I know that the entertainment system is one of the weak spots in the F-Type, and regardless of the fact that most of us bought the car for the way it drives and sounds naturally, there are some times when you just want to enjoy a few tracks. Unfortunately judging by the volume of posts and views on the audio front, that is not always easy to do.
I have the NLI head head unit, In-control Touch, and it’s a meridian system, but only 380w. and for my variant of the jaguar entertainment system, you can’t upgrade the amplifier to the bigger 770w system with surround sound.
So I am looking at installing a new amplifier and tackling the rear speakers (which is what this post is about). I have already upgraded the door speakers to the equivalent ‘Signature’ speakers from JLR, which are mentioned in separate post, and lined the door skins and trim.
However due to the rear speakers being special to the F-Type I haven’t seen anyone address these other than by ripping them out and building custom enclosures for the new speakers. I wanted to try and find a halfway house and utilise what is there while greatly improving the sound.

The speakers in the rear are described by Jaguar as a subwoofer and low range speaker. Im not sure whether this low range speaker is a full range speaker or something else. It looks like an oversized tweeter, and I suspect is a Mid/High range speaker. The subwoofer is a strange beast, it is a 1800mm (7”) unit, so smaller than the woofer in the door, but is powered by 2-channels of the 12 channel 380w amp (so 4 in total for both rear subwoofers). These channels are not bridged, each speaker has two connections, similar to a speaker that you could bi-wire. However, since it’s a single speaker I’m not sure how this works, other than summing the output.
Since the rear doesn’t provide the effects that you would expect from a Sub, I am going to focus on swopping out this 7” speaker, for something a bit further up the food chain. The challenge is the size. In the end I decided on a set of Hertz Mille Legend 1800. These fit the existing frame and therefore make the surgery a bit less painful.
I have posted a video on you tube . But to explain simply, you can extract the foam rim around the Woofer, you can then peel away the rubber edge of the speaker cone. It literally just lifts off. I then removed the soldered connections, you can just cut the four wires, if you want to speed things up. I wanted the possibility to reconnect the woofer into the main car amp so I used one of the two channels to connect in a new wire so I could in the future reverse the setup back to the original.
The next step is the no way back step, and that’s to cut around the spider (the yellow wavy bit under the cone). This means you can then lift out the cone. You are then left with the heavy magnet bit. This can be extracted by attacking the frame from the back. You just need to cut around the rear plastic lip, which has what looks like 3 tabs. You can then pry the magnet out from the rear. I then increased the size of the whole to fit in the Hertz speakers.
The final thing I did was to add a ring of ABS plastic to support mounting the new speaker, by cutting it out from some 3mm sheet. I then used some epoxy glue to bond this into the new frame. The hole at the rear was quite snug, so both front and rear are supported.

I haven’t changed the other ‘Low Range’ speaker, as this is also quite an unusual size. I can’t comment yet on sound quality improvement, because I am also adding in a new amp to the setup, but when you take apart the JLR speakers, you’ll realise how ‘cheap’ they really are. The hertz can only be a positive step forward.
I hope this provides some more options for those looking to improve the audio in the car.

 

At one time, long long ago I considered myself a budding audiophile. This was before powered sub-woofers and automobiles with dozens of speakers tucked away in every nook and cranny. I had to reign myself in because of the costs associated with going all out down the component stereo, studio monitor speaker road.
I still consider myself a lover of a nice rich, true representation of music and confess I have no complaints with the base audio system in my MY 2018 F-Type. Perhaps all the years of listening to rock at high sound levels with Koss earphones took its toll. Perhaps it's that I'm more attuned to the exhaust sounds. Maybe it was the abysmal "premium" sound system in my Ghible for which I paid an additional $1500 that by comparison makes the Jag sound perfectly acceptable. Whatever it is or was I have no complaints and just wish to extend my compliments to Jaguar for a decent sound system.

 

I've been pondering the same thing, as you can never have too much clean bass, especially when playing music quietly.

I considered replacing the rear speakers too, but my seats are too close to hear them most of the time. I think the best answer might be a slim self-powered enclosure under the driver seat, or maybe under both seats.

I have an extra powered 800W 10" slimline sub sitting new in the box for another car I have. I haven't got around to see if it fits under the seat. There is plenty of room to mount it low on the back wall, but that would be a last resort I think.

 

Paul,

Thank you for your continued iwork and "how to" info. I thought Cambo had offered a suggestion on a replacement for the rears back in the original stereo upgrade thread? Look forward to your report on how it sounds.

 

If you go from the stock dual-voice-coil speaker to a single coil and leave out one of the channels, then I think you're going to be getting less volume out of them. Also if the impedence is mismatched.

There is a dual-voice-coil that fits in there, have a look here https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...4/#post1891070

 

 

Paul,

Thanks for the update here. Based on what you and Cambo have said, I am going to try to attempt something similar, only with the 770watt system and using the existing amps.

The first sub-replacement I will attempt is this: https://www.qualitymobilevideo.com/tscvr6.html

Looks similar in design and stats to the subs listed in the main audio upgrade forum, also can be US sourced.

-Dakota

 

 

One of the reasons I love this forum, is the great feedback you get. So now I have been educated in Dual Voice Speakers - effectively two speakers in one. Well I have searched the internet and there are a few around but I haven't seen any the size that is in the Jag.
Dakota White, the speakers you are looking at are slightly smaller than the frame size. I originally bought some 16.5 cm speakers (hertz MP165.3 ) however I realised when I received them that they didn't fully occupy the frame. So you will have to extend the frame to accommodate them with slightly larger plastic rim. The speakers I used are exactly the right size, with a 1-2mm gap around them to accommodate the ring with foam on. However these are also a rare size at 18 cm. So swings and roundabouts as we say.
Cambo - you are quite right, I would only connect to one of the two channels, so if I go back to the original amp, the rear sound may be somewhat diluted. However my plan is to add in an amp, and possibly a dedicated one for the subs. Ill put up another post when this is done to share that work. Nearly there with that, just need to get the speakers back in. Also looking at the person who tried this before me they seem to have tackled the other speaker with a 3" Mid. Is this the right way to go ? .... and secondly how did they get the original out, it looks like a big square plastic blob !

Thanks everyone - Paul

 

I did the same thing in my 2015 V6S. I also added sound dampening to the entire place. Still is some rattle though, but only coming from the cover behind the seats. Anyone doing this mod should add some dsmpedamp to the flimsy plastic cover as well to make it rattle lwas.

I went with the meridian signature for front speakers and monacore for the rear. Huuuge improvement over the stock 380 watt garbage.

 

Great Thread! subscribed...

 

 

Interested to hear how it goes. I've got the 380W system and I'm happy enough now that I put dynamat on the doors/deck and took care of the various rattles. The stock bass speakers are pretty decent in size so bass output isn't lacking.

Could it be better? Yes, but I feel like it might end up being a can of worms. More bass, new rattles. Plus, I'm sure there is all kinds of DSP in the stock system that is tuned exactly for the factory drivers. I'm not confident that slapping in a different driver with a different signature is going to play nice. Then, you end up needing amps and a CleenSweep.

 

I used these :

CarPower NEOKICK-165 Kickbass from Monacor

 

More good stuff. Thanks!

 

Richard Davidson I have gone the opposite direction to you in terms of sound deadening. I have covered the panels rather than the bulk head. Do you think its important to cover the bulk head ?

 

Quick update from today's testing since the subs came in ....


Removed the stock stub. Different than Paul's install I was able to desolder from the sub, as opposed to the sub surround. This allowed me to directly wire both sides of the sub into the stock placement using stock wiring, super easy.

And then to the subs themselves, although these subs are less deep as mentioned earlier at 3 inch, they are wider which actually creates more of a problem, not sure what I am going to do but that is this weekend's problem. Unfortunately, one of the screws on the sub was overly tight and broke the connector before breaking loose, so at the very least that one will need replacing or glued.

Since I used all stock wiring I was able to do an audio test using one upgraded sub and one stock, I am questioning how much power is driving the rear and the possibility of needing to move to a sub that requires less power as it was clear quality but not a huge change in volume, but it is really too early to be concrete here... more to come.

I'll likely wait to post pictures until I have a final solution unless someone is curious about the whole progress.
-D

 

Just for my own peace of mind, the way I understand it is that the subs are in the doors and the rears are more like mids.

 

 

Assuming the amp wattage numbers aren't completely fictitious, lack of wattage is not the issue. 380W / 10 * 2 is 76W for each of those bass drivers. That's plenty of wattage for a speaker that size, positioned right against your back, to play very loud (well over 100dB). Plus, that's very conservative math. The wattage is not evenly split among the speakers. It is concentrated towards the 4 bass drivers.

The problem is more likely to be the DSP in the amp. I haven't seen anybody do the work to measure what processing is being applied. It's probably not simple rolloffs either.