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JBL Premium Audio Sound Fix

114K views 178 replies 54 participants last post by  RUGGED DUNDERS  
Didn't shoot any video, but its pretty straight forward. The grills pop off by prying up on their side. Speakers are just held in by two 10mm bolts. Just two wires on each speaker. You can either use the Scotch Locks mentioned above to tap in or (as I did) just cut, solder and cover with tape. The baffles are easy to shape with a scissor and to cut a small hole for the wire. The grill just pops back on by inserting the two back prongs first and then pushing down on the front.

Because you are essentially desensitizing the dash speakers, all the other speakers, including the sub will pick up level and fill in the sound field. The reason this doesn't happen with the front/rear Toyota fader adjustment is that the factory sub seems to be run off the front circuit, so you cant turn the fronts down in the factory setup without turning the sub down.

I had already added a small secondary external sub to help the stock situation and it did for the sounds in the bass region. This tweeter/mid modification however improves the sound throughout the whole spectrum. Its quite an amazing amount of bang for the buck.
What type of external sub did you install and where did you put it? Thanks.
 
I took me longer to find Scotch Locks locally, none of the stores carries it. I have to order on line a bag of 50 (free shipping) that I really don't need that much :-(

Cannot believe Home depot and Lowes do not have them in store.
 
I just did this mod using the Skar SK35, which has an 83db efficiency rating. I was a bit skeptical as I am well versed in car audio, but the result was really eye opening. JBL must have done some funky, cost cutting amplifier design for something like this to have as much effect as it does. While overall sound quality and sound signature still has plenty of room for improvement, the rear seats have more volume and the front soundstage hits suprisingly hard. So hard in fact that my wife no longer wants me to upgrade the subwoofer. I think I am ok with that since random areas in the cabin start to rattle above vol 30 when playing some test tracks using the USB source.
Did you install the foam baffle?