Upgrading the sound system on your Jeep Wrangler TJ

Lorado said:
Put the ground loop isolator in and instant buzz relief (that sounds horrible). When I unmounted the small midbass amp I realized there is room on the kickpanel to tuck it up farther under the dash and it's about 4" up from the lowest point of the floor there. So it's about as rainproof as is it can be. With the isolator that's not a bad place for the amp. The farthest point towards the back is 2-3" past the windshield.

The isolator I used is the PAC from crutchfield for around $20, it has two ground wires that the instructions say use only if no sound passes through and I didn't have to use those.
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Awesome news! I'm glad to hear it worked so well. Did you end up moving the amplifier further up the kick?

I finally had a chance to measure out my frequency response today. Nothing exciting, just a little channel EQ'ing, but it's already cleaning up the bass. I'll have to spend a few hours this weekend playing.
 
Did the install last night, sound, is great but for some reason the lights didn't work when I hooked them up although they worked when I testing everything at home, need to investigate next weekend. the sound bar did not go on easy, Had to get my Nephew to stand on it to get the other side over the sports bar, on hind site I would have done this on a warmer day with all the speakers inside it just to try and weigh things down. I will take more photos when there is better weather and the top can come off.

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Reign Mack said:
Did the install last night, sound, is great but for some reason the lights didn't work when I hooked them up although they worked when I testing everything at home, need to investigate next weekend. the sound bar did not go on easy, Had to get my Nephew to stand on it to get the other side over the sports bar, on hind site I would have done this on a warmer day with all the speakers inside it just to try and weigh things down. I will take more photos when there is better weather and the top can come off.

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Looks great. I wonder why the lights are not working?

I completed mine over the weekend and plan to install next weekend, time permitting. I was thinking of installing by sliding onto the rear of the roll bar and then sliding forward towards the front. Without taking the top off I cannot think of another way to get it on. Will need to put some protection on the soundbar to prevent scuffing it up. My soundbar only had two slots for 4" speakers so that is why mine is a little different. Not the best pics...

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Reign Mack said:
take the top off
why are you running the cables out the middle of the back like that ?
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Easier access when it's installed? I couldn't take my top off (it was an aftermarket that had shrunk) so when I ran bigger wire to mine I had to drill in the side.

Both of those soundbars look awesome! Did you get the light figured out? Is it supposed to connect to the factory harness for that or are you using a separate toggle? At least it sounds good 😁
 
Mercury said:
Easier access when it's installed? I couldn't take my top off (it was an aftermarket that had shrunk) so when I ran bigger wire to mine I had to drill in the side.

Both of those soundbars look awesome! Did you get the light figured out? Is it supposed to connect to the factory harness for that or are you using a separate toggle? At least it sounds good 😁
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I cut the same size access hole on mine to the side near the pillar where the green dot is, @skrelnik cut his in the middle where the red dot is, those cables will just dangle ?
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Reign Mack said:
I just the same size access hole on my to the side near the pillar where the green dot is, @skrelnik cut his in the middle where the red dot is, those cables will just dangle ?
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Ahhhh, I'm tracking. Then the wires are run down the roll bar on that side.

Hmmm. I imagine he could tuck the wire between the sound bar and the top. A little Tessa tape on the exposed parts would hire the wires pretty well.
 
Reign Mack said:
take the top off
why are you running the cables out the middle of the back like that ?
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Taking the top off is a small project as I have a gr8tops hardtop, but I was able to test fit the soundbar by sliding onto the rear of the roll bar and sliding it forward.

I did that and then also though that the back side could be used as the front side and the wires could come out through that inward curve. The hardtop has a light right above that space so I can tap into that wire.
 
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Mercury said:
I added a second port to my box today. The port velocity was too high and it was chuffing. It looks like a mad science experiment and it sounds good. I love it 😁

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That looks like an audio driven potato gun!
Mercury said:
Ahhhh, I'm tracking. Then the wires are run down the roll bar on that side.

Hmmm. I imagine he could tuck the wire between the sound bar and the top. A little Tessa tape on the exposed parts would hire the wires pretty well.
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I Intend to install the soundbar with the inward curve facing the rollbar, so different than how it was intended to be installed. I don't see any issue installing in either direction. @Reign Mack do you see any issues there?

Since my hardtop already has an exposed light/wires right above the inward curve, the wires will sit in between the soundbar and rollbar and then connect to the already exposed hardtop light wire, which has a quick disconnect for when the top is removed. When the top is removed I can then stuff the soundbar light wires inside the rollbar padding, like the audio wires.
 
skrelnik said:
That looks like an audio driven potato gun!


I Intend to install the soundbar with the inward curve facing the rollbar, so different than how it was intended to be installed. I don't see any issue installing in either direction. @Reign Mack do you see any issues there?

Since my hardtop already has an exposed light/wires right above the inward curve, the wires will sit in between the soundbar and rollbar and then connect to the already exposed hardtop light wire, which has a quick disconnect for when the top is removed. When the top is removed I can then stuff the soundbar light wires inside the rollbar padding, like the audio wires.
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🤣🤣🤣 You aren't wrong.

That's where I was, couldn't take the top off to access the roll bar properly. I mean, worst case scenario, if you don't like how the wiring is, you can drill a new hole for the wire and plug up the old one.

I need to get my sub and midbass dialed in. Right now there's little separation, just a good amount of bass.

Next project: I'm going to make fiberglass kick panels and move my 6.5s off my sound bar. Then 3" rounds to sit with my tweeters on my a-pillars.
 
skrelnik said:
That looks like an audio driven potato gun!


I Intend to install the soundbar with the inward curve facing the rollbar, so different than how it was intended to be installed. I don't see any issue installing in either direction. @Reign Mack do you see any issues there?

Since my hardtop already has an exposed light/wires right above the inward curve, the wires will sit in between the soundbar and rollbar and then connect to the already exposed hardtop light wire, which has a quick disconnect for when the top is removed. When the top is removed I can then stuff the soundbar light wires inside the rollbar padding, like the audio wires.
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understand, no issues flipping the sound bar around, that makes sense now.
 
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Mercury said:
🤣🤣🤣 You aren't wrong.

That's where I was, couldn't take the top off to access the roll bar properly. I mean, worst case scenario, if you don't like how the wiring is, you can drill a new hole for the wire and plug up the old one.

I need to get my sub and midbass dialed in. Right now there's little separation, just a good amount of bass.

Next project: I'm going to make fiberglass kick panels and move my 6.5s off my sound bar. Then 3" rounds to sit with my tweeters on my a-pillars.
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Now that sounds like a fun project, love that idea. Remember to post pics or it never happened.

If you remove your sound bars, what will you replace with, if anything? Did you get one of these American Soundbars?
 
skrelnik said:
Now that sounds like a fun project, love that idea. Remember to post pics or it never happened.

If you remove your sound bars, what will you replace with, if anything? Did you get one of these American Soundbars?
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Right??? It's been in the planning stages for months. I have a mechanical issue to fix first and then I'll be buying supplies. Oh, I'll have pics. I'll post some here, a bunch in my build log.

I'm actually keeping the bar itself. It helps to put pressure against the hard top which reduces bass loss through reverberation. I made headliners that also put pressure against the top. Not kidding (I measured), the headliners alone doubled my bass. I'll either just put grills on the empty speaker ports or I'll cover them in some way.

I think it's a factory one, PO put it in. It's nothing fancy, just the two 6.5 holes.
 
Well putting a subwoofer in the soundbar turned out to be a bad idea lol, some frequencies were creating some really strange vibrations through the sports bar beyond certain db levels, I have removed the BLAM R8 EL and placed it in my Kicker bass tube , replacing he Alpine R2-W8D4, the R8 blows the R2-W8D4 away, maybe the enclosure is just more ideal size. Im going to put to passive radiators in the remaining 8inch holes in the soundbar. not had tine to sort out the light issue yet, due to other projects.
 
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Reign Mack said:
Well putting a subwoofer in the soundbar turned out to be a bad idea lol, some frequencies were creating some really strange vibrations through the sports bar beyond certain db levels, I have removed the BLAM R8 EL and placed it in my Kicker bass tube , replacing he Alpine R2-W8D4, the R8 blows the R2-W8D4 away, maybe the enclosure is just more ideal size. Im going to put to passive radiators in the remaining 8inch holes in the soundbar. not had tine to sort out the light issue yet, due to other projects.
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Do you know what frequencies were causing the issue? I just wonder if you could use the sound bar for midbass instead of sub bass.
 
Mercury said:
Do you know what frequencies were causing the issue? I just wonder if you could use the sound bar for midbass instead of sub bass.
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not sure I didnt bother it just wasnt a good location compared to having the basetube in the back which practically turns back into a large sub.
s-l1600 (3).jpg im replacing it with these passive radiators when I have time on sunday.
 
Reign Mack said:
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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I had two JL Audio AMPs in a truck for 23 years and they were trouble free the entire time. They were covered with dust when I totaled the truck in an engine bay fire. I sold them and they continue to work.
 
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