1998 XK8 stereo OEM upgrade
 

Hello to All My Name is Ron Baker I Live in Tampa, Florida and I was Fortunate Enough to Locate a Cherry 1998 XK8 with 27,000 Miles on the Odometer Last Fall (October 2019). I Love this Jag She is Beautiful to Say the Least.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1605925952
I Have Come to Find the Rear Speakers in the Typical Disrepair and am Interested to do Some Factory OEM Upgrades.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1605925952
So to My Issues. This is what I Have. My XK8 has the Standard Sound System. Head Unit and Four Speakers with a CD Changer in the Trunk/Boot.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1605925952
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1605925952
I Pulled the Rear Speakers out Last Week and now the Wheels in My Mind are Turning as to What to do Next. This is What I Would Like to do. I Would Like to Upgrade the Existing System to the OEM Premium Sound System. I don't want to Cut Any Wires!! I Repeat I DON'T WANT TO CUT ANY WIRES. Weather or Not I will get My Wishes is Yet to Be Seen. I have been doing a Lot of Reading here on The Forum and this is what I Believe I Have Learned. I Believe the Head Unit can be used by Flipping the Switch on the Bottom from STD to PRM. This "Sounds Right" to Me as "Back in the Day" This was the Way it Worked. At Least in Cases Were I Installed Sound Systems in the Vehicles I had as a Young Man.
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So I "Believe" I can Use the Existing Head Unit. Next I will Want to Get My Hands on a Premium Sound System Amp and if Anyone has One Available I am Interested. I Have Been Reading Some of these Wiring Diagrams and if I Understand Correctly the Wiring is in the Jag But "Not Used" this is Where I Am Really Looking for Some Expertise. Wiring Diagrams are Found here in the 1999 XK8 Electrical Guide (I Haven't Found a 1998 Electrical Guide) on Pages 64 and 66 of this Attachment.
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Is it True and a Fact that the Wiring is in the Vehicle FROM THE FACTORY? If it is I'm In Business. If Not I'm ONLY Replacing the Speakers and Moving on. I'm Not Cutting Up This Jag. So What I want to Come to Understand is - "Is it a Fact that the Wiring is in the Vehicle From the Factory as I Believe the Wiring Diagram Indicates" Thank You for Any and All Discussion as to My Questions and Issues.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1605925952
I Couldn't Figure Out How to Insert the Photos the Way I Would had Liked to.

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Ron, 1998 version of schematics. Probably identical but you can check.

Last I looked, the amp was plentiful on eBay.

Head unit: Yes just flip switch.

Wiring, I can't say. But the wire loom should be obvious by the CD changer.

BTW, IMO if you're going this far check out something like the JagHF-CD at discount stereo for a wonderful Bluetooth stealth addition.

John

Hi Ron!

I have plans to do the same on my XKR Coupe MY2003. So i invested some time to check the needed parts. The upgrade to the Premium-System should be doable without cutting any wires. I suppose, some experience with car-electronics should be present to get this thing done.

With the Std-System the wiring to the speakers is routed from the HU to connector IC1 under the armrest. From this connector the signals are distributed to the speakers. AFAIK the wiring to the individual speakers exists, nevertheless if they are mounted.

On the Premium-System the Signals are going from the Amp in the trunk to connector IC1. So what is needed, except from speakers and amp, is the wiring-loom from amp to armrest ( IC1-IC15 in the diagram), the wiring-loom with power-supply and some signals for the Amp ( IC16) and the Alpine AI-Net Cable for CD-Changer-to-Amp connection. The wires from IC16 must then be adapted to existing connectors in the trunk's loom. BTW a nice aspect with the AMP Multilock connectors, Jaguar used mostly for internal cabling is, that you can add/change/remove single contacts on the connectors without any destruction. You only need the corresponding contacts, these should be obtainable from e.g. Mouser. Ask me, if you need the part#.

I myself went the easy way and bought the whole wiring-loom for the trunk from a wrecker for the cost of some euros, now i only need the spare time to put the whole thing together...

greetings,
Wolf

Ron,

There is an easy solution to determining if your car is prewired for speakers in the premium locations (theoretically it should be but...). On the top of the dash are the speaker covers for the mid fills; use a trim tool to pop them out (gently!) and the preinstalled wires should be tucked under the dash cap. You can also check the small fabric sails at the top of the door cards (they would hold the tweeters) for the same empty connector.

Most 97 and 98 (and possibly some early 99's?) should be prewired for the premium hardware. This allows you to add two vocal mid fills on the dash, the two sail tweeters, the two subs in the rear seats and the proprietary Harmon Kardon amplifier.

John is correct about the switch on the bottom of the head unit, flipping it will add the premium functions in to the mix. This switch, the prewiring for the speakers and placing the amp in the rack at the back will get you started with your install.

You will also need:

The wiring harness that converts the standard system to Premium, it changes direction up under the center console and the standard package harness only powers the four speakers as installed. For obvious reasons it doesn't power connectors that aren't in use and also doesn't have the amp tie in.

The amp for the harmon kardon system (which is different than the later Alpine), make sure to get the convertible amp as it is different from the coupe as is the harness.

The door speakers will need to be swapped to woofers as they only receive low pass signals after the conversion.

New rear subs

As noted above, adding an aftermarket Bluetooth converter while everything is apart makes great sense.

Some notes:

• Unless you have the proprietary speakers you will need to cut the connectors off to wire the new units in.
• The rear seats, rear sails, center console and most of the trunk needs to be removed completely to get to the harness and the rear speakers.
• The door cards also have to come off to access the door speakers. (at least on mine as someone "repaired" mine and covered the fasteners)

Hope that this helps.

Gentleman Thank You All So Very Much for Your Time in Responding to My Post I Greatly Appreciate It. John I Thank You for the Suggestion as to the JagHF-CD I Think as I am in this Deep it makes Great Sense to Install Such a Devise as Wolf Stated and I Thank You for the Suggestion. Wolf I find Your Input Very Helpful Thank You. I Wish You Well with Your Project Also. It Looks Like I need to Start Searching for the IC1-IC15 Loom as Well as the IC16 and the Alpine AI-Net Cable for CD-Changer-to-Amp connection. I am going to be Looking into these Details as to My XK8 here after the Thanksgiving Holiday. This Looks Like I Have Found Some Sound Advise (Please Excuse the Pun) here and I Thank You All Very Much for Your Input.

Ron, one more thing that may be useful. Standard sound sys did not come with a tweeter in the sail. Nothing nice to say about the quality of this tweeter, lots of room for improvement.

Premium comes with a small tweeter crossed over at 6khz in the sail.

I replaced the factory sail tweeter with a midrange / tweeter pod from an Infinity (brand of car stereo speakers) 6x9 3 way speaker. Wow - huge improvement over the cheap factory tweeter. This improvement is big enough for me to suggest that you think seriously about skipping the Jaguar factory set up for the sail and go for something more effective.

What kind of improvement? You'll hear / feel the reed vibrate in the woodwinds; you can see the mallet striking the vibraphone keys with clarity in your minds eye; now you have a 3D Soundstage in front of you.

Look for a driver that'll go down to 2khz from memory. If you're technical, look up the crossover specs on Infinity 6x9 3 way speaker for the midrange. Just works wonderfully for me.

I'll leave it there as a suggestion. Questions? Just ask.

John