Ok ok, mine worked, I found out it was a bad amp. So I replaced it and it was simple plug and play. Speakers and sound boxes were fine. Good luck. I think the system is 2 ohms, so you'll need to match that. The Speakers are marked on the magnet.

 

MY99 convertible should have two speakers in each enclosure.

What is the impedance marked on the original sub?

 

I had 2 jaguar convertible xkr and xk8. Both were premium sound and neither had 2 speakers on each side. There is to my professional consultation, a basterdized sound or "Bass" in the sides of the convertible. And the single speaker on each rear side of the convertible is definitely not a real sub woofer, only playing low end frequency. They play a wide spectrum. I understand the coupe actually has 1 real sub woofer in the middle back. Even with the extra base button on the premium sound system, in the convertibles it will never be what it is, in the coupe, and weak.

 

The earlier convertible cars also had an additional smaller.speaker in the rear enclosures as a mid-range. That was dropped when Jaguar switched from Harman Kardon to Alpine gear somewhere around MY2000, I think.

I confess I haven't heard a convertible to make the comparison, but I wouldn't expect it to sound as good as those enclosures are limiting. IMO the coupe setup acquits itself pretty well.

 

Here's an update and some feedback for the points raised. Mine is a 1999 MY car so I naturally reached for the 1999 electrical manual. This, however, showed an Alpine system and mine is Harman Kardon. I downloaded the 1998 MY manual and that showed the HK system - I've pasted it below. This enabled me to answer my original question - I need to wire the new speakers up in their Parallel configuration. Obvious, I guess.

I've posted a photo below of the speakers I removed. The right hand speaker is exactly as it came out of the car and is shredded. The left hand speaker appears fine so if anyone is in need of a single woofer for their convertible, you can have it for the price of postage. Other observations are that the enclosures are pretty small and the speaker wire is cheap bell wire soldered to the speakers; neither helps the sound, of course and I may come back to the wire in future. In the meantime, I got on with installing the Kicker subs.

I trimmed the mounting rings back with a Dremel. I didn't remove them as others have done, but just cut back the edge so it aligned with speaker rims below. It's not a pretty job but it doesn't need to be and the speakers fitted just perfectly with four of the six mounting holes aligning exactly with the original Jag mounts. I'm no audiophile and the sound so far sounds good to me. At the moment the roof is down and there are no seats in the car so I'll reserve judgement for when I manage to use the system in the real world. I have no idea whether the ohms are right as the labels had worn off the original speakers but I'll wait and see.

Finally, as regards the speakers on the HK system, there are:

• Squawkers (whatever they are) at both ends of the fascia
• Two speakers in each door - a tweeter in the mirror housing and a mid-bass in the door itself
• Two speakers in each rear quarter - a mid-range which you can see at the upper right of the sub in my picture below, and the sub-woofer itself

Thanks for all the input. I'll update when I've had the chance to get some music through the system.



The lower speaker is the culprit, taken from the Drivers Side rear quarter panel.



Diagram of the Harman Kardon speaker set-up



New sub in situ in Driver's Side rear quarter panel. The mid-range speaker is at the top right.

 

The foam edges in almost all speakers tend to break down and crumble into dust after 15 to 20 years. They are easily DIY replaced at very little cost with a proper foam edge kit from www.simplyspeakers.com. The re-edged speakers then sound like new again....

I have owned my beloved vintage home audio system Altec Voice of the Theatre speakers since August 1975. I have carefully re-edged their 15-inch woofers twice. The new foam edges always return my Altecs to the booming monsters they were designed to be....

 

I saw that but assumed it would require a level of finesse which is completely beyond my ability. I can wield a wrench but never let me anywhere near a paintbush, soldering iron or anything which needs a light touch! I guess that means that there's actually a pair of original subs available for someone if they are prepared to fix one of them. I guess I should just hang onto them a couple of weeks longer in case the Kickers turn out to be a disaster.