XJ sound system

[hookedonxjs]

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020292.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020288.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020289.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020291.jpg290.jpg
Any questios? Feel free to ask.

[hookedonxjs]

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020289.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020288.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020290.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020291.jpg

[bluedragon436]

Looks good.... I wish I could get my setup to sound a bit better... did you run new wire from the head unit to your crossovers for the speakers??

[hookedonxjs]

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020288.jpg

[hookedonxjs]

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020290.jpg

[hookedonxjs]

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020291.jpg

[hookedonxjs]

Looks good.... I wish I could get my setup to sound a bit better... did you run new wire from the head unit to your crossovers for the speakers??

Yes Sir I ran new wire to everything, it's 14 gauge. I did use a harness though for power and ground to head unit.

[hookedonxjs]

Look at my amp you can see how many times I changed amps.

[bluedragon436]

Looks good, guess I'm going to try and run new wire to my speakers... def. don't have any speakers as nice as yours... but know that the ones I have, should sound better than they do... Guessing with that amp size, you have a sub in there too, or is that just for the factory location woofers you have in there??

[hookedonxjs]

I don't run a sub any more I just turned 54. The rms on the amp is 500 x 1 bridged @ 4 ohms or 125x2 @ 4 ohms and 250 x 2 @ 2 ohms the amp is powering the components front and rear, the rear speakers have the coaxial tweeter mount installed with cross overs in the head liner. But I have a kick a$$ sub design and will release the dimensions soon.

[bluedragon436]

Nice.. yeah I have been thinking of getting an amp for running my factory location speakers... but goign to wait till I get a better set of speakers similar to what you are running... I got a nice Audiobahn 6.5" component setup... that I am going to put into the doors, just got to find a similar setup for the rear... but am going to pick me up a small sub for my XJ for now... nothing huge, been looking at the Infinity powered subs, not too huge, and will give me just that little extra sound that I am looking for...

[MaxxTraxx]

nice set up. I am researching on what and how to upgrade my stereo...my limited has the Jensen speakers in all 4 doors and two in the hatch...I am going to put in a Kenwood deck, a sub in the back pass. side hole and speaker upgrades...any advice for a stereo noob?

[default83]

Looks good, guess I'm going to try and run new wire to my speakers... def. don't have any speakers as nice as yours... but know that the ones I have, should sound better than they do... Guessing with that amp size, you have a sub in there too, or is that just for the factory location woofers you have in there??

if you amp your surrounds you pretty much have to run new wires.

no speaker wires will go the head unit anymore, just RCA's out to the amp. its a little bit of a pain to get wires to all speakers.

[hookedonxjs]

nice set up. I am researching on what and how to upgrade my stereo...my limited has the Jensen speakers in all 4 doors and two in the hatch...I am going to put in a Kenwood deck, a sub in the back pass. side hole and speaker upgrades...any advice for a stereo noob?

Maxx forget about the side pocket it's roughly 1/4 cuft of air space and it dose not fire the sub into a hard surface to break up the sound. All 10" subs need 1 cuft of air space to 2 cuft of airspace for maximum output. I made the side pocket box in 1992 for my 89 and I put a 6 1/2" self amped 50 watt rms bazooka tube in my dads 88. I ran a 10' solobaric with a 400 watt rms amp. My dads bazooka tube blew away the side pocket enclosure. I wanted to save as much room and knew the box dimensions where small and made it anyway. What a waste of time and money that was. I wasn't to happy and I took a box that was 1 cuft. and started to point it in all directions that's when I discovered why the bazooka tube sounded so good, it was because the sub was pointing at the liftgate, as soon as pointed it in a corner or at a hard surface the sub all the sudden came alive. Just like home stereo speaker's instructions tell you to put the speaker in a corner for best results. Just think of it like playing pool when you make a bank shot you must also bank the sub's sound off a hard surface towards the front.

RCAs ran to an amp do more than give you higher power it takes about half the heat off the head unit because there will be no load on the internal amp. The kenwood excelon decks have a internal amp on and off switch that allows you to turn off the internal amp of the deck. Less heat equals less distortion. Another benfit of excelon and other companies decks is hi volt rca output 4 volts or higher vs. 2 volts. This lets you run the amp with the gains turned way down which equals less heat and distortion as well. Another cool feature is built in electronic crossovers that lets you set the amp at full range and allows you to set your crossover settings from the head unit. Another feature that makes a big difference is 24 bit resolution and burr brown processing vs typical 1 bit resolution. All decks from 80 bucks to 300 dollar ones have the same internal amp. The rms on all decks is 13 - 18 watts not 50-60 watts like the faceplate sez. Infact lots of amp companies play the same game like performance tekniqes amps say 2000 watts and they are about 400 watts rms. All the rms ratings are in the owners manuals.

For the speakers I suggest 16 to 14 gauge speaker wire. Walmart has good deals on install acessories and scoshe is good stuff. This is an area where you can get ripped off like rockford fosgate install kits at best buy are no better that the scoche and lightning at pep boys. Twisted RCAs are better than non, the bigger the power cable and speaker cable the better, always run your RCAs down one side of the XJ and speaker cable down the other so the speakers don't pickup any engine noise from the power cable, twisted pair RCAs reject interference but I make it a practice to run cables on both sides so I don't have to do it twice. Sound deadning products"dynamat" make a huge difference as well. I get mine at the autobody and paint supply it's the same at half the price. You don't have to mat the whole door just spots and around where the speaker mounts, I slap the whole peice over the speaker hole and use a utility knive to cut out the hole and mount the hole inside behind the speaker on the door's inside metal. It works just like the mats that are on the bottom of a stainless steel sink so you can't hear the water's impact on the sink. All the vibrations have frequencies that add what is refered as "discoloration of the sound" added sounds not coming from the speaker.

Speaker polarity is having the + to the+ and the - to the - on amp and speakers if you don't do this you could end up with speakers out of phase which means at the same time speakers moving in opposite directions and cancelling each other out. To make sure you have the correct polarity when using an aftermarket wire harness and removing the stock speakers the deck side of the wiring will be correct but to determind the speaker's side without pulling off the speaker's conection look at the back of the speaker with the terminals at the bottom in your hand the left wire is negative and the right is positive.

If you have any mor questions don't be affraid to ask even if you want my opinion of a product. I have been in and out of car audio biz since I was 16 and biult show cars for sema and ces shows and sold and used it all. Walmart has good stuff online at wholsale prices and onlinecarstereo,sonicelectronix.com are selling just above wholesale prices. Do research last years equipment is going to be a better deal for instance my MBQuartz I got in a warehouse in LA for $129 a set list was $600 they were 2 year old models and the last year that they were made in germany.Dealers make only about 20% on decks so decks is a area that you won't see a big price break unless they are trying to unload that model from their inventory.

Hooked

[bluedragon436]

if you amp your surrounds you pretty much have to run new wires.

no speaker wires will go the head unit anymore, just RCA's out to the amp. its a little bit of a pain to get wires to all speakers.

Yeah I have been thinking of running new better wires from the head unit down to each speaker location to see if that will give me a better sound out of the setup I currently have... but have been thinking of just waiting around for a bit, and purchase better speakers and a 4 chnl amp to hook to them and then run new wires from the amp out... but for now I am just looking to ether pick up a decent bazooka tube or have really been thinking about picking up an Infinity Bass Link II for the back of my XJ...

[hookedonxjs]

Yeah I have been thinking of running new better wires from the head unit down to each speaker location to see if that will give me a better sound out of the setup I currently have... but have been thinking of just waiting around for a bit, and purchase better speakers and a 4 chnl amp to hook to them and then run new wires from the amp out... but for now I am just looking to ether pick up a decent bazooka tube or have really been thinking about picking up an Infinity Bass Link II for the back of my XJ...

Don't waste your money on a 4 channel amp unless you plan on doing surround sound or speakers and a sub, all 2 channel amps will work fine at 2 ohms(2 4ohm speakers = 2 ohms). If you listen to rock infinity is not a good choice. In home audio infinity is famous for "flat" sounding speakers which is what people that listen to jazz like. That means that there are no frequencies that stand out more, with rock music you want strong low and high fequencies because thats how rocks recorded.

Hooked

[hookedonxjs]

Metlic had a post on 6 1/2 or6x9 that brought a point I forgot about and that is theft prevention. If you look closely at my amp install I have it almost ripoff proof by using machine screws, washers and locknuts. By mounting the amp to the side panel with the machine screws and washers through the panel while the panel is pulled out enough to hold the head of machine screw from spinning while installing the locknuts and washers to the amp side do not use lock washers so that if an attempt is made the screw and locknuts just spins and the theif will find someone else easier to ripoff.

[hookedonxjs]

Someone in a post brought up a issue that really dose not apply to socal since they have closed mojave narrows, is water crossings. Here are some examples of marine speakers and head unit. First of all the marine head units have epoxy coated circut boards and corrosion resistant chassis. It's mainly because of the amount of boats that are stored outside, even if it's covered the humity will corrode most decks and that is why I thought that they would be a good choice.

The next being marine speakers which have composite baskets (plastic frames) enclosed magnets that are one piece with corrosion resistant terminals. Note that some marine speakers are regular auto speakers with white cones and or white grills. You definitly want the plastic ones.

Another thing when crossing water that you turn off your stereo to avoid shorting or grounding out.

[hookedonxjs]

[http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn45/haslone/Ebay%202/MarineSpeakers001.jpg

[hookedonxjs]

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/faywt/CMD4A1.jpg

[XJ4IV]

MAXX Brian hey I bought a cool little kenwood 2 channel amp out here for 75$ its a 300 watt 2 channel and its doing very well... the reason I say this specific amp is cause of this...
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG153.jpg

and I ran just the two fronts from this amp... here is how I decided to keep them dry and out of the way
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo167/seivey/2010-09-30234932.jpg
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo167/seivey/2010-09-30234951.jpg
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo167/seivey/2010-09-30234941.jpg
No subs though cause I somehow usually get water in the back area soooo no need to throw money away!

[hookedonxjs]

I like that man, My bro and me did that to his xj we must have put 10 speakers in that thing in the dash the console a overhead shelf we made because his tires and exhaust were so loud you couldn't hear the damn stereo. He was a bigger stereo freak than me and the more and bigger the better I always say. Nice tweets.

[hookedonxjs]

Another topic that come's to mind is grounding everything together at one point to eliminate ground loop interference. For example if you had a cb and cd deck and dvd player and monitor or any other out board devices and they are all grouned to different locations you will pick up any transmission of outside interferences generated from the the car or in this case a xj. It's best to chose 1 grounding location to ground everything at, which eliminates the area between grounding points that recieve any unwanted frequencies.

[Mudderoy]

Another topic that come's to mind is grounding everything together at one point to eliminate ground loop interference. For example if you had a cb and cd deck and dvd player and monitor or any other out board devices and they are all grouned to different locations you will pick up any transmission of outside interferences generated from the the car or in this case a xj. It's best to chose 1 grounding location to ground everything at, which eliminates the area between grounding points that recieve any unwanted frequencies.

Always best to run power to the battery (both pos and neg) and if you get too many at that location put a common tie in place near that battery.

[hookedonxjs]

Always best to run power to the battery (both pos and neg) and if you get too many at that location put a common tie in place near that battery.

Tony is so right I use terminal strips for my after market electronic devices.
Frys is a good place for that stuff or maybe radio shack but last time I went to try to find something it seemed like they got rid of alot parts at my local RS. I however got mine at a local place offroad warehouse for 10 bucks and 4WP dose not carry any inexpensive ones only painless brand at about 4 x as much. I also use car stereo type battery conections to save a cluster f@*k of wires at the battery. http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020310-1.jpghttp://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/brian_mcdonald1/S4020309-1.jpg

[JeepinMT]

Anyone out there use an XJ Pod sub enclosure? I wanna put one in but I would like some feedback for people who have used/are using one.

[JeepinMT]

Are your components amped? I pretty much have the same speakers, when they were amped, I had the wires going in to the "input low" (on the crossover) when I took them out and put them in my Jeep they weren't amped, they sounded terrible so I changed the wires to "input high" and they sounded better. It looks like you have almost "bridged" the inputs on the crossovers so one wire is in "input high" and one is in "input low". Just wondering why and how it would sound if I did the same.