I had to cut mine too. 99 TJ. I bought the adapters and 5.25 speaker. I bought from Amazon though, but shouldn't make a difference. I just cut the bottom and pushed the brace up out of the way.
Front Speakers: What am I missing here?
- Thread starter Bayou Hazard
- Start date
I had to cut mine too. 99 TJ. I bought the adapters and 5.25 speaker. I bought from Amazon though, but shouldn't make a difference. I just cut the bottom and pushed the brace up out of the way.
Yes, I only used the boom mat pods
My fronts were replaced with kicker speakers by the PO, and I could barely hear them. Now, with the foam pods AND and amp, the front are easily heard and no fade.
Not for us short people that drive very close to the steering wheel!
I did the same as you boom mat up front and stuffed the overhead pods with polyfill. I have gone through a myriad of iterations for my sound set-up. I really like what I have now, which was to add tweeters to the a-pillars. If you get an itch to further improve here is a write-up I did.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/audio-upgrade-again.11965/[/QUOTE]
Cole
TJ Enthusiast
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Nice article. I may have to give the tweeters a shot!!
That's not how speakers work. Their 100 RMS watt rating is only their max wattage rating. It only means that they can accept that many watts before they exceed their distortion specification.
Polk's DB speakers have a very high Sensitivity rating of 91 to 94 dB, depending on which model of Polk DB speaker it is. Their high Sensitivity rating means they don't require a lot of watts to play loudly. Certainly not a big aux amplifier. Most automotive speakers have Sensitivity ratings in the mid-80's. Every 3dB difference in Sensitivity is huge. For example a speaker with an 88 dB Sensitivity requires precisely double the wattage to play as loudly as a speaker with a 91 dB Sensitivity rating does.
In other words a Polk DB series speaker doesn't need much power to play more loudly than our ears can stand. Don't confuse its 100 RMS watt max power handling ability with the significantly lower amount of wattage required to fully drive them to a loud listening level.
We all know I have different values. Radios is one of them. MyTJR has a radio/CD. I have not used it in 14 years. My first 5 cars had no radio. One of my dream cars, a Corvette not only listed a radio as an option, it even had a "Heater Delete" option.
Today, what sells cars, and guarantees sales every year has nothing to do with the car, it is how well connected the car is. Make your Wrangler a smart phone........ guaranteed sales. Case in point, the Willys option on the JK. Just a Sport plus some connectivity options. And the reviews were all raves about WOW what a jump in Wrangler capability...... Really, everyone jumped on that.
I keep my music in my living room with Cambridge Audio, a turntable, and high horsepower. Driving is just too distracting to listen to music when the road and exhaust offer the real music.
Today, what sells cars, and guarantees sales every year has nothing to do with the car, it is how well connected the car is. Make your Wrangler a smart phone........ guaranteed sales. Case in point, the Willys option on the JK. Just a Sport plus some connectivity options. And the reviews were all raves about WOW what a jump in Wrangler capability...... Really, everyone jumped on that.
I keep my music in my living room with Cambridge Audio, a turntable, and high horsepower. Driving is just too distracting to listen to music when the road and exhaust offer the real music.
Hey Jerry - Agree with your comments but building off it for others. These Polk 522s have a RMS rating of up to 100 watts, and a peak of 300 watts. They will play perfectly fine off a head unit's internal amplifier, but if you add an amplifier you can get them to play louder without any distortion. By adding an amplifier there is most likely little to no increase in sound quality, but, one will be able to increase the volume without maxing out the head unit's internal amplifier. You could turn your head unit up all the way, and the Polks would be great, but your head unit's internal amplifier may not like to be pushed to the max on a continuous basis.
We all have different tastes in music and volume, so it you just want a simple inexpensive upgrade these Polk speakers will do the job. If you want to play music at a higher volume then these Polk speakers plus a 50w-150w RMS rated amplifier will do just that.
ErikOffroad
TJ Enthusiast
Has anyone ever managed to find space to fit a 5 channel amp under the dash? Most likely there’s not enough room under there. I’ll probably figure this out when I go to replace the heater core. I just wonder if it’s been done before.
I have two amps under my dash providing 7 channels of power. You just have to find the properly sized amps within your budget.
Here is one:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_530PN5640D/Soundstream-Picasso-Nano-PN5-640D.html
Here is a thread on what others did.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/5-channel-amp-mounting-locations.14726/
With this all being said, ideally is your dash well sealed enough to not need a "marine grade" head unit? Or is it recommended to go the route of marine graded on that as well?
Cole
TJ Enthusiast
I think the main reason people go with a marine grade HU is twofold -
1 - In case you get caught out in a rain storm with no top
2 - The display is hard to read on a sunny day. Most marine grade HU are a white background and black lettering, super easy to see in the bright sun. I personally do not have a marine grade HU, and while I love it, I wish I would have gone marine grade simply for the fact that my display is tough to see in the sunlight.
Ah, that makes sense. I never thought about the secondary aspect of that. Thanks for that insight. Anyone else have input on marine vs standard? Worth it or not?
I have a standard head unit and have not been concerned with getting stuck in the rain. I have got stuck in the rain before, but I think it would be difficult for water to get behind the dash and into the head units internals.
Agreed that the sun can make it difficult to read the screen, but I would not sacrifice the quality of the head unit just for a marine grade version, or would I pay a premium either for marine grade.
I highly recommend this unit.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KDCX702/Kenwood-Excelon-KDC-X702.html
For marine grade this looks like a good one.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113D772BT/Kenwood-KMR-D772BT.html
If you want to go all the way with the front speakers...
Select Increments DPE03065 Dash-Pods (without Speakers) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T1AB28Y/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Select Increments DPE03065 Dash-Pods (without Speakers) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T1AB28Y/?tag=wranglerorg-20
I have to disagree. The boom mat costs 5 bucks and will serve the same purpose as the SI pods, and there will be little to no sound quality difference between the boom mat and SI pods.
There is no reason to spend more money on housings than the speakers themselves. The front speaker location is bad to begin with, points down, so using the $80(select increments pods) towards making a real upgrade would be more beneficial to the overall system.
"All the way" would be to go fully active and eliminate that 5.25" all together and add Audiofrog's 1" tweeter and 2.5" mid to the a-pillars. That would blow away anyone relative to the stock system.
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I had the $5 foam Boom Mats before the rigid enclosures. The difference was quite noticable with the pods. There was a volume increase and the sound was crisper.
Also, keep in mind that the Select Increments pods do not need adapter plates and they come with the wiring harnesses.
FWiW, I didn't pay $80 for mine either.
I was just wondering that ..all I hear is the back , even moreso with the hard top on.
Still beats the ol' CJ behind the seat option .
Without spending money on addressing this you can just fade the volume towards the front to help alleviate this issue.
It bothered me a lot at one point so I altered my pods to fit a component set of speakers with a passive crossover. While this helped it wasn't the best solution as I prefer the main sound coming at me from the front.
Edward Turner
TJ Enthusiast
Audio guy for 40 years here, speakers are a line of sight item, only the lowest sounds are omnidirectional. The fronts aim at your knees and that’s why the sound bar seems so much louder. Rule of thumb: 6dB is twice as loud. Look at the efficiency to gauge how loud speakers will be with the same power input, keeping in mind that the rating is a single frequency measured at 1 meter's distance. Until you aim something from the front at your head you'll always hear the fronts as deficient.
That's why my only solution was to add tweeter pods to the a-pillars to get the speakers on axis. Once I can save some more money I want to eliminate that 5.25" and add a 2.5" mid to the a-pillar on top of the 1" tweeter.
Any other suggestions you would throw out there?