Instant Sound Improvement for JBL Owners

The silly little JBL Bluetooth speaker in the dash is disproportionately balanced. It seems like the sound level is 10% left, 80% center, 10% right.

This makes for a terrible sound stage and practically zero stereo separation.

What's the fix?

Press the release button on the speaker.


The sound stage will instantly broaden, and imaging and stereo separation will reappear.

Until Toyota updates the software and let's us adjust the volume of the center speaker, this is the only solution that I can think of.

As a bonus, you now can watch the speaker wobble all over the place in unison with the hood, which is apparently made from graham crackers.

 

Agreed. I removed mine completely, much better.

 

Center channel is completely unnecessary in a two channel stereo system.

Give it a try, yes it sounds completely different, and it is a lot better.

 

I was loosely comparing it to a 2-channel home stereo system, since the truck system is definitely not home theater with surround or anything like that. The rear channels are for the back seat passengers. When you are sitting up front you are basically listening to a 2 channel stereo system (or at least you should be).

The overwhelming majority of high end 2 channel home systems would never have a center channel.

As far as I know, there is no way to turn the JBL BT speaker off if it is in the docking station.

 

The center speaker has volume controls on it for when you're using it off the truck. The best solution, and probably not fixable with a software update, would be for those volume controls to be operable while in the dash.

 

Maybe they’ll dump the portable speaker in 2025 or 2026.

 

also, if you use Spotify you can go into your settings in the app and change the playback to "loud". I went from having my volume at 45 to 15

 

Having an empty hole in the dash would send my OCD into overdrive. lol

The wobble is a reasonable compromise.

Ultimately I hope they just give us a way to adjust the volume of the center speaker.

 

Could probably but something over the contacts and reseat it in the dock

 

I tried that with the 'sound leveler' control but it had little effect. One issue is that the rear door speakers are down low, firing into the carpet and tight seating back there, so they can't compete with the overpowering dash speaker. One solution..........convert the rear headrests into speaker enclosures.

 

That would defeat the purpose. The objective of this mission is to improve stereo separation and imaging, and to broaden the sound stage.

Putting the sound behind your head is the exact opposite of that.

 

I hadn't thought about taking that speaker out. definitely need to try that.

 

How do you listen to the radio without the engine running?

I can’t figure this out and thought that maybe they just don’t want you to have an accessory feature like most other cars and they put this speaker in there so that you can listen to the radio in the truck without the ignition on.

Whenever you do the brake peddle twice nonsense before the start button it seems like the ignition is also on and the dash doesn’t look very happy about it.

Is there an accessory position that will give power to the radio only?

I thought the center channel was too loud too and adjusted the fade like 2 clicks toward the back

 

Just hit the start/stop button once without your foot touching the brake pedal. And voilà, you get radio function

 

Since we have all the audiophiles in here: What about an inline amplifier for the factory speakers? Like this https://www.beatsonicusa.com/ena-2t3.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXMFpfZOQqM&t=2s

 

Adjusting the balance to the rear and left worked great for me.

 

I put a piece of electrical tape over the portable speaker charging contacts so I can keep it docked without the center channel playing. Sounds much better, lol.

 

I just removed the Bluetooth speaker and put it in the center console. I agree it sounds much better without it.. but I still miss the old system I just installed in my 2022 Tacoma just prior to it being totaled in an accident. I removed the 10” JBL subwoofer and the Kicker 5 channel amp hoping they might work in the 2024. But haven’t gotten around to researching any of that yet

 

I’m interested in that too

 

I installed the encore and think it was worth the money. The bass was pushed up more and the sound was a lot better. Very simple to install. Only issue I had was the added bass was creating rattles in the door. So had to add sound deadening to the doors to quiet that down. Would recommend it to everyone that has JBL upgraded system. Havent changed the factory JBL speaker but kind of curios what it would sound like with after market speakers.