Tag: dayton

3S: A little quality of life improvements…

The Stealth has always been a little “rough” to drive. It was loud hot to drive. So I spent a little bit of time this year to finally right this wrong…

Stereo – ATOTO S8 8-Core 7″ Double Din Android Stereo (S8G2A74MS)

ATOTO S8 Installed in dash

Let me start out by saying I am not an audiophile or anything of the such. I really just wanted something that could do Wireless Car play and sounded as good as the stock stereo. When I upgraded the stereo in my Tundra from whatever top factory one was in 2013 to a “Jensen” one in 2023 I was very disappointed in the sound quality. It got noticeably worse. I read some “questionable” reviews about the ATOTO S8, but also talked to a few people first hand and they felt it was pretty good…. I took the plunge and bought it along with the Metra 70-7003 so that I could still utilize the stealth’s factory amplifier. In March of 2025 I upgraded all the speakers in the car…. once again I don’t know what is the best bang for the buck, but I had saw these were recommended across the 3S platform consistently and felt it was worth it. The “tweeter” location is still a full range speaker. Everyone recommends the Dayton Audio RS75-4, and then I 3D Printed a little “mount for it to fit properly. For the doors I went with Kicker 46CSC674 (6.75”) Coaxial speakers, and the rear passenger area I went with Rockford Fosgate Prime R169X2.

Color me surprise, the thing actually sounds a lot better than the factory one. I guess that should be expected when you compare something from 1994 vs 2026… 32 years of innovation should help. The wireless car play works pretty well most of the time. The ability to have Google maps / YouTube music directly on the stereo is nice, but that only works for “offline” mode unless you keep your phone in hotspot all the time or you buy a sim card.

The other main thing that drove me to buying this unit in particular is the ability to run android apps (and connect to the CAN network). While I haven’t done that yet, I do plan to do this eventually.

Sound deadening…

When I first bought the Stealth, it was in great condition. Add 24 years and 60k miles, it’s missing a few parts… mainly in the trunk. I didn’t have the storage bins, the spare tire, or the cover / carpet / platform that cover all that. It was just bare metal exposed. This made the car very loud to drive always. You heard the exhaust really well. I started looking online for the storage bins / carpet / platform and found the bins for a reasonable price, but the carpet and platform were each $100+ ( with about half coming from shipping). Thankfully someone local in the club was willing to let go of all of it for $80 (in rough condition). I figured if I was going to add these, I should make sure to add some sound deadening to the car to really help.

Of course there main company in this realm is dynamat, but I’m not looking for perfection and I approached the situation as “anything is better than nothing” and bought “Kilmat” 50 mil 50sqft version of this for about 1/4 the price of dynamat.

Installation wasn’t hard, but it was time consuming. These do add a fair amount of weight, but I would guess the full 50sq ft is about 15lbs and it’s worth the tradeoff for a non-race car. I did buy “rollers” to help “roll it out” but I don’t know if those really are necessary. They add little indentions to the “foil”… Not sure if that is supposed to help or anything.

I’m very happy with the level of noise reduction that I am seeing coming from the rear of the car. I didn’t do an audio test of before and after, I also have the “storage” dividers in the back now but the board and carpet are still not there and it’s a pretty massive improvement for fairly cheap. I’m very impressed with the reduction in noise coming from the rear of the car, and I have plenty of extra to do the main cabin when I eventually replace the carpet…

Amazon list of the upgrades mentioned above and the prices I paid for them: