jbl system

[50george]

i cant figure out why my jbl system in my 09 corolla doesnt sound as good as my wifes 07 camry with the same 440 watt jbl system.i can put her volume on 10 and is a lot louder than mine on 10.is it the difference in speakers.i thought it would be the same exact system.

[DjiNN]

its the Sound stage .. the size of the car and the amount of speakers might be different ..

[pauly]

Originally Posted by DjiNN

its the Sound stage .. the size of the car and the amount of speakers might be different ..

Where are the 8 speakers located?

1 in each doors = 4
tweeter in front doors = 2
2 in the back right under the rear windshield? = 2

= 8? am i right?

[Tideland Prius]

I don't think there's any in the rear doors. I believe the rear parcel shelf speakers have 2 speakers per unit (i.e. there's a small tweeter next within the unit)

[VisualSpoiler++]

What are you playing from, CD or MP3? Radio or Satellite radio?

[lowincash]

ok while we're talking about the jbl system...it says it plays mp3...does that mean i can burn a data cd using mp3's which can hold a lot more songs instead of an audio cd?

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by lowincash

ok while we're talking about the jbl system...it says it plays mp3...does that mean i can burn a data cd using mp3's which can hold a lot more songs instead of an audio cd?

I have the regular system, it also plays MP3s and WMA's. I burned MP3's, 700mb worth and it plays just fine. One thing to note though, it only supports single folders, not folder tree support.

[cwayne]

Originally Posted by 50george

i cant figure out why my jbl system in my 09 corolla doesnt sound as good as my wifes 07 camry with the same 440 watt jbl system.i can put her volume on 10 and is a lot louder than mine on 10.is it the difference in speakers.i thought it would be the same exact system.

you check the eq settings? bass & trebble? it can make a difference. if the settings is all flat and your wife's is boosted, that could be it.

the bitrate also makes a difference with mp3 cds. lower bitrate, crappier sound.

speaker size could also be different. camry has a bigger trunk, bigger trunk acts as a bigger enclosure produces deeper bass.


I try to stay away from factory systems since you can get better aftermarket units for much less money. at times, factory system can be a pain in the ass. there could be built in amplifiers that you can't bypass or you will need expensive adapters or even have to run another set of wires.

I hated the Bose audio in my uncles Maxima. Bose is crap anyways.

[KS Rolla]

I would definetly adjust the b/m/t settings, they will all be 0'd out by default. I too have the JBL system. When I took my rolla for a test drive I was unimpressed as well, but all it took was some tweeking to make the system come to life. All I was looking for was a nice factory system with a full range of sound and it definetly fullfills those requirements. It sounds good on everything from classical to death metal.

[50george]

thanks guys.i just figuerd with a smaller cabin and the same 440 watts mine shoud be booming more than hers.i have adjusted the treble. midrange and bass but it doesnt boom like hers.i still love the car.2009 s, super white.jbl,and tinted windows.

[KS Rolla]

One thing I just noticed last night is that the CD/AUX, FM, and AM/SAT functions all retain their own M/B/T settings which is nice. This means that just because you set 'em for you radio doesn't mean they've been tweaked in the CD/AUX mode or AM/SAT mode. Nice feature. Definetly improves the sound for all functions.

[Tideland Prius]

Originally Posted by KS Rolla

One thing I just noticed last night is that the CD/AUX, FM, and AM/SAT functions all retain their own M/B/T settings which is nice. This means that just because you set 'em for you radio doesn't mean they've been tweaked in the CD/AUX mode or AM/SAT mode. Nice feature. Definetly improves the sound for all functions.

Wow. Another Lexus feature filtered down to the Corolla. Seriously, Toyota has really outdone themselves with this new Corolla. All the little details (which I so adore lol) like the Trip Computer, Auto Headlights, Separate settings for b/m/t for each source... now if the sunvisors were only cloth.... hahaha. Just nitpicking .

[Tigmd99]

Each vehicle will sound differently because JBL/Toyota will tune it differently.

Your speakers:
2 mid-tweets in the upper front door
2 woofers in the lower front door
4 speakers total on the rear parcel shelf (2 woofers + 2 tweeters)

The 4 speakers in the back are really two coaxial (tweet + woofer) speakers. Toyota counts them as separate speakers each because JBL amplifier supplies each tweeter and woofer separately. In an aftermarket sound system with coaxial speakers, the amplifier uses one channel to power each coaxial speaker. In contrast, the JBL/Toyota amplifier uses two channels to power each of the rear parcel speaker...one channel powering the 6x9 woofer, the other channel powering the tweeter.

So, you have an 8-channel JBL/Toyota amplifier powering 8 speakers in 6 locations.

The Camry JBL system is similar except that the front mid-tweets are located in the upper dash pointing upward under the front windshield. The mid-tweets in the Corolla are on the upper doors.

Remember, both JBL systems do NOT have true tweeters in the front stage. The midtweets (i think around 2" diameter) are really just small woofers...good for midrange, but cannot match a true tweeter (ideally 1") in the high frequency nor a true midrange speaker (ideally 6") in the midrange frequencies. The only true tweeter in either system is on the rear parcel shelf as discussed above.

Why does JBL/Toyota do this?? Well, both Camry and Corolla JBL system incorporates "Distributed Subwoofer System" (DSS). DSS means that the amplifier/DSP is pushing all low-frequency notes to the front door woofer and rear shelf woofer. In essence, you have 4 small subwoofers in the car. The goal is that these small subwoofers would produce enough pressure to add up to one big subwoofer. Thus, this means that a separate subwoofer is not needed (aka save some money), while DSS provides near equivalent bass. This is why the rear shelf "coaxial" speaker is separately powered by the JBL amplifier. The woofer itself needs power to produce the low bass notes and thus needs it's own power source. In contrast, with an aftermarket sound system, a conventional aftermarket amplifier with one channel per coaxial speaker would not give the speaker enough juice to make the low bass notes because that one channel has to power both woofer and tweeter simultaneously. The JBL/Toyota amplifier delivers power separately to the coaxial...one for the woofer, and one for tweeter.

However, what suffers from above setup is the midrange and high frequency notes. Because the woofer in the lower front doors are mainly there to produce low frequency notes, the rest of the spectrum of frequencies (midrange, high range) goes thru the small midtweets in the upper front doors. In general, these midtweets cannot produce accurately the upper frequencies as well as a true 1" tweeter. For the same reason, a midtweet cannot produce midrange as well as a true 5.25 or 6" woofer/midrange speaker. The midtweets are a compromise in design. Therefore, what JBL and Toyota have done is compromise on the sound a bit to give a good sound but at a specific price point.

In contrast, in all Mark Levinson system (in Lexus), there is a true tweeter, midrange/midbass speaker, and a true subwoofer (8-10"). It all comes down to cost and class of vehicle.

In conclusion, does it mean that the JBL system is bad?? Not at all. You will be hard press (even impossible?) to beat the sound with aftermarket equipment at the price that you're paying for it. Don't forget, JBL system also comes with Bluetooth...this feature alone is worth it IMHO.

[50george]

thanks.now i know.

[Tigmd99]

Here is a quick review of JBL vs. standard system: http://www.caraudiomag.com/specialfe...rix/index.html