Upgrading the sound system on your Jeep Wrangler TJ

skrelnik said:
Just a recommendation for speakers as I am a big fan. BLAM has a couple good options that would be a good match for your JL XD800.

BLAM R8 EL - plays as low as 45Hz and up to 500Hz. 2 ohm. 150 watt RMS. 200 pounds/each

BLAM Relax - plays as low as 50Hz and up to 3.5KHz. 3 ohm. 100 watt RMS. 200 pounds for a set, including tweeters.

BLAM Live - plays as low as 40Hz and up to 4.7KHz. 2 ohm. 100 watt RMS. 325 pounds for a set, including tweeters.
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I’m glad you stay active in this thread, Skrel. Your advice is always spot on. You have certainly help me a bunch.

What’s your recommendation these days for front and rear speakers, best in class, money is no object? You’ve answered that before, but it has been a few years.
 
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DeltaNu1142 said:
I hope they’re giving you a commission! :LOL:

Kidding—I’m very pleased you shared the link to where I can buy them. They were high on my list but I had given up finding an online retailer.

I didn’t ask earlier: do you have experience with fitting their 6.5” in the OEM pods, and are they a decent fit or too large like some others?
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Haha, yeah, I wish. Currently I am using the BLAM 5.25" in the rear pods. I previous used 6.5" before l, but I felt these BLAM 5.25" are just that good to produce the sound I am looking for. After a quick check, the BLAM 6.5" will fit, but you may need slightly longer screws to fit.

I used to have Helix P236 - 6.5" which fit well. Here are the specs vs BLAM.

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Reign Mack said:
thanks, the subs I have chosen are Focal P20FSE Flax EVO - 20cm Flat Subwoofer, I was going to use VIBE Black Death PRO4T Pro Audio Horn driver super tweeters but they are too wide to fit.
I will look into the blams for mid and highs
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Great choice, I have 5.25" Flax Evos in my front paired with 1" micro precision tweeters.

BLAM was founded by Guy Bonneville who left Focal, and that is why I recommend BLAM as a cheaper alternative to Focal, especially the BLAM entry level gear which is leaps ahead of the Focal auditor series.

Looking forward to seeing this build installed.
 
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NashvilleTJ said:
I’m glad you stay active in this thread, Skrel. Your advice is always spot on. You have certainly help me a bunch.

What’s your recommendation these days for front and rear speakers, best in class, money is no object? You’ve answered that before, but it has been a few years.
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Thanks Nash, and I love watching your build as well, really good stuff you do...and all the members of this forum who keep this awesome forum growing with loads of good advice.

As for best of the best, it is all relative to conditions...but Micro Precision has been my favorite.

http://www.microprecision.de/
 
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skrelnik said:
Great choice, I have 5.25" Flax Evos in my front paired with 1" micro precision tweeters.

BLAM was founded by Guy Bonneville who left Focal, and that is why I recommend BLAM as a cheaper alternative to Focal, especially the BLAM entry level gear which is leaps ahead of the Focal auditor series.

Looking forward to seeing this build installed.
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Thanks i didnt know the community was that small, I went for the focal originally as it was shallow mounting but I have ordered the R8 E's instead now; thought they would tip the scale requiring 96.5mm mounting depth but have some spacers on the way just incase.
Have also ordered BLAM LIVE POWER 200mm component speaker system for mids and highs
 
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I did the colour change today, washed the bar with soapy water last week; wiped it down this morning with isopropanol.
I originally orderd Dupli-Color Vinyl and Fabric in medium beige but the two companies I tried failed to export so I went to
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I ended up buying car-rep vinyl locally RAL 8025 Pale Brown
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I used 4 cans total as I did this with loads of mist coats until all the white was gone
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Looks like brown is its original colour now, this stuff flash drys in the few minutes so lost count of how many coats I did, going to leave it for a day to cure.

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DeltaNu1142 said:
The coating looks great.
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it feels pretty solid too after curing overnight; can take some scrapes while being flexible, I probably should have used a scotch pad as part of my prep but there is only so much you can do to prep nylon/plastic before you start to damage or melt it,
The real test will be in the summer when its getting baked with the softtop fabric against it. will have to report back in 6 months on that
 
Tweeters arrived today but one of them was damaged so need to return for replacement. I don't need two 8 inch subs running off one mono block right next to my head so will only be running 1 sub on the passenger side the other 8 inch hole will be capped off with MDF and have a larger light attached.

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Reign Mack said:
add main cabin light on drivers side with a dimmable switch.
View attachment 499475
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How's it coming along? Wired up yet? So you gave me the Jeep itch again, and I ended up buying one of these. Painted it black and picked up some Helix IK S8 shallow mount woofers powered by a Match UP 1FX amplifier. Both Match and Helix are from Audiotec Fischer, Match being entry level and Helix being mid-level. Brax is their high end brand.

I would post some pics but pictures uploads are not working for me on this forum at the moment.

@Chris - are picture uploads down? Did you ban me for selling audio on the forum like PayPal banned you for selling pistols and rifles?
 
skrelnik said:
How's it coming along? Wired up yet? So you gave me the Jeep itch again, and I ended up buying one of these. Painted it black and picked up some Helix IK S8 shallow mount woofers powered by a Match UP 1FX amplifier. Both Match and Helix are from Audiotec Fischer, Match being entry level and Helix being mid-level. Brax is their high end brand.

I would post some pics but pictures uploads are not working for me on this forum at the moment.

@Chris - are picture uploads down? Did you ban me for selling audio on the forum like PayPal banned you for selling pistols and rifles?
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not wired up yet still waiting for 1 more ds18 tweeter to arrive as 1 arrived damaged when I ordered a pair, do you know if DS18 make their own stuff or are they just rebadging some other brand?

would be good to see some photos of your setup, how did you get power and signal inside the soundbar? what location did you drill the new hole into
 
Reign Mack said:
not wired up yet still waiting for 1 more ds18 tweeter to arrive as 1 arrived damaged when I ordered a pair, do you know if DS18 make their own stuff or are they just rebadging some other brand?

would be good to see some photos of your setup, how did you get power and signal inside the soundbar? what location did you drill the new hole into
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DS18 is down in Miami and they buy equipment from China and Korea and piece together. They make stuff that's fun, not car competition quality, but loud stuff. Similar to PRV audio, loud stuff, but PRV has more options and are down in China and Brazil.

I actually received my speakers and amp today so I have not wired up yet. I want to put the sound bar on the Jeep and then most likely run the wires down the passenger side to the amp that will be under the passenger seat.

We will need a couple holes, speaker wires and lights. Lights will be two small holes where the soundbar touches the rollbar.

I do have a mono amp so the wiring will be easier, only one power and ground, passenger side for sure. Once the weekend arrives I will be testing this out and let you know.
 
skrelnik said:
DS18 is down in Miami and they buy equipment from China and Korea and piece together. They make stuff that's fun, not car competition quality, but loud stuff. Similar to PRV audio, loud stuff, but PRV has more options and are down in China and Brazil.

I actually received my speakers and amp today so I have not wired up yet. I want to put the sound bar on the Jeep and then most likely run the wires down the passenger side to the amp that will be under the passenger seat.

We will need a couple holes, speaker wires and lights. Lights will be two small holes where the soundbar touches the rollbar.

I do have a mono amp so the wiring will be easier, only one power and ground, passenger side for sure. Once the weekend arrives I will be testing this out and let you know.
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wasn't impressed with the build quality of the ds18 tweeters just wanted something that was 3.75" Inch. the one that arrived damaged the grille was caved in, surround was dented and a screw had fallen out from the inside, returning imports for replacement is a real pain . looks like they spent most of their budget on colourful outer packaging and painted their logo on cheap Chinese kit. If they sound terrible I leave them unplugged internally, I was going to use the with the cross-overs which came with the Blams, the blam tweeters that came with the Lives were too small to mount on the sound bar.
 
Reign Mack said:
wasn't impressed with the build quality of the ds18 tweeters just wanted something that was 3.75" Inch. the one that arrived damaged the grille was caved in, surround was dented and a screw had fallen out from the inside, returning imports for replacement is a real pain . looks like they spent most of their budget on colourful outer packaging and painted their logo on cheap Chinese kit. If they sound terrible I leave them unplugged internally, I was going to use the with the cross-overs which came with the Blams, the blam tweeters that came with the Lives were too small to mount on the sound bar.
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Yeah, DS18 is more for show than quality, but I get you on fitment, looking for a speaker to fit is tough. How about Helix, they are in Europe and they have a couple coaxial options, as well as components.

Unfortunately, I tried to install today but there is no way to do so unless I remove the hard top, which wikll take me some time considering we are in the middle of snow these days, so when time permits I can drop it in. Trying to remove those speaker pods screws with the hardtop on just sucks, but as for the wiring, on one of the long sides of the soundbar there is a inward curve, and that is where I intend to have the wires come in and out, both the wires from the amp and the lights. Will be a small hole since I am using a mono-amp.

Inexpensive coaxial
https://www.carfeature.de/en/hifi-n...25771/helix-pf-c100.2-10cm-2-way-coax-speaker


Inexpensive component
https://www.carfeature.de/en/hifi-n...l-speakers/19659/helix-f-42c-10cm-composystem


Expensive component
https://www.carfeature.de/en/hifi-n...elix-helix-ci7-m100fm-s3-10cm-midrange-driver

More options on their site
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/helix/speakers/?p=1
 
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