[GraySkies]

Hi all,

Just bought a 2016 Cruze LT. It is a former Enterprise rental car.

Went shopping for a small car, and wasn't really aware of the Cruze until I drove one. My wife and I both like it.

Joined this forum so I can look for info on upgrading the base infotainment system. I had Bose audio on my last car, and the base system on this is a little anemic for me. Any advice is appreciated. I would rather keep the factory unit's functionality, if there is a way to upgrade the sound quality and power without actually changing it out.

 

[BrandoFisher117]

Welcome to CruzeTalk!

 

[chevrasaki]

Welcome to the forum!

I left my stock radio in place (I have the base blue screen radio in my gen 1) and I added an amp, subs, and some 6x9s to upgrade my sound system.

It was a lot of work, but very worth it. I can leave it stock if I'm just listening to talk radio without the annoying bass voice. Or I can flip a switch and feel the music.

 

[GraySkies]

Thanks for the pics, Chevrasaki! That does look like it was a lot of work.

Did you just use amps with speaker level inputs, or did you use some kind of signal processor? (or does the gen 1 have line-level outputs?)

 

[chevrasaki]

Originally I fed the amp speaker level inputs, but after the first attempt at installation, I suffered from alternator whine which drove me nuts for a couple weeks. To correct this, I may have gone a bit overboard, and I ended up completely re-designing the circuit so that my aftermarket components were 100% isolated from my car's stock electronics.

I added an 80 amp isolator relay to power my dedicated aux circuit from the main battery. The auxiliary circuit contains it's own 36aH deep cycle battery, a 1.5 Farad capacitor, the LED lights for the sub box, the amp and speakers, the trailer light harness I installed, and a spare "Always on" 12v socket that I can use to charge stuff when the car is off, and it won't drain the main battery.

During all of this I also went to a PAC line converter instead of feeding speaker level inputs to the amp directly. I'm not exactly sure what the issue was, but after doing all of those changes, the alternator whine went away. (I think it was one of two things: 1- The chassis ground I was using in the trunk was too far away from the alternator/main battery. 2- I didn't separate my main power cable from my speaker cables which is a big audio no-no. ) Either way, after a second round of hard work, the system has been solid for 3 years now and I love it.

 

[GraySkies]

If you are happy with the line converter you used, could you tell me what model it is? How is the sound quality?

I am still tempted to spring for a DSP when I can afford it, but if I could get something up for cheaper in the near term that would at least improve the bass response, it would at least make it tolerable. The stock base model touchscreen unit (do they call this "MyLink"?) is driving me to distraction with the poor sound quality (especially in the bass department).

 

[ProDigit]

I have a gen 1 Cruze Eco, with a dot-matrix display radio, and I feel like the speakers on the Sonic sounded better.
They're basically the same sound system, but on the Cruze, they added tweeters in the pillars for extra brightness.
I wished I could put an HPF on those, and do a cut from like 3-4kHz and below.
The radio has too much between 1-3kHz, and it's all because of adding tweeters to an already calibrated design.
I hope they changed this in later models. But my 2011 could use those LPF filters!

 

[Blasirl]

Welcome Aboard!:welcome:

A couple of ways to go beside aftermarket - one will upgrade the functionality and the other the sound quaility - and you can do both if you have the time/money/stomach etc.

[h=1]Updated Quick and Dirty Mylink Upgrade DIY for Gen 1 Cruzes[/h]
[h=1]How I did the MyLink Wire Harness[/h]
and / or

[h=1]The SQ Car Audio Thread V2[/h]
[h=1]XtremeRevolution's Subwoofer Boxes[/h]