Installing a Pioneer AVP-7800 surround package in a old Gen 3 Toyota 4Runner. It’s 6.1 capable and came with two surface mount speakers that I’m not too keen on using. The dash is pretty close to the windshield unlike my old Honda Civic where a CSW Ensemble III fits perfectly facing up. Thinking about single DIN space center speakers such as Alpine, Clarion or Pyle; any opinions on these are appreciated.
Options seem scarce; I'm going to look through my CSW leftover speakers. I might mount an Ensemble II or III on a gimbal mount if I have to. Then I'd have a solid center driver for certain.
After having my center dash apart for a few weeks and not keen on prospect of a surface mount center speaker on the dash (memories of KRACO car stereo @ K-Mart) , I settled on finding an Alpine speaker to fit the single DIN slot below the Pioneer head unit. That way, I could have the screen up and not cover up the speaker.
Still dialing in all of the settings on the AVH-P7800DVD; with its more specific configuration options (compared to AVH-P7600 unit in my Honda Civic). The first DVD-A I played was Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and it was pretty good right away; I had yet to figure out how to find the settings and I also hadn't dealt with the parking brake wire so it hid options from me. I sat outside on a sunny day yesterday and got way into the settings using a DVD-A from SACD FLACs for Joe Satriani - Strange Beautiful Music and it all kept getting better and better! Near the end of the "test drive" I put in Led Zeppelin - Celebration (Blu Ray 5.1 FLACs) and skipped to Kashmir and rolled down the highway with a wide grin.
Just for laughs, I pressed the button to change from 5.1 to stereo and the sound got huge! The bass was stupidly too loud, but if I dedicate 1 of 3 settings memory slots for this (with reduced sub volume) it could be very interesting. After all, the rear channels are rarely used on this live album, so this might end up being the way to go. When I switched back to the 5.1 mode it seemed puny in comparison. I will figure this out.
