Modding Your Yaris Audio

March 27, 2003

Hi i've been recently looking into getting some better audio for my Yaris so i've been researching it, with the help of Steve Ratcliffe (TOC member :)) I think some good info has been produced for entry level equipment you might want to have a go with, here's the list of kit: (quoting steve) :D

The Pioneer DEH3400® CD tuner has removable flip down front panel, 4 x 50W amplifier channels and 2 external amp outputs. The downsides to this one are no seperate subwoofer amp output, and no CD-Changer control - although it is a new unit, is good quality and is still £150 worth new.

The Pioneer AS6910 are a set of 6x9 inch Speakers, these you would install in your parcel shelf I assume. These are a three way passive set with 80W RMS power handeling - these will be fine for your incial set up - you will have to run them off the headunit for the time being, but as the pioneer unit your looking into has the built in EQ - you can set it up to sound quite nice. My current price for these is £39.99

The Kenwood Sub... This I think is a 12" Sub, if so it's been replaced by a new version now, thats around £80 in a carpetted box. Alternativly it might be the 10" version but im not sure on this one. Either way it is a good start, but it wont give you a massive power output, this will work best to give you a deep bass fill, rather than an earth shattering thunderous bass.

The Rally CA2260 is manufactured by Caliber - this is a reasonable little unit that wont take up much space - two channels at 80W or bridged with a low pass bass filter to make 1 mono channel bass amp. This will run your Kenwood sub fine for now - its also good for the future as if you replace your sub, you can un bridge this amp and use it to power the rear 6x9 Speakers.

As for Pheonix Gold cabling, you will need the following:

Amplifier wiring kit (includes fused Battery cable, negative cable, remote switching lead), length of sub cable, RCA/Phono cable to link head unit to amp. I would also run good quality speaker wire to your rear Speakers and leave the factory wiring in tact.

As Steve then goes on to say I won't get incredible bass that will knock down OAP's as you ride past, but is a nice entry level setup.

You can get the whole set up new for around £350? it's not an exact quote though

Just thought anyone who fancied modding their yaris audio would find the info useful

cheers

Sam (& Steve :D)

March 27, 2003

Sam asked for my opinion on installing the previously disscussed equipment as it was a package available to him for a bargain price, this would not nesscessarily be my preffered choice but for what it's going for it's an ideal starting point.

On the whole companies such as Pioneer etc etc make fantastic head units, but their efforts at speaker componants etc generally don't live up to the reputation - I try and steer clear of these manufacturers for Speakers, My preference is JL audio as I like the sound, but MB Quart would be my second choice. All my system units are Alpine, who are my personal preference, but I would not use their speaker range as it simply isn't what they are good at.

Steve.