2012 Subaru Impreza Long Term Road Test

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2012 Subaru Impreza Long Term Road Test

No amount of fine-tuning makes our long-term 2012 Subaru Impreza's stereo system a pleasure to hear.

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zimtheinvader

is it just the radio or all music sources that sound that way?

haunty

The radio does sound a bit worse than other sources

tomwi53092

This has been discussed quite a bit on the NASIOC forum.
1- You will never get good sound with the stock tweeters. The upgrade Kicker tweeters are a huge improvement and well worth the money.
2- This is an issue with the non-NAV unit, which has hidden EQ settings (the unit in my Impreza premium does not have this).
From NASIOC, turn loudness off and set EQ as desired: "Key in ACC position, radio off: Hold preset button #6 while spinning the right adjust knob 4 or 5 notches; release button, then repeat. Now you're in the adjustable presets pages. Spinning the knob or hitting the "back" button will bring up loudness, EQ, and screen brightness settings, which can be toggled with the knob."

emajor

tomwi53092,
That is the stupidest procedure I have ever seen for adjusting something as basic as an equalizer setting. Most radios have a single button for toggling between bass, treble, loud settings, fade, and balance. Boo to Subaru on that one.

tomwi53092

emajor: I think you'll get no disagreement from Subbie owners. Not only are these settings hidden, but they aren't even optimally set. An owner might just assume that the stereo sounds bad, when in fact, the hidden tone settings are set to sound bad. That is why I post this info here. This only applies to the non-Nav head unit, which is one of three head units installed in Subarus. Fortunately, most people set the tone controls only once, so it's only a one-time issue.

trarmstrong86

More than likely "loudness" is set on the radio (hidden menu option) that is causing this. Wouldn't hurt to just replace the speakers with something better.