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I am looking at "upgrading" my front speakers in my X358 and I only have the "base" 8 speaker (all in doors) audio. I will be running the speakers of the factory unit or "Tesla" style 9" screen (there is a thread about it). I am looking at buying a nice component set; in-case I need to use amplification in the future. But I don't want to install the component set in the "stock" locations as the door tweeters are very small (what size fits BTW??) and are not in ideal location.
I want to mount the tweeters in the "empty" dash speaker holes. My question is there an easy way to wire this? More directly, how do I run a speaker cable from the crossover to the tweeter in the dash? I am thinking about mounting the crossovers behind the HU\nav screen and run special wires directly to the dash speakers location. Has anyone done this before?
After going to a few local audio shops and further examining the car; I decided to take the risk and order the CDT horn speaker kit. Except; that I decided to go with Option C b/c it had the same sale price but higher MSRP and it also uses their top of the line woofer. https://www.cdtaudio.com/main_series...ome/hsd-1c.php
I will update this thread with installation pics and how it went and final outcome.
BTW; I will not be doing the Tesla screen upgrade ATM as I want to see if those speakers sound loud enough without amplification. This way; if I do need to take apart the center console, I only need to do it once and run all the wires to the aftermarket amp (speaker cables & RCAs) once.
Another quick update:
I removed the door panel and it was super easy as I followed this video. It took around 30-45 mins. Really the hardest part was not knowing where all the clips are and the fear of damaging something. You will T20 tool. To remove the speakers you need T30.
He has the upgraded Alpine premium system and those speakers read 2.5 ohms on his Voltmeter. So I guess they are 3 OHM speakers. It is common for "premium" car audio systems to use uncommon impedances to force you to use their parts when replacing them.
On to the base speakers; they read 3.5 ohms on my Voltmeter so they are probably 4 Ohms. They are made by Phillips and honestly look to be really poor quality. Anyone with the base system will get a massive improvement upgrading to any aftermarket speaker even a coaxial one.
BTW, the stock tweeter may be the only redeeming feature of base stereo IMHO. It looked decent and had a cap around it.
I also think a 1" component tweeter should fit but again I didn't measure the mounting hole spacing. But I am more than willing should anyone request it. I plan on placing my horn tweeter in the dash and totally ignoring the stock tweeter. My biggest concern so far is finding a place to mount the crossovers.
It is going to be super tuff to fit any decent size crossover in the door panel. But I will give it a shot when when the parts arrive. Has anyone done component set install on this forum?
The stock tweeter is 1" and its oval housing is 1.5 in diameter. Its depth is 0.75".
I also decided to buy another bracket and I am right now in the market for an inexpensive 6.5 rear speakers. They don't have to be components but I feel that most headunit and amp failures were precipitated by speaker failure in the first place, which caused the amplification unit to overheat and thus premature failure. With the poor quality of the OEMs and the age of the car; I feel replacing the rear speakers is the sensible thing to do.
As usual I am always open to opinions and suggestions.
I can confirm that the CDT horn tweeters DO NOT fit in our dash as it is too big at 3.2" to even fit thru the dash speaker opening. To the best of my knowledge the measurements are:
Depth: 2.25 inches
Inner diameter: 2.25 inches
Outer diameter ~2.75 - 2.875 inches --- No round speaker bigger than 3" on the outermost rim will fit.
Mounting holes: 2.5 inches
I can't help you with those horn tweeters, but I was able to mount 6.5" replacement woofers in the doors by destroying the factory speakers and using the frames as a mount adapter for the new speakers. I cut out the driver, snipped out the arms carrying the magnet, and simply drilled holes in the remaining round frame for screws to mount the new speakers flat on the face of the frame. The speakers sit on that frame perfectly, and of course the frame bolts to the door like it always has. Perfect adapter!
Another sad update; This is project is running into all sorts of problems: I managed to make some progress and installed the woofers in the doors. TDLR; the 1/2 " spacer doesn't really help and extra small gap can be covered with any sound insulator like tape.
1- The original speaker depth to the screw hole is around 1.5" with an additional ~1" plastic cover to the speaker. Total depth IMHO is less than 2.85" or the speaker touches the window glass. My CDTs fit but they are literally 1/2" over the PVC bracket and the spacer wasn't used.
See the photos below:
I then taped the gaps for better bass response & the difference in sound quality without the crossovers or tweeters is night & day.
As for the crossovers; this is IMHO the best place to mount them:
The only thing left is to order a different tweeter (from CDT) and use the stock mounting location. As the dash endeavor is a dead end IMHO and not worth the extra hassle to run wires from the door panel to the dash. There is no "hole" or pre-wired cables and IMHO it isn't worth the effort.
Bump for those who don't want to read all the details and just want a summary.
My XJ8 has the "base" 8 speaker 140W stereo with speakers only in the doors. I already have a 12" inch Dayton Audio Reference sub (as good as JL 12w6 SQ wise but for less $$) given 800W to handle the lows. I was stunned to find the OEM factory speakers (4 OHMs BTW) are of awful quality as shown below:
They are literally $20-30 generic speakers. The tweeters while better are also nothing to write home about:
The tweeters are 1.25" with outer diameter of 2".
I originally wanted to use the "dash" speaker holes to mount horn tweeters or a 3 way component setup but the dash has no wires or holes to run wires back to the door panel. There is also an airbag in the way. I think a traditional compo net setup is the way to go. You can replace the OEM speakers with a coaxial and experiment with keeping the factory tweeter or disconnect it if you don't want to deal with components.
I am currently waiting for an exchanged tweeter from CDT to mount it in the door handle location; unless someone knows an easy way to run wires from the dash to the door panel.
BTW; the CDT speakers are great. Excellent built quality and the woofer alone sounds much better than stock even without the crossover. Head-unit output wise is probably as good most entry level aftermarket head-units. If Jaguar rates it at 140W to 4 channels; I can say it outputs around 15-20W RMS x4. Not bad but not great either. I wouldn't not install any aftermarket speaker with sensitivity below 89 DB imho. It is just not enough power to get reasonable output. BTW; if the "upgraded" alpine system is 320W. I would guess the extra power goes to driving the rear subs and front door woofers as mid-bass. So 180W into 4 channels or 45x4 peak 4 channel amp or 22W RMSx4 (I assume it has the same amplification circuit as most alpine HU who are incidentally also rated at 45x4 peak. The only reason it is big b/c of all the crossovers and DSP stuff). IMHO; the main reason the alpine system sounds much better than base is the door drivers are of much higher quality and the "magic" of DSP. If I had the alpine system; I probably would have replaced stock subs or added a sub/amp and called it a day.
PM me if you have any questions and I will update when complete.
I was able to adapt a tweeter to the factory location, with the factory plate. I Dremeled out the tabs holding the tweeter to the plate and then I used the Dremel tool to very slightly enlarge the cutout size and remove the plastic "fence" over the tweeter. Eventualy my replacement tweeter fit the plate and I just epoxied it onto the plate, and used the plate in the door panel just like the original tweeters. I didn't use the factory tweeter line, I just connected it to the woofer using its passive capacitor crossover. I did use the factory wire to feed the woofer in the door.
My car has the "Audiophile" sound system, with the amp in the trunk, so it pushes more watts than your, for sure. My speaker replacement wasn't so much for sound, as for reliability... I had the issue with the door speakers stopping from the corrosion on the wires feeding from the connector to the voice coil, and got annoyed with going to eBay every few months for replacements. I've actually only done the front doors, the rears still have the factory speakers and are still working.
Like I said previously, I used the frame of the factory speakers as my mount for the door speakers. Ripping out the guts of the speaker left me with a perfect ring for the replacement speaker. I had to Dremel out the inside of the ring just a bit, if I remember right, but I just drilled screw holes in the surface of the original frame and screwed the replacement onto that. Obviously the original frame mounted properly into the door, and the replacement speakers had no extra height or depth, and thus fit perfectly.
I've had luck repairing the OE ('07 XJR) speakers; just takes a minute... (Lots of good forum threads on this)
My general experience is that OE speaker impedence and efficiency can be v hard to match with aftermarket stuff, resulting in speaker balance problems. Try and find highest efficiency you can if mixing/matching. Those bright orange "1,000 watt" aftermarket gems may play too low at normal levels...
My XJR, with all the speakers working, is sorta' acceptable, sound quality wise... About same as most average cars; certainly not high end. Funny, I still like CD's - and most new cars don't do 'em
Only problem now is (trunk) CD changer keeps faulting. I'm guessing it needs cleaning/lubing?
I did the repair on several of the speakers, just a matter of soldering a bypass on the connecting wire, but I had enough of them that still didn't work after the repair, or only worked for a few days or weeks. I bought three over time on eBay, and finally threw in the towl and got aftermarket stuff for the front doors. The rears still work, and while the new stuff in front sounds much better, there's nothing really awful about the factory speakers sound-wide. Well, other than the "subwoofers" being quite bit below par.
Base audio speaker replacement
