Last night I had some time so I looked at used XK models just for fun. Something struck me in a photo of a 2011 XK. There appears to be a high frequency driver in the same place as our ribbon super tweeter that protrudes a bit and is angled at the passengers. I couldn't see any speaker footprints on the dash. I wondered to myself, if they don't have the "squawker" (that's what Jaguar calls it) in the dash, does this door driver server a wider frequency range than our ribbon super tweeter?

This got the ball rolling and I started thinking: The XK's are faster, better handling, frankly a leap foward in just about everything except looks in my opinion. I wonder if Jaguar put as much improvment into the sound system too. If so, would these be a relatively easy upgrade/replacement for any of the speakers in our XK8's?

I wonder if any of you have driven the XK. I think a few of us are blessed and own XK's as well as XK8's. Let me ask: Is the sound system a big improvement? Does the upper door speaker I described look like it would fit where our ribbon tweeter sits?

I guess the big question is: How much better is the sound system in the newer XK models? I wonder if there is an opportunity here for improvements with the speaker drivers. I'm sure the electronics are different, regardless of how much they contribute, I'm just focusing on the speaker drivers here.

John

 

Just my two cents, but I think the original PREMIUM speakers are fine... it is the head unit and amp that is seriously lacking. I am not sure how much improvement you would get by replacing only the speakers.

I went the other way and left the factory speakers and put in a 600w 6 channel JL Audio amp with a kenwood head unit and it sounds FABULOUS... My daily drivers have always been Cadillacs with the Bose system and I think my Jag now sounds as good or better!

 

Chris, Thanks mate. It (each component in the signal chain) all contributes, the speakers look like such an easy test/swap. That's why I inquired.

I bet you're 100% right about the amplifier, but I have no time/money to get into the electronics, so it might be fun to swap a speaker or two and see how things change.

I do have it on my todo list to swap, or bypass, the crossover cap to the supertweeters. Yes that's electronics, but I've got a whole bench full of different size teflon caps. If it makes a change I'll post it, otherwise like I said, the XK speakers look like low hanging fruit to me.

As a courtesy, let me explain the "Teflon" comment. Different capacitors (construction material, brand) of the same value actually sound different. As you can imagine there is a never ending debate among audiophyles about what "type" sounds best, but except for a vacuum, there is no better dilectric material then Teflon, no one argues that. Some including myself think that for most circumstances they sound the best too. OTOH, I'm dealing with this factory Jaguar stereo. Things can only get so good, I may not even hear a difference, certainly not the difference one would hear on a $5,000 home speaker.

John