If I want to upgrade from OEM to B&W on a '13 - I'm looking at ebay options..

speakerset : ~$500 (front/rear/tweeters/center)
Sub + amp: ~$200
MOST cable: ~$100
plugs/cables: ~$50

On the sub + amp, ebay lists 07-15 but it seems there are 2 options (B&W/Alpine) available does it matter which one or does the DSS flash to the latest anyway?

would that be enough, or do I also need to change the head unit/base unit?

 

I bought all the speakers and amp (waiting for delivery) --

I was wondering if someone had some good videos/photos of actually installing the subwoofer in the passenger footwell.. it looks like I need to:

- remove the passenger chair (4 bolts 3 plugs)
- the official guide says the dash needs to come out (if that actually required or can we wiggle it in?) - is just removing the soft "carpet" there enough?
- remove the side trim and center console trim
- remove the backseat
- remove the carpet
- remove radio (so we can access the plugs and cables)
- remove center speaker grill in dash

+ install center speaker in dash and get speaker cables to passenger footwell
+ install the sub + amp physically
+ run the cables (speakers + MOST) from center to footwell
+ run power from (new) fuse F31 from junkbox auxiliary (behind rear center seat) to amp (F31 is already installed??)
+ connect all speakers

+ reconfigure system to Premium System using SSD tools

and how to upgrade the amp with new firmware? - will SDD do that for me ?

 

- remove the passenger chair (4 bolts 3 plugs) - yes
- the official guide says the dash needs to come out (if that actually required or can we wiggle it in?) - is just removing the soft "carpet" there enough? No you don't but you'll want to pull the glove box or at least the under scuttle. You will need to fish MOST cable down to the amp. I did it behind the glove box. Also, the center speaker has to be wired. I fished wire through vs pulling the dash, best that I can recall.
- remove the side trim and center console trim - yes
- remove the backseat - ?
- remove the carpet - yes
- remove radio (so we can access the plugs and cables) - yes
- remove center speaker grill in dash - yes
You'll also need to upgrade the CD player to a different model.

Here's a primer from Cambo, as you asked this some time ago - https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...1/#post1555219

 

see I even forgot about that one all together haha

 

So I have everything ready… main speakers, tweeters installed, SDD at hand and a power supply on order …ready to install a new sub, center factory amp and new head unit …

and now I got an offer for an aftermarket AMP/DSP that theoretically could work with the 4 channels of the standard unit, and recreate 8 channels out of those 4 with full EQ, spectrum blabla and separate Sub channel… even being able to drive the front door tweeters separately…

so now I’m in doubt. Do I put in the premium system and take the risk of configuring the car, or just install the sub, center and that post amp with the standard head unit ?

tips?

 

half way there..

Passenger Footwell without glovebox

Removal of small bulkhead

Powe Distro box in rear seats

Passenger footwell

cable details

Cable details

Cable details

What is funny is that the MOST cable is actually there already, the speaker cable CA116 is there too (on the side).. but I can't find the Power cable (yet).. the power should be supplied by fuse F31 in the Rear Junction Box (between rear seats).. the connector is already there so the cables should the there tucked away too.. the Brown/Red is the +12V the brown is ground (0v).

Part 2 to come... but wondering if that temporary bulkhead should go back or not.. I did not see separate holes for the subwoofer assembly yet

 

and the next part..

The speakers and source (from the head unit) are connected in the passenger side near the door (the green connectors). The source plug (female) has 8 wires total (4 channel speakers) but the target already has ALL wires populated. Including Subwoofer (that connector is actually visible in the above pictures (white 2 pole) connector (yellow and white wires) and center speaker. While this makes me believe the center speaker connector IS already present in the car.. ..its probably tucked behind the dashboard somewhere -where I can't find it at all- so I'm not sure yet how to get that one wired up. There is an enclosed space underneath the center speaker but even drilling through it might be problematic as the walls are the air conduits.. if someone has a tip for this>??

In my case I went for the 3rd party after market one (to avoid reprogramming the car). The Audison AP F8.9 uses 4 channels as input and can output 8 channels (or 9 with amplified sub) and a 30amp fuse input. Which happens to be exactly the same amperage as the factory amp... as the wire is present in the auxiliary junction box, it just had to be there.. and finally I found it. So my newly created cable uses the factory female plug (with the 4 channels) and the amp input plug

For the speaker connections - I stripped the wires on the connector in the car a bit and connected the output of the amp to the wires of the speakers.

My created input cable (using 3rd party amplifier and had a spare connector) (4 channels input)

The location where the original power plug (CA115) is tucked away (it has a false female plug on it) - and the other plug is the AMP FAN plug (if using Jaguar Premium amp)

The subwoofer assembly doesnt really fit with the foam cover in the back.. I'll try again, but I think I need to cut that down..

 

Great job @Parzival . When I upgraded I thought the same thing but the subwoofer sounds fine as it was designed. I imagine any holes drilled or even louvers would open the door to water ingress or dirt of both. I left mine as is. Please don't forget to take pics of how that amp fan mounts down there. I still have mine in a box.

 

I checked for the fan. The plug for it is there, but I can’t find any mounting holes in the chassis. It could be that it’s behind the still applied sound proofing, or it should go in the to right cavity … I’ll try to find it tomorrow when I attempt to get to the center speaker wires

but for the aftermarket amp, I did not see a requirement for a fan, so I might skip the fan altogether… as it would be prone to making noise as well…

and with the aftermarket amp I don’t have to program the car and risk bricking it..

 

Cut away the sound proofing where the 2 holes of the sub woofer lines up to the car frame and to the left. Take two M6 nuts and 2 M6 (2cm) bolts to fix the subwoofer unit.

the amp is shown here with the created power plug (from the dummy that was on the plug already) … the built cable for speaker inputs (from the side of the door frame where the 4 channels from the main unit are…)

and then the 8 channels out… spliced into the actual speaker wires… note that the sub is also connected with OEM connector.. but the center is not as I can’t find the center plug in the dash…



Building the power connector from the dummy

for the power connector.. I took the dummy from the actual plug in the car. Got 2 standard car pins and clamped the power cables in there. Removed the wire protector from the connector, pushed the plugs in and voila!

 

@Parzival there is no center speaker wire (not pre fit) with the standard entertainment system. You will need to make on.

 

that’s what I thought. But the primary speaker connector is wired up for it… so those wires have to go somewhere.

happy to pull new wires, but can’t find where I can put them in and then where to grab them from behind the dash…


do I need to drill a hole somewhere and if so.. where?

 

That's just the sunlight sensor harness. The center speaker is wired directly to the amp with one connector in between. From the center speaker - Red/White wire to IP052/12 (red, IP052/13 (white) - near the right pillar. Then on to the amp. @ the amp it is CA116/15 (Red) and CA116/17 (white). IP 052 is a gray 13 pin connector so it's possible it's wired to the amp but not up from IP 052 connector to the speaker.

 

Yups.. indeed they go 52 and not further. But where to pull the cables from center to the new amp? Just push them through the hole of the sensor with a metal wire or do I need to drill a hole in there ?

 

I fished new ones. Yes I used 12 gauge solid core wire (not braided). It's stiff yet flexible enough to fish (push) from the center speaker location and pushed down and right. Once through, you know what to do. A metal electrical fish tape would work also.

 

And done…. The cable was indeed a matter of just pushing the cables through and finding them left of the fan assembly under the dash ..

Tried to look for the fan points, but indeed no idea where that would need to fit. While there are struts on the side they don’t fit the 3 screw holes……

so upgrade competed … with bi-amped fronts, regular rears, a center and original subwoofer …

 

This is great work. I really appreciate the detailed pics and explanations. Apologies if I missed it but can you elaborate on the amp? Set up seems straight forward and is explained but are adjustments all done using the OEM screen, separate laptop driven equalizer?

 

So I went for the Audison AP F8.9. This unit has optical, pre-out and speaker inputs. And has 8.1 channels as output (8 amplified, 1 subwoofer pre-out). It has its own DSP built-in to recreate the sound profile for each channel based on the input. The input in my case is the 4 channels (LF, RF, LR, RR) from the factory head-unit. And the output is those 4 + sub + center (so I only use 6 channels total). I could rewire the door tweeters for their own channel, but opted to use bridging for the front door ones... which gives 85Watt (@4Ohms) per channel and double that for the fronts. If the speakers are less Ohms, it could go up to 260Watt for the bridged ones and 130Watt for the other 4. Good enough for me .. but if you can do with less power, you can also opt for the Audison AP 8.9 (without the F) which has the same options but just half the power (and is eBay'able for around 300-400USD)

Final connectivity (note CA116F connection has been spliced into the wires) - where CA116M another spare connector was used. Power uses the default CA115 with dummy-addon.


The DSP has its own USB connection and computer software to control the unit. In short, it can de-equalize the inputs, you can set the distance for each speaker, add extra bass (not required) and other equalizer parameters. I did not find the "add extra surround" or something like that, but I'm just new into this software... When configuring it make sure to disconnect the speaker connector for the initial phase (do not close the footwell yet - as the source needs to play at near max volume for quite some time to determine the 0dB gains and the de-equalization option).

After basic configs, the sound is very natural (almost cool). I disabled the de-equalizer option and it sounded a bit better, but I can probably finetune way more on it. There is for sure waaaaay more bass in the car now and the 1040Watts is there for sure (more than I can remember from my previous XK with premium audio). But I'm still searching for a more warm sound as I have with my home Sonus Faber speakers - but I guess that is a matter of configuring the EQ via the software (the USB cable is tucked away in the glove-box compartment.

Given it uses the 4 default inputs, you can still control bass and treble and left-right/front-rear through the main head unit

 

And the final(?) update.. after the install the sound was not the best, the high's too harsh, the bass too low and all in all a flat mid section. So, I brought it to an audio tuner.. and he did magic.. the sound stage is super now, the sound is alive with sooo much more depth.. more than I can remember from the OEM Premium system..

the advice he gave however was to split the front channels, remove the center alltogether and use that free channel in a bridge to give the sub some more power.. but for now I'm happy, but I might put in some changes later on..

If someone wants to do the same, let me know I might be able to share the tuning file