I have the JBL Premium Audio 4-disc CD Changer/MP3/Bluetooth with 8 speakers in 6 locations, 440 watts with nagivation system.

This is the first vehicle I have had with a decent sound system, and being a discriminating music lover I am struggling with calibrating the system for optimal tonal accuracy and reproduction.

I am somewhat disappointed that the sound system has only the ability to adjust the treble, midrange, and bass, with no further equalizer or sound adjusting capabilities other than left and right channel, and front and rear adjustment.

To me, at normal settings the bass is WAY too hot. The best setting I have been able to reach is bass - 2, mid range and treble +1, and set it back toward the rear speakers 1.

This gives me the best overall treble when listening to Maynard Ferguson for example, without washing out too much of the bass and toms when listening to Neil Peart's percussion on "Limelight" by Rush, or charts by Buddy Rich.

For others who have had premiums sound systems in other vehicles (particularyLexus Mark Levinson or Bose systems), how does this system compare?

For other music lovers out there, what settings do you use to provide the most accurate sound? And please use examples ot the type of music you adjust it to. And, if you're a hip hop fan, please don't tell me about how loud you get the bass turned up. I am looking for sonic accuracy not creating a neighborhood nuisance.

THANKS!!!

 

You might try playing your music through an iPod where you have many equalizer settings, and see how it affects your sound. An iPod can be configured to maintain equalizer settings by genre of music, for example. I am very happy with the TCH's premium audio system, and I came from a Levinson-equipped Lexus. The Levinson system is better, of course, but doesn't justify spending an extra $35,000 to get it! Thank God for old age, soon I'll be hard of hearing anyway.

 

Thanks for the tip. I do play music through my Ipod Nano but did not have any idea that it had equalizer settings on it. I'll check it out.

 

Quick answer: you can't compare an old Buddy Rich album to Rush in terms of how to set your tone *****/EQs, so there's no catch-all settings to use. Buddy's stuff was probably recorded, for the most part, with one or two condenser mics picking up the whole room, which is why his generation of drummers were always so cymbal-heavy; it's the only way they could get heard in the mix, cause the other instruments and the lack of mic proximity would wash out their low end (actually, drummer bandleaders like him and Krupa probably got treated a bit better by the engineers, but you get the idea).

Rush, on the other hand, have always recorded with state of the art gear, and on a good system you can hear every nuance of his snare hits, every squeak of his kick pedal (ok, it never squeaked, but you know what I mean).

As such, there's only one measure of good sound for your car: your own ears, which sound to me like they're quite up to the task.

That said, bear in mind that you're talking about a car here - hardly an optimal listening environment in terms of acoustics, and believe me, you're listening to a very good system as car audio goes, especially for a factory deck - I've never had a system that sounded this good. The closest I've come in the past was a Clarion deck I had in my Corolla, and after subsequently trying Alpine, Pioneer and Kenwood (thieves like aftermarket decks), I would always go with Clarion in the future if I was going aftermarket. Fortunately, Toyota has seen fit to take care of us with this system.

But, like I said, it's a car - if you're an audiophile, you'll never, ever be totally happy with the sound you get in your car. Just accept that very good is the best you'll get, and be happy for the rest of your days.

PS. Ever notice how Bose systems are always displayed in their own little area, out of earshot of the rest of the audio gear? That's because Bose's audio quality is crap, and they don't want anyone to realize it. :>

 

Good write-up. I'll have to second that...I really love the stereo system in my car. It really depends on what type of music I'm listening to that will determine my settings. Even within the same genre of music you have different quality of recordings and that requires minor adjustments within itself.

 

The main item I am looking to replace are the speakers...I'll probably leave the deck for the time being.

 

This is just my subjective opinion, but to me the audio in TCH sounds somewhat like coming from a cave, compared to the sound in my Acura TL-Type S. It may be because 6 out of 8 speakers in TCH are located under the windshield and under the rear window so the sound bounces from the glass and makes this effect.

It took some time to get used to this effect, but otherwise I like the sound quality.

 

Did you know you can set the bass/mid/treble indepently for AM/FM/CD/AUX? My CDs and mp3 player sounds best with the bass at -2, FM at -1, and AM talk/news at -5. I also bump the front/rear balance +1 to the rear. Sounds more neutral to me that way.

All in all I am very pleased with the JBL sound system. My only ( very minor! ) nits are 1) the stereo sound field is a bit compressed, ie the left/right separation is not as wide as I prefer, 2) the bass (while amazingly deep in response) is not as tight as I like. These are very minor, but noticable compared to my custom Alpine setup I had in a Honda Accord.

 

Doubtful Owner — All in all I think that the TCH's JBL sound is quite neutral for a car system. The tweeters have been correctly mounted very close to the windshield, so that the reflected sound from the windshield is as close as possible to being in phase with the direct sound. This reduces comb-filter-type sound interference effects to a minimum. The drivers are actually of a very high quality — neodymium magnets on all eight, and metal cones/domes on the tweeters. [You can find more information at www.jbltoyota.com/toyota_camry/default.asp. Note that some of the statements about the power amplifiers are wrong — these are not digital power amplifiers; it's the signal processing that's digital.]

I agree with you that the mid-bass (around 100 Hz) appears to be a bit too heavy for neutrality. Other than that, I find it quite good with the tone controls set at 0. Note that the ASL ("Automatic Sound Levelizer") circuit boosts the low bass a bit, and increases the overall volume a bit, as the car's speed increases. These boosts are small, and hence are quite subtle in their effect, but the bass boost will tend to make the bass heaviness somewhat worse at higher speeds. I listen mainly to classical music, and most of these recordings are pretty neutral in tonal balance. Some of them are my own recordings too, so I have a remembered live reference to compare the reproduced sound to.

Stan

 

Good point on the seperate EQ settings. I came across that very early on and have since forgot about it. It is a nice feature.