My "new" take on the JBL system ...

[SweetDave]

I have commented that I find it good and certainly far superior to any factory stereo I have ever had in a vehicle, and I stand by that, again with the qualifier that I have never had a "superior" after-market stereo to compare it to. Now, to my "new" take on it: I feel the KIND of music you're listening to weighs in very heavily with this JBL system. I mainly listen to high-bitrate (lossless) soundboard Grateful Dead recordings, and these sound *ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE* through this system. Not "loud" but very FULL and RICH, such that "loud" isn't what you'd want or need anymore. Even compared to my very nice headphones, I'll put this JBL system right up there with them. OK, now how about, let's say ... from the Sirius? Not suh good, lol. It's definitely lacking, and nothing I do with the controls can counter it. It's not "bad" but not good, and nowhere near what I experience with the lossless files. ALSO, the INPUT is a factor; Bluetooth transfer SUCKS compared to a direct patch-in. These are my opinions alone, but I *do* know what I like and what sounds good, and this is what I have found so far with the system. YIMMV.

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[CATOY]

I’m starting to accept it for what it is and have noticed that you need to keep the volume under 42 as it gets distorted beyond that. It sometimes sounds okay and other times it doesn’t so that might have to do with satellite or Bluetooth differences. I will have or compare the different types to see if one sounds better than the other.

 

[SweetDave]

Yep

 

[SleepyBear]

I have commented that I find it good and certainly far superior to any factory stereo I have ever had in a vehicle, and I stand by that, again with the qualifier that I have never had a "superior" after-market stereo to compare it to. Now, to my "new" take on it: I feel the KIND of music you're listening to weighs in very heavily with this JBL system. I mainly listen to high-bitrate (lossless) soundboard Grateful Dead recordings, and these sound *ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE* through this system. Not "loud" but very FULL and RICH, such that "loud" isn't what you'd want or need anymore. Even compared to my very nice headphones, I'll put this JBL system right up there with them. OK, now how about, let's say ... from the Sirius? Not suh good, lol. It's definitely lacking, and nothing I do with the controls can counter it. It's not "bad" but not good, and nowhere near what I experience with the lossless files. ALSO, the INPUT is a factor; Bluetooth transfer SUCKS compared to a direct patch-in. These are my opinions alone, but I *do* know what I like and what sounds good, and this is what I have found so far with the system. YIMMV.

The volume much beyond 25 is loud enough, even with gusting winds at highway speed. 42? get your ears checked!

I did some auditioning of different sources. Carplay, built in Apple music connection, FM Radio, and SiriusXM Radio. This list indicates the best sounding to the absolute worst, in that order.

Bottom line: if you want the best audio quality from your Tacoma use Apple Carplay or Android auto at at least 256 kbps lossy or apple lossless.

With the road noise, etc environment of a vehicle 256 kbps lossy compression is just fine. Many (not all) users with a good set of headphones cannot A/B sample blind tell the difference. Given this isn't a super premium system, it's a JBL, not a B&O, B&W, etc system, I just use the Apple standard 256 kbps AAC on the go.

I was also surprised how bad the Apple Music connection with the truck (not using carplay) sounded. Listened to the same song on both sources and it was night and day. So don't pay extra for that subscription!

Sirius / XM Rant:
Back before the merger, there was Sirius and XM radio, which later merged into one. Post merger, which was mostly XM being absorbed into Sirius, the service became terrible sounding. There were a number of reasons.

Without diving too much into the technical details:

• XM prioritized quality of audio over quantity of channels

• XM had a few 128 kbps (great for 2005) AAC channels (that's what apple sold in 2005)
• XM also had a couple of 5.1 surround sound channels (XM pops)

• At the cost of channel changing speed, XM used 2 completely separate satellite carrier frequencies offset by 4 seconds, allowing the receiver to maintain a large buffer and they also used FEC (forward error correction) to prevent the audio psychoacoustic artifacts (aka R2D2 sound).
• In addition to the satellite transmitters, XM had an extensive terrestrial repeater network.

Thus, XM radio had a far superior codec, 3 chanel signal diversity, forward error correction and allocated more bandwidth per channel. Then along came the merger...

However because 'Murcia where more is better than quality, we're stuck with Sirius which chose to offer more channels at lower quality, worse codecs using awful technology. The outcome is less than AM radio quality sound and terrible lock-in business practices and a terrible royalty to artists.

One exception: if a car (not tacoma) has the 360L service, XM radio stations "tune" via the car's built in LTE/5G modem; it uses the satellite signal as a backup if cellular is unavailable. Best I can tell this is somewhere between 128-256 kbps MP3. When the system uses the cellular, it sounds decent.

 

[SweetDave]

The volume much beyond 25 is loud enough, even with gusting winds at highway speed. 42? get your ears checked!

I did some auditioning of different sources. Carplay, built in Apple music connection, FM Radio, and SiriusXM Radio. This list indicates the best sounding to the absolute worst, in that order.

Bottom line: if you want the best audio quality from your Tacoma use Apple Carplay or Android auto at at least 256 kbps lossy or apple lossless.

With the road noise, etc environment of a vehicle 256 kbps lossy compression is just fine. Many (not all) users with a good set of headphones cannot A/B sample blind tell the difference. Given this isn't a super premium system, it's a JBL, not a B&O, B&W, etc system, I just use the Apple standard 256 kbps AAC on the go.

I was also surprised how bad the Apple Music connection with the truck (not using carplay) sounded. Listened to the same song on both sources and it was night and day. So don't pay extra for that subscription!

Sirius / XM Rant:
Back before the merger, there was Sirius and XM radio, which later merged into one. Post merger, which was mostly XM being absorbed into Sirius, the service became terrible sounding. There were a number of reasons.

Without diving too much into the technical details:

• XM prioritized quality of audio over quantity of channels

• XM had a few 128 kbps (great for 2005) AAC channels (that's what apple sold in 2005)
• XM also had a couple of 5.1 surround sound channels (XM pops)

• At the cost of channel changing speed, XM used 2 completely separate satellite carrier frequencies offset by 4 seconds, allowing the receiver to maintain a large buffer and they also used FEC (forward error correction) to prevent the audio psychoacoustic artifacts (aka R2D2 sound).
• In addition to the satellite transmitters, XM had an extensive terrestrial repeater network.

Thus, XM radio had a far superior codec, 3 chanel signal diversity, forward error correction and allocated more bandwidth per channel. Then along came the merger...

However because 'Murcia where more is better than quality, we're stuck with Sirius which chose to offer more channels at lower quality, worse codecs using awful technology. The outcome is less than AM radio quality sound and terrible lock-in business practices and a terrible royalty to artists.

One exception: if a car (not tacoma) has the 360L service, XM radio stations "tune" via the car's built in LTE/5G modem; it uses the satellite signal as a backup if cellular is unavailable. Best I can tell this is somewhere between 128-256 kbps MP3. When the system uses the cellular, it sounds decent.

What a FANTASTIC write-up, thank you!

 

[SleepyBear]

Also, best I can tell, no fake engine noise pumped into the cabin via the stereo!

 

[G-Note]

If the trucks stereo is on and the Bluetooth speaker is removed does the BT speaker keep playing the vehicles audio or does it shut off and start looking to pair to a phone?

 

[SweetDave]

I don’t know, I’ll check tomorrow!

 

[G-Note]

I don’t know, I’ll check tomorrow!

You are so sweet Dave! Lol

 

[SweetDave]

You are so sweet Dave! Lol

 

[Planoman]

I find 20-25 or so is fine. I used the FLEX speaker in the backyard today and it wasn't bad. Very easy to connect to. Sounds fine to me. Have had Bang & Olufsen & Meridian and the have all sounded fine. I do wish I had the storage space behind the rear seat more than the sub.

 

[SweetDave]

If the trucks stereo is on and the Bluetooth speaker is removed does the BT speaker keep playing the vehicles audio or does it shut off and start looking to pair to a phone?

I've checked, and no, it does not. When I put the Flex into pairing, it does come up as a pairable device on my screen, but it does not successfully pair, which I'm more than certain it will, but no, I have to actually RTFM, and well ... LOL!

 

[G-Note]

I've checked, and no, it does not. When I put the Flex into pairing, it does come up as a pairable device on my screen, but it does not successfully pair, which I'm more than certain it will, but no, I have to actually RTFM, and well ... LOL!

Awesome. Thanks for checking.

 

[Fhb]

The volume much beyond 25 is loud enough, even with gusting winds at highway speed. 42? get your ears checked!

I did some auditioning of different sources. Carplay, built in Apple music connection, FM Radio, and SiriusXM Radio. This list indicates the best sounding to the absolute worst, in that order.

Bottom line: if you want the best audio quality from your Tacoma use Apple Carplay or Android auto at at least 256 kbps lossy or apple lossless.

With the road noise, etc environment of a vehicle 256 kbps lossy compression is just fine. Many (not all) users with a good set of headphones cannot A/B sample blind tell the difference. Given this isn't a super premium system, it's a JBL, not a B&O, B&W, etc system, I just use the Apple standard 256 kbps AAC on the go.

I was also surprised how bad the Apple Music connection with the truck (not using carplay) sounded. Listened to the same song on both sources and it was night and day. So don't pay extra for that subscription!

Sirius / XM Rant:
Back before the merger, there was Sirius and XM radio, which later merged into one. Post merger, which was mostly XM being absorbed into Sirius, the service became terrible sounding. There were a number of reasons.

Without diving too much into the technical details:

• XM prioritized quality of audio over quantity of channels

• XM had a few 128 kbps (great for 2005) AAC channels (that's what apple sold in 2005)
• XM also had a couple of 5.1 surround sound channels (XM pops)

• At the cost of channel changing speed, XM used 2 completely separate satellite carrier frequencies offset by 4 seconds, allowing the receiver to maintain a large buffer and they also used FEC (forward error correction) to prevent the audio psychoacoustic artifacts (aka R2D2 sound).
• In addition to the satellite transmitters, XM had an extensive terrestrial repeater network.

Thus, XM radio had a far superior codec, 3 chanel signal diversity, forward error correction and allocated more bandwidth per channel. Then along came the merger...

However because 'Murcia where more is better than quality, we're stuck with Sirius which chose to offer more channels at lower quality, worse codecs using awful technology. The outcome is less than AM radio quality sound and terrible lock-in business practices and a terrible royalty to artists.

One exception: if a car (not tacoma) has the 360L service, XM radio stations "tune" via the car's built in LTE/5G modem; it uses the satellite signal as a backup if cellular is unavailable. Best I can tell this is somewhere between 128-256 kbps MP3. When the system uses the cellular, it sounds decent.

Just a question….if you use your Bluetooth interface direct to the JBL system does it have same quality as Apple CarPlay?

on the Sirius/XM comment….been ranting to myself over the years about the poor quality…good review!

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