JBL is a mess.

[poconofly]

Hey all just joined. New owner of a 24 Trd Pro. Was getting the oil changed on my 4Runner and saw the pro in Terra. Traded my runner and oddly got a pretty good deal for how rare these still are so I’m psyched. Pretty bummed about the JBL. Sound is horrible. I’ve read a bit about the issues. I have them all. It’s truly bad. Any one aware of a fix?
Thank you!

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[Frylock221]

What issues are you having? Some people complain the center speaker is overpowering, just fade one level to the back or take it out if it bothers you seems to be the general consensus. I don’t fully understand the hate it gets, sounds far better than the Tacoma I tested without it. It could have a little more punch for sure, but that’s the only knock I’ve had so far.

 

[Sagebrush]

I don’t fully understand the hate it gets, sounds far better than the Tacoma I tested without it.

Exactly.

 

[max911]

IMO the JBL "premium" sound system sucks, as do a whole lot of other modern "premium" offerings.

That out of the way- I found that using a USB stick with decent quality recordings was vastly better than using a Bluetooth connection.
Disconnect the center speaker. Drop the highs and the mids on the EQ, and boost the bass. That improved the sound from sh!t to somewhat tolerable. YEMV. (your ears may vary)

 

[poconofly]

My Last four Toyotas had JBL. All were very good. I can fade to the back and it still sounds horrible. Ill try taking it out which is ridiculous considering how Toyota hyped it.

 

[poconofly]

Thank you! Good idea. I will check it out and def disconnect the center

 

[MT-Taco]

Fade to the rear +2, adjust your EQ on your music app. I had a 2300 mile drive home and had lots of time to get it tuned! Still isn’t great but acceptable, also I’m now using Tidal for music and it’s much better quality.

 

[SnowmanJPS]

I’ll be honest a lot of you complaining about the JBL had me worried coming from a nice Harmon Kardon system, I slide the front fade to the back two clicks and the system sounds just as good as my last vehicle , like no complaints, and I’m pretty picky on my headphones for good sound

 

[Vidman]

I ripped mine out and replaced the whole system..now I have real sound

 

[Daveintb]

I’ll be honest a lot of you complaining about the JBL had me worried coming from a nice Harmon Kardon system, I slide the front fade to the back two clicks and the system sounds just as good as my last vehicle , like no complaints, and I’m pretty picky on my headphones for good sound

Same here. The JBL in my Limited is pretty damn good. No complaints.

 

[chasea1989]

I don't understand the hate the JBL system gets either. After a few days of fiddling with the EQ, I'm pretty happy with it

 

[MERAKIAUTOWORKS]

Not this will change the EQ but we do sell a lot of the Beat Sonic Amps for the JBL systems. Good feedback on it, might be worth a try?

-Josh

 

[The Dude]

I ripped mine out and replaced the whole system..now I have real sound

What did you replace it with? I’m still waiting on my Sport Premium, but I’m already making plans to pull the JBL setup.

 

[Vidman]

Changed out the door speakers with focal ones.. the amp is a Audio Dynamics mk1000.6 with a Audio Dynamics dsp812-hifi.. left the factory sub woofer in but it sounds great with all that power.. if I turn up the bass I can vibrate all the windows easily very happy with my system

 

[WKTJR1]

Both of my Lexuses have the Mark Levinson systems, which, in itself, gets a lot of hate on the Lexus forums. However, it’s still superior to the JBL system. I mentioned in another thread that having a 3-band EQ on a 'premium' system is ridiculous.

I used to be in the 'good enough' camp until I spent several hours of road time trying to improve the sound to meet my standards (which are pretty low) and still couldn’t get it where I wanted. It seems like all Toyota sound systems, regardless of whose name is on them, are biased toward the front center speaker. I’ve been shifting the sound balance to the rear for years.

While I understand the idea of removing the front speaker to try to improve the sound, I don’t feel I should have to go to that extent just to get the audio I want. But that’s just me.

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