). Still, my brother-in-law's Lexus RX is unbelievable--pure, clean, regardless of volume, I guess I"m reaching for something like that (which was in a car costing about $33,000). And no, I did not get to try sound during the test drive--salesman couldn't figure out the navigation system.

 

Oh, I've heard worse factory sound.

But if you smell stinky, and everyone else smells stinky too, well...you still stink.

Years ago, before CAD/CAM and other computer-aided design techniques, the speaker size and location in a car was whatever could be shoved in as an afterthought. The only reason stupid speaker sizes like 4x6 and 5x7 and yes, 6x9, were invented, was to fit more cone area into afterthought speaker locations (4x6 and 6x9s originally went into the R package tray of a car.)

When a BMW 320i came with 4x6 in 4 corners running off of 2-cchannel deck power through a rheostat-style fader , it was never gonna sound very good.

But for a car with 4 6.5s, 2 tweeters, and 2 6x9s, in these locations, and an 8-channel amp with built-in electronic xovers, to sound this bad, is unfortunate. At the same vehicle price point Lexus would have gotten more out of their engineers and their suppliers. Hell, doesn't the Volvo at this price point come with Dynaudio speakers?

 

Well, I was just joking about the one or two upgrades. I actually have quite a few upgrades. What I did with my system is probably overkill compared to what you want. I have aftermarket navigation, Sirius, TV, and some other stuff. You can click on my sig for pictures.

If you want to upgrade your system. Find out what your budget is, what kind of sound you want, and post here. There are a lot of very knowledgable people here to help you. If you're not looking for a subwoofer in the trunk, you should talk to Elduderino and consider maybe getting some of the 6x9 woofers that I mentioned above.

 

I've almost had the TSX for a year and when I first got the car I thought the sound system was awful, just the way you described it. Now I think it actually sounds pretty good and I'm debating if it's worth spending any money upgrading the system. I guess you can get used to anything, but I think it does sound better than when I first picked the car up.

 

I just picked up my TSX 5 hours ago and listened to a few CDs. The sound is not what I would expect. Its not as rich and clear as I like. I am used to listening to all my music through my bose quiet comfort II headphones so maybe I had to high of an expection to begin with.

Holla StreetEffectz.. I will be comming your way.

 

actually i added a 10" ported sub to mine and with the treble at +6 and the bass at about +4 rear 6x9's removed it actually sounds awsome.
i dont get any more distortion and hits pretty good. its not as loud as i would like and i may swap out the stock amp for a 5 channel amp eventually.
and i have heard MUCH worse stock systems.

 

Just out of curiosity, for those people who claim the TSX sounds bad, what settings do you have the system set at and how loud are you playing your music?

 

Tone flat, fader maybe a click or two forwards, balance centered, don't remember the numerical setting but I know it couldn't compete with the windows down and the sunroof open on the freeway.

 

treble +1 to +2
bass +2
centered left/right and front/back

At the volume set at 15 things sounded decent with the windows up and the car idling or going no faster than 35mph.

But crank it up to 20 you begin to become aware of the faults (sloppy mids and lows, muddled highs, the excess road noise from the stock tires further hamper the situation).

And yeah, forget it if trying to listen to things with the windows down and going any faster than 35mph. As you turn it louder to compensate for the wind/road noise you lose all sorts of fidelity. Lows are nearly nonexistent, mids get lost in the wind and road noise, leaving on the highs which weren't all that clear to begin with at higher volumes.

The stock system is decent for casual listening or low volume listening (volume at 10 to 15). But when wanting to maintain fidelity at higher volumes, it is pretty poor.

 

To remedy some of these sound defects, would replacing the stock speakers make a big difference? I am not a big fan on the bass output of the stock TSX, but I don't want to add my dual subwoofers to my trunk because I'd rather have the trunk space and don't really want THAT MUCH bass. If I were to just replace the tweeters, door speakers and the rear woofers, would it then sound a lot better or would the difference be minimal?

 

Lots of people have just replaced the speakers and been happy. It just really depends on how much of an audiophile you are.

I have replaced all of the speakers in my car and I still have them running off of the OEM amp. I have new tweets in the OEM location. Diamond Coaxial components w/ crossovers in the door, and Infinity's in the back door for a little rear fill. I also disconnected the 6x9's in the rear and just get bass from a subwoofer in the trunk. I think it sounds great. There is the perfect amount of mids and highs for me. I have the Bass set at +0 and the Treble set at +0. So basically everything is perfectly flat and it sounds great IMO.

 

What brand did you replace your tweeters with?

 

I have a stock tsx with a sub added and it sounds fine, i dont know what you people are bitching about.

 

When I had my TSX, I replaced the 6.5" all around with some medium grade Polk EX365s. Much improved sound. The punch of the bass was there, but some of the real low frequency effects were a bit muddled. A good pair of 6x9s would have done the trick.

The tweeters are a bit overly harsh, but they are also shooting off the glass. Personally, I just stuck some silk fabric under the grills and the harshness diminished.

IMO, the car has no need for a sub and the stock HU is good. The installed speakers are just crap.

 

Did you disconnect the 6x9's?

They only play bass in the TSX and I noticed a lot of the distortion is causes by those distorting and making the rear deck rattle at high volumes. Those definitely need to be disconnected if you have a sub IMHO.

 

I have some JL audio tweets, that I brought over from my old car. They sound good and are definitely a lot more bright than the OEM tweets. Since the sound of the tweets bounce off the windshield in the TSX, do not get metal tweets.

The tweets that I have are soft dome and even those were kinda harsh before I turned down the treble on the headunit. I can't even imagine how harse the metal dome tweets would sound. Unless you have have an EQ/crossover or some independent control of them, I would avoid metal tweets.