Finally! Bought a BRZ
 

Just picked up an 18 BRZ Anniversary. Drove it 800 miles to get it home. Initial impressions: 1) why is the stereo so terrible? 2) why are the gauges so hard to see during the day time? and 3) why is there little thigh support in the lower seat cushion? 800 miles hurt my hamstrings.

Otherwise, seems like a good, fun car. Looking forward to taking it to the track! (Been reading about the pedal dance).

Congratulations! There is a dial to the left of the trunk release that changes the gauge brightness, it might be set very low.

Honestly, the stereo is my sole complaint of my car, it bewildered me how they could put such a poor audio system in the car. They could have put a better system in and upped the msrp by 400$ and nobody would have been the wiser and our speakers would not sound like garbage. Unfortunately, you will get used to how bad they sound, and well not even notice it in a while.

just get a sub and only play mid & high freq from speakers...still, i never found them to be any worse than most compacts. and who cares, easy fix and not the purpose of the car, more focus on driving yo

not sure how the gauges are hard to read during the day? very clear tach and digi speedo.

as far as seat cushioning perhaps a cushion underneath might help otherwise get better posture and maybe lose weight.. I've taken the twins on quite a few 15+ hour drives and for how much canyon carving support they provide, i think comfort is quite acceptable. after 120 K miles over 2 twins I've never had any back problems, and the seats did a great job supporting me when a lady ran a redlight and hit my first twin head on.

Automakers shouldn't even be in the stereo business anymore. It costs consumers thousands when they could just have a hole to stick any aftermarket radio for $200 in that would be 10x better.

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Yeah, cranked it all the way up, but with sunglasses, hard to see clearly. Worse is that at night, the NAV screen is too bright if I want the dash all the way lit up. So, had to turn the NAV to "night" mode - hopefully that will solve part of it.

I'm 150 lbs and 5'6" - I could stand to lose a few, but not sure that will fix my seating position. I typically like my butt way low and my knees at the highest position. Only other car i had this type of an issue with was a BMW Z4 but it was better. Oh well -it is what it is.

Congratulations!! Welcome to the brotherhood.

As far as your questions go -

1) why is the stereo so terrible?

It's a cheap sports car. Sports cars that sell new for under $30k (usually under $25k) generally don't come with fine sound systems.

As you get older and your hearing degenerates, the sound system becomes less important. I used to be a hard-core audiophile. Used to have a deeply wrong but very passionate relationship with a Marantz tube amplifier. I could tell the difference between analog and digital music within 2 seconds. Now, at 60-something, I'm lucky if I hear anything.

Roll down the windows and listen to the sound of the wind rushing by. It's better than most things on the radio.

2) why are the gauges so hard to see during the day time?

As @DarkPira7e suggested, adjust the illumination. Should be fine if turned up.

3) why is there little thigh support in the lower seat cushion? 800 miles hurt my hamstrings.

I don't think the car was really designed or intended for 800 mile trips. This is a cheap sports car for relatively short blasts down twisty country roads. I find that my aging 60-something body is fine in the BRZ for up to about 3, maybe 4 hours at a stretch. If the trip is longer than that, best to take a different kind of car.

Have fun!! The days of pure and inexpensive sports cars are waning. Enjoy it!!

did you adjust the lower seat angle on the side of the seat?


my '16s stock head unit sounds better with an outboard DAC then using the analog in. much better, actually.

Before you change sound system components, do yourself a favor and spend a Saturday afternoon doing some strategic sound deadening. I had changed my head unit but was about to pull the trigger on some fairly high dollar components. My son convinced me to use some strategic dynamat and frankly I was stunned at the improvement. Haven’t changed a thing since then. I’m satisfied with the sound.

I could care less about those things especially the stereo. I bought the car for it’s balanced handling and light weight.

Agree. Sound deadening in a few spots (I used some cheap stuff from Home Depot), fix the rattle in the window switches and add a cheap sub (~$100) in the trunk and it’s night and day. Still kind of sucks but WAY better. I tend to turn off the radio and listen to the car more anyways.

how are you getting an outboard DAC to connect without the analog input?

last time i ran across this, someone broke open the stereo and soldered to the cd audio feed...

LOL. I have about $8000 worth of stereo scattered about me, but you know, I leave the stereo off in the car. It sounds so sweet already.


If I really cared I would get one of these: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130DXT...-P99RS-80.html

I literally sound deadened my whole car when I did my stereo build. It adds weight, but I'm not trying to be the lightest. See build.

Do some exhaust mods like half the members on this board and you'll never hear the stereo again :D

Or just flip down the rear seats and let that sound in.

As well as whatever you've got in the trunk...

I got a 4X6 foot bound pile carpet that kind of matched the inside and put the back seat down.
It made quit a difference.

i use the 3.5mm input below the usb port on the console with the stock head unit in the '16.


i rip sacd, dvd-a and 96k/24bit files and store them on an onkyo DP-x1. it holds 432 gig. (the dp-x1a does 576 gig) i use the line out into the above mentioned input.


i also use an oppo ha-se to convert pandora off the ipad. slightly better sounding dac than the onkyo.

Feeding high bit depth and high sample rates through a high quality DAC isn’t going to overcome the trash setup our car has. The noise levels, even after sound deadening is still going to bulk out the high quality source. You can hardly even tell a difference between AUX in vs BT SBC because the car makes so much noise.

OUCH!

i want that stereo. they can keep the rest.

agreed, but better rendering of the media is a major improvement regardless of the noise floor, unfiltered power supply and 'the room'.

I mess around with all the seat adjustments whenever I get uncomfortable on a long trip. You can also mess with the steering wheel in-out and up-down adjustments. Good Luck! BTW I'm 240 and 5'6" and really need to lose a few!

So how exactly are you guys sound deadening? I can't imagine using so much sound deadening that it would affect the car's weight meaningfully.

Yeah, that head is kinda the holy grail of car audio. The DSP is just so good, or so they say.

most people lather it on like shaving cream.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1407113908

the real trick is to deaden the floppy panels.
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...ostcount=22629
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1606695307

honestly, i don't want or care about it's capabilities. the capabilities of an external dsp are better IMO. i just want that knob/screen configuration.

Wow. Just wow. I'm very old and the preoccupation with how things look keeps amazing me. Like spending a pile of money to make your car sound a bit different, kind of blows my mind.


I would be interested as I do know a bit about that piece, what DSP you would consider better. That one kinda has a heavy rep, not that I have heard it.

'better' is always subjective. IMO, it's not better than a standalone DSP specifically because the eq is per-side, not per-channel. when i want to boost/drop a frequency, i want to boost it for a single set of drivers, not to all speakers. there's also what i consider a severe limitation in the fact that crossover frequency is limited to specific frequencies with no adjustability beyond those frequencies. nice if you run the typical/expected audio setups, but i don't do typical. the 80-prs that i run has the same limitations, it also lacks per-side eq, but i don't use it anyways.

i like knobs, and buttons. almost all radio's are moving towards the minimalist approach where there's less of both, and what there is, is expected to do more functions. the 99rs is one of the few radio's left that has a bunch of knobs and buttons that each do something specific.

I'm probably going to end up doing this on my CTR.

the real trick is to deaden the floppy panels.
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...ostcount=22629
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1606695307[/QUOTE]

This is absolutely correct! I doubt I added 10 lbs to the car with strategically placed dynamat, yet it makes a big difference. I would lightly knock on the panels along and along and identify areas where the knock produced a tinny sound or excessive vibration, and I’d add a small piece or two of the dynamat until knocking on the area produced a satisfying and quickly terminating “thud”. I also did the doors and when you close them now, it sounds like you’re closing the door of a much higher end vehicle. Applying it was fun too. Sort of like piecing together a puzzle. I’m very pleased still with the result. Plus it was a nice Saturday spending time with my son and letting him help and teach the old man a thing or two.

Finally! Bought a BRZ
 

That is exactly how I did mine. I may have added 3 lbs at the most. Probably not even that much.

People complain about the stereo/speakers so much in this car... sure, it's not the best but try the speakers in the current VW GTI. You'll appreciate what we got haha.

Nooooo!!! Don’t add weight to the CTR! Just curious, do you run the stock wheels? I think that would be the only change I would make to the CTR.

I think we should embrace the lack of sound deadening, it’s adding lightness right?! [emoji1]
But for real, my car is pretty damn loud on the highway, I mean loud from road noise. I have a stock exhaust. It’s almost difficult to have a conversation with someone. But usually I’m ok with that. Lol


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I have 3 sets of wheels, stock, winter and track/autox. 20, 18, 19.

Believe me, I enjoy the lack of sound deadening and embrace it, BUT, there is a specific range(cruising) where the car gives off a frequency that makes my ears ring, otherwise it's totally bearable, quieter than the 86 stock vs stock. I've added an exhaust though, so it's amplified the ringing enough to make me consider targeted sound deadening.

Plus, what's 10 lbs of sprung weight anyway.

Ok very nice!! You have a setup for all situations then. It’s hard to beat the CTR for an everyday sports car. [emoji106]
The noise at highway speeds sounds like an issue though, and I would guess it has typical Honda aggressive gearing. Great for acceleration, not so much for cruising. That is one of the problems with the twins on the highway. Even in 6th gear cruising at a relatively low speed (65-70mph) it’s not a tall enough gear. It’s the price you pay I guess for more aggressive gearing.
And you’re right, 10lbs or so won’t affect the car at all.


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Everyday performance car*.. if you call it a sportscar around here you will be burned at the stake. Careful.

Like I said, stock vs stock, the CTR is quieter than the 86, it's just this specific frequency that is overtime painful with an aftermarket exhaust if I decide to sit at a specific low rpm.

Its like these people dont realize that a 2013ish econobox level sports car is not as refined as BMW luxury sports car that costs twice as much....its baffling....

I want my cake and eat it too!
And I also want more cake!

Car manufacturers should not be in the radio business at all. Just give me a double-din hole and I'll fill it with an aftermarket unit that does 10x as much for a 10th of the price.

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Same, except series blue!