I just recently gave up a 2007 xk for a 2012. While the Alpine system in the 2007 was far from spectacular it was adequate. However, I'm finding the audio of the Bowers and Wilkins in the 2012 to be inferior, particularly in the bass response at low to moderate volume levels.
Any ideas on improvement? After market custom shops are telling me the fiber optic wiring in the Jag will limit my options.
Has anyone tried replacing the speakers...or adding a power amp?

 

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I recall threads on upgrades but think it was aimed at 4.2L models that was very indepth. I'm pretty sure they came to the same conclusion as your shops though.

 

See post 29 here. It will take you give you quite a bit of information, though not specific to the 2012:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-161378/page2/

 

I put my 6.5 inch Focals in the doors. Sadly they did very little for sound improvement.
I did have them installed in my 07 with the Premium Alpine, and it was a night and day difference, so I was disappointed when they did nothing to enhance the B&W system of my 2010.

 

I installed the jbl stadium gto 600c in the doors.
added lots of sound deadening inside the door.


massive improvement on Sound Quality.

 

 

there is no separate feed for the tweeters coming from the amplifier.
tweeters and woofers in the doors are connected in parallel.


so I spliced the woofer wires, going to the JBL crossover and from there I ran new cables to the new JBL woofer and the new jbl tweeter which did fit perfectly in the existing a-pilar tweeter shield.


Bass coming from the new doors is much better than the crappy tiny jaguar subwoofer in the footwell.

 

I've read a few of these post of those looking for the golden sound and to be honest I don't see the problem. Maybe my years of being in various garage bands have taken it's toll but I don't find a problem with the system in my XKR. With the top up which is a rare occurrence it sounds great but as suspected with the top down it is somewhat muted . While cruising it's just some background sound as we enjoy the great outdoors. I don't think I have had the volume over 4 or 5 bars. Just my observation as I am not an expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express near Woodstock.

 

It is heading towards winter here so it is getting a bit too cold to drive around with the windows down so I have gone back to listening to the radio instead of the exhaust.

I upgraded from an '07 XKR to a '10 XKR in November and the difference between the two premium systems is night and day. I have the base turned fully up on both the speakers and the sub on the '10 and the sound is still really tinny. I know that FM radio isn't the best sound source but if I had done that on my '07 I would have blown the doors off. It is the biggest disappointment with my new car.

 

 

Yes thanks. I will try it when I get a moment and hopefully it will reduce the over bearing treble because it certainly has too much but you should still get an over powering thumping base with the sub and base controls full up.

 

as explained before the JBLs really improved the sound quality. not so much the sound pressure level.
difference is night and day.
especially with streaming music via an old IPhone 4S or Ipod connected to the 30-pin apple connector


(the premium or B&W tweeters are POS and the inline capacitor is a real laugh)

 

I found the sound from radio stations to be of very poor quality, but is excellent with CD's.

 

Gents have you followed the basic set-up instructions on other threads? These stereos are very sensitive to set up and it makes a massive difference, please see below.

Final settings for the BEST, TRUE REPRESENTATION OF ALL AUDIO FREQUENCIES:

Bass-middle,
Treble-middle minus 2,
Sub-middle plus 3,
Set the system audio mode to PLII

Press 'DSP' and make sure it's set to 'all',

set balance and fade lines to the center of the car. (the horizontal and vertical lines go BOLD when they are centered).

 

Thanks. I did try those settings on my '07 XKR when they were first listed but PLII isn't actually a selectable option on FM so I think they are more suited to the other inputs.

Having listened to the stereo a bit more on my '10 XKR since my last post I tend to agree with tnt10 to some extent. With base and sub turned right up the CD and the streaming of Spotify through bluetooth/ACM are actually not too bad and not far off the one in my '07 although I had the base options set lower on that.

The FM sound has much less base than my '07 though and there is too much treble in all modes but Q&C's solution of covering the tweeters may be the way to solve that.

 

I should have added that the radio reception is of poor quality, when I can get it!!
Many FM stations are not received nor locked in in my 2009 XK, while in my 2006 Lexus, I can get many more FM stations with very good sound quality!
As we all know, the electronics are not a strong suit of the Jaguar XK.....