Hey everyone. I just got an ‘05 with 224k (see my $875 auction prius post). The car is total base model but has the jbl logo on the radio, a dolby logo/button in the “sound settings” which I’ve enabled, and it does have a center speaker on top of the screen. So I take it I’m equipped with jbl? That said, the sound is horrible, on par with my friends 01 base model civic. Theres almost no bass, everything rattles. Sounds the same on fm/casette/cd. Is it possible the amp isn’t working? Perhaps the speakers are just totally blown, they do rattle a lot. iPhone ?
Strange. On mine with the basic sound system, I had to turn my bass all the way down to make lyrics audible over the beat.
My personal opinion is that EVERY 15-year-old speaker in a Japanese car sounds like butt. They're just not designed to last that long. Unfortunately, with JBL you can't just replace the speakers - they use a weird impedance IIRC. Assuming you're handy, the best and cheapest option is to replace the whole shootin' match and bypass the JBL amp.
When I was learning to drive, it was on a 2007 Camry Hybrid. The JBL audio in that car was phenomenal, for the roughly 8 years my family had it. I’m just confused why the Prius audio is exponentially worse. I confirmed this morning hitting the “dolby” surround sound looking logo in my sound settings does absolutely nothing at all. I’m thinking the amp is shot or a fuse is. I’ll keep investigating. iPhone ?
