JBL Speakers in North America?
 

Hi All,

Car noob here but proud FR-S owner! I noticed on the Toyota GT86 sites for Germany, UK, and Japan that they are offering JBL speakers as an accessory. Anyone hear if these will ever make it to the US anytime? I haven't seen these listed on any future accessory lists that have appeared on the forums.

Has anyone switched out the speakers in their FR-S? What did you go with? I'd like to switch out both the HU and the speakers since I feel like my old 90s boombox produced more bass than these things.

Thanks!

after a closer look at the factory stuff today it may actually be worth just throwing an amp on them, I may see what they sound like before swapping them out.

I would not wait to see if Toyota will bring the JBL speakers to North America. You can do much better right now with aftermarket products. Many aftermarket head units will have more power than the one in the FR-S. The specs list only 40W peak power for the OEM Unit. This is probably equivalent to just 10W RMS power which is very low. Aftermarket double DIN head units seem to range in power from 14-22W RMS. If the bass isn't enough with this, adding an amp between the head unit and the speakers will help. You may want to read this thread:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...927#post322927

Upgrading to a better speaker would indeed help as I think the OEM ones are of very low quality. Here are some high performance options:

http://www.dynaudio.com/int/car_hifi/430.php

http://www.focal-america.com/category/speakers/

http://www.jlaudio.com/car-audio-evolution

You will definitely get more bass response with any of the speakers and MUCH better sound if you have a head unit or amp with adequate power. I would not install the Dynaudio speakers (expensive) without adding a separate amp as they love adequate power and lots of current. I'm sure that each brand that I have linked to has dealers/installers in the are you live, although you may need to travel bit north to the San Francisco-Oakland area.

If you really like bass, you will need to add a separate amp and a subwoofer, but a good installer may be able to come up with some options. For example, the rear speakers appear to be 3.5" units that do almost nothing but a bit of back fill. It is possible that a custom installer could modify the rear enough to fit 6.5" speakers for more bass response. This could be enough for many people without the added difficulties of adding a subwoofer.

Thanks for the detailed and helpful info! (I don't have the thank you button, hence the note :) Makes sense not to wait around for sub-par speakers when I can install better ones now. Thanks again!