New Speakers SUCK.

[FitchVA]

i decided to go ahead and get a new cd/mp3 player to repace my factory tape deck. while i was on crutchfield's web site, i saw they were running a special on some speakers. so i grabbed up 2 sets of Kenwood KFC-1389ie's . according to crutchfield's ez fit system, the front and roof speakers to my '98 are 5 1/4" all around. so that's what i got. well, they really don't fit. they're small to the point where i needed to put small washers on the mounting screws so they would catch the mounting notches of the speakers.

and to my dismay, the 4 new speakers sound aweful. now i know the xj's don't have good speaker cavaties that lend themselves to good sound, but heck, my stock speakers sound better. none-the-less, i'm gonna return these speakers. does anyone have any reccomendations on 2 sets of speakers that would fit better / sound better?

thanks in advance.

 

[backinblack]

Alpine, they fit correctly and sound great. While you are upgrading run some 12 gauge wires.

 

[wadea7]

I got a set of Infinity speakers for the rear and Infinity Components for the front. The rear roof install was simple, but I was not sure of the correct wire polarity (conflicting reports on which was which), but they sound good. I am ordering an Alpine 9815 next week and will install the components when I change out the HU.

Now for a security system..

Wade
2001 Cherokee Classic
1991 Cherokee Laredo

 

[imma honky]

Apline head unit and 4 infinity 5 1/4's.....sound great.
I think its the kenwoods.

 

[FitchVA]

do you think i should return the kenwood cd/mp3 player? --> link

 

[CStamm]

Kenwood makes nice receiver's but they're speakers are generally crap. Infinity's are nice, but usually sound better with an amp (the kappa's anyway). With speakers, you usually get what you pay for. Run thicker gauge wire wil help a little. You could get some sheets of Dynamat to put on the inside of the mounting surfaces. And for the 5 1/4" in the doors, I'd get the speaker baffles. They go on the back of the speaker and protect it from water/moisture.

 

[imma honky]

I agree with CStamm all the way. My Alpine has an internal amp to power the speakers which is a plus. I also have some foam inserts that go in the speaker holes. Does the same thing as dynamat except you can take them out whenever you want. I highly advise you get some.

 

[Atl XJ]

One thing that you are going to run into on aftermarket speakers vs the factory ones is the factory speakers will go lower. Aftermarket speaker, depending on the brand, sound much better than the originals, but are not designed to produce the low frequencies the aftermarket ones do. I blew my back speakers and replaced them with Polk Audios. Great speakers, but they will not go as low as the factories in my front doors. What I'm planning on doing is putting 6 1/2s in my front doors. They will go in with a little fabrication. The 6 1/2s will go much lower than the 5 1/4s. I have a 95 Country edition, but this is true for all the pre 97s, all you have to do is fabricate a spacer. I second the idea of Alpines or Infinities.

 

[Dirk Funk]

In what way do they not sound good? Speakers made by different manufacturers are designed to sound a certain way; for instance, Infinities are known for their bass, alpine their crispness and clarity. You can't just throw any speaker in any place and expect it to sound awesome. Depending on the speakers specs (Thiele Small parameters like VAS, Vb, F3) it will sound a certain way in a certain enclosure with a certain amount of volume.

If you ever don't like the way your speakers are sounding, put some accoustic foam in the chamber and experiment with the ammount to see if you like the sound better. The filler effectively makes the enclosure larger and will change the sound characteristics of the speaker. You can use simple fiberglass insulation, accousta-stuff, blackhole-5, etc....

JBL is a very good speaker; gets their stuff from Vifa; an incredible company, and slaps a JBL sticker on it. Infinity might as well, but I can't remember. Hope this helps.

 

[FitchVA]

In what way do they not sound good?

they, in general, sound bad. at lunch i had a coworker go out and listen to them. he also agreed. they don't have ANY bass response whatsoever. they distort way before it gets loud. the mids sound like i installed them in a well.

i'm not expecting them to have glass shattering bass or ear piercing hi's, but i expected them to sound better than stock. heck, my $12 sony earphones sound better.

 

[Drewlee77]

Sometimes even good speakers sound bad in a certain enclosure. The rear sound bar is particularly poor for most speakers because it present very little of an enclosure - it might as well be free-air. The front speakers at least have the door.

Concerning size - the stock speakers (at least, in my 00) were a non-standard size. I think they were 6" (not 6.5" or 5.25", anyway) so it might take a little work to fit any standard size. The main problem is the depth of the speaker. you can make 6.5" fit with minimal work IF they aren't too deep. I have 5.25" up front and 6.5" in the back - which is backwards from what Crutchfield had listed for mine at the time.

Concerning brands, you might give Pioneer a shot if you want bang-for-buck. They won't sound as good as a much more expensive speaker like a high-end Alpine, but for the price they sound excellent. The most important car-audio advice though: avoid SONY at all costs. Their home-audio stuff is ok, but their car-audio stuff is junk. Be wary of any company that resorts to flashy colors or bizarre designs. Also avoid Rockford Fosgate - they used to be very high quality, but at some point they were bought out and the quality went WAY down. Alpine head units are fantastic, and Clarion and Eclipse have equally impressive reputations. I already mentioned Pioneer... get a head unit with a built-in high-pass filter for the mains. Because the stock enclosures lack any real form of seal, bass will suffer and it will cause the speaker work too hard trying to reproduce bass and the speaker will distort. It's better just to roll off the low-end and let your speakers work at what they can do.
Here's the bad news, without some not-so-minimal enclosure work and/or speaker know-how, you probably are not going to get good bass out of the main speakers. If you want bass, you'll have to build a sub. A single high-quality 10" sub in a sealed box with a couple hundred watts should be enough.

 

[Eagle]

I thought 97+ XJs had 6-1/2" speakers in the front doors.

Yes? No?

 

[Markm80521]

Don't know what your budget is but I bought infinty Kappa series fron and back. 6inch 3ways for the back (i redid the hatch with mdf to fit them) and 6 inch bass, 2 inch tweeter with crossover in custom kick panels on the floor.

Sound is fantastic. You will never great deep bass (if that is your thing) out of a cherokee unless you go with a box or I have seen people put a ten or twelve in that space on the passenger rear cargo panel. For my music what I have sounds fantastic.

 

[FitchVA]

thanks for all the great feedback guys. it's been a ton of help.

i think i'm just gonna return the speakers and use the oem ones. and when spring rolls around, i'll probably have the funds to do it right. i probably never should have gotten them in the first place. i didn't do much research on them. i wanted to buy the cd/mp3 player and when i saw they had a discount if you bought 2 sets of kenwood speakers, i went ahead and bought them. yeah, i know, i fell for the bait. gosh-darn marketing

besides, i probably wouldn't have been satisfied with the setup. in hs, i had a sweet setup in an old bronco II.

 

[sredish]

Alpine, they fit correctly and sound great. While you are upgrading run some 12 gauge wires.

Alpines are good. Just make sure you buy the Type R speakers, they'll sound a lot crisper and have decent mids. Don't every buy anything smaller than 6.5" or 6"x8" unless you have other mid speakers, because if you buy 4 5.25" spkrs for your vehicle, you'll get no decent mid/midbass, all somewhat high reproduction. Trust me, cut the opening bigger if need be, you'll be a lot happer with a 6.5" or 6"x8" speaker, much better reproduction and doesn't hurt the ears.

Scott

 

[Eagle]

While limping home from Massachusetts with no clutch and listening to Alabama on my older Kenwood CD head through stock 1988 speakers, it occured to me to ask if you are certain you had the speakers wired correctly. Reversing positive and negative might affect the sound. Worse would be to have tow wired correctly and two reversed. They'd be out of phase and tend to turn the sound into a flatter, drone-like tone.

Just a thought.

 

[FitchVA]

nope, i'm sure they're all plugged in right. beings i got it from crutchfield, they had all of the wireing harnesses. me being the neat-freak, i used bullet style connectors to make all of the connections. the first time i plugged it in, i didn't have any front left speaker signal, so i pulled it all out. turns out, the two wiring harnesses weren't fully pushed together. but just to make sure, i double checked all of my connections. all of the wires were labeled (+) or had the black stipe (-).

and as for the speaker connections, they should be right cause the crutchfield supplied factory bracket had one small and one large connection to coincide with the small and large connectors on the speaker itself.

but i had the new deck installed and pushing the old oem speakers for a full day cause i ran out of daylight to install the new speakers. and the oem's sounded decent. so the only way i could have f'ed up the wiring would be with the speakers...and with the adapter brackets, i don't see howi could have messed them up

 

[Georgia Mike]

Try a quick polarity test:
Turn it on and turn the balance and fader to the front driver's speaker only and listen. Then,turn the balance to where both fronts are playing and note any change in tone. Now,do the same,only with the rear speakers this time. Any difference? Now,fade slowly to the front and note any changes. If there's ANY change in sound quality at all (besides it getting louder),you have at least one,or a pair out of phase. Don't assume that just because you hooked them up correctly that they can't be out of phase from the factory (IE: + is really -,and - is really +) I've seen it before,and it's a more common occurance than the average person realizes. A quick way to determine if this is the case is to take a "D" size battery and touch the terminals of the speaker to the ends of the battery. If the speaker moves forward when you touch the + and - of the speakers to the same on the battery,then it's correct,if it moves backwards,it's wrong. If all else fails,get some JL Audio's,Canton/Pullman,or MB Quart's if you want excellent sound reproduction. My advise,though,whatever brand you decide to buy,go with the 6.5'' size. It may take a little more work (if any at all),but the improvement over the 5.25" will be tremedous!

Just for reference:
The following is for high-powered in dash receivers with no outboard amplifier.

4"=great vocals,decent midrange,very low bass reproduction. Recommended x-over points range from 90hz all the way up to 200hz.

5.25"=Tinny vocals,great midrange,poor bass response(for the average set). Recommended x-over points range from 70hz to 150hz.

6.5"=Strong bass response,clouded vocals,decent midrange. Recommended x-over points range from 50hz to 90hz.

This is just from my experience in the autosound industry,and are good starting points to building a great sounding and long-lasting sound system. X-over points should be moved towards the upper end of the recommended points if using an amplifier with a subwoofer. Just my $.25

 

[Atl XJ]

That was my bad on the speaker size. Yes Eagle you are correct. I didn't look at what year his XJ was. The pre 97's had 5 1/4s in the front doors

 

[5-90]

Sony Xplod or Jensen poly-cones - I used both (88 and 89 XJ) and just love them. Can usually be found on sale as well - save yerself 20-30% or so... My entire system cost me about $250, and sounds great to me (test w/Metallica, Santana, and some good old Joe Walsh chunky guitar work!)

5-90