It's a really bad idea to post your phone number on a public forum.

 

Issues with 2014-2017 RAV4’s with Premium JBL Audio System – If you are disappointed with your JBL/Greenedge Audio, YOU ARE NOT ALONE – READ ON PLEASE: I am proceeding with Arbitration, and have a Toyota Case Number under which I am doing so. There are 2 major defects as follows: First - Audio with speakers set to rear of cabin is about 70% lower than when set to front of cabin, and is totally lacking in bass, mids and highs – puny and weak in the rear is a good description. Second – Subwoofer functionality is virtually absent in the passenger cabin, with only slight output regardless of whether in front, rear, or any speaker setting mode.

The system is sadly lacking.
Toyota, at the dealership level is trying to help me but Toyota at regional and national levels simply comes back with “The audio system is working normally.” The truth is that Toyota simply compared my vehicle with several others and came up with the catchy sentence about “working normally.”

Apparently Toyota refuses to admit that the integrated premium package consisting of Fujitsu-Ten head unit, JBL Greenedge speakers, and JBL amplifier is suffering from technical defects, and all vehicles with this Premium system are affected.
Steve B.

FWIW...
I just bought two new 2017 Toyota's last week: A rather low-end Rav4 XLE for myself and a loaded 4Runner Limited for my wife.
The mid grade Entune™ Audio Plus in my Rav4 is awesome! ...but the Premium grade JBL 15 speaker system in my wife's 4Runner Limited is pure crap!

The JBL Premium system in the 4Runner is so bad I thought a fuse for the power amp was blown or perhaps missing from the factory. Your post leads me to believe that they all suck, (not just mine).

While I have no interest in a class action suit, or going to the dealer to complain, I will agree that the Premium JBL system that Toyota puts in their high-end vehicles is defective. It almost seems as if the main power amp is running in by-pass mode or it's not being powered-up at all.
Thus it's not simply a 'poor quality' issue, but rather a technical or physical defect with an otherwise good system.

Thank you Sir,
It felt good to 'vent' and your post gave me some motivation to look into this issue a bit further.
Happy motoring,
-Ej-

 

Possible SOLUTION:

found this guy on e-bay selling 300 dollar OEM JBL refurbished amps. A real electronics genius!
Pleas read my whole post for results....
Thanks

 

Hi Steve. I completely agree with you about the sound system. IT SUCKS. I was going to bring my new just purchased rav4 platinum thinking they forgot to connect the bass. My salesman says they are all like that, and he likes more bass. I e/mailed Toyota Canada and got this reply

"Dear Mr. Couture:

Thank you for your reply.

Please be assured that we certainly do not like to see our customers experience the frustration and inconvenience that are associated with unexpected repairs. We would like to mention that extensive planning and research are required in order to ensure the highest quality of components is used on our vehicles.

While it is our goal to assist our customers whenever possible, our Customer Assistance Centre is not equipped to provide the technical information that you require. As you can understand, it is very difficult to diagnose symptoms through this method of communication. We kindly suggest that you discuss your inquiry with the Service Department at a Toyota dealership. They would be in the best position to offer diagnostic testing and their professional opinions.
Thank you again for taking the time to write. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Best regards,

Brian Allen-Murphy
Customer Assistance Centre
Toyota Canada Inc.

So I followed through and will persist in getting the service manager to admit there is a problem. Are you in the US. Corporate Toyota differs in responding to customers depending where you live. I will keep up to date with you and would be glad to participate in any arbitration.

 

Took delivery last week, 2017 Rav4 Hybrid all options. Completely agree, this so called Premium JBL sound system is terrible. AM almost useless, quality of sound with all other sources is disappointing to say the least. Insult is we paid good money for this product misrepresentation. My associated complaint is the low alert volume of the LDA, Turn Signal and Seat Belt warnings. LDA about useless when driving especially if radio on, not even playing radio loudly. I had Tech Package in my 2014 Limited I traded for this new 2017 Hybrid. I know how LDA should work, as it did in the 2014 Rav. This is not even close. Dangerous!!!!

 

Hello,

Same issue with my 2016 LTD. This is all caused by firmware in the head unit and could be "greatly improved" bu an update. the reason that I say "greatly improved" is that radio is radio and will never be as good as a CD or high quality MP3. The broadcaster can broadcast in whatever fidelity (frequency range) they want and most don't do a very good job compared to other audio sources. Bass is chopped on FM to keep from over-deviating the transmitter and violating FCC regs.

In the past radios were designed to compensate for these deficiencies by tailoring the frequency response. Since there is such variation in broadcasts Toyota and JBL decided to just leave a "flat" response which sounds terrible on most FM stations. In contrast my 2001 JBL in my Highlander sounded O.K. tolerable most of the time but on some stations it sounded very "boomy" like cheap PC speakers.

This still doesn't forgive the absence of output from the rear speakers which sounds pretty unnatural as one would expect a little reverberation from behind the listener.

I think that there might be some little hope ahead. Have you first enabled, and then tried any HD FM stations? Again the stations can supply whatever fidelity they want but now since it is digital they can provide almost CD quality if they want to. My local public radio station seems to be doing a good job of getting this right. There seems to be much more bass in this signal than in their regular FM broadcast of the identical material. The trick with HD is that the station has to provide a quality source AND you have to be close enough to the transmitter to receive the full high quality digital signal. The sound quality appears to degrade slowly as you get further away from the transmitter.

I did a test with a portable CD player and the analog input jack on the console and the CD sounded pretty darned good. I am assuming that this input is direct input flat response.

Now I need to digitize and convert my CD collection into flash drive files since they removed the CD player to make room for a bigger screen. Can anyone offer any suggestions for a work flow and (preferably) free software to do this? I have heard that there is a trick to making this work. Apparently the file directory tree has to be a certain way and Meta data has to be added to the converted files to identify the particular cut. Have any of you been through this before?

Thanks,
Steve

 

No news here....the JBL system has sucked on every year of RAV.

 

I've noticed the same weakness in my audio system. I'm some sort of audiophile myself and I can tell my 2014 Fusion Titanium sound quality (even being that sluggish Microsoft Sync 3) completely DESTROYS the JBL Premium quality.

If you want to file an arbitration, I'd participate. You can contact me through direct message. I'd like to add an issue with the GPS, which sometimes fails to identify roundabout exits and consistently avoids roundabouts for that reason. If I don't take a look at the entire route before driving, I may end up driving many more miles than needed.

I'll try some settings and different sources as well. I mostly use Slacker Radio through Entune (bluetooth), but I'll be comparing it to FM HD, USB and line input. Added to that, I'll also fully disable ASL and check differences. As soon as I have more details, I'll share.

 

I had hoped the problem was that the audio was compromised by Bluetooth, but connecting directly to the 1/8" stereo jack did not improve sound quality.

Has anyone tried to replace the speakers to fix this? Depending on cost I'm considering replacing the speakers, but that isn't entirely certain to work so I'm looking for more information.

Installing better speakers will only help if the signal from the dash unit isn't poor to begin with. Does anyone have any experience trying to get better sound quality out of the Entune unit?

If the Entune unit is the problem we may just be out of luck. I tried looking online to see if any units on the market could support all the cameras on the RAV4 and couldn't find anything yet. Does anyone know if such a 3rd party product even exists?

I agree this is a very frustrating problem, but I don't think we can consider it defective, its just a bad product. A really shamefully, embarassingly bad product. My 2009 Prius sounds far superior. During the test drive I assumed the RAV4 sound quality was due to bluetooth, and TBH the issue probably wouldn't have pushed me to Subaru, but if I knew how bad it really was I would have reconsidered. Seems strange JBL would want their name on such an awful system.

The idea of having my car sound this bad for the next 10 years is horrific.

Hopefully some solutions will show up on the thread. I'll post anything further I learn. Good luck everyone.

 

around 2015, on the highlander forum they complained about the JBL system. some also tried different speakers to no avail. me, i wouldn't spend another nickel on my 2015 HL Platinum, that cost me 43K !

 

Still not optimal...

So, I've tried several different settings. So far the best inputs are from USB and Line In. I seem to have a little bit more control over the sound there. ASL didn't make much of a difference, but the first time I've heard my subwoofer "quake" was with it turned off. I'm keeping it off for now.

It seems the sub is attached to the front speakers, which is usual as you'd normally have limited range speakers in the front - which is not Rav4's case. The back speakers are full range, although, they seem artificially reduced to mid-ranges only (through the amp?). Barely no treble or bass there. If you push the balance 100% back, the sub is turned off and the sound seems mono.

A ended up configuring it like this:
- Balance: dead center
- Bass: +10
- Mid: -8
- Treble: -3
- ASL: Off

I'm still searching for a good lossless audio file to test this system.

Meanwhile, has anyone ever get to the amp to see if there is configuration available there?

 

I would really like to see someone who could do a frequency response plot of the complete system to the occupants ear locations. I suspect that what you would find is that the level is way overly "bright" thanks to the output from the front dash speakers.

I don't think changing speakers by itself will make much improvement on its own unless it has to do with replacing the front dash speakers with ones that are about 6dB less efficient.

Before I do that I want to try adding a 6 dB pad to the existing dash speakers. I suspect that this may make a significant improvement. Has any one pulled the dash speakers and know if they are 2, 4, or 8 Ohm drivers?

As I said before "Radio is Radio" with a very wide range of fidelity. Nothing is likely to fix this in ALL cases so it is best to focus on improving the USB and line in sources. Once this is done the radio may be more "tolerable"

BTW, the front door speakers are subs. Changing them won't buy much and may even make things worse. I suspect that the system has been "optimized" to use these drivers in the "door" enclosure.


Thanks,
Steve

 

Well, I got a chance to convert some of my CD collection and went on a long trip this past weekend. Unfortunately the The USB input is not significantly improved over the radio. This may, however, be a small blessing in that a single modification might be able to fix several things at once.

I also determined that the HU does incorporate some loudness compensation (i.e. bass boost at low volume levels) However , the effect is only moderate. This comes into play as the nominal levels from the USB (same as the AUX input) is considerably lower than for the radio. I noticed on my trip that the radio volume was about 22 but the USB required 35-40 for the approximate same loudness level. At this level the loudness compensation is just about gone and the bass boost it provides with it. This appears to be another design defect with the system. Different normalized sources should produce similar loudness levels. If this were fixed the bass would increase significantly on the USB and AUX inputs.

It just boggles my mind how Toyota could screw this up this badly!

 

2015 SR5 and 2017 Limited

The speakers in the 2015 SR5 are as light as a feather because they do not have magnets, but a coil. So, the amplifier is powering the coil that creates a magnetic field. The paper cone is literally the cheapest paper I've ever seen, hence the system sounds terrible. By the way, the Entune head unit actually sounds very good with some component changes. Add an amplifier and new speakers. The new amplifier should have controls on the amp itself for setting the frequencies. You would filter out using hi/low filters so only treble goes to the tweeters and only base to the sub-woofer. Now onto the 2017 4Runner Limited with the JBL speaker system. Per the web site, the green speakers are lightweight and powerful. Light weight probably means, once again, no magnets. The Entune HU (head unit in the dash) with Navigation is still good to go, but not the separate amplifier. The vehicle comes with a separate 500 watt amplifier, but the amplifier probably drives the magnets (I'll find out when I pull the speakers at the end of August 2017). I think someone should tell Toyota about GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. The 4Runner limited boasts 15 speakers - well, it has nine speakers, but since 6 of them have the coaxial tweeter mounted in the middle of the speaker, Toyota counts the unit as 2 speakers. Since the base comes out of all speakers - I'm assuming that the amplifier does not have any filtering controls - that means we are given a Plain Jane amplifier! The HU lacks sophisticated audio controls having only treble, base, and mid range adjustments. A good amplifier will have a connection for a potentiometer that can be placed under the dash and reachable by the driver. The pot will adjust the base attack (think of a loudness button only an adjustable dial instead of a button). Then when listening to older music with little base just crank up the attack and with modern music crank it back down -- there is no need to tune the HU treble, mid, base settings for each song. So, to sum it up, the problems are 1) bad JBL Green speakers, 2) the lack of high/mid/low range frequency filtering, 3) the HU does not provide options to fine-tune the system, 4) No loudness button or a way to add a potentiometer to vary the loudness. I am replacing the speakers, changing the amplifier, and adding a potentiometer to adjust loudness. All set, keep in mind that when you buy the coaxial speakers you get the speaker and the tweeter mounted on the speaker, but the tweeter can be detached and used up on the dash where the tweeters go! -- a quality installation with a good system, such as JL Audio 8-channel amp, JL Audio+Focus speakers, and a separate 10 woofer in a box -- somewhere around $3000.00. Or, add only a JL Audio 6 channel amp (2 channels tweeter, 2 channels front doors/rear doors, and the last 2 channels tied together to power the woofer", a 10" woofer in a box, and 6-JL Audio speakers (2 tweeters in dash, 4 mid range speakers, but keep the rear hatch speakers disconnected, and put a loudness pot under the dash and you're at $2,100.00. With the 6 channel amp configuration, you can choose to either disconnect the two speakers in the rear hatch or you can still run them directly off of the HU. Since the rear hatch speakers don't really matter, I prefer to disconnect them.

 

The speakers in the 2015 SR5 are as light as a feather because they do not have magnets, but a coil. So, the amplifier is powering the coil that creates a magnetic field. The paper cone is literally the cheapest paper I've ever seen, hence the system sounds terrible. By the way, the Entune head unit actually sounds very good with some component changes. Add an amplifier and new speakers. The new amplifier should have controls on the amp itself for setting the frequencies. You would filter out using hi/low filters so only treble goes to the tweeters and only base to the sub-woofer. Now onto the 2017 4Runner Limited with the JBL speaker system. Per the web site, the green speakers are lightweight and powerful. Light weight probably means, once again, no magnets. The Entune HU (head unit in the dash) with Navigation is still good to go, but not the separate amplifier. The vehicle comes with a separate 500 watt amplifier, but the amplifier probably drives the magnets (I'll find out when I pull the speakers at the end of August 2017). I think someone should tell Toyota about GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. The 4Runner limited boasts 15 speakers - well, it has nine speakers, but since 6 of them have the coaxial tweeter mounted in the middle of the speaker, Toyota counts the unit as 2 speakers. Since the base comes out of all speakers - I'm assuming that the amplifier does not have any filtering controls - that means we are given a Plain Jane amplifier! The HU lacks sophisticated audio controls having only treble, base, and mid range adjustments. A good amplifier will have a connection for a potentiometer that can be placed under the dash and reachable by the driver. The pot will adjust the base attack (think of a loudness button only an adjustable dial instead of a button). Then when listening to older music with little base just crank up the attack and with modern music crank it back down -- there is no need to tune the HU treble, mid, base settings for each song. So, to sum it up, the problems are 1) bad JBL Green speakers, 2) the lack of high/mid/low range frequency filtering, 3) the HU does not provide options to fine-tune the system, 4) No loudness button or a way to add a potentiometer to vary the loudness. I am replacing the speakers, changing the amplifier, and adding a potentiometer to adjust loudness. All set, keep in mind that when you buy the coaxial speakers you get the speaker and the tweeter mounted on the speaker, but the tweeter can be detached and used up on the dash where the tweeters go! -- a quality installation with a good system, such as JL Audio 8-channel amp, JL Audio+Focus speakers, and a separate 10 woofer in a box -- somewhere around $3000.00. Or, add only a JL Audio 6 channel amp (2 channels tweeter, 2 channels front doors/rear doors, and the last 2 channels tied together to power the woofer", a 10" woofer in a box, and 6-JL Audio speakers (2 tweeters in dash, 4 mid range speakers, but keep the rear hatch speakers disconnected, and put a loudness pot under the dash and you're at $2,100.00. With the 6 channel amp configuration, you can choose to either disconnect the two speakers in the rear hatch or you can still run them directly off of the HU. Since the rear hatch speakers don't really matter, I prefer to disconnect them.

Well, one of the things that Toyota may have done in their "green edge" speakers is to replace the traditional large and heavy ferrite magnets with much lighter and stronger rare earth magnets. the only way to find out for sure is to tear one of the drivers apart and inspect. In speaker design the operative specification is magnetic flux density. You can only get so much out of regular ferrite but a lot more from rare earth in a much smaller size.

An estimate of $2100-$3000 is a lot to pay to fix a system that should have been much better from the start.

 

The sound from the JBL speakers is not really very good. In a brochure I saw from JBL describing hundreds of hours devoted to designing and implementing the 'greenedge' speakers leads one to believe that the SYSTEM is good. Not so. The HU has very poor tone controls, and others have said that the sound is actually a 'matrix' stereo, with the sub going to all the speakers. I have put on some music and put my ear close to the speakers in the door and I thought something was wrong with them. Very distorted and muddy sound. It seemed to me that the makers of the system tried to use the door speakers as woofers with a narrow frequency range, and the dash speakers used as a mid/high co-ax. The HU does not seem to blend the sounds well and there is no way to improve it, except with a HU change, which I plan to do.

 

Well, there is a way to improve it... Toyota could fix this with a software update to the HU. Everyone should file a specific complaint with Toyota USA. Talking with dealers is useless unless you can get them to forward the complaint to Toyota USA.

Be advised that by changing the HU you WILL loose significant VEHICLE functionality as the HU is the gateway to controlling a LOT of the features of the car.

 

I bought a 2017 RAV4 limited with JBL greenedge. The sound quality is really bad. I would say the cargo speaker and rear doors speakers are totally useless.
I have tried all the settings but still ... Even the front speakers are not good enough. It has some bass but the frequency range is so poor.
I was wondering if it is a good idea to buy a pair of speakers for the front doors and then put the OEM front doors speakers on the rear doors.
However I am not sure if the HU sends enough power to the rear speakers.
I have had speakers in my previous cars with really good sound quality without amp so I prefer not to change the wiring and parts as much as possible.
I am still looking for the best solution.

 

Just changing speakers is a loosing game. A lot of money for little improvement. The issue is the HU. Keep pounding away at Toyota USA!

 

I got a 2017 XLE with Power Premium EVP last week. That includes the fancy Entune with Nav and JBL sound. There is almost no sound from the rear. With the fade set to the very first step above 100% rear you only hear sound from the front. Maybe if someone was riding in the back seat they would think it's fairly even but from the front it sounds like rear sound is turned off. I'd love to find a solution.

 

How do you go about filing a complaint with Toyota?

 

you can start by having the dealer tech file a tech service request. This will actually get to Toyota USA and they should give you a reference number so that you can follow up. I would also send a detailed letter to the president of Toyota USA and let it filter its way down from there.

The hardware to fix this is already in your car! All that is needed is to change some calibration numbers in the software. That is what makes this whole issue so infuriating!

 

I complained to my dealer. He said this is what it is...it is not a Mercedes ... He thinks it is good enough for a Toyota.

 

He obviously doesn't know his a$$ from a whole in the ground! You didn't pay for "good enough"! Toyota and all of their advertising touted this as a "Premium" system which it currently is definitely NOT!

Just go look for the JBL greenedge marketing literature for the system.

 

There are many complaints about the JBL Greenedge system. The RAV4 World website and this website have lots of threads on this. The dealer and the mfr. are of no help apparently. A few have had new replacements installed and it does not make a difference. Some have compared their car with other Toyotas that have the same system and that shows no improvement. Some have said that the sound is actually a 'matrix' so the sub does not work like a typical sub. In any event, I will probably take out the head unit as I want CarPlay. Many complaints about the voice recognition and other things about the Entune software and changing the head unit to get CarPlay or Android is the only option if you want these. I am still debating what to do.

 

It is NOT a "matrix" system it is just poorly configured regular stereo.

If I didn't know better I would call this industrial sabotage by Fujitsu-Ten (the HU maker) for using JBL amp and speakers instead of theirs!

 

Hi Everyone,

New here to the TN forum, I bought a used '13 RAV4 Limited in April with JBL GreenEdge stereo and it sucks assss!!! Other than that the RAV4 is a great buy, I came from a Lexus... The biggest complaint I have with it is the sound out of no where blasts then goes back to normal. It appears to me it has something to do with the HD (High Definition) channels i.e. when I'm in an area with HD it auto changes back and forth so out of no where it'll blast the volume up and down. Very annoying and crappy. I can turn off the auto HD channel setting but the setting doesn't stay i.e. once I change to a different station HD is back on. Duh...you would think you would have an option that stays? Also the controls for the stereo on the steering wheel sucks, it doesn't allow me to get back to the nav screen without me pressing the "Apps" button then the "Maps" button on the screen.

Anyone else has this issue?

Ken

 

in Ontario Canada with same issue

Hi I just read your article last night and I am also having same issue. Back to dealer from day one saying they put a case together but also email Toyota. Did email and response is thanks for information we have let them know. so few months later see if any response etc.... going on now almost 2 years....latest response go back to your dealer to have them help..... DID THEY READ MY EMAILS .... very clear they cannot help ...so around around I go it feels ...TICKED as now its just ignored and Toyota does not seem to care. We have asked to go to Management and got a KaitLyn at ext 3477 says she has never heard of any issues and it is just me !!! My vehicle has 29k on it now HELLO !!!! REALLY !!! ............ We read her this .... OH well she is looking into it .... ask for turn around time and answer was no idea ...

After Many Many Many emails ..... and was told 7 business days ago that we would of heard from someone by Monday ... We called today ....as no one even returned our calls !!!
My previous RAV 4 2008 Limited same stereo system was amazing !!! ... Daughter has car and still going strong
They are such a great vehicle !!!!

So my dealer tells me that they had issues of speakers been blown and why they have it as it is
What !!! are we children and be punished for others stupidity !!
THIS IS CRAZY !!!
I don't think I can be added to your case can i been from Canada !!! ???

We are just taking it to the Media I just don't know what to do but this is not FAIR at all !!!
I even bought the extended warranty on the Vehicle
Louise H from Simcoe ONtario Canada !!

 

So my dealer tells me that they had issues of speakers been blown and why they have it as it is
What !!! are we children and be punished for others stupidity !!

I think that this may be a real possibility. If you read the marketing lit from Harman/JBL the system supposedly can output a total of 576 watts but they don't go into details on just how it is distributed. A good percentage of this power could do real damage to the speakers (especially the 3 subs) long before deafening the driver.

Here are the marketing links for this system for those that want to see the bill-of-goods that we have been sold:

http://www.jbl.com/automotive-toyota.html

Here is a link to the superior technologies that are being wasted in the system due to defective system (software) integration!

http://www.harmankardon.com/automotive-technologies.html

 

Just purchased a 2015 Limited with tech package and the JBL system. I was shocked to say the least how lame this system sounds. I found this thread searching for info about this audio system thinking there is something wrong with it. This has to be the most shameful audio upgrade package I've ever seen and likely doesn't rival many entry level systems.

Hello in Simcoe, I am from Hamilton. Should I be calling this Katelyn person?

 

Hello,

Please see the attached for formulating your own letter to Toyota. This bypasses the incompetent dealer network and will eventually, hopefully make it to Toyota Marketing and Engineering who can address this issue. Feel free to pass this along to anyone else for submission. I don't know whom Toyota listens to but it doesn't appear to be its customers. Anyone care to start a campaign on social media?

Thanks,
Steve

 

I live in Simcoe ONtario Canada, Louise Bell Now Hubinger and Kate from Customer service just responded to us that this is how the stereo was meant to be and there will be no fix. SO disappointed ..we said have you read everything that is been said about your product. You are advertising superior sound etc for your product.
Maybe JBL needs to know what going on because this is also very bad for them as well.

 

Please do ...She just called us back saying ... This is how the system should be and there is no fix nor will there be. We said have your read the complaints online we are not the only one !!!
How much screaming and complaining do we need to do ....this has been going on for how long ....
JBL .... Maybe we need to start screaming at them as they are not looking good either ...What Toyota has done to their product !!!!
WE spend money on what we think is the premium vehicle TOYOTA product WHO use to have AWESOME customer service !!!!
Not dealers fault they have tried from their end !!!

SO SO SO SO SO disappointing, i even paid for extra warranty on my system so i have a lot invested !!! AS do we all !

TOYOTA WHAT ARE YOU DOING !!!!!!!! WHY ARE YOU IGNORING !!!!

 

ALL they have to do is replace the AMP with one that works ...all JBL other vehicles no issues just RAV4 is this issues and PART number for the AMP is still same !!! make us all HAPPY !! from what my dealer tells me !

 

I have started a separate "Complain To Toyota" thread here:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/7...ration-2013/1566730-complain-toyota-2014-2017-jbl-non-premium-sound-issues.html

Please help get this issue resolved by adding your voice to to the crowd. If you previously ended your complaint at the dealer level it is HIGHLY LIKELY that Toyota Corporate never saw it. If they NEVER see it then it will NEVER get fixed. See the referenced post for the details.