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Jeep Speaker Question

5K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  DRE97 
#1 ·
We posted this under the Electronics forum but thought maybe it should be posted here.

We want to replace the speakers in our 1997 GC Limited as the rear speakers are blown. Today we went to Circuit City to see what they had and we could test. The salesman actually told us he could not sell us replacement speakers because we had an Infinity system in the Jeep and replacement speakers would not be compatible. He suggested we buy a "new" radio. Now, I found his comments insulting and told him so and left.
What we really want to know is, could he really be correct.

Help appreciated,
DRE97
 
#4 ·
He is trying to sell you a new system. I installed Blaupunkt speakers with the infinity gold system in the rear doors and ran 'em for a few weeks until I decided to get a new head unit. I still have the IG amp under the rear seat and everything works fine. But I'm no amp head - just wanted a head unit that will play MP3s and hook up to a ipod.

Crutchfield.com Yea :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
DRE97 said:
We posted this under the Electronics forum but thought maybe it should be posted here.

We want to replace the speakers in our 1997 GC Limited as the rear speakers are blown. Today we went to Circuit City to see what they had and we could test. The salesman actually told us he could not sell us replacement speakers because we had an Infinity system in the Jeep and replacement speakers would not be compatible. He suggested we buy a "new" radio. Now, I found his comments insulting and told him so and left.
What we really want to know is, could he really be correct.

Help appreciated,
DRE97
He is wrong...
The Infinity Gold amp you have puts out about 15w x 4 peak. This means each speaker is getting about 3 watts peak to peak (not rms) (we have figured this up more accurately here in other threads, and I'm just working off memory here). If you buy a quality speaker with a resistance greater than 4 ohms, you probably will not be happy with the sound for long.
Having said all that, it is for sure you don't need a new head unit. I replaced all my speakers, installed two amps, and continue to use the stock head unit without problem.
If you merely want to replace two (or four) blown speakers with a minimum of cost, go to Wal-Mart and buy some 6.75 inch round speakers. They'll cost about $30.00 a pair (or so), and sound pretty close to stock.

HTH :thumbsup:
 
#6 ·
I figured I'd chime in on this one since I get very upset whenever I go to Circuit City or Best Buy and I have some kid try to tell me something I know is a lie. Best Buy is better than Circuit City, simply because Circuit City employees are working for a commission and Best Buy's are not.

So no wonder he was trying to sell you a new head unit. That's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. He was treating you like a moron and I'm glad you called him on it.

I think my local Circuit City has a picture of me posted next to their security screens, because they seem to know I'm coming. After I've verbally berated a few employees for actions similar to what you experienced, I don't get anyone coming up to me trying to sell me things I don't need.

My advice is to research the speakers on your own, if you have to go to the store twice in order to see what they have and get model numbers, that's fine. I believe that I am the only one who knows what I want, and some blathering commissioned dweeb at C.C. isn't going to change my mind. If I were you, I'd consider calling the store and speaking to the manager about the conduct of the salesman.

Anyway back on track here - I would think that any speaker would work just fine as long as you make sure the impedance is compatible. And there are plenty of speakers out there which are. You may want to check out Crutchfield's site since they have a really nice "Speaker Selector" based on your GC's specs.

Good Luck!
 
#7 ·
Since they're the rear speakers I wouldn't get real good ones unless and here's an idea, more work but better sound - get decent, high sensitivity(more sound per watt)(see if you can match the stock speaker sensitivity) 6.75" speakers and put them in the front door and the front door speakers in the rear. I think they're the same aren't they? I know the front dash tweeters are spliced off the wiring aren't they? There's no frequency filter (crossover) is there?
Anyway my point is that if your rear speakers are bad it's likely your fronts are not far behind and you want your best sound up front for obvious reasons!

Phil
 
#8 ·
DRE97 said:
We posted this under the Electronics forum but thought maybe it should be posted here.

We want to replace the speakers in our 1997 GC Limited as the rear speakers are blown. Today we went to Circuit City to see what they had and we could test. The salesman actually told us he could not sell us replacement speakers because we had an Infinity system in the Jeep and replacement speakers would not be compatible. He suggested we buy a "new" radio. Now, I found his comments insulting and told him so and left.
What we really want to know is, could he really be correct.

Help appreciated,
DRE97
I have heard this before, many salespeople have been educated to thing that factory and replacement speakers for anything with the infinity system are incompatible do to the Ohms of the speakers....however, after installation in my own ride and MANY other friends of mine, I cannot agree with these salespeople...no problems at all!
 
#10 ·
Salesman was flat wrong. I've got a similar set up, and there are a ton of aftermarket speakers you can use.

The only time this kind of stuff is true is on some specific "amp-on-speaker" systems, but those are rare for stock systems. And Jeep never used them, so it won't matter to you.

The Crutchfiled comment is a good one - go to their website, put in your vehicle, and it will tell you quite clearly what will and what won't work.
 
#11 ·
Well, after working at circuit city, i can tell you that they do not work off commission anymore, which sucks because i wouldve been rich. Secondly, like WVD said, your head unit is fine. If you want to beef up the sound its what is after the head unit that matters. Perhaps an eq plus a couple of amps, with some good speakers. Infinity gold speakers suck, they have more minus's than plus's. Highs are awsome and crisp, but they cant handle the lows :drool: . nor can they handle the head unit.

you could customize your speaker system too if you want. personally after working with sound almost my whole life, infinity completly suck, all around.
 
#12 ·
yardman harry said:
Well, after working at circuit city, i can tell you that they do not work off commission anymore, which sucks because i wouldve been rich. Secondly, like WVD said, your head unit is fine. If you want to beef up the sound its what is after the head unit that matters. Perhaps an eq plus a couple of amps, with some good speakers. Infinity gold speakers suck, they have more minus's than plus's. Highs are awsome and crisp, but they cant handle the lows :drool: . nor can they handle the head unit.

you could customize your speaker system too if you want. personally after working with sound almost my whole life, infinity completly suck, all around.
Thanks to everyone!
We agree CC is full of crap. Speaking with Crutchfield and reviewing their site we found a number of possible solutions. The Crutchfield salesperson even knew that Jeep Infinity was a 2 ohm speaker. He had a short list of good replacement speakers and recommended Alpine's SPS-170A. We also contacted two local Jeep dealers. One said they had Infinity replacement speakers for $130 the other said GC used three different speakers. The best way to match mine was to provide my VIN code and they could match with the correct speaker. Price ranges $30, $52, $113.
Because this is such a simple change, we will likely switch out the front speakers and put them in the rear doors and put the new speaker in the front. Most likely we will be going with Crutchfield recommendations.
Thanks again.
DRE97
 
#13 ·
the problem with the system is that all the speakers run at a 2 ohm impedance when all aftermarket speakers are generaly 4 ohms. replacing the head unit wouldnt do anything unless you also bypassed the factory amp. if you do put in aftermarket 4 ohm speakers your not going to get as much volume out of those as you did with your factory 2 ohm speakers bc they will be getting less power. higher impedance or resistance = less power. But if you do decide to go with after market 4 ohm speakers the s type alpines or a set of pioneers like the tsa-1671 are real efficiant speakers and would work the best for ya.
 
#14 ·
if your worried about how much power (wattage) youre going to be loosing, you can simply use this formula

watts=volts x volts (or volts squared) / ohms (or resistance, in your case the speaker will now be 4 ohms)

now assuming that wvd meant to say that your jeep stereo puts out 15watts x 4, i think he meant to say that each speaker is getting about 15 watts of total power (actually the head unit is capable of producing up to 18 watts per speaker but if it always maxed itself out then it wouldnt last that long). 15 x 4 is 60 watts total power. 3 watts of power would not be loud enough, even on a 2 ohm load. so... if your head unit now puts out 60 watts of power total, and you replaced your speakers with 4 ohm speakers you would be getting only about 8 - 9 watts on those channels. now i am not sure how those head units are made, but i am assuming that those channels are not independant so, all the channels (all four speakers) would only be getting half the power (assuming thats how the amp is made) it wouldnt sound terrible, but you would be loosing a lot of power.

it wouldnt hurt to upgrade your head unit to a larger one. even a simple pioneer cd player that plays mp3s. it think the one that i bought for my xj a long time ago was 25watts x 4. very inexpensive. then try to match the speaker load with the output of the amp.

the reason the factory uses low impedance speakers is so they can skimp on all the other parts in the jeep (in my opinion) because with a 60 watt amp you could power those 2 ohms speakers without drawing hardly any stress on the jeeps electical system. if you were to put large 8 ohm speakers in the jeep you would need a lot more power to have the volume that you get now with your 2 omh loads. This is of course my theory about cars in general, nobody has to buy this bullpoop.

hope i didnt disturb anyone... :confused:
 
#15 ·
Speaker update

Talked with local Jeep dealers today. They said after market speakers will work just fine. However, they said they would be willing to sell me new replacement jeep Infinity speakers for $113 EACH if I wanted to stay stock.
When we spoke with Crutchfield they said the Alpine SPS-170A are a good replacement speaker for Jeeps. If they don't perform as I would like we can return them within 30 days. Seems fair enough to us, so we bought the Alpines.
Will post after we have tried them out.
Once we know they work WE plan on visting Circuit City to, lets just say, give them some advice. :rolleyes:

DRE97
 
#17 ·
If you replace the HU, you lose the radio controls on the steering wheel right? Is there anyway to rewire those to work w/an aftermarket HU?
 
#18 ·
New Speakers Installed

Thanks for all the help.
The Alpine SPS-170A speakers ordered from Crutchfield Monday were delivered today.
Installation was a breeze, Took 20 minutes. Couldn't be happier :D
This was one easy project.
Can't wait to visit Curcuit City and give them a piece of my mind.

DRE97
 
#19 ·
How much did you end up spending on those speakers from Crutchfield?

If I did my research correctly, you might have paid like $99.99? Is that right?

If so, you got ripped off... You could have gotten the same speakers from Woofersetc.com for $65.99 or even $48.00 from Ikesound.com.

Ouch. I hope all is well, though. Definitely better than stock speakers.

EDIT - if you ever think about adding a subwoofer to your car system, I highly suggest dishing out that extra bit of money when it comes to RCA cables. I know the wire is the same in the cheaper cables, but the build quality/quality control is different...
 
#20 ·
BrutusX500 said:
How much did you end up spending on those speakers from Crutchfield?

If I did my research correctly, you might have paid like $99.99? Is that right?

If so, you got ripped off... You could have gotten the same speakers from Woofersetc.com for $65.99 or even $48.00 from Ikesound.com.

Ouch. I hope all is well, though. Definitely better than stock speakers.

EDIT - if you ever think about adding a subwoofer to your car system, I highly suggest dishing out that extra bit of money when it comes to RCA cables. I know the wire is the same in the cheaper cables, but the build quality/quality control is different...
You'll pretty much always get "ripped off" from crutchfield...but then again you are just paying MSRP and for that price you get service from them. If you shop elsewhere you can get better deals...no question about that. So for the novice I suggest Crutchfield, otherwise shop around:thumbsup:
 
#21 ·
ArloGuthroJeep said:
You'll pretty much always get "ripped off" from crutchfield...but then again you are just paying MSRP and for that price you get service from them. If you shop elsewhere you can get better deals...no question about that. So for the novice I suggest Crutchfield, otherwise shop around:thumbsup:
We paid $99 which included shipping, the adapter hardware, and wiring harness adapter.
Called Monday at 11AM delivered Wednesday 1PM.
Each time I checked other vendors they did not include shipping or the accessories.
Either way we are happy.

DRE97
 
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