Hello again Folks!!...
The rear speakers "woofers" in my XK8 were blown (I assume they were the woofers, I wasn't able to observe the install), and I went to "Car Toys" and had them replaced. In your opinion, was the "Focal 165 CA1" a good choice? Thats what they put in. I would have thought the "base" would be better than it is. Of course the last premuim sound I had was "Bose" in a Corvette, I have never listened to an XK8 system before. This one has the "Harmon/Kardon" sound system. Any thought??...
Thanks and have a nice day
Fred

 

If you have the HK system. that's the premium option. The base system is even worse.
The rear speakers are less important in a good system, start by replacing the front mid-bass door speakers and tweeters with a good set of component speakers.
The door enclosure should be sealed with dynamat to stop resonance problems and create a sealed enclosure for the speaker. This would transform the sound quality in the XK. The head unit is quite adequate and your amp will be ok unless you want serious voloume.

 

What are the best options for replacement of the front speakers and tweeters, as well as the bass speakers in the back? On a convertable of course. Also how much improvement can we expect with just speaker upgrades. Wadderboy I believe you are the man when it comes to this?

 

Hey Brian, and others... I can only speak from experience from my convertible, and its system.

It originally had the Alpine components up front - woofer in the door, midrange in the dash, and supertweets in the door pillars, and those two 6.5" woofers in the back jump seat areas (were not 2-way speakers, only bass)

I've helped others simply replace the blown rear woofers with two options - the cheaper is an older JL Audio 6w0 speaker, its simply a small sub, but discontinued about a year and a half ago. They improved the design and now manufacture a 6w3v3 that will fit in your existing enclosure. If you do go this route, reinforce the flimsy enclosures, either wrap it in fiberglass or reinforce it with more wood, they will buckle from a beefier speaker unit (resulting in crummy bass output) You can find these units by googling around. Not too bad in price.

For the front, its alot of personal preference on the brand you choose for components. I hear great things about Focal, especially their upper line of components. I personally prefer the Polk Audio MM series (not the DB) as they're a bit cheaper, and I listened to them in the store before buying, over Boston Acoustic, Alpine, Kenwood, JL Audio, and others. They just had more 'midrange' punch.

When you do go new components on the front, you're replacing three speakers (woofer, midrange and supertweet) with only two. Trust me when I tell you this, the best place for the new tweeter will be in the dash, not the a-pillars. I did both, and the windshield does a fantastic job of blending the vocals and highs being up there in the dash. If they're in the a-pillars, you get directional sound...and must be sitting perfectly still to hear it well. You'll find yourself turning down the 'treble' considerably when you get it installed to, do to the new location.

Either front or rear, you'll likely need the shop to use spacers to get the clearance in the doors and rear enclosure, these new speakers are a little deeper so a spacer will bring it out enough, but still allow the door panel and the rear cover to work correctly.

I'll check in later if you guys have any more questions.

 

4 or 8 ohm on the jl 6w3v3?

 

4 is what I recommended

 

thanks and sorry I did not see that in your post.

 

No problem, it didn't jump out or anything, in fact, I may not have even mentioned the ohm rating.

 

how about the sizes for the front speakers?

 

Sorry brian, forgot about your inquiry.

I installed 6-3/4" (oversized 6-1/2") components up front.

 

ok so now I have the speakers you recommend. I take it you installed an amp. But where in the system. If you install it before the factory amp you will loose the steering wheel controls and after it you will amplify any noise that the original set up lets through. I have the polk audio mm6501's for the front and the jl audio for the rear. the amp I ordered cis the infinity kappa forget the model but has inputs for speaker level and RCA's. Any suggestions on intall location of the amp both phisically and also the wiring?

 

Where can I get the little speakers that are at the top of the doors for the Alpine systems?

 

Brian, do you have the factory navigation or CD changer? If you're lacking one of those, install the amp above/below the factory amplifier, it'll be easy to secure it there if you have room. The battery being directly beneath it makes it the perfect spot...short run of large power wire, new run of ground, tap into the radio remote 'on' signal wire, leads in, leads out, done!

Tap into the leads coming into the amp (you may need line level -> RCA adapters) go into your new amp, then run new speaker wires to the doors, or I suppose you could hijack the existing door woofer wires just to get the signal up front into the door, (once there, you'll secure and wire up the crossover, then go to the new woofer and new tweeter - hey, good plug for the door panel removal thread - You won't lose steering wheel controls, that's directly tied to the stereo, not the amp. If you get the subwoofer lead from the deck also tapped correctly, you'll keep the sub level control as well.

I've heard people getting them on ebay once in awhile, you could give Ken at Motorcars ltd a call, or even try Jagtechohio, see if they have any salvage units, the tweets should last forever, not like they get the abuse like the mids or woofers do. Other than that, dealer can still source them. Looks like $60 each at current prices.

 

I have nav and cd changer. Does anyone have an aftermarket amp installed in a 2002 xkr that can hook me up with the wiring so I dont have to pin test it all?

 

Brian, here's a link to your 2002 entertainment system wiring diagram...BTW, i know it says 2001, but there is no 2002 document in the JTIS, only two (2) 2001s!
click for the big versions

 

Just to keep this thread going... My passenger rear speaker is blown now. I am not sure how to remove this out of the car. Anyone out there has any info on removal of those speakers and replacements? 99 XK8 Ragtop Is this speaker , JL Audio 6w0 what i need? Took it to a Audio Shop and they would not touch it because if they break something they would have to work for a week to pay for it... lol!

Oh Yeah.. the JTIS was not that much help!!!

 

Its very easy to get to. The speaker cover is just held into the panel by tabs that need to be bent straight from behind it...so how to get behind it? Remove that top L-shape padded section. I can't remember how to get to it, but IIRC, you have to unbolt the seat belt loop to do so.

If you replace it, replace it in pairs, not worth doing it otherwise. the JL Audio 6w0 (if you can find two still for sale somewhere) or the 6w3 will fit, but you'll need a spacer to bring it out of the box a bit more with a bigger magnet. Not hard, but you may want to get that speaker enclosure out to do it correctly, and w/o braking something. Look at my thread here, or ask your shop to take a look, its not that bad.

 

h20boy, thanks for the advice about placement of the new tweeters (in the dash). Very helpful!
Walt