Jeep Wrangler JL Stock Sound System

[GoGators353]

I'm on the rear cigarette lighter with remote turn on and it does the same thing. It takes a while to turn off completely

Thanks TrillestSon, maybe it just takes a while to turn off and when I open the door, it turns back on. The Jeep battery level doesn't seem to drop but I need to take the doors off so I can see the sub without opening the door, to see if it stays on.

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[vilacr]

Ceramic 47 Ohm, 5 Watt resistors. One for each pair of inputs. If you have an electronics store like Fry's near you, they keep them in stock. Or, you could purchase them here: https://www.parts-express.com/47-ohm-5w-resistor-wire-wound-5-tolerance--015-47

The "Adding an Aftermarket Amp" thread has a diagram of how to solder it in, if needed. Good luck!

PS: You can test the need for the resistors by simply connecting the stock speaker back to the stock speaker wires and then turning your stereo back on. Once the stock speaker plays, you can disconnect it and carefully reconnect it to your amp, or your line output converter. If it needs a resistor, the sub will work until you turn off the Jeep. When you turn the Jeep back on (without the stock speaker connected on that channel) there likely won't be any sound. Can you tell I had major fits trying to figure this resistor thing out?

Didn't work with my alpine pwe-s8. Guess I'll have to live with it until something better becomes available.

By the way I'm using speaker level inputs not rca.

 

[lillange]

Which is best for slimline 8" powered subs?

Alpine?
Kicker?
Infinity?
JBL?
Cerwin Vega?
Rockford Fosgate?

Curious to know everyones opinion on this. I am leaning towards the kicker.

 

[Biscuit]

I heard the new JL stock audio was a big improvement to the JK's and was wondering if anyone went the same route, or has heard the stock system and could give me some feedback.

It is very good. Not great, but very good, and an improvement over the JK.

Most of the time, I connect my phone to USB#1 to play music, but I also have a stick plugged into USB#2 that has nothing but tunes on it. I can stream via Bluetooth, too, but only use it in conjunction with my phone's GPS so that it plays the audio instructions through the sound system. However, the sound quality of Bluetooth-streamed music, while not bad, isn't as good as hard-wiring through a USB cord.

 

[Sting_NC_USA]

Didn't work with my alpine pwe-s8. Guess I'll have to live with it until something better becomes available.

By the way I'm using speaker level inputs not rca.

Are your stock speakers all playing? If your stock speakers are all playing, the resistors won't do anything. All the resistors will do is trick the stock stereo into turning that speaker's channel on.

If all of your stock speakers are playing, yet your sub-amp is only playing one channel, it could be that the inputs on your amp need to be adjusted. On my amps (JL Audio), I have to toggle a switch that tells the amp whether I'm sending a 2 or 4 channel input. Could that possibly be the case?

I'll do what I can to help, as that's got to be frustrating...

 

[vilacr]

Are your stock speakers all playing? If your stock speakers are all playing, the resistors won't do anything. All the resistors will do is trick the stock stereo into turning that speaker's channel on.

If all of your stock speakers are playing, yet your sub-amp is only playing one channel, it could be that the inputs on your amp need to be adjusted. On my amps (JL Audio), I have to toggle a switch that tells the amp whether I'm sending a 2 or 4 channel input. Could that possibly be the case?

I'll do what I can to help, as that's got to be frustrating...

Yes my stock speakers work. It is very frustrating! I can live with it for now....guess I'll wait until something better comes along.

 

[Sting_NC_USA]

Yes my stock speakers work. It is very frustrating! I can live with it for now....guess I'll wait until something better comes along.

Not to create more work/effort, but if you could give me an overview of how it's currently wired, I'll be happy to attempt to troubleshoot it. Knowing which wires you used, including wire color, and where you tapped into them would help. I tapped into my rear channel speakers at the base of the pillar behind the front passenger seat.

Also, have you tried plugging the dead channel's input wires into the other side of your amp? It would be interesting to see if the amp has an issue, or possibly a bad wire or connection somewhere. I found a diagram of your amp, but don't see the pinout associated with the speaker inputs.

The other thing that would be interesting, after determining which wires you're feeding into your PWE-S8, is whether or not a Line Output Converter that fed an RCA signal into your amp vs. the direct speaker wires would work.

 

[alphacc82]

Which is best for slimline 8" powered subs?

Alpine?
Kicker?
Infinity?
JBL?
Cerwin Vega?
Rockford Fosgate?

Curious to know everyones opinion on this. I am leaning towards the kicker.

I have the Rockford Fosgate in my F150 and i do not regret it at all. I like it so much that I would 100% buy it again.

 

[lillange]

I have the Rockford Fosgate in my F150 and i do not regret it at all. I like it so much that I would 100% buy it again.

Good to know. I placed an order for the exact one earlier today. Will make it my weekend project to install!

 

[RajCaj]

Any idea how much power the factory Alpine amp is pushing, and how much is going to the sub?

 

[Sting_NC_USA]

Any idea how much power the factory Alpine amp is pushing, and how much is going to the sub?

552W Amp per the Jeep site, which is spread across 12 channels to 9 speakers. I've seen zero specs regarding how much is going to the amp, but I'd estimate they are supplying approximately 75 watts to each primary channel (mid plus tweeter) with the remaining 250+ watts to the sub. These are fairly efficient speakers, built into ported enclosures.

 

[lillange]

Good to know. I placed an order for the exact one earlier today. Will make it my weekend project to install!

Installed the Rockford Fosgate PS8 yesterday and I am impressed with how much bass you can get out of this thing. Fit just about perfect under the driver side seat.

The audiophile gods out there, let me know if there is any issue with how I ended up wiring this...

Power - simple push through grommet on the passenger side. Then ran behind center dash to the driver side and along the center console to under the seat.
Ground - appeared to be a ground right by the seat for items in the glove box so I just put there. Again simple.
High Level input - I saw previous posts about drilling hole into soundbar for driver side but I think I found an easier way. I popped the passenger side dash speaker out and tapped there. Easy to run speaker wire down from the speaker hole if you take the dash glove box out. I then ran down the center console on the passenger side (to keep away from the power I ran on the other side) then just ran under the back cup holder and around to the driver seat. Since I ONLY had the right speaker wire I spliced into the Rockford harness and hooked up left/right (-) to my speaker negative and then the left/right(+) to the speaker positive. It worked! Signal for DC works too so I dont have to run the remote.

Reason that I ask if this is a correct way of doing it is that I have to have AMP gain at 0. Even if I have the radio bass set to -9 I still need to have the AMP gain at 0. I have the bass boost set to half way and the EQ set to halfway and the phase set to 180 and sounds good. I just find it strange that gain needs to be so low and figured that I would have it set half way as well.

Your thoughts and opinions are very welcomed!




*****Turns out I am an idiot. Just realized I had it set to Low Level input instead of High Level. All good now. Gain is set to about 1/4 and radio is set to -5. Bass boost about half and EQ about half to sound best IMO.

 

[GoGators353]

Glad the RF worked out, I’m amazed at the bass the Alpine puts out, perfect for my adult needs.

How did you mount it under the seat, on the floor?

 

[vilacr]

Not to create more work/effort, but if you could give me an overview of how it's currently wired, I'll be happy to attempt to troubleshoot it. Knowing which wires you used, including wire color, and where you tapped into them would help. I tapped into my rear channel speakers at the base of the pillar behind the front passenger seat.

Also, have you tried plugging the dead channel's input wires into the other side of your amp? It would be interesting to see if the amp has an issue, or possibly a bad wire or connection somewhere. I found a diagram of your amp, but don't see the pinout associated with the speaker inputs.

The other thing that would be interesting, after determining which wires you're feeding into your PWE-S8, is whether or not a Line Output Converter that fed an RCA signal into your amp vs. the direct speaker wires would work.

I tapped into the rear channel speakers (used the wire colors from your thread) from the base of the pillar behind the front passenger seat going into the roll bar. Haven't tried switching the dead channels.
I'm looking at possibly adding the AudioControl LC2i....maybe that will work.

 

[pianomankd]

Looking forward to seeing the aftermarket speaker options that sit flush in the sound/roll bar. The 4'' is so aggravating to replace!

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