CampThree
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I did the Terra Acoustic dash speakers yesterday. Took about 15 minutes to do both and the sound is noticeably better. I'm not an audiophile so this upgrade is enough for me.
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BunkieJeeper75
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Did you have the Alpine premium system ?
Felinus Maximus
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I heard a set of these in another Gladiator and will be replacing mine with them as a first step. They were astonishing.
https://terraacoustics.com/products/jeep-front-soundstage-upgrade-jl-jt
https://terraacoustics.com/products/jeep-front-soundstage-upgrade-jl-jt
madesicc88
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Look at trailseven.com, they also have full upgrade kits and even a subwoofer upgrade kit.
Mr._Bill
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I do have the Alpine Premium Sound System. It sounds better to me with the Terra speakers, but I would not call it a significant improvement. It's hard to say, I'm not an audiophile, and I have to turn the bass way down or the thumping gives me a headache.
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Minty JL
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I was going to post the same thing.
Also of note they have a Youtube channel that shows a bunch of installs that apply to the JL/JT platforms
King Nothing
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Yes, go to an actual car stereo shop. Best Buy was OK in the 90s but I wouldn’t let them touch my vehicle now
Wolf Island Diver
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I’ve been messing with car audio for a little while (since the 90s). I would tread carefully. If you have a soft top upgrading the sound system is mostly pointless. However, even with the hardtop, the more volume you’re moving, the more bass, the more the truck rattles. The good news is most people seem to think the Gladiator sounds better than the JL. But we’re still talking about a steel tub with an uninsulated fiberglass top with a bunch of plastic panels clipped to the roll bar and tub. You have to manage expectations.
Some of the better sound shops around here will tackle Jeeps as an engineering challenge but the honest ones will mostly snort at Jeeps and tell you “they don’t hold bass.” To be clear modern JK series forward Jeeps are significantly better and better insulated, but the basic design and relative lack of insulation is still going to really limit things.
The first mod I did, wasn’t speakers. It was full Sound Assassin floor liners and Headliners from @Hothead Headliners. The second mod should have been an Armorlite floor for over top the Sound Assassins. That came later but helped even more. You’ve got to clean up the sound stage before you start throwing more volume or speakers with better dynamic range. Never has there been a vehicle that benefits from Dynamat, etc., like a Jeep.
I would also crank the stock system up and find all the existing rattles. My security gateway and my adaptive cruise control sensor cover both rattle particularly from human voices, e.g., news/talk radio.
The one area everyone agrees upon is replacing the top dash speakers. I had the Kenwoods, but they developed a rattle. Now I have the Infinity’s and I like them more, but both will improve clarity and get rid of most of the muddiness. For a lot of people this is enough. For me it was good enough to not want make me want to go further considering the complexity of doing so.
The problem with upgrading the Sound Bar speakers is that you’re improving a sound stage that’s above and behind your head. These speakers are mostly good for getting the volume you need to overcome top down driving, where all quality is moot and you just need more gain anyway. So far the Alpine speakers have been adequate for this and of adequate quality for rear fill, paired with the upgraded dash speakers. I’d actually be concerned with improving the clarity of the highs from these speakers given the competing front sound stage of the top dash speakers. The stock Alpine system, whatever people think of it, was designed as a system.
The knee speakers are hard to get to. I wouldn’t pay some kid at Best Buy to do this. You need to take the time to do it carefully. I’ve gone into the dash a few times so I don’t remember which job requires it, but some require disconnecting the passenger airbag. Also, once you go into the dash you will often induce more rattles that weren’t there before. You need to take the time to do it carefully and correctly.
My stock sub induced a rattle in the plastic grill in front of it so I fixed that by adding some rubber tubing between the grill and enclosure. I also added some polyfill to the box and sealed the speaker itself better to its enclosure w/ rtv. I believe it’s a ported box but it’s been a while. This tightened up the sound a bit. But getting to the speaker requires removing the rear wall panel of the truck which will break. Personally I don’t think the truck needs more bass that’s within the limit of what won’t induce serious rattling. I can imaging my old single sealed JL 10 box would make the truck a rattling mess. There’s very little space under the front seats so a sub box there is going to be tiny with very little volume for the specs of any decent speaker. I assume those are ported but still I would imagine it’s going to be underwhelming and it will require an amp.
Wiring is another area I wouldn’t let Best Buy techs touch my truck. This is a CanBus system with lots of sensitive electronics. I don’t want some idiot rooting around under my dash looking to tap any hot wire. They and Circuit City, when it was around, have always had a reputation for fucking up peoples OEM electronics. I would run power back to the battery. The whole exercise is involved and expensive and I’m not sure it’s worth it considering how badly Jeeps typically handle bass.
Some of the better sound shops around here will tackle Jeeps as an engineering challenge but the honest ones will mostly snort at Jeeps and tell you “they don’t hold bass.” To be clear modern JK series forward Jeeps are significantly better and better insulated, but the basic design and relative lack of insulation is still going to really limit things.
The first mod I did, wasn’t speakers. It was full Sound Assassin floor liners and Headliners from @Hothead Headliners. The second mod should have been an Armorlite floor for over top the Sound Assassins. That came later but helped even more. You’ve got to clean up the sound stage before you start throwing more volume or speakers with better dynamic range. Never has there been a vehicle that benefits from Dynamat, etc., like a Jeep.
I would also crank the stock system up and find all the existing rattles. My security gateway and my adaptive cruise control sensor cover both rattle particularly from human voices, e.g., news/talk radio.
The one area everyone agrees upon is replacing the top dash speakers. I had the Kenwoods, but they developed a rattle. Now I have the Infinity’s and I like them more, but both will improve clarity and get rid of most of the muddiness. For a lot of people this is enough. For me it was good enough to not want make me want to go further considering the complexity of doing so.
The problem with upgrading the Sound Bar speakers is that you’re improving a sound stage that’s above and behind your head. These speakers are mostly good for getting the volume you need to overcome top down driving, where all quality is moot and you just need more gain anyway. So far the Alpine speakers have been adequate for this and of adequate quality for rear fill, paired with the upgraded dash speakers. I’d actually be concerned with improving the clarity of the highs from these speakers given the competing front sound stage of the top dash speakers. The stock Alpine system, whatever people think of it, was designed as a system.
The knee speakers are hard to get to. I wouldn’t pay some kid at Best Buy to do this. You need to take the time to do it carefully. I’ve gone into the dash a few times so I don’t remember which job requires it, but some require disconnecting the passenger airbag. Also, once you go into the dash you will often induce more rattles that weren’t there before. You need to take the time to do it carefully and correctly.
My stock sub induced a rattle in the plastic grill in front of it so I fixed that by adding some rubber tubing between the grill and enclosure. I also added some polyfill to the box and sealed the speaker itself better to its enclosure w/ rtv. I believe it’s a ported box but it’s been a while. This tightened up the sound a bit. But getting to the speaker requires removing the rear wall panel of the truck which will break. Personally I don’t think the truck needs more bass that’s within the limit of what won’t induce serious rattling. I can imaging my old single sealed JL 10 box would make the truck a rattling mess. There’s very little space under the front seats so a sub box there is going to be tiny with very little volume for the specs of any decent speaker. I assume those are ported but still I would imagine it’s going to be underwhelming and it will require an amp.
Wiring is another area I wouldn’t let Best Buy techs touch my truck. This is a CanBus system with lots of sensitive electronics. I don’t want some idiot rooting around under my dash looking to tap any hot wire. They and Circuit City, when it was around, have always had a reputation for fucking up peoples OEM electronics. I would run power back to the battery. The whole exercise is involved and expensive and I’m not sure it’s worth it considering how badly Jeeps typically handle bass.
Minty JL
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^^^ Solid advice. I'm just cheap and have all the tools. I will install mine when the time comes. The money saved in labor can buy more Jeep parts?
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Wolf Island Diver
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I reread my post and probably like a lot of posts it’s poo pooing the whole sound system upgrade thing. I realize it’s frustrating coming on a forum asking questions to have a bunch of people just shut stuff down.
So let me put this another way. Just replacing components isn’t going to be enough. This could be a really cool project but it’s going to be involved and expensive beyond the components. Fundamentally, you’re starting from a poor platform for car audio so you’ve got to combine any speaker upgrades with a lot of other stuff, mostly sound deadening and noise/rattle hunting and you have to carefully consider the electronics side, with dedicated and isolated power.
When I upgraded my soundbars on two of my previous Jeeps, a JK and TJ. I completely reworked them, sealing the dome lite housings, adding insulation, securing internal wiring, improving how they mounted to the Sport Bar, etc. It was involved. It seems Jeep has no doubt done some of the same stuff themselves in the JL/JT over previous generations but I still think you’ll need to modify a lot of stuff especially if you gain volume, low or high frequencies. All the current NVH testing at Jeep was done with the stock system and that wasn’t fully adequate. Only a sound shop can/will do that kind of stuff and for a huge price. As a cool DIY project you can do it yourself, but I would do it iteratively. That’s sort of what I’m doing. I just haven’t gotten around to further iterations since I was happy with the dash upgrade so far.
So let me put this another way. Just replacing components isn’t going to be enough. This could be a really cool project but it’s going to be involved and expensive beyond the components. Fundamentally, you’re starting from a poor platform for car audio so you’ve got to combine any speaker upgrades with a lot of other stuff, mostly sound deadening and noise/rattle hunting and you have to carefully consider the electronics side, with dedicated and isolated power.
When I upgraded my soundbars on two of my previous Jeeps, a JK and TJ. I completely reworked them, sealing the dome lite housings, adding insulation, securing internal wiring, improving how they mounted to the Sport Bar, etc. It was involved. It seems Jeep has no doubt done some of the same stuff themselves in the JL/JT over previous generations but I still think you’ll need to modify a lot of stuff especially if you gain volume, low or high frequencies. All the current NVH testing at Jeep was done with the stock system and that wasn’t fully adequate. Only a sound shop can/will do that kind of stuff and for a huge price. As a cool DIY project you can do it yourself, but I would do it iteratively. That’s sort of what I’m doing. I just haven’t gotten around to further iterations since I was happy with the dash upgrade so far.
Reo Cook
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I went with these for the dash and soundbar. Noticeable improvement on highs. Added a foxbox with a 10” skar DVC sub with 300w at 1 ohm. Cheap (aside from enclosure) and well worth the money
https://www.allmoparparts.com/sku/77kick25ab.html
https://www.allmoparparts.com/sku/77kick25ab.html
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I upgraded the factory sub box. It is a lot of work, but worth it if you want to keep the storage. Even with the factory alpine amp, if you upgrade any speakers (besides the dash) you are going to end up wanting an amp in the long run! I got sick of the low power after awhile especially with windows open or the top down.
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/it-can-be-done-alpine-premium-sub-upgrade.77573/
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/it-can-be-done-alpine-premium-sub-upgrade.77573/
Zero_Accel
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I also have the Alpine System. While I was okay with the stock sound, I found a good deal on an "OE Plus" upgrade so I jumped on it. I bought a set of Alpine SPV-65-JLT Sound bar speakers, (they're "used, open box" but they had all the packaging and were basically new!) and Dodge Dart Kicker drop in upper dash tweeters. Needed some Metra adapters to bypass the built in crossover on the larger speaker, but it was otherwise a straight forward install. Very happy with the result, a great upgrade for around $500.
While there are some "drop in" soundbar upgrades like the Kicker speakers, I liked the Alpine option because it looks factory. With a fresh utility knife and/or a Dremel if needed, it's a pretty straightforward job.
While there are some "drop in" soundbar upgrades like the Kicker speakers, I liked the Alpine option because it looks factory. With a fresh utility knife and/or a Dremel if needed, it's a pretty straightforward job.
ttn333
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I really like the combination of Terra acoustics in the dash and just stuffing the sound bar. I'd say it's significant enough of a difference for me to not go further. I'd upgrade the knee pods before the speaker bar though. It would be weird to most of the sound shift behind and above my head.
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