I just bought an '09 Blackberry Pearl Sport and I love it. Fun to drive, great mileage, plenty of room, etc... HOWEVER, I'm really disappointed in the stereo. It almost sounds like some of the speakers aren't even hooked up. The sound is totally muffled and really thin. I'm wondering if any of you have the same opinion, and also what (if anything) you've done about it. I'm willing to spend some money, but I'd prefer to just stick to speaker upgrades rather than having to tear apart the dash. Do you think this would provide a significant acoustical improvement?

Thanks.

JP

 

I love my fit . I just bought mine an Orange Revolution M/T sport, i feel the same as JayPique about the stereo it just does not sound balanced, I will be adding a sub in the spare tire well soon and some other tricks to the stereo to make it sound right.other than that is fun ass hell to drive and it make you feel more in control now that i dropped it. I think id drives like a go-cart and I barely drive my other 2 cars now, it's just too fun to let it sit home.

 

I would take it back to the dealership and ask them to evaluate the sound to make sure everything is hooked up and working correctly. I have always been happy with the sound and quality of my system. Have you checked to make sure that your sound quality is set on normal. If you have the Sport you have more amps than a base Fit and you should check to make sure you don't have it on a different setting. If that doesn't correct anything then back to the dealership and have them listen and see what they can find.

Cat :x

 

I thought the same thing about the stereo when I got my 09 Fit. It is a little better when it is turned up, but no where near as bassy as my wifes Nissan Altima or my Ford Focus work vehicle. Honda could have put a little more in it, but I can live with that being my only complaint because I can easily upgrade that.

 

How many hours have you had the radio on? When I picked up my car new I thought the sound was thin and tinny. After at least 10 hours of play it got much better. I think the sound is great for this price range. It's missing some deep bass, but otherwise the base is good, if a bit boomy. But midrange is clean and clear while the highs aren't tinny. Soundstage is good. My last car being an 08 Accord with a great radio, I'm impressed with the Fit's.

 

I've only had the stereo on for 4 or 5 hours - the car's brand new! I'll give it a week or so, and if it's still really weak I'll let the dealership look at it. I'm no audiophile, and I understand it's the stock stereo in a relatively inexpensive vehicle, but in this day and age it just seems really poor to me right now. Further details as events warrant.

JP

 

Don't have my Fit yet, but on the Sport I test-drove; I was impressed with the Stereo and the car only had 27 miles on it... That being said, i'm used to the stereo in my '91 Civic with 2 5 yr old Polk mids, lol.

I've never heard of a stereo system "breaking in" or anything, is this just a myth or fact???

 

werd...i thought my 09's stereo sounded 10x better than my 08's stock stereo.

but then the 07/08 stereo were pretty bad.

 

Yes, the GE radio is clearly improved from the GD. If it sounds tinny and thin to you right now, give it more hours of play and it'll improve. The drivers (speakers) have to break in by stretching from the vibrations. Right now it's tight. Once it's broken in bass and mids appear.

If you're disappointed with the sound of the GE's system for $16,000 I think your expectations are too high.

 

For the most part, I think the sound is good. But something is missing in the bass. I think it is more the acustics of the car than anything else. When I have the bass turned up I can see it shaking the rear view mirror but I can't really feel it. I'm not expecting to get my fillings rattled out with a stock stereo, but it just seems odd that I can see it but not feel it more. But I am still in that break in period so we will see if it gets better. If not, I probably won't do anything about it. I'm not an audiophile so the stock is okay as is.

 

Well I am use to driving a GS400 Lexus and the system in that was great, of course it was a 68,000$ car new in 1998 but still it sounded right for the size of the car....with the amount of room in the fit i just expected a full sound....the other problem i have is the i don't have an I-pod instead i have a Mp3 player that will play through the usb port but the radio does not recognize the full drive space.. it won't read the external memory only the built in. but when i connect it to the head phone jack it sounds ether too low or distorted i have tried a bunch of different ways...I love my new Fit. I gave up my lexus to get it so....I just was wondering if anyone out there was having the same probs ...it mite be i have a cheap MP3 player and thats fine I am going to try the 8gb jump drive i have next..

 

I had to wait 2 months for my rev org sport Fit M/t but it was well worth the wait...

 

I wouldn't mind upgrading to some better speakers down the road, but I don't trust a place taking my door panels off in fear that they may break something either taking them off or putting the panels back on, i'm assuming that they'd have to remove the whole door panel to do so??

 

mine sounded like crap when i first got my 09 but it was the settings.

 

I'll be driving ours 400 miles tomorrow. My goal is to see if I can find sound settings that sound good. I've been trying to set treble and bass for a good clean sound. I'll set it and like it for a while, but then something in the sound just seems lacking.

If I can't get good sound, I'm going to get better speakers and see if that helps.

Part of the problem is the road noise in the Fit. The sound system has a lot to compete with, even with the so-called speed sensitive volume setting that changes the volume with vehicle speed (navi). The sound reminds me of our old Miata before I replaced the speakers. The '90 Miata had a lot of road and wind noise, too. I put the factory headrest speakers in and replaced the door speakers and a cheap system sounded quite a bit better.

Cheers

 

My problem with the stock stereo was the lack of equalizer, so I upgraded the head unit (and installed a sub while I was at it). Now I'm perfectly happy, probably won't ever upgrade the speakers.

 

I always turn off the auto-volume setting. It never seems to set the volume to where I like it. On top of that, how hard is it to reach over and turn a knob? I like technology making things easier but that seems a bit much to me.

 

It's taking me a little time to get used to it, but I like it more and more each day. It's weird when you are used to getting blasted at the offramp stop light after the freeway.

 

So I've been poking around researching ways to improve the sound from the stock stereo in my '09 Fit Sport sans nav. Crutchfield said that a set of component speakers would do the trick, lots of different stuff recommended on the net, and now I just got back from a local car modification shop. (Infinite Auto - Auburn, NY) I asked the owner what he thought I should do and he said first off to replace the head unit. His primary concern is the lack of power driving the speakers - not the speakers themselves. (He went on to say that he'd probably replace them too...and put in a sub and an amp and heated leather seats and have you seen these rims!!etc....) But - he was firm in saying that if he was going to just one thing, it'd be the head unit.

He's going to get back to me with pricing cuz he couldn't find the price on the dash part he needed. I'm a little concerned about an aftermarket part matching the existing dash....should I be?

Oh yeah - when I told him that maybe the factory speakers needed to break in or stretch out he said he didn't think that was likely to happen. He was nice about it, but he just said he didn't believe that was the case.

JP

 

change the head unit. if u keep the stock head unit go to settings and turn off the svc. thatll do for now