School me on upgrading system

[rvillano8188]

I have the 8.4 with premium sound, but have been disappointed in it’s power with top/doors off. What’s my first step?

side question: are these an upgrade over premium? Non premium sound?https://www.quadratec.com/p/alpine/...-bar-speaker-upgrade-wrangler-jl-gladiator-jt

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[johnparjr]

Buy these 2 sets and be happy save money. They are plug and play for the two on top of the dash and the two under the screens in the sound bar

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I2UYPI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[athous]

I have the 8.4 with premium sound, but have been disappointed in it’s power with top/doors off. What’s my first step?

side question: are these an upgrade over premium? Non premium sound?https://www.quadratec.com/p/alpine/...-bar-speaker-upgrade-wrangler-jl-gladiator-jt

I’d like to know this as well. i have the premium system and it isn’t impressive at all. Probably going to have to disassemble the bar to see what speakers the premium system has in there.

 

[athous]

I finally took the grill off my "premium" sound bar and this is what it looks like. Its about as far from premium as it gets. The one with the plastic grill appears to be ported. The one with the fabric grill appears to be ported as well, but theres a piece of foam in its port. That foam came right out when I pulled on it. The fabric speaker looks like a super cheap paper thin cone. The other one looks to better like polypropelene or something. Using that dart upgrade speaker would only replace one of the speakers in this mess. It seems that 450 dollar option would be better suited. But thats a lot of cheddar to drop for something that might not be all that much of an improvement. I would like to upgrade my system with the stock head without having to go full on hacker and splicing in an amp, wiring, surface speakers etc. Anything I can do to improve sound without massive modifications would be the route id like to go. Id spend extra for something more streamlined.

 

[athous]

Sooo to keep adding ......the alpine install manual shows it replaces the exact speakers the premium has. You have to do a bit of cutting which sucks buts it’s a bolt up upgrade. Going to drop the cheddar and give it a whirl.

http://support.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/IM_SPV-65-JLT.pdf

link to manual above.

 

[rvillano8188]

Sooo to keep adding ......the alpine install manual shows it replaces the exact speakers the premium has. You have to do a bit of cutting which sucks buts it’s a bolt up upgrade. Going to drop the cheddar and give it a whirl.

http://support.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/IM_SPV-65-JLT.pdf

link to manual above.

Would like to see someone without premium sound open their sound bar and show us what’s in there for comparison.

hoping it’s more a speaker sucks issue than a power issue. Would prefer not to slice and dice to get an amp in there if I can avoid it

 

[CWGrisw0ld]

I finally took the grill off my "premium" sound bar and this is what it looks like. Its about as far from premium as it gets. The one with the plastic grill appears to be ported. The one with the fabric grill appears to be ported as well, but theres a piece of foam in its port. That foam came right out when I pulled on it. The fabric speaker looks like a super cheap paper thin cone. The other one looks to better like polypropelene or something. Using that dart upgrade speaker would only replace one of the speakers in this mess. It seems that 450 dollar option would be better suited. But thats a lot of cheddar to drop for something that might not be all that much of an improvement. I would like to upgrade my system with the stock head without having to go full on hacker and splicing in an amp, wiring, surface speakers etc. Anything I can do to improve sound without massive modifications would be the route id like to go. Id spend extra for something more streamlined.

That foam is a port plug. Put it back.
Also, there are incredibly high end speakers with paper cones. The cone material does not determine the quality of the speaker.

 

[hjdca]

I have the 8.4 with premium sound, but have been disappointed in it’s power with top/doors off. What’s my first step?

side question: are these an upgrade over premium? Non premium sound?https://www.quadratec.com/p/alpine/...-bar-speaker-upgrade-wrangler-jl-gladiator-jt

If you improve the source input, it makes a huge difference in loudness, separation, thickness, growl. I ripped 60 gig of CDs in lossless format (.wav works) and put it on a 128 gig usb stick (using ITunes to rip the CDs). I plugged it into the rear USB input and I get a nice user interface to play each folder or play all the songs random. The difference in the quality of the sound vs. Sirius or the radio is night and day. These systems are always tested with CD quality input and we do not do them justice by judging them with Sirius or the radio.

 

[athous]

That foam is a port plug. Put it back.
Also, there are incredibly high end speakers with paper cones. The cone material does not determine the quality of the speaker.

I am well aware of cone material, however in this instance I dont believe FCA was going to splurge on the higher end option. And I only removed the foam to look at it. It was quickly replaced.

 

[CWGrisw0ld]

And I only removed the foam to look at it. It was quickly replaced.

Sorry, missed that.

The average joe knows almost nothing about audio - I just don't want someone to read this thread and accidentally equate cone material with speaker quality. There are both excellent and awful speakers with cones made of paper, polypropylene, carbon fiber, and kevlar. It all comes down to the speaker designer.

The most important thing to realize is that the acoustics of every vehicle on the road are absolute garbage. There are too many hard surfaces with reflections, minimal absorption, listener distance from speakers is far from optimal; therefore, the difference between high end speakers and mid-levels speakers is minimal. Don't go overboard. Make sure you have a decent amp so your speakers can get loud enough to overcome road/wind noise with the top off, and get some sort of headliner for absorption when the top is on.

 

[Lynn_F]

I did not have the premium speaker package and replaced all of my speakers with Cerwin Vega H435 & H440. I initially just upgraded the speakers and it made a big difference but then i added a 5 channel amp and the speakers really woke up. I really wanted the amp to power a 10" sub so if I hadn't installed the sub I would have been perfectly happy with just the speaker upgrade. Again, this was an upgrade over the non premium speakers.

 

[athous]

This am I went back out and took off a couple of the speakers in the sound bar to see their quality. To be perfectly honest they feel like garbage. They are super dinky. Light, cheap paper material and feel like something you get in a cheap PC speaker. I went ahead and splurged on those 450 buck Alpines and got two 3.5" kickers for the dash. As Ive read the kick panels are a PITA so going to skip those for now and see how this works out. The speakers in the dash are simple dinky speakers as well which appear to be the same paper cone thats in the sound bar. Got some polyfill and some acoustic mat to install as well. Apparently lots of places to put it. I know the gladiator is far from good for acoustics, but as cheap as sound mat and polyfill is its worth a shot.

On another note I cant find anything that eludes to the premium sound being any different speaker wise outside of the subwoofer. Searched the internet and saw multiple post from wrangler forums where the speakers in base models appear the same as the alpine premium model. Perhaps Im wrong, but its hard to find defining information on this. I would really prefer to not install an amp as space in my cab is extremely limited as well as the amount of wires I have going to my battery for all my accessories. Plus my hands are cut up still from installing stuff in the bay already (winch, power steps, onboard air, light bar's)

 

[jmdwifi]

I got the premium because I had it in my 15 wrangler and it kicked ass. Compared to that, this is disappointing. It's not horrible, just disappointing compared to my 15 JKU

 

[Hothead Headliners]

Sorry, missed that.

The average joe knows almost nothing about audio - I just don't want someone to read this thread and accidentally equate cone material with speaker quality. There are both excellent and awful speakers with cones made of paper, polypropylene, carbon fiber, and kevlar. It all comes down to the speaker designer.

The most important thing to realize is that the acoustics of every vehicle on the road are absolute garbage. There are too many hard surfaces with reflections, minimal absorption, listener distance from speakers is far from optimal; therefore, the difference between high end speakers and mid-levels speakers is minimal. Don't go overboard. Make sure you have a decent amp so your speakers can get loud enough to overcome road/wind noise with the top off, and get some sort of headliner for absorption when the top is on.

I just watched Christmas Vacation the other day so I'm diggin' your profile avatar, Griswold!

x2 on the headliner recommendation, but I'm obviously a little biased.

-Mark

 

[rvillano8188]

I just watched Christmas Vacation the other day so I'm diggin' your profile avatar, Griswold!

x2 on the headliner recommendation, but I'm obviously a little biased.

-Mark

You were my first purchase after ordering my Jeep! As someone not biased, they’re super high quality and really helped insulate sound and temp

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