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Some audio help

1K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  Prot 
#1 ·
I'm kicking around the idea of upgrading my sound. I have searched just a few places and it seems the JK 2dr is a speaker fitting odd-ball. Fist of all, do we have a wiring harness we can buy yet? If so, I don't plan to spend *to* much. I was thinking for all the speakers(sub included) amp, and deck maybe.. $1000 +/- $100. Right now I have the infinity setup, which is nice, but for one, my hearing is shot and a kick in the volume would certainly be better, for an other, I hate losing quality after I turn it up past 26-27 range.

With that said, are there any recommendations? Tell me about your setup, Prot, you in particular seem to be quite an audiophile, so I'd like to hear from you if you don't mind.
 
#2 ·
I put in an Alpine head unit, 3 ways in the dash and 2 ways in the bar. 656 watt four channel powers the dash and doors, and a 250 watt two channel (bridged) powers a 10 inch sub in the back. Sounds good, you can hear it with the top down and doors off on the highway.

The worst part is the wiring harness. A lot of people have had problems with them. Getting the dash speakers out sucks too.

6 1/2 speakers work in the dash and in the bar, so you literally have dozens of choices. Have fun.
 
#4 ·
There are two wiring harnesses out there, both of which are expensive for being a wiring harness, but since the can buss includes the radio, it's how things are now. One of them is for the regular sound system and the other is for the amplified 7 speaker infinity system. They cost $80-$125, but some people have found them cheaper on ebay. Since it's sort of part the computer system, I'd be leery of deals that seem too good to be true.

If you have the amplified Infinity system, but are going to bypass the amp, then the non-amplified harness is the one to get. It's what I went with.

Infinity 6020CS components fit nicely in the dash and the tweeters fit in the factory tweeter pods. Put the crossovers in the ends of the dash. They have excellent imaging and bright highs without being harsh. Infinity 6022SI coaxials are a nice complement to those as they have similar efficiency, power handling, and frequency characteristics while being shallow enough for the sound bar. The impedence for both of these speaker sets is 2 ohms, so that's another reason why they work well together, especially with a four channel amp as the F250 in my signature pushing them.

Next up is the sub. Cheap plastic is a poor choice of sub-enclosure material especially in higher powered systems, so changing out the factory sub and keeping the enclosure isn't really the best way to go. To have bass, you have to move air. This is why I have never been impressed with shallow mount subs. At first, I got a 10" Infinity Perfect sub, but returned it because it just didn't have the oomph I needed. I then got the 10" JBL P1024. It's a dual voice coil sub, is very deep, and has a very sturdy frame. I wired the dual voice coils so it presents a 2 ohm load to my amp. I'm pushing 600 watts continuous to my sub. The key to the exceptional sound of my system is balance. The bass is tight and controlled, hits hard, and really sounds like drums but does not drown out the highs or muddy the mids. The thing that impresses people that have heard my setup is it sounds great with ANY music. Heavy metal, classical, jazz, rock & roll, rap, country, blues, whatever, it sounds fantastic with great imaging and stereo separation. You can turn it up really loud and it never distorts or becomes harsh. I have the optional blue tooth modules for my Alpine head unit with the mic mounted on the left side of the windshield, tucked into the plastic trim. Call quality is great and it pairs with my V3XXX RAZR nicely. It allows me to dial numbers in my phone's phone book through the head unit and the caller id displays on the screen. I went with a cube shaped sub enclosure that has an angle on the face that matches the angle of the back seat. It has quick connectors on the back of it, so if I need extra cargo room, I can easily remove it. With it in place, even though the enclosure is bigger than the factory one, it takes up less room because it's in a better location, against the back seat on the driver's side.

It's not a competition system, but I believe the only way to get better sound is to spend substantially more money and convert the whole rear section of the Jeep to a large array of subwoofers, amps, etc.

I took the lady that sold me my Jeep for a ride and let her listen to my sound system and she couldn't believe it and started singing along. She was also very pretty, but married unfortunately. My signature has all the stuff I did listed.

My sub and head unit came from crutchfield. my amps and speakers came from hooked on tronics. My sub enclosure came from a local audio shop.
 
#7 ·
There are two wiring harnesses out there, both of which are expensive for being a wiring harness, but since the can buss includes the radio, it's how things are now.
Errr well yes and no

If you MUST have the radio work while the key is in accessory mode, then yes you need the $100 harness. But if you are ok with it only being on with the ignition on, then you can wire the ignition wire for the stereo to the ignition on wire (pink with a white stripe) at the ignition to make it work. Every thing else is a direct wire.

Now it is alittle more difficult bypassing the Amp... but i dont know how to do that
 
#6 ·
Prot, as always a great help! Thanks a bunch. And just to clairify; Since i do have the 7 speaker infinity system, and i do plan on upgrading the amp, i should get the wiring harness that bypasses the amp? Where is a good place to start looking for the harness? or would my local best buy have one available?
 
#9 ·
I'd like to ask Prot if the reason mine sounds so "highendy" is perhaps because of the soft top? I'm thinking it's just not as nearly air tight as a car would be. Maybe I should be looking at a sub unit as well. And well, I spent way too many years too close to the drummer and that doesn't help. LOL
 
#10 ·
When I got mine, the harness was hard to come by and only a couple of places had them. I think crutchfield has them now. If you don't get the harness and hardwire it like omni suggested, you are going to have a lot of error codes in your computer. Next time you bring the jeep in to get serviced, especially if it is something to do with a warranty on the computer or something, you will have less hassle if you used the harness than hardwiring it and generating error codes from the hardwire.

My system is ran with a dual amp wiring kit. What this does is take a heavy gauge wire from the battery into the cab of the Jeep. From there, there is a distribution block, with each of my two amps connected to it.
 
#11 ·
Running two amps also, just buy a duel amp kit and wire it yourself it is not hard, I would however get the wireing harness for the stereo just like Prot said
 
#12 ·
26-27 range? Yikes, at 65mph top off, I don't even hear wind noise anymore with the volume at 17-20 (Alpine headunit and amp). My experience with the wiring harness is that it's not 100%, but you end up living with it auto-shutting down. If I were to do it over, I'd hard wire things (leaves more room for cabling).
 
#13 ·
The 26-27 range that was referred to was on the original post, referring to the stock system.

I have zero issues with my wiring harness. The power to the radio acts the same as it did when the factory unit was in there. If I have the vehicle running and the radio on, then turn the vehicle off, the radio will still play until I open a door or after 10 minutes or so has passed, unless i have the key in the accessory position in which case it will play indefinitely. Something must be wrong with your harness or installation. Mine behaves identical to factory.
 
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