I have a 2007 XJ8 with standard sound. The sound is ok, but there is not a lot of bass. Can I upgrade the sound system by adding the amplifier (part number ?) in the trunk and replacing the stock speakers? Is the wirering there if it did not come from factory with premium sound? I believe I would need to add the two speakers in the rear self as well as the 2 mini speakers on top of the dash?

Thanks

 

Have you tried listening to the premium sound system before? I would go listen to one and then evaluate whether or not it's worth it to swap out. I feel like my premium Alpine system in the VDP isn't really all that it's cracked up to be.

 

The standard and the premium is very close in sound quality - there is a little more bass in the premium - but the sub is 6.5" and does not deliver much deep bass. For your question no the amp from the premium cannot be connected to the standard system. You can connect a after marked amp(with speaker cable conn) and a sub if you want to. Ha I have always wanted to use the sub - smiley

 

These are Jaguars! Not hoopties!

 

Have to agree with Alan regarding the quality of the premium audio system. It does not seem as good as the one in my old BMW 740, nor in my wife's Prius(premium sound)!

However it may be partially due to the fact that I do not turn it up as loud due to the car being much quieter inside!

I find the radio to be particularly poor, my satellite radio sounds much better through the ACM (although technically I know FM should be better) and the USB Drive sounds better than the in dash CD (although thats not too bad).

Biggest impovement I have found is to set the DSP bias to the front speakers. This does makes a huge dfference on the sound in the front, and increases the apparent bass significantly.

 

That is actually by design. From the Handbook:

Note: To improve the comfort of passengers in the rear of the vehicle, the bass performance of the subwoofer is reduced when DSP mode is set to POS ALL or POS REAR.

For optimum bass performance, do not select POSS ALL or POS REAR

 

Thanks for the info...maybe I should actually read the manual once in a while.......so is there a similar setting for XJs without premium sound?

 

It's not just the bass that's the problem. The sound just never really sounds very "full" or "rich" like I would expect a fancy stereo to sound like.

 

I do not think so, at least I could not find a DSP setting on my non-premium stereo.

As the only output from the head is fiber, I am wondering if it would be worth it to add a stereo level input amp attached to the rear door speakers and add 2 6x9s in the rear self? This would add quite a bit more bass in the back. I am not looking for an earthquake type bass, but the bass in the stock stereo is very muddy.

Does anyone have any experience with the amps that use stereo level input?

 

i have to admit i am a bit confused...just WHAT exactly is the DSP supposed to do? i did try to put the DSP to "front" from the "all" position and played with the sub settings....did not hear( or feel) any difference at all. yes, it was a bit fuller, but that was simply from changing DSP setting to " front".
now on my audio screen, at the bottom center, there is a button with an icon for a speaker and "rear" which is always light gray and cannot be activated by touching it....what is that for? sorry to revisit this issue again. the system is the "premium" with the NAVI.
thankyou in advance, wm

 

How is the sound quality compared to your old 2001 XJR's system?

 

Its been a few years since we got rid of it and my wife used to drive it most of the time so I do not quite remember......however I did sell it to a friend so if he brings it around I will do a comparison...it maybe in a few months though.

 

Perhaps it is the type of music and source?

The FM radio is not that great, but with the USB drive, bass is very impressive even with DSP set to all speakers. I listen to a lot of different types of music jazz, classical, rap, dubstep, metal, etc and find certain bass heavy tracks will pound the car nicely, sometimes I even have to turn it down.

FWIW I have been in the high-end home audio industry for over 16 years so I know a bit about sound.

That being said, it is not the best car sound system I have had. As much as BOSE products are garbage in the home audio side, their systems in the S-Class I had back in '02 and the Infiniti M45 in '06 were better than this.

But it is still a very good system none the less.

 

I agree with Jahummer, the sound is vastly different depending on the source. The Fm radio is pretty poor. One of these days I'll play with the stereo in my Beemer and this back to back after playing with the settings just to re compare, but I am quite happy now that I have set DSP to "Front" (Duh) and listenening mainly through the ACM. I need to go back and check the in dash cd player out again since I initially was not too impressed with that, but may have been becasue DSP was set to all.