Has anyone here completed a DIY upgrade on the door speakers? One of mine is bad and I'm considering buying some better aftermarket ones to replace all of them. As long as the correct dimension and spec speakers can be found, it doesn't seem like it'd be terribly difficult.

Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks!

 

If you do, look at 3-way components and let us know how it goes! I think I may have had my bass up a little too high during a long 'jam' session with a young lady. I may be looking to replace my woofers, if not the mids as well.

In my previous XJ, certain outputs from the amplifier were full range. I'm not sure how this new model divides up the frequencies to the individual components. And remember, in case you weren't aware, OEM systems typically design around lower impedance pieces, and if that is the case, if the speakers are 2ohm, you should stick with 2ohm, or else the amplifier won't have enough power to push the higher impedance speakers to the same volume as the originals.

 

I've made playlists specifically for long drives that are the likely cause. I'm not even mad I blew it, more looking forward to figuring out how to make it sound even better!

I think the stock tweeters are probably fine, it's the mids and lows that need improvement. I figured they'd be lower ohm, but wasn't sure - I'll definitely be matching impedance with whatever I buy.

On the BMW board, they had a full list of sizes/ohms and links to the upgraded products. I'll try to do the same here when I find time to do this.

I may take a door panel off tonight to see if the speaker has anything printed on it that may be of use.

 

I'm not all that knowledgeable about Speakers and Sound systems (except knowing what sounds good and what doesn't!), but is it possible to blow the speakers just from playing them loudly? Shouldn't they be able to handle the volume and power from the Amp, given that they were designed as part of the system?


The right front (passenger) speaker(s) have blown yet again for the 3rd time, and I wasn't even listening to my music at close to full volume...had it around the 40 mark. I do have the 1,200W B&W system, and it is mainly the right front speakers which are going out...the driver's side ones seem to be fine. Could it be a faulty line to those speakers?

 

The 1200w B&W system (radio and amp) were Harmon Kardon and had fairly high THD (total harmonic distortion) and that is what is blowing the speakers. The 2013 on XJs with the Meridian radio and amp @825watts is very low THD and lower amplification, you can get it just as loud as the B&W system but there is less underlying distortion. IMHO

 

LiquidIce! I think its a bad batch of speakers, I'm having the same issues.. my passenger door speaker went out too, and dealer replaced, so Im on my first swap out.. driver's door has a little distortion but dealership says they cant hear it.. but it seems intermittent.. I have the 2011 XJL SC 1200w B&W system

 

I've swapped all but the tweeters out in the front under warranty.

I'm scared every time i decide to push it a little, but you only live once...

That being said, there's obviously an issue. They switched to Meridian.

 

Sorry to hear that. Yea, I have just come to accept this now and don't play some songs as loudly (or on a high bass setting) as I would like.
If you want to replicate the issue, try playing the song "The Red and The Black" by Iron Maiden, from their latest album. I can easily replicate the distortion and vibration right from the very beginning on this song, and I only have to play it around the 30-35 Volume mark.

 

Hello,
Have been here in a while but changing out my speakers has become the only real cost of ownership of my car. Part of the issue with the sound system is the doors are poorly insulated. There is a lot of rattling at high volumes that can be mistaken for blown speakers. With that said I would say for a Bower and Wilkins system which I have in my media room at home I am disappointed. I change the door woofers more than any other speaker in the car. Also the center channel is not properly filtered because it seems to want to play at full range and at higher volumes it will start to clip. One last thing. I have ceased to bluetooth audio stream. I use Tidal because of the higher bit resolution and I can absolutely tell the difference between bluetooth stream and having it connected by cable.

 

Can you provide details on the the speakers you have already replaced and the cost?

 

I have the Meridian Premium Sound System with in a few days after I purchased the car, I also thought that it could be something vibrating in the door when heavy bass was coming from the speaker as I did not hear it all the time.
I heard it the other day for the first time in a long time and yes, the song playing had heavy bass. As I hate to have the door panel pulled I have been reluctant to have this issue addressed but the next time I am at the dealership I may speak to them about it.
If this poor speaker issue is the case with the Surround Sound System I am glad that I did not pay $2,500.00 for it.
I very seldom hear this distortion so it is not something that I cannot live with unless it gets worse.
My Volum is usually set at 15-18 never over 20 so I do not have the audio cranked up.

 

I offer up a solution. For the same reason I would never BT Stream music, hated the loss of fidelity due to compression, the highs and lows were attenuated and sounded terrible.

I have owned and tried a half dozen BT Stream devices over the last 10 years as I listen to Audiobooks in my company car and the Wife in her car. They work perfect for low quality voice but if I listened to music would hook up the Aux cable direct.

I came across one a bit ago and decided to give it a try, the Kinivio BTC450, it supposedly allowed for full CD quality streaming using AptX technology. I installed it and can say that I cannot tell the difference between direct wire connect and Stream from my Samsung S5, I have been very happy with this one! Of course you would need to pair the Kinivio with your phone, then connect the Kinivio to Aux In port in the car bypassing any factory BT Stream service.

 

I just ran a test on my speakers cranking up the volume and sending all the sound to the right front and than the right rear speakers, I did not hear any distorntion indicating a blown speaker.
I am now thinking that more and likely the issue is with something vibrating or rattling in the door it's self.
This is something that is such a rare occurrence that I am not overly concerned about it right now. When I cranked up the volume I did notice that the Meridian Preminum Sound, sounded even better.

 

Being in the car stereo world for a bit doing tons of friends cars and whatnot, there's a few things that can damage speakers. The most likely one is having a system that is getting distortion in the amplifiers which will cause the speakers to have to stop suddenly and this leads to cone undergoing a "whipping" effect. This has a tendency to rip the outer cone.

If you get additional noise into the system on the wrong channels (say alternator hum on the mid range/bass speakers), this can cause the coils to get too hot as the higher frequencies may not be properly restricted, leading to excessive currents (therefore heat). You add in running the system at higher volumes and the heat can be enough to cook the speakers.

With door speakers, you also have to look at the possibility of water reaching the speaker. This can raise hell with the cone and possibly the coils.

Like others have mentioned, getting the correct ohm speakers is very vital. You can also go with a higher resistance speaker at the cost of loosing volume. If you go lower, you chance pulling too much current through the amplifier and destroying that.

If you go with some aftermarket speakers, this is where you need to know the frequency range of each set of wires to ensure you get a speaker capable of reproducing the sounds on that line. If you were to say put a tweeter on a bass line, you can destroy the tweeter due to the wrong frequencies. At a minimum you will find that you can end up with loss of frequency bands due to the speakers naturally rolling off some of the sound due to speaker limitations. This will leave a loss of frequencies in the overall sound spectrum.

 

I have the 1200 Watt B&W system as well. I just had both of my front woofers replaced under warranty. Sadly... if you replace those speakers with something else you will just blow those too. Te amplifier is the issue. You would be far better off replacing the factory amplifier with a better one.

 

Did you figure this out? I've got some blown speakers and replacements are not cheap. What direction did you go?

 

here is a thread with helpful info

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...5/#post2254732

 

the rear door armrests, where the rear speaker covers are attached, have a bracket and its bottom legs are not attached to anything, the legs are just clamped between the door card and the armrest assembly when put in place.

I was hearing a rattle that only happened at a certain volume level. I had someone else drive while I sat at the rear seat to listen until I figured the rattle came from the armrest or behind it.

removing the armrest assembly is a lot easier than the door card.

Once removed I knew exactly what was causing the rattle. So I rivetted the bracket legs to the bottom of the armrest, near the screws that affix the armrest bottom to the door card and problem solved. No more rattle. I only did it to the driver side rear door armrest, not the passenger side.

Check the armrests.

 

Pictures would be nice, if you have them.

 

I compromised and added the Kevlar woofers used in the factory reference system to all 4 doors and the rear shelf. They just plug in and fit the same as what was in there. I find they sound better to me.
I also put sound treatment in all 4 doors the rear deck and trunk. The XJ is very quiet from the factory but this made a noticeable difference as the factory only uses partial sheets and I tried to cover just about all exposed metal surfaces. Surprising how many square feet it took. I used an entire kit which was 36 square feet of material. Be sure and use a roller to firmly press the mat to the metal. I used the Noico brand which is on EBay.
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