2022 Limited Stereo?
 

Delete if old; I couldn't find this officially answered anywhere else.

I was digging through the Subaru posted parts/manuals, and found different part numbers for the Premium vs. Limited stereo system.
- Premium: Panasonic speakers
- Limited: Pioneer speakers

See attachment screenshots for reference... are we getting a better stereo this time around? Like, one that doesn't sound like gutless garbage? If so, i'm even more excited for my longer drives.

from the brochure on subaru's site, limited gets "8 speakers with 2-channel amplifier"

I'm beyond annoyed that I didn't think to listen to the stereos when I had a premium and limited at my place for a night. We got too distracted seeing what parts swap and then driving them. I'll chime in when I get my limited shortly, and I know there will be a couple unsold premiums in the area I can go listen to as well.

Annoyingly, the Subaru site doesn't go into detail on the audio differences.

Ha, their own documentation contradicts itself.

Here is what @MyHybridBurnsGasAndTires posted; which contradicts their 2022 BRZ page.

From dealer
 

I took pictures of the spec sheets when I placed my order the dealer said I couldn’t keep here is one, I can post all if it’s helpful Interesting bits on the limited (see image)

Totally off topic, but it seems from the above that the Limited gets nav through the Starlink service - does that mean when your 6 month or 1 year free subscription expires you lose your nav functionality?

Probably, thats how my wife's VW worked. But considering it has apple/android auto integration - I bet 90%+ people will just use their phones.

Nav isn't tied to a subscription. I'll have to look up the Gen 4 nav updates, but I know on Gen 3 you get two years of free updates then would need to pay Harmon for continued updates.

Alternatively, both trim levels have Android Auto and Apple Carplay, so nav will always be available updated through those sources.

Hopefully
 

Hopefully the limited has better audio. Savagegeese on YT posted the auto premium brz and said audio was best with the fancy stuff disabled. I’m already upset no CD player but that didn’t stop me from placing my order (take my money I thought) I’m 45 years old so likely in the higher age range. Hearing it’s more comfortable is a good thing and tuners can change that. I owned a 2013 limited manual brz and audio I thought was good I drive a 2017 GTI sport now DSG and I think that audio is pretty good for balance and clarity. Thanks for posting the pioneer vs Panasonic info!

Yeah, car nav doesn't give you traffic updates or cop locations etc. like Waze. I'd love to get the Limited for the stereo but trade the nav for a CD player. :cry:

Why not just use something like Spotify via CarPlay / Android Auto, or a USB stick that fits 100x more songs than a CD possibly can?

Agreed. Part of the reason why I went Premium is that. I don’t think I have ever actually used the built in navigation in any of the cars I owned that had it. So much clumsier to use and the timing, traffic, maps, etc are never as good.

Still using my reliable Win 10 mobile, SOL lol....

Personally I have been worn down and I mostly use Spotify nowadays just for convenience, but something important has been lost since the days of CDs.

Audio quality. CDs have a bit rate of 1411 compared to only 256 for high quality mp3s, and streaming quality is ...a mixed bag at best.

Amazon music offers a high quality setting(HD setting or something like that) and that has better quality than any other streaming service I've tried, but it's not approaching the quality of a CD, and you have to pay extra for that tier, and the desktop app is pretty bad compared to Spotify. To top it off, most of the music on the service is not offered in the high quality tier.

.FLAC files are the best sounding digital file I have used and are generally comparable to CDs, but (years ago, it may be easier now) I had to find a special media player for my phone to even play them. .FLACs sound much better even over a bluetooth connection. But, they are the opposite of convenient to use, and it is hard to find them without paying an arm and a leg. Everyone wants to sell you crappy .MP3s.

A whole generation is being raised without even knowing what good quality music sounds like. I could rant about this topic for a while, I love high quality audio even though the equipment I can afford at home is far from the best.

So, I could see why someone might want a CD player, particularly if they already have a collection of CDs.

I am an audiophile as well, but have moved to Spotify for convenience at 50 years old.

You may not know but these cars have Harmon Kardon head units which are awesome at taking streamed music and making it sound better. It isn't perfect but it is pretty damn good. Just set Spotify to highest quality and save your music on your phone for best sound. Then I mess with my phone's equalizer to get a good sound and put the head unit bass up a bit, treble down a bit and mid up a tiny bit. Sounds pretty awesome in my Legacy and wife's Forester. Crossing fingers for BRZ. But I do have confirmation it is a Harmon Kardon head unit. With the good sound processing.

I am hoping for a sub woofer that connects. The old ones say they aren't compatible, but I still have hope they are.

Would this difference be noticed on the crappy BRZ system? I barely used the sound system on my 18 as the sound was too bad. Even my wife (that don’t care too much about that) would complain about the quality.

I found the difference very noticeable even on the first gen FRS audio system. The quality of the source file matters.

Assuming it's Gen 4 which I believe I remember seeing, BRZ will have a Denso HU, not HK. I can verify though.

TheTopher said the sound system in the GR86 Premium is much better than the previous generation. Although it isn't really a scientific test. He had also driven a refreshed 86 and a BRZ Ts, but I don't know if he is referring more to his BRZ.

@19:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSzsU0lyv-U&t=1074s

Savageese doing a more technical test says the lower spec system is bad for music enthusiast.

@2:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RKBMUXcxCQ&t=885s

After digging into it more, I'm really interested to hear a TRUE review of the sound system. Dont get me wrong, this is a drivers car - so I'm not expecting to be wow'd by the sound system. But I think we can all agree the 2013-2020 BRZ stereo was subpar at best.

Since it appears the Premium stereo has Panasonic components, and the Limited has Pioneer components... I can only assume it's a true stereo upgrade overall. Probably nothing like the Miata Bose solution. But I'll take any upgrade over how it was before.

You're comparing PCM uncompressed bitrate with FFT-based compressed bitrate. It's like comparing torque of an impact gun with the torque of FA20.

There have been numerous blind tests where people with all kinds of background have been unable to tell the difference between CD/lossless and 320 kbps MP3 using all kinds of equipment, or even said that the MP3 sounds better. There are many explanations to that, but I don't want to go too far off topic.

FLAC and other lossless formats is the way to go if you think you can hear the difference through the not-so-high-end sound system in our cars.
You can put as many as you want on a USB stick of a large enough capacity.

If you already have a CD, you can make your own FLAC files very easily.

... because they haven't figured out how to "invest" a little bit of inconvenience once (put whatever music they want on a USB stick in whatever format they prefer), and instead deal with regular inconvenience on a daily basis (swapping CDs, or listening to the same 10 songs over and over), while coming up with hundreds of excuses why this is the right thing to do, and blame modern car manufacturers that they stop making CD players?

Oh, FLAC and Bluetooth...
If you care about audio quality, just don't use Bluetooth, period.
Another reason to use a USB stick if you really want to get the best results.

It also depends on the codecs.
The exact same same file from the exact same phone using the exact same app sounded vastly different in a 2016 Mazda 6 (fine) and a 2016 VW Passat (horrible) when using Bluetooth.
And I don't mean treble/bass/etc balance, I mean one felt like 256+ kbps MP3, and the other one felt like 96 kbps MP3.

Not everyone can tell the difference or cares. Some people can and do.

That is true for 1 CD, but 'very easily' is definitely subjective. How many CD's are we talking about here? A 300 CD collection would take quite an investment of time to rip to .FLAC. Popping in a different disc takes seconds.

Why would you care if someone else doesn't mind swapping a CD in return for better sound quality?

Yeah that's kind of the point I was making, even over a Bluetooth connection, I can still hear the difference between .FLACs and normal Spotify streaming clearly. The source quality matters. Over a wired connection the quality gap only gets bigger.



To be clear what I would prefer is not a return to CD players (I don't own any CDs anymore), what I want is for the MP3 format to die a fiery death. It's almost 2022 and it is inexcusable that lossless formats are not the standard for any kind of purchased or streamed music.

If my phone can stream HD video without a problem why is the music so muddy?

Couldn't agree more!
Although for most people, "high quality" is good enough.

And most streaming apps today stream over mobile data, which can be slow, or even not-unlimited.
I'd also very much prefer those streaming apps to have a better user experience around pre-caching
music, and playing everything without an internet connection.

Well, we're back to my argument about the upfront investment of inconvenience vs regular minor inconvenience.

You also don't need to rip all CDs at once.
I had most of my music library in FLAC/APE back in the day, growing one CD at a time.

I don't care what people do if they already have a CD player.
But I do care if people complain about a new car coming out in 2021 and not having a CD player as a major problem.
After all, keeping a CD player would increase the cost, one way or another.
A head unit can be made slimmer and lighter if it no longer needs to have a CD/DVD disc reader.

The new BRZ has a 3.5mm input jack, so you can technically bring your CD-Walkman. ;)

Eh, both AAC and APTX are good enough for me if I'm not sitting in front of my reference speakers. Honestly for 90% of listening with a decent amount of ambient noise (like in a car), I really don't mind both apple's and Spotify's high quality streams (320kbps?). I can personally barely tell the difference between apple's lossless stream and their AAC format even on decent speakers.

Oooh yes bring back the hisssssssssssss

"It's a feature."

MP3 CD-R in a portable CD player, connected to a tape deck adapter,inserted in a Walkman, plugged into an FM transmitter, broadcasting to your car stereo. That’s how you get great sound with character.

Pssh, only if you want to RUIN every song. To get true, WARM sound you gotta go with a cigarette-lighter-powered record player.


Better hope you have smooth roads.

I sure hope the sub from last gen works with this gen. It would be dumb not to make them compatible. Not like subs have changed much over that time.

To be honest, JP and EU always had an option for better sound system from factory since the dawn of the time.


it's just USA might finally be getting the options in trims now... since before 2022 trims made no difference in audio. :bonk:





:lol:bruh u killing it :lol:

Sub
 

Anyone have the subwoofer add on in the gen 1? If so was it worth it? It’s not on the dealer add on’s that I see. Anyone know if we have the option yet with 2nd gen?

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/...record-player/

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/...and-closed.jpg

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/...-player-ad.jpg

https://img.hmn.com/fit-in/900x506/f...hilips-01s.jpg

Even if it’s not, a new wiring harness would make it compatible.

@humfrz :cheers: did you have one?:cheers:

speakers really haven't changed much since about the 1980's, before the original 86 was sold...

the concern is going to be if the mounting points have changed, and how much.

from the preview pictures, the trunk opening looks altered, but only hands-on will tell us if the actual trunk setup/mounting points are altered as well.

i believe the suspension setup is the same between generations, and body alterations were mostly limited to the exterior dimensions, so much of the trunk, and the subs mounting points ought to be maintained. but there's just no way to know.

next obstacle is the actual audio setup-- again, need to wait and see if the amp stays where it was in gen 1, if it maintains the same audio connectors, and the same speaker-level input signal.

given toyota's penchant for "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", there's a great chance that everything will remain the same audio-wise.

ask a group of people "what's the best speaker?" and you'll get as many different answers as there are individuals involved in the conversation.

to some, it's plenty. usually those that just want a touch more than what the door speakers can provide. but to anyone serious about bass, it's likely not enough.

is that a specifically vague enough answer for you? lol

Oh, heck no - however, my 1948 chev did have an AM radio - :cheers: