OEM Audio Plus with aftermarket speakers.. Opinions

[ronncat]

I've gotten to a point where I finished doing most of the mods to my 21 Supra and am now turning my attention to the sound system. I coded out the active sound design and did Tadda's sub bass upgrade. The sound improved quite a bit, but still falls short of the Burmeister and even the Mark Levinson systems in my other vehicles.

So, I've decided that I will be tackling the audio next. From this forum, it is apparent that upgrading the electronics (amp, DSP) will give more improvement than merely changing out drivers, so that is where I will start. I have the choice of either going all out and having a custom system designed and installed, (or even tackling that myself as I have plenty of experience in fabrication) or simply buy a simple DIY system... the OEM Audio Plus. In the interest of being old and lazy and having not enough free time to go with the first option, I have decided I will proceed with the OEM Audio Plus.

Can't stop there though... I intend to also do Tadda's modifications to the door panels and at the same time replace the drivers. This brings me to my question and plea for opinions. The OEM audio DSP has been tuned for the stock drivers. I believe it only uses the in door mids and tweets along with their subwoofer, so those are the speakers I would replace. A few questions though. How would different drivers affect the tune? If they were similar in efficiency and impedence, but were superior drivers, would there be an improvement with the stock tune? Could the DSP even be tuned if the drivers were replaced?

Perusing the forum and the web, I see there are quite a few drop in and near drop in upgrades. Starting with the Bavsound system. While this may be a nice set of speakers, it seems foolish to upgrade all of the speakers if only the doors are active. The Bimmertech Alpha One system is also a drop in replacement for the stock drivers. Seem to be similar to the Bavsound, BUT may be able to just purchase only the drivers that are needed. Then there are the aftermarket big guns like Focal, Morel, JL and Audiofrog. These may need mounting adaptors, which I can easily fabricate if needed.

Oh... One more option. In correspondence with OEM Audio Plus, i was told that they may shortly have their own drivers for the door. Maybe just wait on those?

So, there you have it. What speakers has anyone paired with their OEM Audio Plus upgrade? How did it sound, and did it require tweaking of the tune? And if it did, who did it for you? Thanks in advance for your input.

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[Thill444]

I would discuss with oEm audio + as I feel changing drivers would definitely affect the EQ they applied in the DSP.

 

[Jammon]

I've gotten to a point where I finished doing most of the mods to my 21 Supra and am now turning my attention to the sound system. I coded out the active sound design and did Tadda's sub bass upgrade. The sound improved quite a bit, but still falls short of the Burmeister and even the Mark Levinson systems in my other vehicles.

So, I've decided that I will be tackling the audio next. From this forum, it is apparent that upgrading the electronics (amp, DSP) will give more improvement than merely changing out drivers, so that is where I will start. I have the choice of either going all out and having a custom system designed and installed, (or even tackling that myself as I have plenty of experience in fabrication) or simply buy a simple DIY system... the OEM Audio Plus. In the interest of being old and lazy and having not enough free time to go with the first option, I have decided I will proceed with the OEM Audio Plus.

Can't stop there though... I intend to also do Tadda's modifications to the door panels and at the same time replace the drivers. This brings me to my question and plea for opinions. The OEM audio DSP has been tuned for the stock drivers. I believe it only uses the in door mids and tweets along with their subwoofer, so those are the speakers I would replace. A few questions though. How would different drivers affect the tune? If they were similar in efficiency and impedence, but were superior drivers, would there be an improvement with the stock tune? Could the DSP even be tuned if the drivers were replaced?

Perusing the forum and the web, I see there are quite a few drop in and near drop in upgrades. Starting with the Bavsound system. While this may be a nice set of speakers, it seems foolish to upgrade all of the speakers if only the doors are active. The Bimmertech Alpha One system is also a drop in replacement for the stock drivers. Seem to be similar to the Bavsound, BUT may be able to just purchase only the drivers that are needed. Then there are the aftermarket big guns like Focal, Morel, JL and Audiofrog. These may need mounting adaptors, which I can easily fabricate if needed.

Oh... One more option. In correspondence with OEM Audio Plus, i was told that they may shortly have their own drivers for the door. Maybe just wait on those?

So, there you have it. What speakers has anyone paired with their OEM Audio Plus upgrade? How did it sound, and did it require tweaking of the tune? And if it did, who did it for you? Thanks in advance for your input.

I too have the OEM+ with greater than 50 hour of playing time and the bass tone has greatly improved since first installed. Not want to waiting for the OEM+ mid and tweeter upgrade, I purchased Focal component speakers ES 100K; but I am waiting for the speaker adaptors to arrive from England--should arrive in the early part of December. I expect a great improvement using Focal Speakers in sound quality compared to stock mid and tweeter speakers. Only replacing door speakers.

 

[ronncat]

I too have the OEM+ with greater than 50 hour of playing time and the bass tone has greatly improved since first installed. Not want to waiting for the OEM+ mid and tweeter upgrade, I purchased Focal component speakers ES 100K; but I am waiting for the speaker adaptors to arrive from England--should arrive in the early part of December. I expect a great improvement using Focal Speakers in sound quality compared to stock mid and tweeter speakers. Only replacing door speakers.

Pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I have spoken with OEM Audio Plus and got a couple of updates.

1) For those that have Bavsound speakers, you can order the OEM system with a tune for the Bavsounds.

2) OEM Audio Plus is working with a German company to build their own speakers for the Supra. these will cost $799, and obviously, there will be a tune for them. Only issue is the speakers won't be available until April 2022

3) Newsflash... Just received an email. If you have their system and switch to their new speakers, they will retune for free. I am starting to think that this might be a good route. Any guesses which German company they might be working with to build the speakers???

 

[Jammon]

Pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I have spoken with OEM Audio Plus and got a couple of updates.

1) For those that have Bavsound speakers, you can order the OEM system with a tune for the Bavsounds.

2) OEM Audio Plus is working with a German company to build their own speakers for the Supra. these will cost $799, and obviously, there will be a tune for them. Only issue is the speakers won't be available until April 2022

3) Newsflash... Just received an email. If you have their system and switch to their new speakers, they will retune for free. I am starting to think that this might be a good route. Any guesses which German company they might be working with to build the speakers???

If It's Bose, than I may return my Focal Speaker(not installed) and wait. Wish I really knew manufacture of speaker. Sandy knows what he doing...

 

[Tsuki]

If It's Bose, than I may return my Focal Speaker(not installed) and wait. Wish I really knew manufacture of speaker. Sandy knows what he doing...

Bose is from Framingham, Massachusetts.

There are a lot of German speaker manufacturers, very few of them bad. Acoustic Research, KEF, Audison, etc. I doubt they’ll do a bad job.

 

[digicidal]

Bose is from Framingham, Massachusetts.

There are a lot of German speaker manufacturers, very few of them bad. Acoustic Research, KEF, Audison, etc. I doubt they’ll do a bad job.

KEF is German now? When did this happen? Although to be fair... now that they're owned by Gold Peak Group I guess they're as much a Chinese company as a British one.

 

[SupraDC]

This thread is relevant to my interests

I've completed the subwoofer exhaust port / stuffing project and it is better than it was, no doubt.
But I still find the bass has a rubber-band quality to it. Some songs it's ok, some I need to adjust the
bass higher to make it tolerable. I was going to attempt to disassemble and add additional wadding, but the system can clearly be improved upon.

 

[Tsuki]

KEF is German now? When did this happen? Although to be fair... now that they're owned by Gold Peak Group I guess they're as much a Chinese company as a British one.

True enough, I stand corrected! Still headquartered in the UK. Not sure why, but I seemed to recall them moving to Germany at some point. I was definitely very wrong.

 

[digicidal]

True enough, I stand corrected! Still headquartered in the UK. Not sure why, but I seemed to recall them moving to Germany at some point. I was definitely very wrong.

I'm sure they had some German or Swiss manufacturing involved since most precision manufacturing in EU has some. They probably had/have at least one factory there but now with Asian VC ownership it's probably moved to China.

Just like with Harman International products... sure there's some Mark Levinson, Revel, etc. products still made here... but Samsung moved everything that wasn't a flagship SKU within days of the acquisition (that wasn't already there like their HK, JBL, Infinity stuff).

This thread is relevant to my interests

I've completed the subwoofer exhaust port / stuffing project and it is better than it was, no doubt.
But I still find the bass has a rubber-band quality to it. Some songs it's ok, some I need to adjust the
bass higher to make it tolerable. I was going to attempt to disassemble and add additional wadding, but the system can clearly be improved upon.

Yeah, it's a problem across the board. Despite being reasonably good transducers, they're just being expected to do too much. Fixing the enclosure and opening the ports still doesn't change the fact that the "subs" are tasked with handling all bass, not just sub bass. Either bigger mids are required, or additional sub - preferably both.

At least the OEM+ solution fixes the tuning problem with the fronts... but I still don't like the idea of the bass being moved even farther back in the cabin while still having to play easily localizable frequencies.

 

[SupraDC]

Yeah, it's a problem across the board. Despite being reasonably good transducers, they're just being expected to do too much. Fixing the enclosure and opening the ports still doesn't change the fact that the "subs" are tasked with handling all bass, not just sub bass. Either bigger mids are required, or additional sub - preferably both.

At least the OEM+ solution fixes the tuning problem with the fronts... but I still don't like the idea of the bass being moved even farther back in the cabin while still having to play easily localizable frequencies.

It's good to hear that it's not just my equipment or ear. Good news is that I plan on having this car for a while, so I can wait for someone to come out with a true fix and update and take the plunge once it's been tested.

 

[TYMBOM]

 

[TYMBOM]

 

[TYMBOM]

 

[Jammon]

Bose is from Framingham, Massachusetts.

There are a lot of German speaker manufacturers, very few of them bad. Acoustic Research, KEF, Audison, etc. I doubt they’ll do a bad job.

Agree, yes there are, but I believe Audison is an Italian company

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