What's that sound?
Back in 2001, I had a sound system installed--head unit, amp, sub, speakers. It was decent stuff at the time and cost ~$1500-2000 to get done back in the day. In 2007, the head unit died, so I replaced that. That's what I've been listening to ever since. It still sounded ok, until it didn't...
I knew I would have to replace it at some point, but I wanted to let it die naturally before replacing it. This spring, it started to do just that. It would play music about 50% of the time. Didn't matter if it was radio, aux input, whatever. We'll that's no way to live, so I decided to upgrade the whole system with something more modern.
I spent some quality time reading posts on this forum, as well as chatting with some support folks at Crutchfield.com. I didn't want to over-spend and get more than I needed, but I also wanted something that sounded good--even with the top off. I had an internal debate about whether I wanted to go with something a little fancier like a double-DIN radio with Apple CarPlay. Or something more practical (and low key to thieves) and waterproof. I ultimately chose the latter option and pulled together a good system for <$700 total.
Here were the key components:
Out with the old, in with the new
First things first, I had to remove the old system. I had an 8" Bazooka tube in the trunk which took up half of the trunk (see attached pic). I also had a huge old Alpine V12 5 channel amp under the back seat (see attached pic). One thing that is amazing is how the tech has advanced. See the attached pic of the old amp vs the new amp. I had 4x6" Polk speakers in the front and 5.25" Polk speakers in the rear (see attached pic). I removed all of that as well as the head unit (see attached pic), but left the RCA cables and the speaker cables since those looked to still be in fine shape.
I began by arranging the subs under the back seat and getting them all wired up with distribution blocks for the ground and power and RCA and speaker wires. I had to run a new 4 gauge power cable from the battery to power both amps. This was my initial layout, and I still have a little work to do to hide some of the wiring under the carpet. But it is functional and easy to debug if needed (see attached pic).
Next was the rear speakers. For some reason, the shop that had installed the old system had taken out the factory wiring connectors, so when I removed the old speakers, I had to put in new connectors. I filled the sound bar with polyfill and installed the new speakers (see attached pics).
Next was the front speakers. I opted for Sound Pods to give them a closed space, and put in 5.25" speakers to balance the rear speakers. Since my TJ is a '97, I had to snip the metal cross-bar to fit the sound pods in there. Factory connectors were still in the front, so those were easy to connect. It's a tight fit, but it fits (see attached pics).
Next was on to the head unit. I lucked out here because it had had an aftermarket head unit before, so all I had to do was wire 5 wires - red, yellow, blue (remote) and black (ground), and antenna cable extender (see attached pics). I also connected the Bluetooth mic and picked a spot for that.
Interestingly enough, when I took the old head unit out, the black ground wasn't connected at all. Hmmm...
Testing 1...2...3...
After I completed all the work, then it was time to test it out. I hooked up the battery and started it up. Success the first time! I did a little testing and had a few RCA cables reversed, but that was a simple fix. I tuned the levels and set the crossover frequencies on the head unit.
Much easier to do it there than via the dials on the amps, and allowed me to experiment a bit. I ultimately set the LPF and HPF to 70hz, which seemed to sound good. Bluetooth worked well, and the mic worked too, so my TJ instantly felt much more modern.
And the sound? It was very good. Plenty of loudness and clarity overall. And definitely a step up from the previous system I had in there. On sounds with good bass, it vibrates my front seat. So all in all, I'm quite happy.
A few caveats...
This was the first time I had installed a stereo, so it took me a while to do it all. Slow and steady and with as few hacks as possible. I think I did a decent job on it, though I am admittedly uncalibrated in this opinion.
I chose the sub I chose so it could fit under the back seat. And, well, it technically fits, but it's super tight--i.e. the bottom of the seat pushes right against the top of the sub case. It's the soft part of the seat, and it's not the metal cross bar, so it seems ok physically. But, I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if I have any heat issues.
I tried to raise the back seat up a bit, but in a '97, it's tricky to raise the back seat up. It has mounts in the front you could put spacers/blocks under, but the back fasteners connect to the side of the tub. I'm reluctant to do a bunch of messing around with the tub, so I think I'm going to live with it unless someone has any good tricks that don't require drilling and reinforcing the tub.
(I started a thread on the forum if anyone has any ideas to share.)
The only other pending issue is that I have a little alternator whine coming through the speakers. When I wired the subs, I re-used the existing ground point, so I thought that would be good. I'm going to disconnect it, scuff it up a bit and make sure the connection is solid. However, I suspect the issue might be coming from the front where I connected the black wire to the silver strap that was hooked to the frame. I may re-wire that and connect directly to the frame. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has tried and true points that work well.
All in all, I'm happy. The price was right. It's low-key with a removable faceplate to hopefully deter anyone who gets curious when the soft top is on. And the results were good--in fact, better than I expected.