I was just wondering what the power specs are for the ‘02 factory stereo. Looking to upgrade and I want to make sure I am well above the factory watts.
What are the factory stereo power specs for a 2002 TJ?
- Thread starter HolePounder
- Start date
The factory stereo puts out 6-8 RMS watts per channel. Make sure any new speakers you install have a Sensitivity rating of no less than 90 dB. If you buy one with less of a Sensitivity rating you'll require a really high wattage aftermarket amplifier. Pay no attention to the speaker's wattage rating they scream in big letters in their ads or on the box, that's just the max power they can accept from the amplifier without blowing up. The problem is the Sensitivity rating is usually buried in the speaker specifications.
A 3 dB Sensitivity rating makes a HUGE HUGE (!!) difference in how much power a speaker requires. It takes twice as many watts to produce the same volume with a speaker with an 87 dB Sensitivity rating than it does with a speaker with a 90 dB sensitivity rating. Speakers with higher sensitivity ratings like 90 dB and higher are a little harder to find but Kicker and Polk's DB series have speakers rated with a 90-92 dB Sensitivity rating.
A 3 dB Sensitivity rating makes a HUGE HUGE (!!) difference in how much power a speaker requires. It takes twice as many watts to produce the same volume with a speaker with an 87 dB Sensitivity rating than it does with a speaker with a 90 dB sensitivity rating. Speakers with higher sensitivity ratings like 90 dB and higher are a little harder to find but Kicker and Polk's DB series have speakers rated with a 90-92 dB Sensitivity rating.
Interesting since I just replaced the speakers. Both pairs are 92dB. So I am walking in the tall cotton!
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_108R6432CM/Infinity-Reference-REF-6432cfx.html?omnews=16810957https://www.crutchfield.com/p_108R5032CM/Infinity-Reference-REF-5032cfx.html?omnews=16810957
A big improvement over the tired original speakers.
Thanks for the info!
When I replaced the factory Infinity speakers in my '01; I installed Polk DB with 96 db in the roll bar pods and infinity Cappa with 93 db in the dash pods. The audio was MUCH better than what was previously installed.
For this vehicle, depending on your listening conditions, and subject to everything above regarding speaker sensitivity, I would suggest you'd want ~50W/channel to each of the 4, and ideally, you'd want about 4-500W for the sub. That said, our vehicles don't really have a good place for a sub that can handle that power, and the 200W RMS Cerwin Vega AIO subwoofer box I just put in seems more than sufficient if you can deal with the lack of true low end. If you can't, then you are back in the 500W range and looking at a 12" sub.
I've got an Alpine 4x40W and it is plenty loud enough to damage hearing...
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I've got an Alpine 4x40W and it is plenty loud enough to damage hearing...
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TJRick
TJ Enthusiast
Thanks for responding; I need a new set of stock replacement speakers to go with my stock CD player. I would like to hear your opinion of these. They look good and are cheaper than what I was looking at. Are they much better than your stock speakers? Did you have to wire these in, or did they come with correct plugs already on them?
I was looking at these replacement Kickers from Quadratec that already have the factory plugs on them:
https://www.quadratec.com/products/14133_2X0_PG.htm
https://www.quadratec.com/products/14133_2X1_PG.htm
I don’t know enough about speakers in general to give an opinion on those speakers. I do see they are nearly twice the price. so
I am not sure what happened here, lol.
Anyway, I intended to say:
I don’t know enough about speakers in general to give an opinion on those speakers. I do see they are nearly twice the price. so I imagine they would be equal to better than mine.
The speakers I bought from Crutchfield included all the things necessary to install them. No splicing and such was required.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206DSC504/Kicker-43DSC504.html?omnews=16810957
Seems like almost the same speaker and half the price of quadratrec
More:
https://www.crutchfield.com/m_399/Car-Speakers.html
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