For today’s build highlight we wanted to take a look at some factory door speaker upgrades for newer Jeep Wrangler JLs. Some newer JL models depend on 2 sets of 4inch speakers and two sets of 2inch tweeters for their factory sound system. While this might be fine for some, these small speakers just don’t cut it if you want a loud sound system. First of all, these tiny speakers aren’t really cut out for any sort of aftermarket amplifier, so if you were thinking about getting more oomph out of them by adding a 4-channel amplifier that’s going to be a no-go.
BEFORE: Factory component speakers on 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL
AFTER: 6.5 inch speaker adapted into 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL soundbar.
Luckily enough for us our friends over at Metra have developed speaker pods that allow us to go from the factory 4” component speakers over to a 6.5-inch speaker of your choice. Making the switch from a 4” door speaker to a 6.5” door speaker dramatically opens your options when it comes to picking out a replacement speaker for your power needs.These pods are available for both the two component speakers up on the sound bar and the set of 4” speakers that sit up under the driver foot wells so that way you can fully upgrade your Jeep’s factory sound system.
6.5 inch Kenwood speaker in its front dash adapter for Jeeps.
For this specific sound system, we decided to go with one of our favorite factory replacement full range door speakers: Kenwood Exelon Reference. As we’ve mentioned before- these door speakers are perfect for most sound systems. They work great with factory radios but can also handle up to 100 watts rms so they’re perfect for the addition of a 4-channel amplifier.
As always if you have any questions about our builds or want to price out a sound system of your own feel free to give us a call!
Its time to highlight one of the sound systems we worked on at our shop! This sound system was installed on a 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 and covers all the basses needed for a full-blown sound system.
Here’s the overall breakdown for what we installed:
1 AudioControl LC6i to get a clean signal from the truck’s factory radio.
0 Gauge oxygen free power and ground cable.
2 Hifonics Gemini Amplifiers- one to power our subwoofers and one to power the door speakers.
Now the most important part of any sound system is going to be the stuff you don’t even hear- the wiring and line output converters. We decided to go with 0-gauge Stinger brand oxygen free copper (OFC) power cable to serve as the foundation for the entire system. Using oxygen free cable in your sound system is going to make sure all your amplifiers are receiving the optimal amount of power from your battery. While OFC cable tends to be a little more expensive than other types of amp power kits, we fully believe it is the best bet to go with to make sure any system works no matter the size.
The next bit of the system’s foundation is the line output converter. For those of you who may not know- line output converters are little devices that let us connect your aftermarket sound system to your factory radio without having to modify it! There are tons of options out there for line output converters to use, but for a build of this size our preference is Audio Control’s LC6i system. Using the right line output converter can make or break any sound system in your car because its going to act as the source of the audio signal that your amplifiers are going to work with. The LC6i is going to give us the cleanest signal from our factory radio without introducing any extra noise. Using cheaper or less powerful alternatives won’t give us a quality signal to which will make your system not sound the best- even if you shelled out the money for top-of-the-line amplifiers and speakers.
Now for the fun stuff! This build utilizes a set of DS18 ProNeo pro audio speakers and tweeters powered by a Hifonics brand 4- channel amplifier to deliver the mids and highs for this system. The DS18 ProNeo series of door speaker provides a whopping 250 watt rms punch to this sound system delivering loud and clear mids and highs.
ugly old factory door speaker
Pro audio door speakers like these ProNeo speakers from DS18 will sound best when paired up with a 4-channel amp. Factory and aftermarket stereos simply do not have the power to drive these speakers on their own.
DS18 Pro-Neo Speaker
For the bass we went with two DB Drive 8” sub woofers loaded in one of our custom ported boxes. These woofers are being powered by a monoblock Hifonics amplifier at 1 ohm so that we can get the full power of the amplifier. This customer mentioned to us that he listens to a wide range of genres of music, so we also decided to add and Epicenter from our friends at Audio Control. The Epicenter is a bass restoration DSP that allows us to adjust the amplitude of lower frequencies- aka it increases the bass in songs that don’t really have a lot of bass in them like corridos, banda, country, etc.
DB Drive 8″ woofers in one of our custom ported boxes.
And finally, we went ahead and added some interior and exterior lighting around the truck to give it that extra personal touch. While these LED lights and underglow don’t add anything to the sound system it helps the truck stand out from the rest.
RGB lighting.
If you’re interested in getting a sound system or have any questions about car audio, security, or suspension feel free to give us a call! Remember, it’s your ride made better.
