Simply one way to find out as I have already purchased it ! What other amp do you recommend ?

 

My favorite mid range amp to push a single subwoofer is the JL Audio 500/1. Great amp...

Listen it's all about cost / benefit. If you are keeping the rest of the alpine system stock, then this will be a definite upgrade. But if you were gutting the stereo in the car, and starting again, I would steer you in a different direction.

Take care,

George

 

androulakis, Going to see what the Kenwood amp has to offer...if it "disappoints" me then I'll probably end up upgrading the whole car sound system...including the head unit which I would hate to update as I like keeping everything stock for some reason but I really hate not having bluetooth, satellite radio, aux & usb ports available...

Thanks

 

I'm Using A JL 500/1 In My STR To Push 2 12'' Kicker Comps. It Definitely Needs A Capacitor Tho.. The Interior Lights Dim Slightly When The Music Gets Loud. George, Do You Have Any Experience/Tips For Tweaking The Amp Settings?

 

So your saying you can upgrade just the amp on the Alpine STR system and subs and keep everything else stock?

 

Well sort of.

You replace the subs in the rear deck with a real sub in the trunk, and add an additional amp to power it. The rest of the system will still be powered by the alpine amp. The alpine / jag system isn't THAT bad except for the low end.

It's not going to blow anyone's ear drums out or anything, but that isn't the scope of an upgrade such as this. Once there is a real sub in the car, you'd be amazed how much difference it makes to the audio system.

Take care,

George

 

Have the alpine with nav setup. I used an LOC to run the lines to my amp and just cut out the stock woofers altogether. Alpine 600w with alpine 2x12 type-S speakers. Bigger than what I would have wanted to put in that tiny trunk, had to build a custom box, but it's what I had from my old 300m.

 

@onesicjag capacitors should not be used on sub amps they are designed primarily to smooth out power delivery to mid range and high frequency amps on a sustained bass note the capacitor is drained and actually compounds the problem as it then becomes an extra draw on the battery. Mid range and high frequency is constantly varying and as such the cap should theoretically never completely drain providing stable voltage to those amps and (again in theory) better sound. From my experience though a well designed quality amp will have a big enough bank of smaller capacitors on the board to negate the use of these external ones!

@Wuzupez the factory subs are at best mid to low drivers not enough to be classed as true subsonic drivers so removing and substituting for a larger independently amped driver will always be preferable.

 

Thanks For The Advise...I Was Unaware Of That. I'm Hoping (Androulakis) Has Some Useful Tips For The Settings Of The JL 500/1.

 

The setting up of any amp is relatively straight forward and for sub amps there are basically two ways of doing it.

The first (and best) way of doing it is to first of all disconnect the input to the sub amp and use an oscilloscope connected in series with, in this case, your subwoofer amp input lines be it the speaker cables if using the amps line converter or the rca if not. By playing a constant tone, say 60 Hz from any setup CD eg IASCA, and turning up the volume on the head unit until the smooth sine wave on the screen becomes squared off at the top. This is known as 'clip' and this is what damages most stereo equipment. Once this level is reached back off the volume until it is back to smooth curve, the inputs to the amp can now be reconnected. Next stage is to disconnect the subwoofer from the amp and connect the scope to the amp outputs, turn the gain to approx 1/3 level with any 'bass boost' function turned off. Replay the original constant bass note track and adjust the gain until the same clip point can be seen, at this point back the gain off slightly and that is basically it and it's pretty certain that so long as your amp and sub power ratings, always in rms, are matched it will be very hard to damage either.

The second method is less precise but still useable , it involves listening to the sub again using a single bass tone , this time you cannot get an exact reference point of clip for the head unit but as a rule of thumb 3/4 of max vol is usually a good base point for modern head units so set the head unit to this and the amp to 1/3. Play the track and listen to the subwoofer as you increase the gain on the amp, the tone will sound the same and just get louder until the point of clip where it's sound will audibly change, at this point back off the gain slightly and you have completed your setup!

Some amps have clip detection on the input stage making setting them up without a scope even easier as by disconnecting the sub the volume can be turned up until the indicator light begins to flash and again volume on the head unit can be reduced giving max signal. Second stage would be completed by listening as above.

Hope that helps.

 

@caldoofy Thank You So Much For Taking The Time To Explain In Such Detail! I Will Give This A Try. Thanks Again!

 

Any one have a tutorial on how to remove the stock rear subwoofers on a 2005 S Stype so I can disconnect them and wire a level output converter so I can add an aftermarket sub/amp?

Thanks

 

Please disregard my last post I figured it out wasn't as bad as I thought it would be ! I would of have take photos or even video if someone else wasn't sure how to do it but it was my first time LOL

 

Hello Everyone, Mission Accomplished ! I finished installing the after market sub & amp this past Friday !...I'm very impressed on how well it sounds. Installation wasn't as bad as I was thinking it was going to be, it did how ever take me several hours (4-5) to complete..reason being I don't have a garage and it was cold outside so I went in and warmed up about every 10 or so minutes LOL..also took me some time to figure out how to remove the stock "subwoofers"...but after some searches on our good ole jaguarforums I luckily found some posts on how to remove them !

Here are some photos of what it looks like now...I didn't bother doing cable management or screwing the amp to the enclosure as it was COLD, will probably be doing that today as it's warmer out.

 

I can post a picture tomorrow, My wires are still hooked up however i removed the subs and amp awhile ago the excess weight caused inner tire wear

 

I want a single sub to bolt into the stock twin-sub location, and wire right into the stock amp/wiring... The current ones have been blown since I bought it, and wouldn't mind having some distortion free bass from the back...

Any recommendations?

 

I'm with you on that GT42R. I haven't heard of a good option yet. I replaced the stock ones with two Kickers of the same size, but disappointed with the results.

 

It makes such a big difference especially when you just about eliminate all the bass from the interior speakers. I've been considering buying a AlpineType X 10 inch anyone with some hands on experience? ?

 

Androulakis, or any other audio experts, maybe I can get your opinion...

Found someone local to me selling this complete 10" alpine sub package for $180, what do you think, good deal? Includes 10" alpine type E sub, 500w mono amp, and box.

Here is a link to the setup (new) Alpine 10" Type-E Subwoofer/Mono 500 Watt Amplifier With Ported Box | SBE10PR | Visions Electronics

Will this one need a line out converter, or will its own internal processor be able to take the factory alpine sub output as an input?

I see this amp has an LP filter adjustment, but in an earlier post, androulakis described how the amp should have a LP filter OFF switch, as the input is already filtered...
After looking at the instruction manual for this amp, I see there is only an LP filter knob, but no switch to shut it off... is this an issue?

Thoughts?

edit: found a different sub amp and box all together, so going to avoid any of these issues ^^^

 

So after searching the forums I was only able to find info on upgrading from the premium (Alpine with subwoofer) system, but nothing for us with the non-premium stereos...

So, would anyone be able to offer the best way to add an aftermarket amp and sub/s to the base stereo system with NAV in our S-Types?

I will be keeping the Nav and would love to add some of the components that were in my Lincoln that I sold a long time ago (Digidesign competition 15" sub, JL Audio 450-4 and Massive Audio amps, Focal component speakers, etc).

So if anyone has done this please share what components were upgraded and how it was done. Pix are appreciated and who doesn't like to show off their system a little? ;-)