Handsfree Phone issues...

After playing around with our "new to us" T4R, we've noticed a few quirks with the Handsfree system.

1. The guidance voice was ridiculously loud. We finally figured out the option to change that volume level and now is at a reasonable volume.

2. The ringer volume was also ridiculously loud. After to searching, finally found you could only change that while the system was receiving a call. Weird, but whatever, it's tolerable now.

3. But this one is the worst. The audio coming out of the speaker from the other end is distorted something fierce! I've noticed it's worse if my phone's volume is turned all the way up, so if I set that at a midpoint, it's better, but incredibly quiet and hard to hear. If I try to raise the volume of the stereo, the distortion returns. The person on the other end of the line is also able to hear the distortion. If the system uses the same speaker as the radio, then the speaker is fine as the radio sounds great at all levels. After using it quite a bit, especially on the highway, it pretty much unusable. Doing any sort of <search engine> type searches or even on this forum results with how to setup devices or it's general use. I can't seem to find anything covering handsfree calling distortion. Any help would be greatly appreciated as we have become so reliant (of safety reasons) on Handsfree.

Thanks in advance for any tips/tricks/advice on correcting our distortion.

-Spiralhelix

 

There are adjustments for the adjustments! We have had our 4Runner since August and still have just scratched the surface of all the options and adjustments. All I can say is "good luck", maybe...... have you tried the audio adjustment for bass, treble etc.? Just a thought. How about uninstall the phone/phones and try to reinstall. Again, just a thought.

 

Sorry Toy4x4 for the delayed response, forgot to take the forum pw home for the weekend. Yeah, the Inception of adjustments is mind boggling. I have tried adjusting bass/treble but that doesnt change the distortion of a call at a high enough volume to hear the caller. Plus then the settings are whack when going back to the radio. It happens with both our phones (iphone 8 and iphone 12, don't have an android to test). We haven't figured out exactly how to have multiple phones with multiple BT audio players, so every time we switch, we end up having to delete the phone/player and re-add the phone we want to use.

I wasn't sure if the system used a separate speaker for calls. If it uses the stereo speaker, then the issue has to be some sort of electronic component that is overdriving the audio output of the phone.

-Spiral

 

I have a 2017 4Runner Limited, and call audio listening to other caller sounds overdriven/splatted/distorted. This is only an issue on other caller audio. There is not an issue with other blue tooth audio when I listen to Amazon music or YouTube. I'm almost 100% certain this is an audio overdrive issue. I have a background in broadcasting and audio engineering and have heard this many times before when audio inputs are overdriven. Does anyone know if there a software issue with these radios, or how to get this audio overdrive issue resolved? I have not been able to find a setting in the radio to adjust this. I hope I'm just missing something.

 

2023 T4R having similar issue, maybe. Using hands-free with an iphone, people calling me report that my audio has a great amount of background noise and always ask if I have the windows open, which I don't. The hands-free (Toyota's) microphone seems to be extremely sensitive to higher frequency sounds. Have not found a way to adjust this. The audio from the caller is good in the Toyota's speakers.
Any thoughts?

 

I've had my 4Runner for...2 months now, and I had people giving me that same complaint. When connected to bluetooth, I was asked "Are your windows open? I'm having a hard time hearing you".

I've adjusted the sound in the head unit, but nothing fixed it. To get around this issue I have a wired set of earbuds plugged into my iPhone. Now the sound & mic sound great.

Before someone chimes in with "It's the iPhone!", I just switched to the iPhone 2 weeks ago, before that I was a life long Android user. I'm pretty sure it's because of the 4Runner's shitty speaker/mic setup. There's an aftermarket company that makes an upgraded microphone (it's in the console in the headliner - next to the garage/home link buttons). I was going to upgrade it, but the amount of labor & time involved to do it didn't seem worth it.

 

Been on the receiving end of phone calls from my wife in my 4R and it sounds fine. This is wired CarPlay so it is most definitely not the mic that makes it bad. I would guess the headunit is using an older version of the Bluetooth protocol and that’s the issue

 

I would agree with you, but.... My 4Runner is less than 2 months old. It has the latest and greatest bluetooth protocol, so does my iPhone. It's on iOS 17.1.1

I may be wrong, but this is what I suspect: Your ride is the Limited trim. That trim level has the JBL upgrade. It puts an amplifier on the headunit, thus amplifying the speakers AND microphone. I don't have the JBL system. I could be wrong, but I think that is why my (and others) have very poor mic quality, as well as overall sound quality issues.

 

Shouldn’t have said protocol. Likely not the latest version of Bluetooth. Toyota doesn’t update the 4R unless it has to. Could still be Bluetooth 4.0 from when around when the 5G was created. All speculation though

 

Sounds like the phones output is set too high and is tied to the master volume. Check your phone settings when connected via BT.

I switch to a high def mic when i got my Kenwood DMX, but no issues beforehand on my 19.

Switch back to Android.

 

I agree, ever since I installed an amp I get nothing but complaints when I make calls from the 4Runner. Wish there was a fix or some sort of capacitor that could fix the mic issue.