XJ6 & XJ12 Series I, II & III 1968-1992

Audio upgrades

Old Mar 11, 2026 | 09:44 AM
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Default Audio upgrades

Upon taking possession of my 84 Sovereign I noticed that some of the speakers aren't working so thinking it would be good time to upgrade everything.
Seems the four doors have 4" speakers? Can they be modified to fit large relatively easy? What size speakers are near the rear windows? 6x9"? I ask because the car is currently in the shop so can't verify myself.
Any and all suggestions for upgrading the audio are welcome.
 

Last edited by thelegend0210; Mar 11, 2026 at 10:07 AM.
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Old Mar 11, 2026 | 11:20 AM
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Stock it will just be the 4 door speakers, but I added speakers to the parcel shelf when I had the rear glass out, cannot remember the size of door speakers offhand but I was able to get bigger ones in the cups mounted to the doors
 
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Old Mar 14, 2026 | 08:50 AM
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5-1/4" door speakers will fit with a little persuasion, the rear deck has perfect circular stampings for 10" woofers, free for the taking. I used a small pneumatic sawsall $20 HF nowdays, to zip a circle out from underneath (safety glasses!!). High qts, high efficiency, low fs woofer is great back there, no need for a damn intrusive sub box.
 
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Old Mar 14, 2026 | 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by thelegend0210
Upon taking possession of my 84 Sovereign I noticed that some of the speakers aren't working so thinking it would be good time to upgrade everything.
Seems the four doors have 4" speakers? Can they be modified to fit large relatively easy? What size speakers are near the rear windows? 6x9"? I ask because the car is currently in the shop so can't verify myself.
Any and all suggestions for upgrading the audio are welcome.
Now that you've taken possession (or at least Sovereign has taken possession ), I hope you're as happy with the car as you planned. Look forward to seeing her on the road once weather permits!
 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 08:22 AM
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Okay I found some of my pictures, you can see the areas have a circular indent perfect for speaker placement, I went with 6 inch,
This was what I did originally
This was what I did originally
Had to go back in and replace them with something a bit more able
Had to go back in and replace them with something a bit more able

Installed
Installed
Used a crossover. And placed tweeters on rail
Used a crossover. And placed tweeters on rail
View In rear view mirror
View In rear view mirror
 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 08:24 AM
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And here’s the view inside the trunk
 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 11:19 AM
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Pics of my rear shelf with 10” cutouts. Disclaimer… this was done in 1985 and I owned a car stereo shop at the time 😅. But I’d prob still do it today.




 
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Old Mar 16, 2026 | 12:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Ken Cantor
Now that you've taken possession (or at least Sovereign has taken possession ), I hope you're as happy with the car as you planned. Look forward to seeing her on the road once weather permits!
Haven't had much chance to get acquainted with her yet, she's been in the shop getting a bunch of work done. Hopefully get her back later this week. I'm excited to drive her.
 
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Old Mar 16, 2026 | 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by slofut
5-1/4" door speakers will fit with a little persuasion, the rear deck has perfect circular stampings for 10" woofers, free for the taking. I used a small pneumatic sawsall $20 HF nowdays, to zip a circle out from underneath (safety glasses!!). High qts, high efficiency, low fs woofer is great back there, no need for a damn intrusive sub box.
How much work is need to get 5-1/4 into the doors? I'm not one to play my music loud or need a lot of bass, I'm mostly looking for good quality over loud and bass so wondering if it's worth my time to go bigger on the doors if I'm going to put some 6x9" 3ways in the back shelf.
 
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Old Mar 16, 2026 | 12:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Darrenmb
Okay I found some of my pictures, you can see the areas have a circular indent perfect for speaker placement, I went with 6 inch,
This was what I did originally
This was what I did originally
Had to go back in and replace them with something a bit more able
Had to go back in and replace them with something a bit more able

Installed
Installed
Used a crossover. And placed tweeters on rail
Used a crossover. And placed tweeters on rail
View In rear view mirror
View In rear view mirror
Is there a limit on the depth of the speaker I can put iin the back shelf? Is it a tight fit or space to play with?
 
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Old Mar 16, 2026 | 02:08 PM
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Plenty depth open to the trunk. May have to massage the carpeting underneath a little depending how deep you want to go.
 
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Old Mar 18, 2026 | 09:24 AM
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in my experience high fidelity sound at low-to-medium volume levels depends more on the stereo amplifier specs rather than the amount of speakers, or the size of the speakers, or the placement of the speakers.

My '84 XJ-6 sounds wonderful with the original 1983 factory stereo unit and the original 4 speakers, but the speakers sound flat or "dead" with the factory units fitted to 1985 and later XJ-6.
​​​​​​I have tried both since they all are "plug-n-play", (same connectors for speakers and power).. But the sound quality difference convinced me it was not an issue of the speakers, it was the radio unit, so I went back to the older radio.

Moreover, the old 1983 radio lowers the antenna automatically when you insert a cassette, but the 1985 and later units do not. That feature by itself was another "that's it" for me.

I have a bunch of Jaguar radio units supplied by David of Everyday XJ, mostly dead units I use for parts, to keep my old 1983 radio working.





 

Last edited by Jose; Mar 18, 2026 at 09:28 AM.
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