To much bass in stereo system

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RobB

RobB

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Threads
13
Messages
136
Location
Redding, Calif
My 01 has way to much bass in sound, ive adjusted it to -5 in the system, still way to much. Basically had to adjust so the fronts do not contribute to the sound so all sound comes out of the passenger speakers and still getting to much, adjustments in the stereo increases bass and reduces but its way to much on the lowest setting. Has anyone had this? Im wondering if its the sub? Does this truck have a powered sub? Maybe this is messed up..


Ideas?

Thanks
 
I'm assuming that your speakers and stereo are OEM? I keep mine at about 0, maybe 1 depending on what I'm listening to. I like a well rounded sound, bass included. My problem isn't that I don't want the bass, it's that the stock system is pure poopoo and any more bass than that will distort and muddle the rest of the sound coming from the door speakers. So, I guess my question to you is: too much bass for your liking, or too much bass for the speakers to handle (ie, distorting)?

And yes, the OEM sub in the back is powered and puts out some decent bass, just not projected very well. With the bass up a bit and the volume up, with the liftgate open you can really hear the sub outside the back of the car. The rest of the speakers can't handle the load very well though, and distort the sound in the front of the cabin. I had always just chalked it up to a so-so sound stage and crappy OEM speakers/HU, but I've never had "too much" bass, IMO. New door speakers and a DVD head unit are down somewhere on the to do list.
 
Problem with cars is that the relatively small space/room has a resonant frequency somewhere within the normal bass frequency area, so that one certain frequency is strongly reinforced. Some speakers will fit a certain vehicle better, and some will be awful even if they are good in another car. Best thing would be to have a tunable filter adjusted to cut down a bit at the resonant frequency. This would be a one-time operation, performed during the installation of new speakers or amplifier.
 
TheFuzz said:
I'm assuming that your speakers and stereo are OEM? I keep mine at about 0, maybe 1 depending on what I'm listening to. I like a well rounded sound, bass included. My problem isn't that I don't want the bass, it's that the stock system is pure poopoo and any more bass than that will distort and muddle the rest of the sound coming from the door speakers. So, I guess my question to you is: too much bass for your liking, or too much bass for the speakers to handle (ie, distorting)?

And yes, the OEM sub in the back is powered and puts out some decent bass, just not projected very well. With the bass up a bit and the volume up, with the liftgate open you can really hear the sub outside the back of the car. The rest of the speakers can't handle the load very well though, and distort the sound in the front of the cabin. I had always just chalked it up to a so-so sound stage and crappy OEM speakers/HU, but I've never had "too much" bass, IMO. New door speakers and a DVD head unit are down somewhere on the to do list.
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My system appears to be all oem. Something is amiss, my hunch it is in the main stereo. If i fade the speakers to the front and bass at -5 (lowest) it is way to much bass for me or my wife. I then faded so the pass speakers were full and none to the front speakers and still to much. Wife loves her music and i noticed it right off, the second time in it for her she turned it off, said something is wrng. Ive not tried a cd only local classic rock, ill try a good cd and see if that makes any diff. Im not cranking up the system either lol, 1/4 or a bit more or yes it would distort terrible im sure.

Edit. CD seems to be better, but i actually think its the speakers.... Just cant really handle the bass correctly. I will probably replace the 4 speakers in the doors and see what happens. It could be the way the freq are split as with a sub id expect it to take the majority of the bass. I did open the drivers to fix a loose door handle already. Thanks to that thread on here so it went easy. Need to be careful with the black material that sticks the plastic down, warm enough it re sticks quite nicely. I also noticed several loose screws in there i was able to snug down (speakers and inside door latch) , so a good reason to get in there and silicone the window track and tighten up things.
 
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You have the same problem I have, excessive bass. I blew out my front speakers before going to only the back ones. Your amp is defective, Toyota knows about this and has issued a TSB (Toyota Service Bulletin) on it. Cost is about $600 bucks to fix, not worth it. Might as well upgrade to aftermarket amp and new speakers all the way around.
 
Rob just replace the whole system - it's not good. If you're tight after buying the truck start with an aftermarket head unit that has some good tone controls (EQ) and other options.

To me your issues sounds like the loudness control is on, but the oem deck doesn't have that feature.

A new head unit was thee first mod I did.
 
It's actually the JBL amp that is bad. I had the exact same thing in my '01 several years ago and I bought a new amp from CruiserDan (around $400 for Mud members) and it fixed the problem. This worked fine for about 4 years. Now one of the speakers is blown and the amp is going bad again so I am replacing all of it with JL Audio speakers, amp, and sub. Tired of messing with the crappy oem JBL junk.
 
Greg B said:
It's actually the JBL amp that is bad. I had the exact same thing in my '01 several years ago and I bought a new amp from CruiserDan (around $400 for Mud members) and it fixed the problem. This worked fine for about 4 years. Now one of the speakers is blown and the amp is going bad again so I am replacing all of it with JL Audio speakers, amp, and sub. Tired of messing with the crappy oem JBL junk.
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You're right it probably is the amp.

RobB is your system the JBL version.

Sent from my iPad 2 using IH8MUD
 
a follow up here. I'm waiting on a amp i got off ebay, suppose to be the corrected version designated with a "-C" as per Toyota's service bulletin. I did finally figure out that the amp behaves correctly if the engine is not running, running = bass issue, not running = bass working correctly. I'm thinking there is a wire that must let the amp know the motor is running....
 
Just to wrap this up, i got the used 01 -c version of the jbl amp and it works as expected now, the big bass is gone and responds as it should.
I got lucky and picked up this amp for $20 and some change.
 
It's really easy to replace with another factory amp. Unbolt the front passenger seat and then remove the old amp. The new one goes in easy, it's all plug and play. Aftermarket amps are a different story.
 
Greg B said:
It's really easy to replace with another factory amp. Unbolt the front passenger seat and then remove the old amp. The new one goes in easy, it's all plug and play. Aftermarket amps are a different story.
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What he said IF doing a factory amp. I still think it would be possible to salvage to factory messed up amp by finding the wire that feeds the amp the signal that the engine is running. I didnt bother as i found a solution for 20 bucks
 
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