4th Gen JBL replacement

How do you remove the a-pillar on the driver side? I see there’s a cover that needs to be taken off to presumably access a bolt. Any help is appreciated.

 

That's a question for Bob, I paid to have my system installed...
Some of the plastics take a bit of force to pope-out. I know about the access port your talking about...
Need to get a plastic upholstery panel tool in there & have a look-see...

 

Added a sub shot in my pic collection on prior page..

 

In anticipation of picking up my new Tacoma I've read through this JBL thread a couple of times. (Lots of great contributions)
I thought some of the posters were being overly harsh as to the quality of the stock system's sound.
I gathered my truck from the dealership and tried the stereo today. My gosh! The biggest critics here were being too kind!
What a pos. It actually made me angry. Sounds like a loud transistor radio plopped on the center of the dash.
Tried different settings. Unhooked the removable center speaker (better). Didn't have any higher quality music files available today- but can't see that being able to salvage today's performance.

Might as well have one of these dangling from the rearview mirror instead. Would still sound like sh!t but at least I'd know it only cost me $44. LoL

 

It gets better tweeking bass & treble settings , ditching the porta potty, don’t mess with fade….

but end of the day, garbage…

 

Slater - it appears that JL sub is hitting the seat bottom - any issues with that? I was considering that exact setup until I realized there would be a clearance issue and I do not want to cut out that seat...

 

Just the violent pressures alone will cause that ring without the speaker actually touching the material at all....
I dont really run it will the seat down...
I have a wedge that keeps an air gap.
or I run it with seat upright & latched...
There's pics on ground shaker site where they want you to cut out section of bottom of seat "hard plastic area" & zip the material back up...
That will allow roof for a grill...
I wanted no part of that, its fine how it is & dont feel not having a grill is an issue....

I was on the fence on the box, glad I went 12" jltw3d4
Tako tunes coming out with their stuff but who knows when....
You cant put large amps under the front seats on these truck so either way your going to lose storage...

 

OK - Thanks for all of that. The GS box alone takes up all the limited space under the rear seats so I've already conceded that, if I go that route. But I really don't want to cut out that seat bottom, and I'm unsure about riding around with the seat bottom raised even though in my case there will rarely be any humans sitting in that pitifully small rear seat. I think I can find an amp that will fit under the passenger seat, won't be as powerful as your setup but will be plenty for my needs.

Cheers for the holidays...!

 

The jl tw3d4's need alot of power to sound good....
At least from what Im hearing from first hand experience.
Maybe it has something to do with the DSP technology stealing some of the power, no idea...
But 800watts going to a single sub, figured I would have busted out the moonroof by now, that's not the case...

As stated, im not cutting my seat, not installing a grill,
You can easily lay some tiny piece of 1x1 stock at the front of the seat so there's a nice air gap, that way the seat is down if you prefer it that way...
eat down with the argue may make It sound better? Haven't played with it enough to really know.
Same scenario as positioning sub enclosures facing so speakers are firing back when in trunks, rear of an suv, or whatever application...

As stated, TaKKo Tunes will be coming out with behind the seat enclosures, ported, dual & single options....
May sound better, maybe....????

Its only money.....
You guys can have a truly kick-ass system in these trucks with minimal funds if your smart about it....
I went over the top, But you can get more for less...
I was trying to get extremely clarity & over the top loud....

 

"Phase 1" of my ungrade will happen sometime in the next few days as I install the Beat Sonic pre-amp that just arrived. I'm hoping that unit helps a lot with clarity from the existing JBL speakers but I'm not epecting much bass improvement. "Phase 2" will likely happen soon after as I look into adding another sub/amp. I also purchased an adapter cable with the Beat Sonic that will provide take-offs to run to the high-level inputs of any sub/amp I add - that will save me the hassle of identifying and tapping the outputs at the OEM amp. Stay tuned...

 

That's where the PAC ap4-ty-14 comes into play.....
The $350+ you paid for the beat sonic, you could have got a real amp with some serious power behind it, instead of that tissue box...
Im sure it will meet your needs, but your maxed out the second you install it & if you decide to replace your door speakers, the end result will be meh.....

 

But that's my target! I really don't want to replace the OEM speakers as my 72+ year old ears probably won't really notice much of a difference anyway. I like it moderately loud when I'm alone, but not ear shattering...my ears are already shattered from decades of abuse...! I just want more clarity from the existing speakers and more "punch" in the butt from a decent sub. The video that Beat Sonic put out demonstrates a nice improvement in the available volume/clarity (although that could have all been "staged") so I think that part will be quite satisfying for me. We'll know in a day or two...!

 

I made my decision - I'm going to essentially duplicate what I have in my Santa Fe, a 180-watt RMS 10" Kicker under the driver's seat that pleases me immensely and has worked well for 4+ years! I pulled that sub out of the Santa Fe (took 30 seconds) and test fit it under the driver's seat in my Taco and to my great surprise it fits perfectly, perhaps even better than in the Santa Fe! I can still adjust the driver's seat back and down to its limits (crushing the sub in the process no doubt, but it's in a metal enclosure with grille) and it does not intrude into the limited rear seat passenger foot space although that person would not be able to put their feet under the front seat at all. I'll leave the sub "floating" (unmounted) in that space with sufficient cable lengths so if necessary I can reposition it temporarily, or remove it altogether. There's a heater vent that will be partially blocked, but I have that same situation in the Santa Fe and it has never been a problem. It comes with a remote output level adjustment that we'll mount somewhere in the driver's environment. (That will be a bit more of a challenge in Taco than in my Santa Fe.)

The sub is currently on sale at Best Buy for a nudge under $300 ($74 off); I placed my order and I should have it on my doorstep by Tue. 12/31. This time I'll pay the tech at Best Buy to install it - that job was already quoted at $150.

KICKER Hideaway 10" Compact Powered Subwoofer Black 46HS10/51HS10 - Best Buy



I have yet to install the Beat Sonic unit, will get to that early this coming week. Film at eleven...!

 

Quick question - where is the JBL amp located in the '24 models...?

 

under the driver seat to my understanding...
Probably look through bobs photo album, theres a link early on in his post...
No reason to access it...
Your going to get your signal from the additional harness through the beat sonic..

 

Thanks again Slater! Per Bob's photos, the amp appears to be under the carpet under the driver's seat - no wonder I couldn't see it! A bit hard to acccess but no matter, I won't be able to do what I wanted to do anyway. Indeed, I also bought the extra harness with the Beat Sonic unit that provides the F/R. L/R "high level" takeoffs (8 wires total) at the head unit to an external amp, in my case the Kicker. That harness has a 10-pin "Toyota" plug and socket. I was hoping the same plug/socket were at the amp but per the photos those connectors are different. If they were the same then I could have used that harness at the amp instead of at the head unit saving some wire routing. The harness has only 6" pigtails so when I install the Beat Sonic, I'll have to extend the 4 front speaker wires at the harness and bring those out from under the dash to the sub. The Best Buy tech will do most of the Kicker wiring but since I'm installing the Beat Sonic sooner, I figure I'll do that part of it at the same time so he won't have to dig into the dash again. Now I hope the harness that came with the Kicker has input leads that are long enough, not that that's a problem.

One other question in my mind, yet TBD - the Kicker needs high-level inputs but the signal level at the Beat Sonic certainly won't be high level in the traditional sense*. I trust the Kicker will have enough gain that it won't matter. I hope to get the Beat Sonic installed and operational by the weekend; my appointment at BB to complete the upgrade is on 1/7...

*In my discussions with Beat Sonic, they admitted that their device is more of a "pre-amp" vs. amp since the OEM JBL amp is the last active device driving the speakers.

ALSO - Kudos to Bob for those very informative photos! They're helping me understand what lies ahead immensely...!

 

I know for a fact the connections to the 24 amps are different than previous gens, that's why we were waiting for someone to release an amp interface, the PAC ap4 ty 14....
connections are different..
but yes, under the seat, under the carpet...

Hope the BS does what you want it to do, alot of cash for what it is, vs real raw power of a full size amp, makes the expansion almost limitless...

 

Well, the jury is in...WOW! I'm very pleased with the Beat Sonic amp that @slater introduced in a video in his post #94 above - thanks a million for that! It adds a good bit of volume without discernable distortion in the OEM JBL speakers and amp and makes the music sound "brighter" with more clarity, and it also adds somewhat to the bass response. I knew the stock 10" sub had the frequency response I wanted because I could hear it, but it lacked volume and "punch". The Beat Sonic unit helps bring it out a bit more. If you're not considering something more exotic, I highly recommend this addition for anyone who is disappointed in the "premium" JBL speaker system - it might be all you need!

For this "Phase 1" of my upgrade I bought the Beat Sonic "Encore Alpha" ENA-2T3 amp (it's really just a pre-amp) and BT-10 10-pin "Toyota" harness that provides the high-level outputs at the head unit for connecting an external amp. The installation went pretty much as detailed in that Beat Sonic video, but with the addition of the extra harness. Fishing the wires to an external amp through the dash and out near the steering column was a bit tricky but I got it. I cut off the 4 "EOM" connectors on the BT-10 harness for the 2 front external speakers (the rears are not used) in order to solder those leads directly to the 4 external amp wires and I sealed those with heatshrink. The test went well - I ended up with both front and rear gain controls at their 3 o'clock positions. Getting the amp stuffed far forward into the dash was also a convolution (wear gloves!) but I finally got that too. I reinstalled the head unit and listened to that upgrade for a bit and liked everything I heard. In fact, if I hadn't already bought the powered sub I might have gone with just the Beat Sonic upgrade for a while. It provides all the volume I'll ever want.

Then as part of "Phase 2" I tested the Kicker 51HS10 powered sub. All I had to do for that was add the power (which I did temporarily through an adapter plugged into the 12-volt outlet next to the phone charger pad), plug in the connector at the sub (I had already completed the high-level audio input connections as above), plug in the remote level control cable, and slide the sub under my seat. Double WOW! I knew what to expect from the Kicker since I've been using that exact model in my Santa Fe for 4 years. I played a number of my favorite tunes in .WAV format from a thumb drive plugged into the right side of the head unit, listened for almost 2 hours as I threw back a few golden elixirs. (That's what I call "basking in the glow" which follows many projects.) My butt was tingling and my ears were ringing, still are this morning! I probably burned a gallon of gas with the engine idling all that time.

I'll still pay the Best Buy tech to finish the sub installation next week for about $150. (It should be cheaper as I already took care of the audio connections!) With that, I'll have an upgrade that is almost perfect to my ears for less than $800 all-in while preserving all the very limited storage space except what's under the driver's seat and also preserving all seating locations. I'll still have to tweak the controls on the sub a bit, notably the crossover frequency.

Update on the sub placement under the driver's seat: When the seat is moved to the furthest back position, it does indeed push the sub back about 1.5" from where I want it and that's unavoidable in that location due to the underseat framing. But that's not an issue for me; I'll leave the sub "floating" in that position and if it moves back, I'll simply push it forward again completely under the seat. I'm a short guy so I never need to move the seat that far back anyway.

I'll certainly enjoy this "poor man's" audio upgrade for quite a while, maybe for as long as I own my Taco. It's possible I might take it further at the future, but at this point I doubt it...

Cheers...!

 

Glad it’s working for you…

 

The installation at Best Buy went well. I didn't witness any of it so I have no idea what was actually done (kinda like sausage - we all like the product but nobody wants to see how it's made!) but the installation is clean, all wires are well hidden, the sub's remote level control is exactly where I want it, all wiring that would have been exposed in the engine compartment and under the driver's seat is in loom (bound in places with cable ties), and the "umbilical cord" attached to the sub is long enough that I can swing the sub completely out from under the seat into another location, or remove it all together if necessary. The job was done in less than 2 hours for <$160 total. Kudos to Spencer, the BB tech - everything he did is quality work! I still need to do some tweaking on the controls to get everything balanced as best as possible. In earlier years I would have done that job myself as I did in my Santa Fe, but now at my age and given the cold weather I believe what I paid is worth every penny.

There is a problem however that I need to resolve. When the system volume is all the way down I can still hear some of the bass part of the music coming out of the sub even with its control all the way down. This isn't a big problem but I don't like it. I have 2 options as to where I take off the high level audio connections to the sub - it can be right after the head unit before the Beat Sonic preamp, or it can be after the preamp before the JBL amp, and frankly I don't know which I have now but I'm guessing the latter. I'll pull the head unit out again to confirm and whichever way it is, I'll try the other option. It's simply a matter of changing where that optional harness I installed is placed in the sequence. I'll report back on that another day...

Otherwise, I'm a happy camper...!