My JBL Take

Hello. My name is David and I am a recovering audiohaulic. I have read a lot of positive and negative comments about this system. I have put it through the paces and wanted to offer my evaluation. For immediate comparison, my wife has a Mustang with a B&O system and my Jeep JL had a Bose system. This system is much better than the Jeep which was designed primarily to blast through the incredible road noise inside the Jeep. The HK system in our old Mercedes would best of them all.


The comparison with the B&O system is a little nuanced. The subwoofer in the Mustang is MUCH more substantial than the Tacoma. This gives the Mustang the win for depth of bass and volume. That system really rocks.


The JBL's subwoofer is a bit of a joke. Most of the bass comes from the door speakers. As these drivers are small(ish), the bass is driven by large excursions (linear movement). This creates a bass sound that can be boomy, add distortion at volume, and cause a lot of vibration in the door panel. The JBL system is incredibly quiet. At reasonable volumes and with decent media, the audio quality is quite compelling. I can hear sonic details that are not present in the Mustang or Jeep. Of course, having a great source is paramount to maximizing sound quality. I keep my music on thumb drives. I use FLAC but, at my age, probably could not hear the difference vs 320kpbs MP3s. The USB audio is from the USB port on the side of the display. I had to purchase a USB C thumb drive. I picked up a 64g pretty cheap. If you go this route, you will need to change the file system to FAT 32. This can't be done natively in Windows (don't know about Mac). I use a program called RUFUS for formatting, it is free.


With the sizable center center, imaging is heavily weighted to the center. I have read a report and the manual suggests that surround sound can be turned off. I have yet to figure out how. Listening to Spotify music natively is not that bad as it is not compressed like Spotify. Further, if you stream Spotify via Bluetooth, you are further crushing the source material. For me, this provides for just an OK listening experience. There is noticeable hiss with this delivery method.


As the JBL can do Apple natively, I'd be curious to hear about that listening experience, particularly with their lossless audio. If you are a Tidal subscriber, probably best to stream w/cable and not over BT.


Some frustrating items. The system does not remember the last source used if you connect to Android Auto (can't speak to Apple). For me, it switches to Pocketcast which is my podcatcher. even if I was listening to USB when I turned the truck off. Also, there is no way, that I could find, to disable unused audio sources. When using the Mode button on the steering wheel, you have to click through all the source options. And finally, there is no loudness compensation.

Overall, I give this system a solid B rating. For casual listening and driving, I prefer JBL over the Mustang's system. However, when I want to let the Mustang gallop, it has a sound system that is better paired with the skinny peddle.

 

Thanks, I have been waiting for a report. I would imagine that after replacing some of the stock speakers with good quality aftermarket ones it could sound good. I would happily spend a few hundred bucks on some speakers to take the JBL from pretty good to even better. I really have no interest of replacing the whole system in a truck ever again.

 

I will echo ops overall review. It’s pretty decent. It’s not the most magnificent sound I’ve ever heard. But for a stock system with a tiny sub. I can certainly listen to it without complaining. CarPlay sounds good once you turn “sound check” off.

Sirius xm and Amazon music both sound great as well.

 

Great write up and thank you for the comparisons. My 2017 jku has the Alpine system and I really like it. I changed my 4g order in part to include JBL system, so I'm happy to read this.

My go to audio comparison song is "El Chapo" by The Game and Skrillex. Would you mind giving it a listen in the Tacoma and give your audiophile thoughts???

 

Sick track! I enjoyed this song. This may come as a surprise, but it sounded really good up to about 45. This will be my Wally approach song as I slow roll past the main entrance. Will give it a listen in the wife's ride this weekend.

Another great test track is Bonfire by Knife Party, a quintessential dubstep song.

 

The Alpine system has some great lows with the in body sub (probably to overcome road noise as you said), so this one is silly to listen to.

 

My wife’s Jeep/Alpine is much better than my JBL, at all ranges. That’s even more impressive considering that her Jeep is a noisy box covered by exposed fiberglass.

JBL sound quality was a common gripe amongst Gen3 owners, so I’m very interested in hearing from new owners as to whether Gen4’s JBL w additional speakers sounds significantly improved or carryover.

 

Following!

 

Thanks for the perspective.

 

Question for the group.. like the OP, I am an audioholic in denial because I am not sure there is any such thing as a recovering one. I have a 2024 OR with the premium package inbound and should have it in the garage the week of April 8th. I am excited about the ability to stream Apple and Amazon Music directly to the head unit vs. using Apple Carplay or USB. That said, and here comes the question, if I look at the Toyota Connect options you can purchase the "Music Lover" with integrated streaming for $15 a month. But I have seen several comments in the fine print that leads me to believe that you also have to purchase the AT&T WiFi for an additonal $25 a month to use the integrated streaming. Does anyone know if you have to have both the WiFi AND the "Music Lover" for the streaming to work? Or does the "Music Lover" plan have a separate connection in the plan that allows it to work without a WiFi subscription? It's pretty confusing when you read it.

 

I have no answer but I started looking around online about switching the SIM card for one from my mobile carrier to possibly get around paying Toyota it at&t. I couldn't find any solid info so I'll just have to dig into it when I get my truck. With that said, I don't even know if I would trust the built in streaming "apps" to work as well as other options (AA/CP/USB)

 

If you do figure out how to swap the SIM out, please let us know the process. I too am looking to do the same.

 

It's interesting that you say this. It seems like many OEM systems are starting to do this. I have the B&O system in my F-150 and it's very center-heavy. It's my primary complaint with the system - on the forums some people even unplug the center speaker. I've seen similar complaints with the newer Tundras.

My previous F-150 with the previous generation B&O was not center heavy - that speaker really just helped fill in the mids.

 

Have you heard Deadmau5 - XYZ

 

Do some of the 4th gens with the JBL speaker system also have the 8" display? Or are all 14" displays? The specs sheet and description of the upgrade packages are kind of unclear on this.

 

The JBL system can be had via the upgrade or premium package for TRD. The upgrade comes without the 14"display. It is added via the upgrade with multimedia option.

I think the SR5 has no option for the 14"even with upgrade package.

 

Thank you. If I’m being honest I’d prefer the 8” display but I won’t complain if it’s 14” lol

 

Same, mom's 2018 JLU Rubi with Alpine was a killer system compared to my 3rd Gen JBL, I will say the JBL in the 16-17 that was a separate option sounded better than the 2018+ JBL as part of the premium packages standard, though still not impressive.

 

I have a question for the audiophiles in this crowd.
First, my observation. On most road surfaces, especially those that have been chip sealed, the road noise in a standard stock tire 2021 OR at cruising speed (60+MPH) makes almost all music listening near impossible. I installed layers of Dynamat in my first gen, in the doors, cabin and roof, to get a slight improvement. Admittedly the 2021 is a bit better, but not significantly so IMO.

The question, based on the assumption that Toyota has presented some features including improved cabin insulation, better glass, and improved sound coverage via the premium sound package.... and that Lexus has a couple of models that have active noise cancellation ala Bose type feedback (although I do not think they are Bose, but rather some other system) ... is there active noise cancellation present in any of the current 2024's?

 

Hi all,

To piggyback on @iResQ's fantastic review.....

I am expecting delivery of my new Tacoma with the premium package any day now and, as a (crappy) musician, I am certainly an audiophile. I don't have the drive I used to when I was young to completely build out/DIY a new system but I was hoping to get some feedback/thoughts on this item I came across? It seems to be a fairly cost effective way to boost the factory performance without a ton of investment or tinkering. I'm not looking to rattle my fillings but I definitely need dimension/depth to my audio. I thought it might interest OP/David and you all involved in this conversation. Any thoughts would be welcome! I'm a brand new member so, apologies if this should be started in a new thread...please let me know!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXMFpfZOQqM&ab_channel=Beat-Sonic

https://www.beatsonicusa.com/ena-2t3.html

Thank you!

P.S.- some really great test tracks on this thread!