The Long Awaited JBL "Premium" System Sucks Video

Here is the video I had said I would make in past posts about the JBL sounds system and the upgrade I did. Hope it helps you decide if you want to upgrade or not.

When I bought my 2018 Toyota Tundra Crew Max it came with a JBL “Premium” sound system. They must be using the word premium loosely because it is anything but premium. I own a JBL Charge 3 Bluetooth speaker and it is great. If the truck just came with one of those on the dash and called it a day, the sound would be better than the system that they installed in the truck and its only $150.


This video is a comparison of the factory setup to 2 different iterations of my audio build so there are 4 songs with 3 different versions of each song. The songs used where


1. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirt
2. KRS-One – Step Into A World
3. Chris Stapleton – Tennessee Whiskey
4. The Allman Brothers Band – Jessica


All songs came from the same source. They were 320kbps mp3's on a thumb drive so there was no additional Bluetooth compression. The Kenwood allowed for FLAC files but to keep this test fair we needed the same quality for each system.

They all were recorded while driving. They all do not have the same conditions though. I did not get the decibel level in the cabin so if you listen with headphones you will get a lot of road noise with the factory system, less with the new system with JBL head unit and almost none with the Kenwood head unit. This is because the Kenwood is so much louder at a lower level that I can’t even hear the TRD Pro Exhaust I paid for anymore. Also, they were all on the same type of roads but for the Kenwood I had a lot of stop and go traffic so more idling than the other 2. Its not a perfect scientific test but it was recorded on an IPhone so what did you expect?



I like my system tuned to be well-rounded so my bass nob is at about ¼ the way up. You might not think there is enough bass but I did not want to drown out the mids and highs for the recording. There is enough bass in reserve to rattle the windows loose.

https://youtu.be/1NKP1b-Wyzk

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this. It is hard for me(old) to hear a difference in quality, but the volume level difference says plenty. Did you lose any functionality with the steering wheel, or the cluster display with the Kenwood?

 

No I kept everything in the cluster

I lost mileage graph that is minute by minute that was on the head unit. Still have the mileage on the cluster. Also lost the service reminder on the radio but might get a notification on the cluster.

Gained tire pressure with tire temp on the head unit and digital readout if other things. Speed. Rpms. Fuel tank level.

 

Great video! Hard to beat the 994s!

 

Did you have to install an iDatalink Maestro as well to retain all of those factory features?

 

Yes I have the maestro installed.

 

Does the backup camera still work on the new unit?

 

Yes and my front camera. I had the FRAC system that allowed me to have a front camera with my factory head unit but
I no longer need it.