Center Speaker Disconnect

Ditto with everything except I believe changing the speakers out also helped. Also, added an amp and subwoofer.
Cheers!

 

yes, i noticed last night that on music with a lot of trebel content, the center speaker was vibrating terribly. i thought you had to take apart the dash to disconnect the center speaker, so i was hesitating. i'll try your method.

 

I just did this, except I still have the stock JBL speakers. There was an immediate improvement in both the stereo field and in clarity. The "muddiness" that I experienced before is reduced quite a bit, and the upper-mids and highs sound "sweeter."

I used a butter knife to pop off the grill. Like pennyprius said, it took two minutes, tops.

I was looking into getting some replacement speakers as well, but I think I'll be good with this for awhile.

Thanks!

 

Where is this speaker? I have a 2006 base model and don't see it.

 

i still havent gotten around to doing this (hopefully this weekend) but man, that center speaker is BAD NEWS... bad vibrations/buzzing with even mild treble. covering it up with my hand i can already tell the difference. what were toyota thinking!?

 

If you disconnect your center speaker and still get a rattle, here's a tip: pop the speaker back out and carefully apply electrical tape to the edge of the hole where the speaker's hold-tabs grab. That little extra thickness of the tape will keep the rattles at bay.

 

When you are removing the center speaker, pry the edge facing the seats, not the sides facing the windows. There are "capture tabs" (for lack of a better word) on the edge facing the windshield, so you have to lift the seat side edge first and then the whole assembly (grille and speaker) will lift out. There is enough wire to lift the speaker out of the dash and allow you to disconnect the cable.

 

I don't know where you'd get a decent 2-3/4" driver to put there anyway. Maybe take one out of a Lexus LS430 with the Mark Levinson audio system. Or take the midrange off of a 3-way coaxial car speaker. IMHO, it's not worth the effort (unless you're trying to create a home theater in your car with 5.1 sound and you gotta have that center speaker for dialogue - even then I'd say go with a phantom center).

 

Just did this after two years of ownership and it makes a world of difference.

 

I must be deaf, I disconnected it, but could not tell that much quality difference, so I put it back. Very easy to do, worth trying if you are not happy with the sound.

 

well i finally did it today and i can tell that there's a big difference. as i mentioned before the center speaker was buzzing and rattling and i think it was making the music too "tinny". anyway thanks to rightonbro for the butter knife idea... worked like a charm.

 

I highly reccomend trying this before you spend $$ replacing the speakers. It turns out the JBL system really can sound pretty nice...

Not that you can't improve upon it...but for a large majority, this simple and free step will improve the audio fidelity enough.

 

Does anyone know if the center speaker is necessary for the Nav/Phone Voice?

 

I really haven't noticed any problem with my center speaker.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pre-cbs @ Jun 2 2006, 01:09 AM) [snapback]264532[/snapback]</div>

No it's not. The NAV voice comes out from other speakers (front left I think).

The only thing I can think of is Toyota initially wanted to use this speaker for the NAV, but it didn't work out. I'm also not too sure about putting a different speaker up there. I don't know what kind of signal it's getting. I wanted to use that feed as a source for my sub and it didn't work.

Anyhow, mine's been disconnected for a year. I added a powered subwoofer and couldn't be happier with the sound.

 

A different speaker in the center wouldn't do much good as the signal going to the center speaker is not a full range signal. Just leave it disconnected completely and you'll have better sound. More isn't always better

 

Other members, with the proper measuring equipment, have noted that you will have a frequency hole when the center speaker is removed. Yet WITH the speaker in place, there an even larger uneven frequency curve - just in the other direction.

 

This is absolutely true about the center speaker, but do yourself a favor and add a Kenwood KSC-SW1 subwoofer to the hidden compartment under the trunk. It is by far the best thing you can do to this system short of swapping it out with a different system. And I want to emphasize that this is not just for aficionados of bass -- in fact, the KSC-SW1 will not provide enough power for head-banging bass. It does, however, add all the bass that the JBL system lacks, opening up the rest of the system and making it sound leagues better. I hear it's equally effective in non JBLs, although I can't say from experience.