Do I have the JBL Unit?

[hkollie1]

This is a NOOB question, but should be painless for the forum:

Do I have a JBL sound system? I am not near my 4runner so can't post a picture. GF says that there is NO JBL on the face anywhere, but there is "RDS".

I know it has a 6 cd changer (broken) and a tape player.

If someone can confirm for sure what I have, I was going to being acquiring an 1808 0r 1809.

THANKS!

 

[chaz]

may help. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/73152-my-stereo-jbl-not.html

 

[Sungod]

Do you have speaker in the rear hatch area? Do your the grilles in you door say 'jbl Synthesis'?

If you do and you are looking for an OE replacement, let me know. I just pulled my 6 disc changer out.

 

[snowbrdr033]

There are also speakers near the ceiling in the rear trunk area if you have the 10 speaker JBL system.

 

[hkollie1]

Thanks

I have ordered the 1808 to restore CD capability to my poor ole 2003.

 

[MrEMan]

My head unit is labeled with JBL Synthesis.

Crappy photo, but it says JBL in the little white box. Guess it could be a year specific thing ....

 

[hkollie1]

Well I guess I do have the JBL system, I had someone check my 4runner and they only looked at the head unit, not labeled JBL.

Asked again and they confirmed that the speakers are labeled JBL. :redbrick:

So I guess I will be messing with the Conversion Cable. TATO or something like that.

I see that some of these wiring harness converters are discontinued. If anyone had any specfic recommendation, I'll take it. I am not upgrading anything else, just want the speakers and steering wheel controls to work.

 

[Sungod]

I just went through this with my install of an Avic z130bt. If I had to do it all over again, I don't think I would do it the same way. The TATO is a piece of junk. Yes you can get sounds, but the quality is horrible and the fade and balance features suck. Right now 80% of my sound is coming out of the top front door speakers. The other draw back is that you loose the antenna amplifier. My radio reception is poor. The only option as I see it is to replace the antenna and run a new wire. The SWI interface that I installed for the steering wheel controls works fairly well.

My plan for the spring is to ditch the TATO. Get new front and rear speakers and wire them to the new head units speaker output. Then replace the jbl amp with a mono amp to run a new 8" sub.

 

[hkollie1]

Thanks Sungod....I should give you my Avatar!

Sounds like I have some thinking to do. For the $75 they want for a TATO, perhaps I can get some new speakers that wire up well??

I am not an audio dude and hoped it would be easy.

 

[rockwall]

The JBL speakers are decent. The head unit can easily be replaced with something much better for a relatively inexpensive amount. I replaced the HU, added an amp and a single sub and I get many compliments. The sound is great without getting into huge money.

 

[hkollie1]

Rockwall:

Did you have to buy a harness converter? If so, what did you use? I was hoping for plug and play.

I think I know that perhaps the only HU that is plug and play would be another JBL unit with the same plugs?

thx

KO

 

[Sungod]

I got the TATO for $40 from some amazon store, but even still, i would put the money else where if I had to do it all over again. It is the easiest solution, but clearly not the best. I will make do with it for a few months.

The problem with new speakers is the existing wiring. The wires run from the HU to the back where the jbl amp is then they run to the respective speakers from there. This link shows the pin out on the connectors: pinout

I am not an audio geek either and want to keep the stock look. I have no interest in having a big ass amp or speaker box taking up space. My days of annoying people 2 miles away with my stupid bass is long gone. I do like to take Mr Van Zant's advice to 'turn it up' from time to time when the need presents itself.

Here is my speaker plan:
Center speaker: Removed. No plan to replace it. It lets heat out and I will put my gps antenna under there once the TATO is gone.

Front Door: Run new wires to the front door speakers and replace them with new 6x9 seperates and run them off my HU.

Rear Door: This is a little more tricky. I could run wires from the HU along with the fronts, but I want to use the speakers that are in the cargo area. Why? because they are there I guess. I could probably just put door speakers in and be done with it, but it one of those things. So my plan is to tap into the L/R line outs that run to the JBL amp from the speaker outs on my HU. Then install new 6 3/4s in the door and the tweeters in the cargo area. I will put the crossovers in the area where the jbl amp is. I will still have to sort out the wires to the tweeters since they are currently wired in parrallel.

Amp and sub. I plan on keeping the factory sub. I will replace the amp with a small mono amp that will fit in the space. I will use the data wires from the existing harness as my amp preouts to go from the HU to the new amp.


All together I plan to spend about $300-$400. Nothing fancy, nothing high end. I just want it to sound at least as good as it did, but still have all the features of the new head unit.

 

[rmbertoldi]

This is a NOOB question, but should be painless for the forum:

Do I have a JBL sound system? I am not near my 4runner so can't post a picture. GF says that there is NO JBL on the face anywhere, but there is "RDS".

I know it has a 6 cd changer (broken) and a tape player.

If someone can confirm for sure what I have, I was going to being acquiring an 1808 0r 1809.

THANKS!

Breathing life back into a dead thread!

Same NOOB question for the Gen5, is it the same case, if you don’t have a sub in the rear than you don’t have the (non-GPS) JBL system? I have a 2013 SR5 with separate components (tweeters on the dash) with the standard CD only red-illuminated Bluetooth factory stereo, and wasn’t sure if you could have the “JBL system” without the sub, was it an extra factory-add on itself?

 

[TRunner_1]

Do your the grilles in you door say 'jbl Synthesis'?