Alpine speakers vs kicker DS vs Infinity Reference

[unknownsolo]

Hey guys, I have a 22 4XE with Alpine sound. I thought the stock Alpine sounded horrible with Rock music, so I wanted to swap the 3.5s and 4s (excluding the knee speakers) for something better. After much research, I decided to try kickers and infinity reference, so I got both. First of all, kicker and infinity will be significant upgrades. However, in my case, I thought the kicker lacked some clear mids and made my rock music sound a little muffled (again, still better than stock Alpine).

I wasn't 100% happy, so I tried Infinity Reference, and the mids and vocals finally came to life! I also like how you can slightly see the Infinity speakers through the speaker covers.

Here is a comparison between the Alpine vs Kicker vs Infinity

As much as I wanted to love the kickers, Infinity is much clearer and sounds more "crisp". I guess kickers will still be great with other genres, but they didn't do it for me with Rock music.

And finally, here is my eq below. I need to figure out how to turn the subwoofer down without tuning all the speaker's bass. I just want to reduce the subwoofer muffled "boom" while keeping the speakers the same. If someone knows an easy way without ripping everything out and keeping most of everything stock, please let me know!

(hopefully, this will help someone on the same boat needing an easy upgrade to their sound while keeping everything stock)

Sponsored

 

[Martial Fartist]

With the treble down that low it would seem the infinity are pushing the highs too much. I know everyone has a personal preference but what does it sound like with the eq set to flat? I would think the kickers or even stock alpines would have the same “crisp” if flat.

also, what song are you using for reference?

 

[Terpsmandan]

One thing I found while sorting out this system is the sound quality of the source. We got her a '21 with the Alpine and I was very under whelmed by the sound. I was using Spotify on the Pioneer HU that was in my 09 JK with the Infinity system with the PRS upgrade and it really kicked. Fast forward to earlier this year when my new '22 arrived and I started aiming the parts cannon at the sound system trying to get it to sound better. I swapped out some speakers and accidentally switched to HD FM and it sounded much better than my phone. Now I had never gone into the settings and and found that everything was set at standard. I maxed out the settings and also tried Apple Music. That made a huge difference. I now have a set of Quart dash speakers in her Jeep and it sounds good with the top up. I needed mine to go to 11 so I did the Stage 6 upgrade.

 

[unknownsolo]

also, what song are you using for reference?

Avenged Sevenfold, Motionless in White, Bullet for my Valentine, and similar bands

With the treble down that low it would seem the infinity are pushing the highs too much.

Right, you should hear stock or the kickers! They all have this ear-piercing treble with Rock. It was like all the instruments were mashed into one big mess of a sound. Other genres didn't do as bad. Techno and rap, for example, sound GREAT with the big bass. The only difference with the Infinity is it still sounds great when I turn the treble down. With the stock and Kickers, the more I turned it down, the more muffled it got.

One thing I found while sorting out this system is the sound quality of the source. We got her a '21 with the Alpine and I was very under whelmed by the sound. I was using Spotify on the Pioneer HU that was in my 09 JK with the Infinity system with the PRS upgrade and it really kicked. Fast forward to earlier this year when my new '22 arrived and I started aiming the parts cannon at the sound system trying to get it to sound better. I swapped out some speakers and accidentally switched to HD FM and it sounded much better than my phone. Now I had never gone into the settings and and found that everything was set at standard. I maxed out the settings and also tried Apple Music. That made a huge difference. I now have a set of Quart dash speakers in her Jeep and it sounds good with the top up. I needed mine to go to 11 so I did the Stage 6 upgrade.

Totally get it. I am using my iPhone with Apple Music; everything is lossless and hardwired to the front USB-C port. I also have two Teslas (Model 3 and Model Y) and one Subaru. Tesla's sound GREAT with Bluetooth. The Subaru is just a base system, and it's decent, not good or bad, just alright. The problem with this wrangler is I wish it had separate EQ for the bass and the sub. I want to turn the sub down while keeping the speaker bass relatively up.

The problem with having one eq control for all the speaker's bass and sub is turning it down helps with the sub, but it makes all the speakers sound so tiny and harsh.

 

[Jebiruph]

Avenged Sevenfold, Motionless in White, Bullet for my Valentine, and similar bands



Right, you should hear stock or the kickers! They all have this ear-piercing treble with Rock. It was like all the instruments were mashed into one big mess of a sound. Other genres didn't do as bad. Techno and rap, for example, sound GREAT with the big bass. The only difference with the Infinity is it still sounds great when I turn the treble down. With the stock and Kickers, the more I turned it down, the more muffled it got.



Totally get it. I am using my iPhone with Apple Music; everything is lossless and hardwired to the front USB-C port. I also have two Teslas (Model 3 and Model Y) and one Subaru. Tesla's sound GREAT with Bluetooth. The Subaru is just a base system, and it's decent, not good or bad, just alright. The problem with this wrangler is I wish it had separate EQ for the bass and the sub. I want to turn the sub down while keeping the speaker bass relatively up.

The problem with having one eq control for all the speaker's bass and sub is turning it down helps with the sub, but it makes all the speakers sound so tiny and harsh.

Did you use metra adapters without changing their polarity? My experience with the base system was the out of phaseness between the infinities in the dash and the factory knee speakers caused by the metra adapters contributed to a loss of lower frequencies and excessive high end.

 

[unknownsolo]

Did you use metra adapters without changing their polarity?

I am. I did everything plug and play and did not change anything. How do I change the polarity?

I used Metra 72-6514 and 72-7902. There were just two cables, one end to connect to the factory cable and one end to the speaker. Did I miss something?

 

[Heimkehr]

Did you use metra adapters without changing their polarity?

+1. I was pre-warned that the Metra adapters were being delivered with reversed polarity, and that's just what occurred. After attending to that fix with a depinning tool and installing the Infinity REF-3032CFX speakers in my JLU, I couldn't be more pleased with the improvement in sound quality...even if it was a low bar to begin with.

 

[TX_Ovrlnd]

I am. I did everything plug and play and did not change anything. How do I change the polarity?

I used Metra 72-6514 and 72-7902. There were just two cables, one end to connect to the factory cable and one end to the speaker. Did I miss something?

Pull pins inside the harness or swap wires on the speaker.

 

[unknownsolo]

Ha, I'm going to try that today! I also saw Jebiruph's post over here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/metra-speaker-harness-polarity.49506/

 

[BIGW0RM]

Did the stock bar speakers have that many tweeters? If not, you might have replaced a component speaker with a 3 way. Toyota uses component speakers, and many people upgraded them with kicker CS 3 ways and the treble would make your ears bleed in 10 minutes.

Maybe you added too many tweeters? Because max treble low tells me there is a problem here.

 

[unknownsolo]

Did not realize this existed (my fault) https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...dash-speakers-and-alpine-system.34664/page-23 - I think it's better to continue there since there is already so much good information. Thank you all for all the help.

 

[dragoneggs]

Just throwing the Kenwood 3.5in eXcelon speakers into this mix. I bought a pair for the dash and was very happy with the improvement.

Bought another pair for the sound bar above. An minor but improved sound. Still running stock radio/amp but I think these will do fine when and if I 'amp' my ride.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y2FTW4L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Sponsored