XJ front speakers sometmes sound horrible
 

While most of the time the sound quality from the meridian sound system is excellent (2016 XJ Portfolio) I am increasingly discovering tracks that lead to a horrible resonance or farting sound from the lower door speakers. This is particularly noticeable with spoken sources such as radio four or audio books and some of the bass heavy rock and punk hits of old. Try the last 15 seconds of Going Underground or The Girl from Ipanema by Astrud Gilberto Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz-Vubey. I had thought this was an issue with just my car but have now tried 4 different XJ's. My own 2016 portfolio, a 2018 I pretended to test drive. A 2017 LWB at the dealers who told me it was a known fault on meridian systems in XJ's and could not be fixed and a 2019 portfolio lent to me while another main dealer is again trying to solve it. All of them have the exact same issue. While I have seen lots of complaints about this in the F pace forum and the youtube video of the guy popping in part of the speaker cone to solve it in an XJ I haven't seen as much comment as would have expected on the web. Have I just been very, very unlucky in the cars I've been in? Or have the rest of you just been very, very lucky in to what you have so far listened to on your systems?

2017 XJ SC here, listened to Going Underground, no such issues. Not noticed it on anything else either (and I would have noticed).

So not many data points, but thus far, either you are unlucky or I am lucky :)

Sounds like the OP may be using a USB stick to playback recordings. There have been threads on encoding issues and wonder if this is the issue.

Yes to USB stick but also happens on dab, FM and CDs. I think the 2017 sc had the 380 meridian, I've only experienced the meridian 825 system.

Mine has the Meridian 1300W system.

https://www.meridian-audio.com/en/in...dio/jaguar/xj/

I can only find one thread referring to encoding being and that was about it playing or not, not that the sound quality was awful. Be very grateful if you could point me to correct thread? Either way, as I said above it also happens with original CDs.

I’ve recently switched XJ’s from a 2011 Portfolio with the top range B&W system to a 2018 XJ Portfolio with a Meridian.
Sound and how we perceive it can be very subjective and in my own opinion the Meridian is a poor replacement to the B&W.
I have no intention of chasing the dragon and changing or altering any components. I’ve been there and done that in my younger days. But, to get the best results from what I have, I’ve found that by choosing the standard Stereo option over the gimmicky alternatives, completely reducing the sub frequency and moving the bass to three bars down from centre as well as increasing the treble by two bars gives me the closest sound to the B&W.
As I said; it can be subjective but these settings may be worth trying.

Thanks for that, perhaps it only happens with the 825 version.

Not necessarily....I notice the same "problem", on occasion, with our 2016 XJ-L, with the "standard" sound system. It doesn't generally occur when music is being played, but only when the "spoken word" is being broadcast, through normal FM operation. What I hear is a "fuzziness", like a piece of paper is in contact with the speaker cone, and setting up a resonance.

thanks leadfoot4 as I have the Meridian Surround system and have never had any issues.

If the problem lies with the design of the speakers, you aren't going to get anywhere with Jaguar. If this problem really bothers you, I think you need to swap the drivers for some other aftermarket ones. Although the Meridian ones are pretty good, you can certainly get better.

Do you have any suggestions? Not a lot of guys are doing any DIY on XJ's!

We have been told it's all made to work with the Meridian stuff only.
I have seen most if not all the components are chinese made anyway!
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Just "thinking back" to when we had our 2012 XJ-L, again with the standard sound system, we never heard anything strange through it's speakers, in the 4 years we had it. What bothers me, is this "fuzziness" is random enough that I can't even try to pin it down to the tweeter or the mid range speaker.

By using the highly scientific technique of listening via the cardboard inner of a roll of kitchen paper I think it is the larger lower speaker in the front doors.

This is going to sound stupid but try this...I had the same issue and this fixed it.