2008 JBL Audio Replacement / Upgrade

[jtcurlin]

Seeking advice on working with / upgrading the jbl synthesis system in the 200 series.

My front door woofers on both left and right side are blown / loose and producing a ton of rattling and distortion when outputting any meaningful amount of low end. Dealership quoted 1100 for parts and labor, which I’m pretty sure is ridiculous.

ideally, id like to replace both door woofers with upgraded aftermarket 6x9s like the ones focal offers. In addition, I’m interested in adding a larger rear sub, and from what I’ve read the focals benefit greatly from an aftermarket amp, so I’m looking to add a secondary amp onto the existing jbl unit.

I have no prior experience with car audio, so I’ve got a bunch of concerns that I’m hoping some of y’all have experience with. Will running the jbl signal out through a converter like the Audiocontrol LC6 and routing low end to a secondary sub and aftermarket door woofers lead to conflicts with whatever subs already exist in the rear doors and rear 8 inch sub? How many channels do I need on an amp to power the front door woofers and a sub? Does anyone have experience installing Focal units in their 200’s?

Hate barraging y’all with questions but even after digging through past threads im struggling to find significant info on working with 200’s audio systems.

 

[CSteppe82]

Following

 

[Sandroad]

I’m afraid I can’t answer your questions, because I’ve not messed with the sound system in my ‘17. If I feed it a good signal, it sounds good, and I’m picky. But that may be a clue for you.....get your OEM system working right and give it a full range signal (not the super compressed junk that passes for streaming audio these days) and it might be just what you want. However, you’re right that $1100 for the 2 door woofers is obscene. If you want to pursue aftermarket here are 2 ideas. First, use Google to search MUD for relevant topics. You’ll get much better results and will probably get some of your questions answered. Second, give Crutchfield a call and see if they have a sales tech who knows about 200s. If so, they will have they rest of your answers.

 

[TomCruis]

Seeking advice on working with / upgrading the jbl synthesis system in the 200 series.

My front door woofers on both left and right side are blown / loose and producing a ton of rattling and distortion when outputting any meaningful amount of low end. Dealership quoted 1100 for parts and labor, which I’m pretty sure is ridiculous.

ideally, id like to replace both door woofers with upgraded aftermarket 6x9s like the ones focal offers. In addition, I’m interested in adding a larger rear sub, and from what I’ve read the focals benefit greatly from an aftermarket amp, so I’m looking to add a secondary amp onto the existing jbl unit.

I have no prior experience with car audio, so I’ve got a bunch of concerns that I’m hoping some of y’all have experience with. Will running the jbl signal out through a converter like the Audiocontrol LC6 and routing low end to a secondary sub and aftermarket door woofers lead to conflicts with whatever subs already exist in the rear doors and rear 8 inch sub? How many channels do I need on an amp to power the front door woofers and a sub? Does anyone have experience installing Focal units in their 200’s?

Hate barraging y’all with questions but even after digging through past threads im struggling to find significant info on working with 200’s audio systems.

JTcurlin- did you ever go down the path of a full audio upgrade? during these COVID times, this has been my latest project and I'm finding very little about what works with "cleaning" the signal out of the JBL. I'm even reading all the Tundra forums as they seem to face the same challenges. I've always had good experiences with Audiocontrol and I think will be the way to go. I do not want to lose any factory controls or replace the headunit.

 

[grinchy]

I replaced the Mark Levinson amplifier (it failed) in my LX570 with 12 channels of amp and some DSPs in January. Everything is factory 'source' except for the volume knob and GPS voice don't work. I kept the speakers, but did recently replace the sub.

I have ordered a Alpine PXE-0850s to replace the 4 channel DSPs I used, mainly so I can adjust the sound profile real time (the alpine has a phone app); so I can better utilize the headroom I now have, and the new sub.

I have a very minor 'hiss' from a ground loop; the Toyota systems are notorious for this . . .

 

[TomCruis]

I replaced the Mark Levinson amplifier (it failed) in my LX570 with 12 channels of amp and some DSPs in January. Everything is factory 'source' except for the volume knob and GPS voice don't work. I kept the speakers, but did recently replace the sub.

I have ordered a Alpine PXE-0850s to replace the 4 channel DSPs I used, mainly so I can adjust the sound profile real time (the alpine has a phone app); so I can better utilize the headroom I now have, and the new sub.

I have a very minor 'hiss' from a ground loop; the Toyota systems are notorious for this . . .

I've read about that notorious hiss... going to try everything I can do to side step it and will share successes/failures with the forum.

Alpine has some great amps - I have an older mono MRV250 that I'm going to use to drive the CDT sub I installed in the factory enclosure. Re the other speakers, so far I swapped out the 3 in-dash speakers, the front 6x9s and the rear doors with a combination of CDT Audio and JBL GX series (all 2 ohm). The JBLs were so inexpensive I decided to give them a try and to my surprise a significant improvement. While everything is currently driven off of the factory amp and it sounds ok, I'm craving more power. Have my eyes set on an Audiocontrol D-6.1200 amp since it has summing, DSP and built in RTA in the software