OEM Audio+ and JBL - Info & Pricing Released!

Any updates on sound improvement, install difficulty, issues, etc.? Thanks!

 

I’ll write up my thoughts this weekend. Definite sound quality and volume improvements. Not terribly difficult to install but if you haven’t installed a system in the past it might be a little bit difficult. A few minor install issues. Daniel was only a text away if I had questions.

 

I broke the optical cable during the install resulting in no sound, but there was red light visible through the toslink end. I’m thinking the front Seat Jackers I have didn’t help the angle going under the carpet. I replaced the optical cable with one from around the house and I got it all working. I have a replacement optical cable coming tomorrow, since I don’t want to hide 20’ of unnecessary cable.

Just from my short audition, the sound is phenomenal. Like anything, you don’t realize how much you are missing until you have it all. Daniel was awesome during the whole install and just a text away if I had any questions.

 

I'll try to summarize my thoughts on everything.
First, the truck sounds very, very good now. Nice, punchy bass. Pretty impressive from an 8" sub. Of course, it is only an 8", so I don't expect it to play extended low frequencies that well. I have a lot of headroom and can play the system loud if I want - much louder than you'd ever dare with a stock system due to distortion issues. I honestly think the stereo imaging is very impressive and I may even hear more details now but I never knew I missed them.
Install experience - watch the videos prior to install. If you're like me, you'll watch them during install. Please note, this is MY experience only. Your experience may be better, worse, etc.

The amps come assembled together on the mounting bracket. The wire ends are all terminated with ferrules. That's a nice "OE" finishing touch, but I had issues with them. It seemed all of my amp connections were not very tight and one even came out of the sub amp upon maneuvering the assembly into position. I ended up removing the plastic ferrule covers on all of the larger gauge wires as they seem to keep the wire from being inserted as far as they needed. Just something to check.

Make sure to leave enough slack for full seat directional movement. When you attach the bracket to the seat, the rear hanger won't engage as deep as you might think it should. It will be angled and appears the seat spring may contact the top amp, but I saw in a video that OE+ says the tight bracket fit to the seat spring keeps the bracket from moving around or vibrating.

I like having the remote for the sub amp. I took the switch out of the original housing and used a switch knockout for mine so it is very low key. It is left of my steering wheel so I like it there for a number of reasons.

Front door speakers are somewhat universal as the brackets are not specific to the Tacoma only. Magnet is small, but is supposed to be high quality. I think my new speakers were holding the door panel out just a tiny bit upon reinstall, so I modified the panel slightly to get a better/tighter fit of the panel clips to the door. Prior to the mod, the clips would engage but the "rubber" part of the clip (panel clip under the speaker) was not contacting the door fully. I did this for all 4 doors.

Dash tweeters. Be careful removing the speaker covers/panels as I've heard of some having issues with snapping a tab off. I did it on the right side unfortunately. I was just not being careful as I needed to be. Note that if you have the SOS system and want to keep it - you will have an extra wire to run from the amp and then run the original speaker wire connection to the kick panel.

Running wires.
Power wires. I gave up trying to run the power wires through the little nipple in the factory grommet for the main factory harness. I did what I always do and create a small opening in the grommet below the main harness and just run them that way. You will have 3 power wires instead of one large one. They are spliced under the hood. I'm not a big fan of butt splicing power wires but I know they did it to speed up assembly and provide the "factory-like" fuse holder setup under the hood, including a pre-crimped ring terminal. I installed heat shrink with adhesive over the connections to insulate them even better. Since they all splice at the same location, you won't be able to fit the 3 wires with the splices in the included split loom tubing. I had some larger loom that I put over the splices. I had pretty much had zero extra power wire.

Main harness to sub. Mine was supplied in one large conduit/sleeve. I could not fit it in the factory wire channels. It was just too large. I ran it next to the factory wire channel under the carpet. Worked out fine. When I got to the sub, I had quite a bit of extra wire, but it is easily stowed behind the panel when you reinstall it.

Head Unit harness. Mine was kind of short, so I had to locate the interface module a little closer than shown in the vids but I actually like the location better. I will have to keep in mind that because the harness is so short, if I ever pull the HU, I will have to remember to disconnect the interface connection at the OEM+ unit first.

Remote and SOS wires. Mine came with the wrong ends, so I had to cut off the supplied ends and I used QD spade-type connectors for these wires. Not a big deal, but noted.

Rear Sub box. Nice. It is heavy. Mine lined up with factory mounts except in one spot. (I had to loosen the brackets on all and re-align them, but they all ended up lining up except for one.) The one bracket was a little misaligned and too short. I had to space it up about 3/16" of an inch and use a longer screw to secure the bracket to the box. The box is fiberglass with nutserts for the brackets. There is one spot on the factory box where the panel has a clip that fastens directly to the box. The OEM+ does not have a full provision for this. It has a dimple and foam to absorb the potential panel vibrations. I was concerned it may vibrate, so I put a little longer panel clip in there (door type) to keep it under tension. This causes a little panel interference with the seat back when folding it down, but not a big deal to me as it remains fully functional and I have no vibrations.

After install, I have zero issues with "feedback" as one poster noted before. I haven't tried the bluetooth, but I also read from that reviewer that a fix has been identified, but OE+ is trying to figure out how to get it to us (probably requires a flash I'm guessing). I did note that for some reason when I use my lumbar switch that 75% of the time it will cut the sound for a split second. Weird. I did note as has been reported before that sometimes the first second or so of a song (off USB) is silent/delayed sound.


Right now I'm waiting on the speaker bracket for my SOS speaker relocation. Other than that, this project is complete.

I'll try to help with any questions for those considering the system. Daniel was a tremendous resource for me when I did my install. For example, I couldn't locate a connector and he asked me to check about 1" inside the OE+ main wire loom and boom, there it was. I probably texted him 4 times or more and he was quick to reply.

I know this system is not bargain priced, but you won't get better customer service anywhere, at any price level. In my opinion, the system is worth it to me. Enough so that when OEM+ comes up with a system for my wife's car, I plan to get one.

 

I had the same issues with both power and ground coming out of the sub amp. During installation, I accidentally pulled them both out while manipulating the sub umbilical cable. I tightened them up with a normal flathead and then completed the install. I think while I was bolting down the seat and moved it forwards and backwards to access the bolts the ground came out again. For me, the trick was using a flat head bit in a small ratchet so I could get plenty of torque on the set screw.

 

Anymore updates from anyone who has installed this?

 

I thought I would give an update;
I just received a replacement amp from OEM Audio. Daniel says this will resolve all my issues and was easier than a firmware update. I'll post back tonight after replacement and let you know. Again A+++ customer service!

 

Excellent! Just curious....how did you get the system before they are released???

 

I preordered it back in December, which is how I got mine last month.

Daniel let me know the other day that my SOS speaker relocation mounting bracket should be shipping out this week as well as a “correction for the amplifier going into stand by mode anytime there is silence from the source - like when on a call and the other person is not talking or the silence between tracks.” I’m assuming that second thing is a firmware update.

 

I preordered in December

Daniel said the new amp he sent me will fix the "amp stand-by mode" issue. I'm not sure if I got the replacement amp because I've had the issue for a while now and he just wanted to get me taken care of or if that is the way they will handle for all customers. Maybe it will be a firmware update moving forward?

 

I also got a response today indicating a replacement amp and speaker bracket should be shipped out this week.

 

I got my SOS speaker relocation mounting bracket and replacement sub amp today. I’m still waiting on the instructions for the mounting bracket but I plan on installing them tomorrow.

 

That's cool. I should get mine Friday or Saturday. Was kind of hoping the speaker bracket was obvious, but I guess it isn't! Please post up a link to the instructions if you get one!

 

Here is what the SOS speaker relocation mounting bracket looks like. I haven’t taken it out to the truck yet to try and see if it is intuitive where to mount it.

 

Looks like a nicely engineered bracket!

 

Got my relocation bracket and replacement amp today. Haven't even opened up the amp, yet - but it should be a direct swap. Relocation bracket looks nice and should be something I can figure out once the kick panel is pulled again. Still would be nice to see if there are any special instructions or precautions.
However, I decided to test-fit my speaker to the bracket and it did not fit well. The opening in the bracket is laser or plasma cut and it is just a tiny bit too small for my speaker to fit flush into it. I had to enlarge it slightly to get a good fit. Just an FYI to others.

 

How did you go about enlarging it? Since fidelity isn’t critical with that speaker, could you use small spacers to push the speaker out from the bracket so that it clears the cutout?

 

Are these issues being provided to OEM so they can tweak and improve systems they sell later?

 

Spacers could have possibly been an option. I haven't tried to install the assembly yet, so I don't really know if spacing the speaker out might create any other issues with the kick panel fitment, etc. Probably ok to go that route since we're talking about a pretty small adjustment.
To enlarge my opening, I used a half-round file and made a few passes, followed up by some dremel sanding to keep it pretty concentric.
My experience might have been an outlier. It would be nice to see if anyone else runs into that same issue.

 

Daniel installed their single sub system on my Tacoma just over two years ago. Seems like it took him about four hours while I hung out in their lounge, as it were. The system sounded great from day one but it really opened up after about six months of the speakers breaking in. Only sounds better. For dealing with the interior of a vehicle, it sounds pretty damned great but it's lacking in certain areas. One thing I did was pull up a tone generator on my iPhone and run short bursts of signal gradually going down to find where the real bottom line was, and it seems to peter out pretty quickly below 40 hz, which, coincidentally, is just about the low E on a bass guitar.

What I really compare it to are the Genelec 8351B's I'm using for our little "home" recording studio inside my photo studio. Pandemic projects, y'know. The Genelec's are hardware calibrated with DSP chips inside each speaker, so not unlike OEM Audio + but they have a smoother tonal response that is still more or less flat to around 28 hz and much better stereo staging because of the acoustic treatment and being able to always put yourself in the exact sweet spot, but those Genelec's with their calibration software and measurement mic were about $9000. The truck actually feels very close overall to the Genelec's and act as a great alternative set of speakers for listening to your mix.

Daniel has always been super responsive, but they are a very small company, and even so, he occasionally calls just to check in to make sure I'm still happy.