The bass is ok, but the mids and highs are very weak. Thus making the sound somewhat muddy. Playing with the treble/bass controls only changes the curve at the extremeties (high highs and low lows) but the midrange is only lightly affected. And upper -midrange is where your vocals usually stand. In addition, the AC noise is in the mids, so having your AC on high fan speed will greatly deteriorate your sound..... this was my experience with MP3 and Radio, I'll have to try a CD before a final judgement. I am more about clarity and pronounciation of the different frequencies that I am into "loudness", "energy" and "subs"
I am actually into sound production (I operate a home studio as a hobby), and was really hoping that the stock radio would have a somewhat flat frequency response so I can demo my tracks in the car. But i guess i cant do dat anymore
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I loved the stock radio on the Toyota solara ( i had it as a rental while i was getting my e90). It made all my tracks sound platinum
It sounded like there was some sort of dynamic range compression, this made the sound more "in your face" . Someone said that it shares the same radio/ parts as of the lexus
...maybe thats why.
But again, the stock e90 is still great. I am just really picky.