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SSV Works Soundbar 6.5" speaker adapter installed

RSK

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So I'm reading the comments and wondering if those who made the swap are truly "wowed" and consider the modification worth money spent over a SB stock premium speakers? Meaning is the SSV Soundworks 6.5" a game changer with the new adapters and 6.5" speakers on an 8.4 Alpine Premium stock head/amp or is an aftermarket amp still needed to hear a difference?

Is it worth the SSV adapter & 6.5" speaker upgrades or about the same without an aftermarket amp?
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emgeesea

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So I'm reading the comments and wondering if those who made the swap are truly "wowed" and consider the modification worth money spent over a SB stock premium speakers? Meaning is the SSV Soundworks 6.5" a game changer with the new adapters and 6.5" speakers on an 8.4 Alpine Premium stock head/amp or is an aftermarket amp still needed to hear a difference?

Is it worth the SSV adapter & 6.5" speaker upgrades or about the same without an aftermarket amp?
If you're not intending to amplify the sound bar speakers with more than the factory radio's power, it is not worth it to spend the money, in my opinion. I did change my sound bar speakers to Alpine R Series 6.5s using the SSV adaptors - and I amplified these with an external amp - and even then the sound improvement is not significant. I think the reason is that in the JL, most of the sound comes from the front of the vehicle. The sound bar just provides fill. So, you're better off spending on better dash tweeters, an amp to power these, and a sub woofer to provide low end. I did that first, then replaced the sound bar speakers, and the big improvement came from the first step. Changing the sound bar speakers did little extra.

Having said this, I do not have the 8.4" radio, but the 7", so perhaps the 8.4 provides enough amplification on its own to power the sound bar speakers differently than the 7. But in any event, as I said, even after powering my speakers with an external amp and switching to 6.5s I did not get a "wow" factor from the sound bar that was worth the $300 spend.
 
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Varilux

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So I'm reading the comments and wondering if those who made the swap are truly "wowed" and consider the modification worth money spent over a SB stock premium speakers? Meaning is the SSV Soundworks 6.5" a game changer with the new adapters and 6.5" speakers on an 8.4 Alpine Premium stock head/amp or is an aftermarket amp still needed to hear a difference?
Is it worth the SSV adapter & 6.5" speaker upgrades or about the same without an aftermarket amp?
IMO, the difference with the 6.5" speakers was considerable- even before the addition of an amp. I upgraded the sound bar speakers to the Mopar Kicker 4" speakers right after I purchased the Jeep, and didn't notice much of a difference. However, when I changed those speakers to the SSV 6.5" speakers, the difference became very noticeable. Now that I have an amp, the difference is even more noticeable.

I did bridge the two feeds to each speaker in the speaker bar (which seemed to make a big difference in how they sounded), and I have a 2 door (so perhaps the smaller interior space made the difference more noticeable).
 

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I did bridge the two feeds to each speaker in the speaker bar (which seemed to make a big difference in how they sounded), and I have a 2 door (so perhaps the smaller interior space made the difference more noticeable).
Sorry to bump an old(er) thread, but how exactly did you bridge the speaker wire? Did you parallel up the speaker wires to the speaker? I am planning to order the SSV adapters with some Infinity Reference 6.5" speakers from Crutchfield. I just swapped out the dash speakers with the Infinity Reference 3.5" speakers and it was a great improvement and motivated me to continue with the upgrade! I have the 7" screen (non-amplified) stereo system. Crutchfield is providing the Metra 72-6514 speaker wire adapter, which I assume will only give the speaker signal from the 4" speaker wire in the soundbar.
 
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Varilux

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Sorry to bump an old(er) thread, but how exactly did you bridge the speaker wire? Did you parallel up the speaker wires to the speaker? I am planning to order the SSV adapters with some Infinity Reference 6.5" speakers from Crutchfield. I just swapped out the dash speakers with the Infinity Reference 3.5" speakers and it was a great improvement and motivated me to continue with the upgrade! I have the 7" screen (non-amplified) stereo system. Crutchfield is providing the Metra 72-6514 speaker wire adapter, which I assume will only give the speaker signal from the 4" speaker wire in the soundbar.
Just connect the two factory positive wires together and the two factory negative wires together (white = positive, black = negative as I recall) and connect them to your component speakers positive and negative terminals... that's it. I believe there may be a bypass filter built into one of the factory lines, and connecting them together gives the component speaker a full band signal.
 

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So I’m installing the SSV works adapters and adding JL C2 650x’s. Im not replacing the 3.5” speakers. What do I do with that wire? Do I just wire them together? Or just close the 3.5” speaker wires and only connect the wire from the old 4.5” speakers to my new 6.5” speakers?
 
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So I’m installing the SSV works adapters and adding JL C2 650x’s. Im not replacing the 3.5” speakers. What do I do with that wire? Do I just wire them together? Or just close the 3.5” speaker wires and only connect the wire from the old 4.5” speakers to my new 6.5” speakers?
Wiring them together (technically I think it is called "bridging") worked well for me. Just twist the two white wires and two black wires together on each side and connect to the new speaker.
 

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Thanks for the great info. I've seen several posters mention using Dodge speakers for dash tweeters. What are you using?
 

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I installed JL C2’s 650x on my soundbar and kickpanels, also put tweeter in the dash. Went with the jl audio stealthbox 10” in the back. Also went with the jl m700 5 channel amp. Everything sounds great.
 
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Thanks for the great info. I've seen several posters mention using Dodge speakers for dash tweeters. What are you using?
Here is a link to the Mopar speakers (which I think originally came as part of a Dodge Dart upgraded sound option) I installed in my JL. This was the first upgrade I did to my factory non-amplified system, and it made an immediate improvement (which was further enhanced when I added an Alpine KTP-450 amp, which these speakers easily handle).
https://www.bamwholesaleparts.com/o...K-QDoVlqm9dgXDPGTKx8mNYTZfhlgJEcaAiuzEALw_wcB
 

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SpeedKills

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Finally got around to installing the SSV Works 6.5" Speaker Adapter (and SSV speakers) today.
https://www.ssvworks.com/product/Jeep-Wrangler-JL-and+JT-overhead-soundbar-6.5in-speaker-adapter

I have the base sound system with the middle sized receiver (7.5" I believe). Previously, I have updated the 3.5" speakers in the dash (and in the soundbar) with the upgraded Mopar speakers. I also installed a small powered subwoofer under the passenger seat. To be honest, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the difference 6.5" speakers in the soundbar would make (after all, I just have the head unit powering the speakers- no amplifier yet)- happily, I was pleasantly surprised!

The difference with the SSV 6.5" speakers is really incredible- especially the mid-lows (which were really lacking with the stock system). Even my 25 year old son was impressed with the way tunes sound in the Jeep now (I should also mention I have a two-door, so not as much space to fill with sound). I was able to turn the frequency cutoff of the subwoofer up, because the 6.5" speakers definitely fill in the mid-lows.

Okay, so a few notes on the install:
281ef12b9b654a6f020bb63be801b41647b5eefe.jpg

Here are the stock speakers (well, the smaller speaker is an upgraded Mopar speaker, but basically stock). You remove all the torx screws holding in the stock speakers, as well as the four torx screws holding in the tube towards the top of the speaker pod. Everything comes apart pretty quickly, and you're left with two speaker plugs (one for each speaker).
334a24b1efc421f7f20b5ee3900942d750304aac.jpg

These are the sections of your original soundbar that will be cut out. You just use the metal brace supplied with the kit as a template and follow your lines. Originally, I attempted to use a Dremel tool to make the cuts- this proved to be pretty frustrating. So I switched to a power jigsaw (10 teeth / inch blade), and it went like a breeze. You have to be careful not to let the blade poke up through the top of the soundbar, but it really isn't all that difficult to make the cuts (I didn't remove the soundbar, I just made the cuts with the bar in the Jeep).
72bea1938fc13a5b65094d5dbd0a3de868cac5bb.jpg

Here's the finished install... A few notes based on my experience.
1. The center portion of the speaker grille is easy to remove. I shot them with some satin red paint that comes pretty close to the red panels on the Rubicon dash. I'm glad I did, I think they make the speakers pop visually.
2. SSV supplies torx screws to attach the speaker pods, but I reused the stock aluminum screws (you still have to use 2 of their screws per side, but I think the aluminum looks better). Overall, if you didn't know what the soundbar is supposed to look like, you might think these speakers were stock- which I like.
3. Before I started on the second side, I thought I would hook up the second 6.5" speaker to hear what the finished result would sound like. I was really frustrated when the second speaker wouldn't produce any sound. I hooked the stock speakers back up, and still no sound. After some head scratching (and a bit of swearing), I turned everything off and walked away for awhile (which I finds helps a lot on some projects). When I turned the system back on, both sides fired right up. I then remembered the Jeep's sound system will not send a signal if it doesn't see resistance. If you run into this problem, just shut everything down for awhile (a few minutes) and let the Jeep "reset." Once the radio sees speakers in all locations, it will start sending a signal again (but if you don't give it some time to reset, it will just keep refusing to send a signal).
4. The frustration was worth it in the end, because it made me try something that seemed to make the sound better. I don't see myself putting tweeters into the extra spot available on the SSV pods (I didn't even cut out the little circle in the soundbar called for by the template, because I'm not going to install additional speakers). I had hooked up the first speaker to the plug that feeds the 3.5" speaker (you can actually plug the stock plug into the SSV speakers if you modify the plugs just a bit). When the other speaker didn't fire up, I decided to also splice into the OTHER speaker plug and wire the 6.5" speakers to BOTH of the stock feeds. This seemed to make the sound from the 6.5" considerably better. Someone who knows something about audio can tell me if I'm just imagining things, but it really did seem feeding the speakers with both feeds is the way to go (btw, the wires going to the speakers are black and white- I assumed the black was the negative and the white was the positive- if I'm mistaken, PLEASE post below so I can correct the polarity). Anyway, I highly recommend feeding the 6.5" with both stock speaker feeds (unless you're planning on adding additional tweeters).
5. Taking everything apart also gave me the opportunity to see what would happen if I removed the fiber fill I had in the soundbar. With the 6.5" speakers, things seem to sound better without the white fiber fill. When you make the cuts necessary to mount the 6.5" speaker, you create a larger enclosure, and I suspect that really helps these speakers put out sound. I'm not an audio engineer, but the stock configuration of the soundbar seems really poor.
6. The only thing I would change about this kit would be to have SSV offer a harness that could be used to bridge between the stock plug and the SSV plug (or ideally a harness that would connect both stock feeds into their plug). I would have gladly paid extra for such a harness, because the wiring was easily the most frustrating thing on this project.

Anyway, that was my install experience. If I hadn't noticed the speaker not firing up and spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why, it would have only taken me a couple hours for the whole project (including painting the grille pieces), and I consider it time well spent. I'm really REALLY happy with the way these speaker fill out the sound in my Jeep. I may still get an amplifier at some point, but I can now crank the volume the whole way to 38 with no distortion at all (I typically listen at 20-22 on the volume, and with the new speakers, that's plenty loud to enjoy my music.

Highly recommend the kit, good luck with your installs, and hope something in the above helps!
Pete
e7b3cb314f2b93776de42ff802351b8dcdf0e69d.jpg
I just swapped out the stock speakers in my 21 JL with Infinity 6.5" speakers in the soundbar. I noticed the muffled sound with no treble and I then bridged the tweeter wires in like you did and now it's crackling at higher volumes.. I swapped the polarity and still the same. I have the Alpine 8.4 system.
 
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rearviewmirror67 said:
I just swapped out the stock speakers in my 21 JL with Infinity 6.5" speakers in the soundbar. I noticed the muffled sound with no treble and I then bridged the tweeter wires in like you did and now it's crackling at higher volumes.. I swapped the polarity and still the same. I have the Alpine 8.4 system.
Sorry to hear about the issues with the wiring. Is your system the premium amplified version (I don't know if that's automatic with the 8.4 screen system)? I tried various configurations of the wires, and didn't get crackling with any of the variations. What happens if you unbridge the wires and just use the other set of wires (the set you didn't originally hook up)?
 

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Sorry to hear about the issues with the wiring. Is your system the premium amplified version (I don't know if that's automatic with the 8.4 screen system)? I tried various configurations of the wires, and didn't get crackling with any of the variations. What happens if you unbridge the wires and just use the other set of wires (the set you didn't originally hook up)?
I haven't tried that but I succumbed to having a professional install an aftermarket amp, new kick plate speakers and ensuring everything is wired correctly. I take it on the 10th. I'll let you know how it works out.
 

Pdiehm

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Super super stupid question. When you install the 6.5" speakers using the SSV bracket....which wires did you use? There is a wire going to the 3.5" and a wire to the 4" speakers in the sound bar. I'm assuming one is set to operate the highs, the other the mids.

I'm going to use infinity reference 3032 cfx for the dash...I really want to use 6.5"'s in the sound bar, but I'm not entirely sure how to wire a 6.5" speaker when there's 2 sets of wires running to the existing speakers.

Edit Note: I have the Alpine Premium Sound system already
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