I'm going to attempt to upgrade the sound in my XJR, and would like any help from those who know about these things as I know not much! Any comments very much appreciated.

I'm no car audio guru, but I like a good sounding stereo. Moving from my C-Class into the XJR you really notice the difference and my C-Class only has the stock system whereas the XJR has the Alpine premium sound with 12 speakers. I know that when I put some very modest new two way speakers into the XJS the improvement was dramatic. So that where I'm starting with the XJR.

So this is a bit of a project and learning exercise and the plan is to take it in steps, first replace the car speakers, then the sub woofers (which seem by the way to have little or no effect on the listening experience... and they are working), then maybe a box of tricks after the Alpine amp to tune the different channels and a new amp.

I've read a lot on the forum and have gathered from others experiences and looking at the wiring diagrams and whats in the boot(trunk) that the Alpine system has a six channel output;
Mid/high range signal to front dash mid range speaker and tweeter (left and right)
Bass signal to front door speakers (left and right)
Full range signal to rear door and tweeters (left and right)

The system I think is 4 Ohms as are most or all car audio systems

The tweeters have some circuitry which is local to them which I think performs the job of a crossover (which I've learnt is a kind of filter that only allows the certain frequencies through, the high frequencies in the case of the tweeters)

So front speakers first
The front speakers include a 2 inch mid range in the dash, a 1.5 inch tweeter behind the handle (both fed from a common 'mid/high range' channel from the amp) and a 6.5 inch woofer at the bottom of the door (fed from its own 'bass' channel)

After reading a good bit I decided on Focal Access speakers which are the base model of a very high quality good sounding brand, made in France. I'm not going to start cutting up the dash or doing any fiberglass remodeling so all the new stuff has to fit into more or less the holes that are there. So the Focal Acess system includes a three way (3 speakers system 6.5 inch woofer, 3 inch mid range, 1 inch tweeter) and a two way which excludes the 3 inch mid range.

There's no way the Focal 3 inch mid range speaker will fit in the top dash hole without major surgery so that's a no go, so I went for the two way system assuming that with some messing (and I'm expecting some alright) I'll get the tweeter and woofer in as they are about the same size. The existing mid range speakers in the dash are crackling so must be replaced.

1. So firstly I need a replacement for the existing 2 inch mid range. The only solution I can find is to buy a 4 Ohm home high-fi speaker, there are a few full range 2 or 2.5 inch speakers available, don't seem to be any car audio mid/full range speakers that are small enough and don't cost hundreds. Any body any suggestions or experience on a good quality replacement for this?
Also what RMS rating does it need. I think the Alpine is 40 W RMS per channel so do I need this 2 inch speaker to be rated at 40 W RMS? That looks difficult even with a home hifi unit.

2. Second question is how to wire it up. The Focal two way kit includes a 'Crossover' unit which is a box of tricks designed to take one input from the amp and split it into bass/mid range and high frequency to feed the woofer and tweeter. I've got two outputs from the Alpine amp for the front; a bass range one for the main door speaker and a mid/high which supplies the existing tweeter and dash mid range.
So what do I do? I'm thinking just connect the new main door speaker as existing, connect the new mid range (assuming I can find a suitable one) as existing, and connect the new tweeter via the Focal Crossover unit and mount this within the door somehow.

Please any comments very welcome.

 

These fit. https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-JBL-Clu....c100005.m1851

 

Thanks
but I'm looking for a 2.5 inch full or mid range to replace the dash speakers, I have the 6.5 inch Focal woofers to replace the door speakers

 

Few things from my experience here,

To get the factory rear deck subs to work better go into DSP on the touch screen and select front option this will increase their output.

Firstly the door 6.5 inch woofers are alpine DD drive neodymium units which actually very good drivers and more equivalent to a Focal K2s in terms of their performance (don't be fooled by their light weight).

Secondly, the signal into the front door is full range where it splits to the tweeter (using a capacitor to filter lower frequencies). In contrast to the woofer this tweeter is rubbish and in the wrong place for accurate staging.

Third, the dash driver is 3 or 3.5 inch definitely one of the two.

My own setup consists of an audison bit ten plugged into the alpine amp outputs, from there I have two amps, one four channel that feeds the front 6.5 inch drivers and via a passive crossover to dash speakers (upgraded to ground zero plutonium) and relocated tweeters (now on a pillar and also ground zero nuclear) with the standard one in the door disconnected. The second amp runs a twelve inch ground zero sub in a ported tuned box and I have removed the factory twin 6.5 inch subs from the rear shelf as well as the ''ski hatch" plate from behind the rear seat to allow bass to travel through into the cabin.

Sound deadening is required on rear shelf as resonates terribly at around 45hz as well as boot lid, doors behind and around the speakers and parts of the boot floor.

The bit ten means I have full control over crossover points as well as 30 band eqs for each channel takes some setting up via a laptop but is worth it.

Hope that helps.

 

I should have gone with the Bit Ten, I wound up going with a 360.3 which has been problematic. Gave me lots of channels to work with though, so that's nice.

I'm impressed with the doors on this car, usually they are full of holes and don't work as a speaker box very well, but Jag did a good job making the door into a mostly sealed box.

Anyway, the neodymium speakers, while Caldoofy likes em, I think are crap. They have a tiny voice coil and don't do much in the way of bass, which is what woofers are supposed to do. Not low bass, I think I have mine crossed at about 60 or 80 HZ to keep the very low stuff out, but they lack the authoritative mid-bass punch that they should have. I went with some parts express buyouts, that sadly aren't available any longer. I had to shim the woofers (made a 3/8" gasket out of some press board) to get the magnets to clear the window when it was rolled down. Still fit just fine behind the door cards though. They have about 75w RMS going to them and sound great. They go plenty high enough to cross directly to the tweets I put in (and the tweets go low enough to cross happily with the woofers, with lots of flexibility to tune).

https://www.parts-express.com/tc-602...-ohm--299-2196
https://www.parts-express.com/peerle...eter--264-1028

The tweeters fit with very minimal modification, in the dash location.

If I had to do it again, I'd try to find similar woofers (high sensitivity, good power handling, good mid bass performance, and cheap) and stick with the same tweeters.

Also running a 12" Sundown sub, but I need to make a decent box, it's just sealed right now.

 

 

I'm starting with new speakers at the front. I'm not planning on spending lots of money/
.
I found some small mid/full range speakers to replace the ones in the dash;
Peerless by Tymphany 830985 2-1/2" Full Range Woofer
Part # 264-1050
When they and the focal speakers arrive I'll let you know how it goes

 

My experience is that high end audio in a car is a fool's errand. Save that for home. What I want is good and loud and most stock systems don't do it for me. That's why I upgrade.

 

So I’ve finished my audio upgrade.
Like many of these projects it ended up being a lot more than I intended!

The idea was just to replace the speakers and see how that turned out. I actually ended up replacing the front and rear speakers, rear parcel shelf subwoofers as well as installing a line converter, new amp, aux in socket and Bluetooth adapter for music streaming.
So the starting point was the jag alpine premium system which uses amp located in the boot(trunk)
The sound in the jag was not anywhere as good as the base system in my 2012 merc which just bugged me every time I got into the jag. So that’s what got me started.


So the jag system has 12 speakers fed from the boot amp as follows;

Front mid/high frequency left and right channels serving dash mounted mid-range speakers and high level door mounted tweeters.

Front low frequency left and right channels serving woofers at the base of front doors

Rear full range frequency left and right channels serving tweeters and woofers in rear doors

Sub-woofer left and right channels serving two subs in the rear parcel shelf.



So I couldn’t find anything to replace the dash mounted mid-range speakers that would fit, wanted to go with two way component speakers and then by chance I managed to bag a reconditioned audio control LC8i on Ebay for a bargain price ($100)
This has an aux input and would allow me to combine the two front channels (mid/high and low freq) into one full range channel for the front of the car which would work with two way component speakers .

I spent a while looking for some bargains on ebay and ended up with a set of two way component speakers for the front and rear. Focals for the front and Morels for the back. I didn’t mind that they were different makes just that were good quality. I also found an Alpine amplifier which had channels to serve front, rear and subwoofer speakers;

The installation involved a LOT OF WORK including;

Redirecting the existing amp output into the line converter, running some new speaker cables, running new RCA, speaker cables, power cables etc around the boot. Mounting the new speakers in the doors required spacers so that they would fit correctly. I must have removed almost every item of interior trim and all the door cards for fitting speakers and running cables.

Here are a few snaps that I took along the way;

The existing rack in the boot was where I was hoping to mount the amp but it just wasn’t big enough. I ended up mounting the line converter at the top of this after modifying the frame a bit. You can see the Bluetooth phone module at the bottom which I put in some time ago, replacing the armrest phone unit;


Here’s an example of the spacers needed to fit the new speakers, made form inch and a quarter MDF, using the old speakers as a template and the original fixing holes in the door panel. The new speakers are much heavier and a bit deeper than the existing ones so I added two more fixing points in addition to the three original ones. The spacers keep the door glass from hitting the speaker magnets
One of the new front door speakers fitted; The front tweeters are mounted in place of the old dash midranges. The existing location behind the door handles just wasn’t big enough to mount anything

.

The rear door tweeters are mounted at high level in the door card. Get out your hole cutter! I hate cutting anything original on the car but had no choice and in this case I think they look OK



These are the two new subs in the parcel shelf. Mounted using a piece of MDF to reinforce the flimsy metal parcel shelf which I also covered with sound deadening/dynamatt before refitting the shelf as there was a good bit of buzzing with the new speakers.



Here’s the finished look of the equipment rack on the left side of the boot. One problem is that the RCA cables into the front of the unit for the aux in don’t allow the door to close. I’ve ordered a couple of 90 degree RCA plugs that will sort that out.



Here’s the new amplifier and front/rear speakers crossovers fitted. The amp and crossovers are mounted on panels that can be removed from the base and back trim panels in a minute, and moved forward allowing easy removal of the boot side panel for access to the REM and other modules mounted behind here.



The aux in is via a Bluetooth streaming adapter or 3.5mm jack mounted under the armrest next to a couple of USB power points



The audio control unit has a remote control which allows me to switch between the aux in/Bluetooth streaming and the jag system. It also allows me to control the level of bass and the volume of the aux in/Bluetooth streaming. I mounted this is in place of the cigarette lighter;




So that’s it.

How much work and how much cost? More than I thought on both counts!

Was it worth it?

Well the quality of the playback through the aux in /Bluetooth streaming from my phone is really excellent, as good as the merc and better with much more bass. Even though I’m a bit of an old git and it takes me a long time to move with the times I do use Spotify/music streaming from my phone as well as CDs. I am using CDs less and less though, so the quality of the aux in makes it worth it.

The jag system is still fully functioning and plays through the new amp and speakers. The quality here is much better than before but when comparing a jag system CD with music streaming from my phone the music streaming is far higher quality. My conclusion from this is that it’s not just the jag speakers that benefit from upgrading but the headunit and amp.

At the end of the day each to their own!

 

Clean, nice!

Thanks for following up and letting us know how it went. I wonder if instead of cutting the door panel in the back, if you could have found tweeters with similar specs, but smaller diameter at parts express (it's only the backseat, anyway). Regardless, everything looks great!

 

@LeapOfFaith do you have xp with alpine stereos? Would you recommend them?
Sorry for being off topic.

I'm looking for a good stereo and my vote will be on the Alpine.

Now I was trying to gather as much info as possible but most review blogs are junk.
I mean they are hyping and when I've checked out some actual customer reviews the
difference is huge.

Along with my journey in review land I came across a different site. It seems to be the real deal. I mean it harshly criticizes the flaws that each brand has. This has put me on the fence.For example there's a review about Alpine w650 navi. I was eyeing this headunit.

How bad is that slow startup? Does it take 20s to boot up? What about the value for the money?

Any insights are highly appreciated

 

Check out my Audio Thread. I basically took the entire vehicle apart and fabricated everything from scratch. My woofers are build inside the cabin down fire.

 

If I didn't know I would totally believe this was an original factory setup.