Upgrading the sound system on your Jeep Wrangler TJ

Willys LJ said:
I replaced the stock head unit with a Kenwood BT-322 media player right after I got my LJ keeping the stock speakers and subwoofer setup. Sounded good and a nice enough unit, but like most single DINs, the buttons were a bit small for my fat fingers. And then I started having issues with the blue tooth connection with my iphone. I replaced it with a double DIN Sony media player head unit and have since replaced the speakers with larger Sony speakers (6.5 in the pods and 4x6 in the dash) except for the subwoofer.

From what I gather from reading online, the Kenwood has issues with playing nicely with iphones. Could be the Apple stuff not wanting to play nice with Kenwood, I don't know. Either way, I need the hands free for my phone and it was cheaper to replace the media than the phone.
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I've put several aftermarket head units in both Jeeps and other cars. I've not experienced Apple Car Play issues with Kenwood units... that said I've not installed a single DIN in decades however my guess is the logic and software is identical between single and double DIN units.

I've moved away from Kenwood recently to Alpine units. Less expensive and, in my opinion, more stable and more responsive. Just opinions but ones based on recent experience.
 
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I thought this was a good idea for those who want a double din but don’t want to hack the dogshit out of their dashboard supports:

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Rooscooter said:
I looked at this one for my CJ but went with the Alpine because of the depth. In the TJ you don't have to do much at all to put a double DIN in other than cut a flimsy piece of plastic out of the way. Everything else is the same as installing this one.
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That’s not entirely true, it depend on what double din unit you want to fit and which year TJ I had to remove a fair amount in my 02 TJ to fit a DDX9907XR but it was all worth-it.




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Reign Mack said:
That’s not entirely true, it depend on what double din unit you want to fit and which year TJ I had to remove a fair amount in my 02 TJ to fit a DDX9907XR but it was all worth-it.




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Could be.... my only experience was my 05 and it was easy peasy. The biggest trouble I had was getting the securing bar off the stock stereo.... like someone would steal that pile of crap! I just snipped the two sides of the plastic cross piece and out it came. A little trimming to clean it up and good to go.

The depth is more of an issue than the width in my experience.

I went with the Alpine shallow unit with the clip on amp. Together they were less deep that a standard Kenwood or Sony unit. I love it.... I didn't have to find a place to mount the amp and the connections were a breeze.

https://www.alpine-usa.com/product/ilxw650_kta450_power-duo_package
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I'll finally be making the jump from single to double when the supply gets off loaded from the ships off shore. Be staying with Alpine, since I've had them from many years gone by and really like the ability to adjust the in sound signal at the HU, which limits extra dsp accessories.
 
I recently upgraded to double din. I didn't want to fork over the $$ for name brand stuff and I wanted built in GPS, so I opted for the ATOTO S8 Premium. Lots of great features! I run GAIA on it no problem. Got the dashcam, backup cam and a front cam to help with lines hopefully. I use Android Auto with my Samsung phone and it pairs nicely.

It is also a hell of a lot easier to browse my huge music collection on the microSD card than it was browsing the USB drive on my Alpine head unit.
 
Complete audio noob here, but I've read this entire thread as I've debated if/how I'd like to upgrade my system. I have an '05 with the original 7 speaker system and an upgraded single DIN Kenwood KDC-BT945U head unit installed by the previous owner.

After reading all the great info everyone has offered up, I think I've convinced myself that I should upgrade to a Kicker sub and the BLAM Relax series speakers to replace the dash and sound bar speakers. But the real change I want to make is with the head unit.....the display on the Kenwood is so difficult to read and I hate not having radio preset buttons for when I'm just making short trips and don't connect my phone up.

I was leaning heavily towards the Chinese knockoff of the Insane Audio head unit (covered in this thread), mainly because I liked that it had volume/tuning dials and a few real buttons (instead of only a touch screen) and it also fit into the OEM dash opening...but then I stumbled across the 1Factory Radio options that have been upgraded with an aux port and bluetooth connectivity. This has me thinking that adding a small touchscreen probably won't be all that functional and I actually think I'd like to go back to more of a stock look. But....

From what I can tell, going back to a stock head unit is going to create issues in being able to drive the BLAM/Kicker speakers/sub. True?

Which brings us around to the last component we haven't discussed - the amp.

IF I were to go with a factory head unit from 1Factory Radio, would it drive the new speakers/sub well? If not, what are my amp wiring options to get everything to play well together? I think I saw something about line out convertors?

Or since I'm not an audiophile, should I consider just starting with the 1Factory Radio head unit and the Kicker sub and see if that makes me happy enough? Then if a solution to drive better speakers exists I could always make that my 2nd phase upgrade if I deem it necessary?
 
Anybody running JL Audio speakers? If so, what are you running and are you happy with them?
 
Muddy said:
Anybody running JL Audio speakers? If so, what are you running and are you happy with them?
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I am. Here's my review:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads...e-adventure-lj-story.9956/page-29#post-425745
toximus said:
The JL Audio C2-525x speakers are a night and day difference compared to the Polks. I can now hear the difference in the mounting locations and there is an audible difference in adjusting the bypasses on the amp. These speakers need to be broken in gently for 10-15 hours before being cranked up. The rears in the pods are recreating the sounds very well, if a little too warm for my taste. The fronts had to be spaced forward since these speakers are so deep they hit the HVAC ducts. I mounted them in foam baffles to better protect the back sides from dust. I did cut the bottom of the baffles to prevent the woofer from creating a vacuum. I a/b tested the baffles and I'm not convinced they help the sound although they don't seem to hurt the sound either. The rears still do overpower the fronts due to the mounting location and mess up the sound stage. Clarity across all ranges is very high. At this point I'm splitting hairs. I think the speakers are finally equally matched to my Jeep.

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It's difficult for me to recommend the JL C2s as a blanket statement. If you want to replace the stock speakers with something plug and play and that's all, they're not going to work well for you. These JL C2s require nearly double the watts to put out the same sound volume as the Polks. To do that, you're going to need a fairly high capacity amplifier. Without an amp I would consider the JL C1 series to see if they provide better sound compared to the Polks in pods at a similar price point.

I'm going to wrap this up: The JL Audio C2 speakers with an amp are 5-6x the price of the Polks and they are a solid 10/10 value for the money. There is no depreciating return experienced with these.
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Muddy said:
Anybody running JL Audio speakers? If so, what are you running and are you happy with them?
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I don't use their speakers but I am running their amps, I have been running the 8 channel XD800/8 v2 in my TJ for a few years now, very solid bit of kit once set the gain correctly.
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I also have one of their smaller mono blocks, XD300 which melted my subwoofer in 2020
 
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Thanks, @toximus. The C2-525x speakers were the model I was looking at. Glad to hear you are having good results with them. If you were to do it over again would you stick with the coaxials up front, or run components with the tweeters in the dash/a-pillar area?

@Reign Mack Wow, that amp gives you a lot of options. What kind of speaker array are you powering? I'm leaning towards a small footprint, 4 ch. marine grade amp. No sub for me; I need all the space I can get. I tend to find myself in a lot of wet places, so the marine rated amp will give me a little more peace of mind if nothing else.
 
Muddy said:
Thanks, @toximus. The C2-525x speakers were the model I was looking at. Glad to hear you are having good results with them. If you were to do it over again would you stick with the coaxials up front, or run components with the tweeters in the dash/a-pillar area?
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Mine is primarily a rock crawler so keeping the install tidy was a priority. I'm sure you would notice an improvement while parked if you don't mind the looks of it and added complexity. While driving, I doubt you'd notice any difference.

If you look back a few posts in that thread I linked to, you'll find the amps I used.
 
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Muddy said:
@Reign Mack Wow, that amp gives you a lot of options. What kind of speaker array are you powering? I'm leaning towards a small footprint, 4 ch. marine grade amp. No sub for me; I need all the space I can get. I tend to find myself in a lot of wet places, so the marine rated amp will give me a little more peace of mind if nothing else.
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sorry I have been meaning to respond to this but couldn't for the life me me find any of the old photos I took, the marine rated m series may suit your needs if not overkill

You may be surprised at how small these JL audio XD amps are, this is the XD800 and XD300 sitting next to each other behind my back seat/ storage box.

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I don't use my wrangler as a boat but once its folded back down the amps are as high as my steering wheel and hidden away when I have the roof off.
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the JL XD300 mono block is connected to this passive sub in the back Kicker KA46CWTB82
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The XD300 melted the kicker speaker so replaced it with an Alpine SWR-8D4 the kicker enclosure is top quality and the speaker was good 300watt RMS and 600watt peak but the alpine can handle a bit more at 350watt RMS and 1000watt peak.


The XD800 amp is connected to a whole load of component speakers using passive crossovers.
DB Audio Systems T-Rex 5.2C 230W 13cm 2-way component speaker below the front doors and in the sound bar

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I am using the Focal TiS 1.5 tweeters in the sound bar instead of the DB audio ones.
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Then the slightly larger DB Audio T-Rex 6.2C 250W 17cm 2-way component speaker in the back
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DB Audio tweeters above the dash
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I have these speakers inside the dash but have completely forgotten who makes them.
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my head unit is a the Kenwood DDX9906XR it has 5v pre-outs so it was important to get the gain set correctly on each channel. its got apple carplay, android audio and a dvd player and 2 usb connections.
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