2012 owners: Stereo opinions?

I just dial with the handset or with Siri voice commands (iPhone4S, push and hold home button, then just talk over Bluetooth). I find it weird that the HU doesn't display caller ID info from the phone. My old JVC HU showed the caller's name from my phone's phone book. I'm waaaay too lazy to program any numbers into the car's HU.

The Bluetooth audio integration is great. The Artist/Title info shows for ipod, spotify, and pandora playback over the Bluetooth. Skip and back work too.

I've had aftermarket HUs in all my past cars, but I'm probably going to keep the stock HU in the Tacoma. Most likely going to change the front stage and add subs down the road.

 

Oh, that's pretty nice, esp for a stock HU.

 

Entune/jbl I like it, it just fine for me.

 

Radio Update: So this morning I streamed pandora radio all the way to work, about 30 minute drive on the hwy. sound quality was great, and of course pandora is great. plugging in the iPhone allows you to use it as a dock or just charge the phone, and continue BT audio... now if there was just an app for turning BT on/off without having to go to settings on the phone every time...

 

how is the sound quality when you are using the AUX 1/8 inch port? looking to use it for my Sirius head unit.

 

The software just seems stupid. I do not know how common it is for other city's but it does not understand addresses in SLC Utah. I use GPS a lot for my business so I know how they work. I have used a Garmin a lot over the last 5 years. The Garmin is far Superior to the jbl. So far it seems about 50 percent of manual input does not work. The voice input seems to work better most of the time. The other day I used the voice input for an address that had California Ave in it tried to check in in the state of California. Some times it will decide to look in puerto rico, that's nice. And then as for the entune. Well that is basically a useless thing. Because if you need a smart phone in order for it to work then you have what it can do on the smart phone. Do I really want to check my stocks while driving? And then to make it work you have to start your app in the phone each time you start it and tell the jbl to pair with it everytime. And sometimes it just decides not to work. It should just be automatic. With what I know now I may be switching to a kenwood unit. The kenwood also has the ability to use the trucks computer for MPG info. The jpl does not. I could go on but this is all I can think of now. Oh and the angle is bad (sun-glare). The rest of the truck I love.

I forgot the USB input is great. I have a 32 GB flash drive with music so I never run out and no more cd's.

 

I've had my 12' for a month now and mine has this stock radio. Impression's, love it. BT works great and display is easy to read day/night. In coming calls will display the phone # on the radio display and the quality is very good imo. The radio does lack a bit of power like mentioned before, but a good set of speakers/amp can solve that problem. Overall, I'm very pleased with the radio.

 

All you have to do is send your contacts from your phone to your truck, and it will load everything for you, just did it yesterday. It will transfer over the Name and ## just fine, the only part that sucks is if you want to make calls by speaking the person name, you will ahve to go through EVERY contact and edit it with your voice command. Kinda time consuming so I just ended up doing it with my top 10 or so #s. Other then that and the fact that you have to push so many buttons the make a call (haha hands free???) the thing works great!!

 

well, ..i just got my '12, so i haven't really read up on the operation, but the dealer helped me sync my phone and test it out.. i was pretty impressed! i believe the mic is in the overhead console, centered between passenger and driver..

 

When I plug in my iphone to the USB port and listen to Pandora, it works for 5 mins or so and switches by itself to the ipod mode. Any one here with the same issue ? Of course as of now I am not subscribed to Pandora, but want to as soon as I get this resolved.

 

Radio update after having it 3 1/2 months: Still love it. It gets a little hard to read during the day if you let dust build up on it (which I am bad about... I need to get some better dust rags...) but otherwise great. Still having the issue where the truck starts out on BT Audio even if the radio is set to USB when I turn it off. Not sure how to get the truck to start out on USB...

 

I have the entune/navigation/jbl/and factory sub in mine and love it.. I feel like it has a good all around quality sound. The sub is more than enough imo and i love the navigation....Just got back from a 4 hr trip to the moutnains and it worked flawlessly, also i love having the weather and my sports scores on the go. BT works great and everyone ive talked to using it says they cant tell im using BT.

 

Another "Like" vote here for the stock HU. I don't have the Nav, but the sound from this system seems much improved over my 2009 unit. The function is good, the bluetooth really kicks butt. I never really appreciated BT in a car until getting to use my Taco BT. I initially had plans to swap out the whole system with an upgraded system, but I find myself looking for ways to keep the HU and upgrade the speakers (already have Hybrid speakers sitting at Marv's) and install a good 10-12" sub.

 

I really like the BT. Start the truck and it automatically picks up where Pandora left off. Volume does seem a bit low, but quality is excellent.

The phone quality is excellent. People on the other line usually don't know I'm talking from the truck. Audio comes out the driver side, but the whole cab can hear clearly.

 

Here are my opinions and observations for what they are worth.

Sound quality is pretty good, no complaints. The display is a little hard to read in the day time even with the back lights turned up. Satellite reception is not as good as other units I have had. In cloudy or stormy weather it fades in and out with no terrain obstruction. The bluetooth link to my phone works very well, so far everybody has stated they can't tell I am using it on the other end. I like how you can save presets on different bands(am, fm and sat) on the same preset page. Overall I like the unit but wish the sat reception worked better.

 

the new controls and display are great! BT and XM radio work really well. I wish the JBL system was an option in Canada because the sound quality is pretty poor imo. my 09 TRD OR had the JBL and sub and it was much better.
hopefully these new head units are more reliable than the previous units

 

FYI: A Swiffer duster removes almost all the dust from the radio and dash. It also cleans dust from the gauges without scratching the plastic. Meguiars interior detail spray helps keep dust down and dust from sticking.

Back to the OP, I really like the factory radio unit. As for reverting to BT audio, check the settings on your cell phone, it may be causing the problem.

Regards,
Chris

 

I love it. Usually when I buy a new car or truck the head unit is the first thing I change. I will not be changing my head unit in my tacoma. LOVE IT!

 

why not? i love mine!
the JBL sound is damn good. WAY better than i ever expected, not only from a pick up truck, but from a manufacturer sound in this class... enough that this is my first car in a long time that i don't run out and spend money on an aftermarket system.
as far as Navi itself, no manufacturer navi will ever outperform aftermarket units simply because they have to comply with a ton more crap in order to offer it as OEM. but even as that, the Toyota navi is pretty damn good compared to other manufacturers in the class and add the entune and now you no longer have the lacking POI of other Navi systems. My one peeve so far is that to get traffic you have to go through entune, it would be nice if it was through XM so its always on when you ask.
I got the nanny bypass installed so i can access all the controls even when I'm moving, huge plus.

 

It is decent. But the thing that is driving me crazy is that I did not choose to renew the serious/xm and now when I get in the truck and start up it is always tuned to the xm advertising channel. Any one else experience this? It seems to only happen when I leave it tuned to my ipod.

Anyone with the navigation? I was thinking about getting one and putting it in myself.