I've got a 2005 S-Type, apparently with the "premium" (Alpine) audio system. The on/off button, mode button and forward/reverse buttons weren't working, so I figured I'd swap in a nice Pioneer AVH-4000NEX HU that I had in my Mountaineer. Thought I'd gotten it all correct, powered it on, and was surprised to find out I was getting no sound.

After a bit of digging, apparently this is because the speaker wires on the radio connector don't actually go to the speakers. The sound from the stock radio is sent via optical bus to the amp in the trunk, where it's decoded, and THEN sent to the speakers.

Of course, that begs the question, where DO the speaker wires on the radio connector go? This was touched on briefly in this thread: here, but if it was ever followed up, it's hidden somewhere else.

So, now apparently my only choice to get sound is to run wires from the radio back to the amp outputs, and tie into them there, correct?

Looking at the wiring diagram, the front speakers seem to have TWO sets of wires, one for the tweeter, and one for the mid bass, while the rear speakers have the "treble" and mid bass wired in parallel. Since my HU only has outputs for 4 speakers, would I be correct in assuming that I can parallel the speaker wires for the front speakers in the same way they've been done for the rear speakers?

And those subs in the rear deck, any point in hooking them to a discrete amp (and more wires to run from the HU to the trunk), or are they not worth the effort?

 

I'm sure there are two sets of wires in your doors one set from the amp which are filtered via the amp and have 4 wires in the speaker plugs , and one set of feeds from the head unit with the normal 2wire plugs . Take a look mine did .

 

Got a chance to pop one of the rear door panels off today (and, of course, the temps dipped back down around freezing), and it appears to have the 2 wire plug in there (though it seems considerably shorter than the 4 wire plug wire). I don't suppose there's a 2 wire to 4 wire adapter out there anywhere?

Looks like my options are:
1) Run wire from the HU to the amp in the trunk, and rewire there.
2) Cut the door speaker wires, and wire the 4 wire connector onto the 2 wire connector wires.
3) Replace the door speakers with something that takes 2 wire inputs. Looks like Metra's Ford 2 wire 72-5600 adapter might fit the 2 wire connectors and allow standard spade terminal speakers.

If I replace the speakers, do they need to be mounted in the factory plastic mounts, or is there enough space inside the door to flush mount with the window still clearing (if anyone knows)?

Also, does anyone know of a good source to replace those plastic pegs that hold the door panel on? Seems a couple broke on re-assembly (nothing like plastic and freezing weather)...

 

The wires are shorter because the conventional / non premium speakers are wired/ pluged in from behind the Panal , and the alpine premium speakers plug in front of the Panal

First check you are getting power/sound from your two wire plugs . If so just cut and solder the plugs , or you can leave the plugs and solder some extention cables strait to the speaker pins & crimp some spaid connectors to the wires and plug them in to the non premium plugs .
Or you could buy a set of 6x8" pioneer speakers of eBay which I can tell you are a lot better than the premium alpine speakers .

The speakers work and sound better if sealed to the interior door pannal with the foam seal , so if you mount them back further it will no longer use the door cavaty as a bass box.
As for the door pannal clips , you can get them on eBay , or from jagbits or sng barrot or your jag dealer , all will be resonably priced .

 

Just realized I have those 2 wire speaker adapters in my Mountaineer. Think I'm going to pull one of the door speakers out of that (if the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'm starting to lose the light, and it's getting colder) and hook it to the 2 wire connector in the rear door of the Jaguar just to verify that a signal is in fact making it from the HU to the door 2 wire speaker connectors...

 

You could also check them with a multi meter or use a small house speaker to test it , just push the wires in to the plug , mite save pulling another car apart .

 

I went through the same process with the premium sound head unit replacement. The amp and x-over unit is connect to the head unit with a fiber optic buss and I was unable to find any info on the protocols . I ran a multi pair shielded audio cable + power from the new head unit to the trunk and opened up the amp/x-over unit and connected the cables into the internal x-over circuit. I actually purchased a Jag Alpine amp off EBay, and used that as my sacrificial unit. I did come across references to Alpine compatible fiber adapters but never found units for sale. If I get time this year I may look at reverse engineering the optical interface.

 

Never thought of using the crossovers inside the amp rather than just bypassing it completely, good idea.

While scrounging around for info, I came across an interesting article here about adding an Android touchscreen option to the factory Nav HU. Not sure what would be needed to upgrade the premium system without Nav to a premium system WITH Nav (other than a Nav HU, and possibly the trunk mounted DVD unit that they used), or if it's even possible. Not that I'm going to do that at the moment, but it's definitely something I might look at for the future, as it's a really clean install, operationally speaking.

 

I have a knackered Alpine Premium radio that I have pulled apart and I have identified where the audio and control signals from the Alpine radio go the D2B fiber interface sub board. The D2B interface chip set is still available so I may be able to build an adapter that would allow a standard HU to interface to the D2B fiber. Then I can just use the standard amp. I am hunting around for a service manual or circuit diagrams for the original Alpine Premium radio, but so far nothing has shown up. Its got to be out there, just need time to hunt it down. I had hoped that some enterprising folks had developed an interface, but if they have I cant find it.

 

Couldn't find a donor amp for anything near a reasonable price, so I just pulled it out for the time being. Ran a multi-conducter wire from the HU to the rear. Picked up 2 passive crossovers for the front speakers. When I have a bit more time I'll run another set of wires for the existing subs, and hook them up to a small amp in the trunk just to get a bit more bass. Had lots of fun figuring out the wiring running into the amp, especially since they used the same color wires more than once. Here's what I came up with in case anyone is doing this in the future, should save them some time:



Wiring pinout of the speaker connector that goes into the amp on the S-Type Jaguar Premium (Alpine) audio system.