Think my stereo was hacked

[RjKlement15]

I dropped my S off to have the Alpine nav system put in. I got it back and it looks good, but the speakers sound like trash. Is it programmed wrong? Im thinking the amp may be unhooked now and something just isnt right (i have the jbl system)
I have a very loud sub in the trunk which drones it out, but its still not right and will sound much better with the speakers working correctly.
Anybody seen this problem or know what it is. Should I take it back and flip out?

[SuperchargedMR2]

I would take it back & find out how the system was wired. The JBL system has 8 speakers that are run directly from 8 outputs on the JBL amp. To run that system they may have not hooked up the tweeters or something strange.

[RjKlement15]

Originally Posted by SuperchargedMR2

I would take it back & find out how the system was wired. The JBL system has 8 speakers that are run directly from 8 outputs on the JBL amp. To run that system they may have not hooked up the tweeters or something strange.

The tweeters are louder than anything else. Im thinking maybe something was connected wrong

[SuperchargedMR2]

Originally Posted by RjKlement15

The tweeters are louder than anything else. Im thinking maybe something was connected wrong

It could be that they didn't power the woofers than, you just need to go by & find out what they did. Let them listen so they can hear it themselves.

[RjKlement15]

Originally Posted by SuperchargedMR2

It could be that they didn't power the woofers than, you just need to go by & find out what they did. Let them listen so they can hear it themselves.

Thats what im gonna do. Is the possible that they flipped the wire for the door speakers and tweeters? the tweeters are very loud and speakers very quiet.

[SuperchargedMR2]

Originally Posted by RjKlement15

Thats what im gonna do. Is the possible that they flipped the wire for the door speakers and tweeters? the tweeters are very loud and speakers very quiet.

As I said each driver is run by a separate amp & they most likely screwed up the wiring.

[flamedrgn]

possibly they didnt hook up the amp to the speakers and the HU doesnt give enough output for 8 speakers.

[pengin978]

sorry for thread hacking but

where are the 8 speakers located? 2 on the 2 front doors and I'm lost from there. the previous owner ripped out the JBL system and installed a normal set up. I got the 6 disc changer, and my amp..
I'm happy that my bluetooth and back light works now. Just bass is not hitting hard....

[SuperchargedMR2]

Originally Posted by pengin978

sorry for thread hacking but

where are the 8 speakers located? 2 on the 2 front doors and I'm lost from there. the previous owner ripped out the JBL system and installed a normal set up. I got the 6 disc changer, and my amp..
I'm happy that my bluetooth and back light works now. Just bass is not hitting hard....

There are 4 front speakers, 2 tweeters & 2 woofers, each speaker is powered from the amp directly. The same is in the back with the rear deck speakers. The tweeters & woofers are powered directly from the amp. In most speakers the tweeters & woofer are run by one connection to an amp.

[kchyde]

Could you post a pic of the HU in? I've been looking at some in-dash screen HUs and wanted to know what they look like installed.

[Dimaoala]

Originally Posted by pengin978

sorry for thread hacking but

where are the 8 speakers located? 2 on the 2 front doors and I'm lost from there. the previous owner ripped out the JBL system and installed a normal set up. I got the 6 disc changer, and my amp..
I'm happy that my bluetooth and back light works now. Just bass is not hitting hard....

Kind of a long post I found, but it explains how our JBL System works and why it has 8 speakers. The OP of this thread was comparing the Camry and Corolla JBL Systems

Originally Posted by 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.