question - for those of you with 4th gen and JBL 10spk system

[jwyshrek]

Something strange was brought to my attention this past weekend...

I have the 10spk JBL sound system in my 2005 4Runner...it seems to be front biased where most of the power is coming from the front speakers.

Sound is coming out of the speakers in the rear doors, but not as much (it seems), and the speakers in the cargo area has even less power, which makes some sense...they are smaller, but I would think it would be driving more power that it currently is. The subwoofer seems fine.

Now, if I use the fader control to rear bias (from 0 to R1, R2, etc...more power to the rear speakers), the rear speaker get louder and the fronts get less loud...all good.

However, when I use the fader control to front bias (from 0 to F1, F2, etc...more power to the front speakers), the rear speakers are less loud, but the front speakers (it seems) stay the same.

So, it appears that with '0' bias (front and rear), the front speakers are already at full bias power.

Anybody else experience this or noticed this or am I going cuckoo for coco puffs?

thanks in advance,
jwyshrek

 

[TeryT]

Noticed the exact same thing!

BTW - The easiest thing to help this stereo is to put a volume control on the center dash speaker. Most people find this tweeter too bright as is.

 

[Boaz]

Noticed the exact same thing!

BTW - The easiest thing to help this stereo is to put a volume control on the center dash speaker. Most people find this tweeter too bright as is.

How would you go about doing that? I think its way too loud ....

 

[TeryT]

The center speaker easily pops out. Solder a splice into it & send to a low resistance potentiometer. I mounted mine in an open hole in the dash plastic under the steering wheel.

 

[jwyshrek]

Thanks TeryT.

 

[TeryT]

I had some trouble finding the right potentiometer. I think some on here have also just disconnected it, or you could put a switch on it. For AM talk radio listening & sports it's pretty clear.

One guy also just hooked his CB radio up to it.

 

[Boaz]

The center speaker easily pops out. Solder a splice into it & send to a low resistance potentiometer. I mounted mine in an open hole in the dash plastic under the steering wheel.

Has anyone wrote up how to do this?
That electrical talk is greek to me!

 

[TeryT]

Take a look at this thread:

Center Speaker mod

 

[Thai]

Related thread & possibly an explanation to your "problem":

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=277&highlight=concert

 

[TeryT]

Related thread & possibly an explanation to your "problem":

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=277&highlight=concert

Yup - agree with all that. However, the dash center speaker is STILL too bright/loud.

 

[galacticrunner1]

just buy a bass controller. you can probably get one on ebay for like 10-20 bucks. plus its alot nicer looking then a plain old potentiometer.

 

[TeryT]

just buy a bass controller. you can probably get one on ebay for like 10-20 bucks. plus its alot nicer looking then a plain old potentiometer.

The pot is totally hidden behind a small recessed hole in the bottom of the dash. The only thing exposed is a small, round black knob. Simple, it works & doesn't stick out. Most of the time I forget about it with the speaker turned down to about 1/3 - sounds better without the glare.

 

[rhk118]

Here's my 2 cents...

In my college days (4-8 years ago now) I used to compete in car stereo competitions and had a roughly $7000 system (1200 watts RMS, roughly 2800 watts peak) packed into a chevy s-10 extended cab pickup...in any event it was a pretty major system and I took car stereo pretty seriously :artist: just to qualify what I'm going to say below...

Just got a 2005 limited with the JBL 10 speaker system last week. Did not specifically want the 10-speaker system, it just came on the truck and didn't even listen to it before buying (sadly going to be used mainly by the CEO/CFO/Wife) since it was on every one available...

I've only spent 6 hours so far (1 road trip) playing with it and the various adjustments, but overall I'm really surprised how good this stereo sounds for a factory system. The fronts are definitely louder than the rear speakers. This is mainly a sound-staging thing...the rear speakers are for fill and should be mid-range to bass only, all treble and most mid range should come from the front and I think that is how it was meant to be by Toyota. As far as the bass and adjusting fade--usually with factory systems that have a subwoofer, the sub is attached to either the front or rear speakers and when you fade the system it will unfortunately get louder or softer (depending on whether you fade more front or rear) rather than staying at the same volume which is what it should do...but wiring it this way makes it cheaper since Toyota doesn't have to add a 3rd channel to the amp)...this will affect sound quality quite a bit. The rears also sound softer just because of their positioning...

I don't know what to think of the center speaker. Center speakers were a way for folks with otherwise bad sound staging to "cheat" and improve their sound staging at competitions, so I tend to have bad feelings toward them....but this one is interesting because of the "surround" mode that I've never encountered in a car before (this was just becaming popular after I sold my truck)...in the surround mode it sounds great, and blends in nicely with the fronts. Does not sound too bright to me at all (of course maybe my hearing isn't that great :arrow: , and high frequencies go first) and I even turned the treble up a bit...I am not sure if the center speak turns off in the 2-channel (non-surround) mode though (it just might - check it out)...but even though the stereo bible would say the center channel and surround mode is complete crap and everything should be listened to in 2-channel...I think the center speaker and surround mode is actually quite good...while the bass is somewhat boomy its a very solid car stereo...

It may be the center channel sounds too bright to you because of other settings - if you increase your mid-range to 1-2 that may drown out some of the treble from the center speaker. If you increase the bass a bit as well that should drown out the treble as well (but its really mid-range and not bass so that will muddy the highs a bit...if it were really low base you'd be surprised to hear that the treble actually sounded better due to contrast effects in the middle ear but thats another term paper...)...

Anyway for not being interested in this stereo I really like it and think it sounds great, I think the front treble is right where it needs to be...I agree it would be nice to have more control over various things like the level of the front speaker and a separate sub level)...

Sorry so long!

 

[TeryT]

Thanks for the informative post RHK - good to hear someone who knows a couple things about head-bangin stereo to chime in.

I too have gotten a new appreciation for this system, after spending more time with it on the highway. On another thread I said how I found out that it really sounds better with newer & digitally remastered CDs, than my "old" collection. For some reason it just really likes remastered or DDD's better.

I've found that the center speaker often sounds too bright to me if the mid-range isn't set well. Some songs really have to much mid-range it seems. Often its blarring can be tuned down by the mid-range control. Or, I just use the volume control mod to adjust it.

I am still thinking about putting that little Clarion powered sub under the passenger seat, as I find I'd like just a littl emore bass up front.