Base System Speaker Upgrade

[Jebiruph]

Did you have to bridge wires when installing the 6.5’s in the sound bar? Asking because I saw it mentioned in another thread you commented on. Thanks!

No, in the base system both speakers are fed by a single pair of wires, so there's no benefit to recombine the wires.

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[Jebiruph]

Also, did what did you do with the stock 3.5’s in the sound bar? Remove them? Leave them in? Thanks

Both speakers are removed to make room for the larger speaker.

 

[Processing]

Thanks! Just ordered the Infiniti 6.5’s, JL tweeters, metra mounting bracket, metra wiring adapters, and the SSV works 6.5 inch adapter kit. Will update how it goes!

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[Jebiruph]

Thanks! Just ordered the Infiniti 6.5’s, JL tweeters, metra mounting bracket, metra wiring adapters, and the SSV works 6.5 inch adapter kit. Will update how it goes!

Don't forget to swap the wires on the Metra wiring adapters and stuff fiber fill behind the speakers.

 

[Jebiruph]

Based on some back and forth discussion about the factory speaker/wiring polarity in the JT forum, I bought one of the cheap speaker polarity testers from Amazon. What I found was the dash and sound bar speakers with the corrected Metra adapters were positive polarity while the factory lower dash speakers were negative polarity. Evidently the wiring of the lower speaker pod extension cables is reversed, flipping the polarity of those speakers from positive to negative.

I reversed the polarity of the upgraded dash and sound bar speakers and confirmed with the polarity tester that all the speakers were in phase, all negative. Then, since I have the same speakers set up in my JT, I played the same music in the JL and the JT and jumped back and for comparing the sound of the in phase speakers (JL) with the sound of the out of phase speakers (JT). There was an obvious improvement in the mid range and lower frequencies and an over all increased volume which corresponds with the speakers changing from out of phase to in phase.

I drove it this way for a couple weeks and occasionally perceived a new mid range harshness in some of my music. Wondering if maybe the out of phase lower dash speakers had selective improvement in some types of music, I swapped the upgraded speakers back to out of phase for additional evaluation. With the speakers again out of phase, there was less mid range, so less mid range harshness, but again I confirmed that the over all sound quality was better with all the speakers in phase. I suspect the mid range harshness is a result of the additional mid range volume verses the interior acoustic characteristics of the JL.

 

[Jebiruph]

Based on some back and forth discussion about the factory speaker/wiring polarity in the JT forum, I bought one of the cheap speaker polarity testers from Amazon. What I found was the dash and sound bar speakers with the corrected Metra adapters were positive polarity while the factory lower dash speakers were negative polarity. Evidently the wiring of the lower speaker pod extension cables is reversed, flipping the polarity of those speakers from positive to negative.

I reversed the polarity of the upgraded dash and sound bar speakers and confirmed with the polarity tester that all the speakers were in phase, all negative. Then, since I have the same speakers set up in my JT, I played the same music in the JL and the JT and jumped back and for comparing the sound of the in phase speakers (JL) with the sound of the out of phase speakers (JT). There was an obvious improvement in the mid range and lower frequencies and an over all increased volume which corresponds with the speakers changing from out of phase to in phase.

I drove it this way for a couple weeks and occasionally perceived a new mid range harshness in some of my music. Wondering if maybe the out of phase lower dash speakers had selective improvement in some types of music, I swapped the upgraded speakers back to out of phase for additional evaluation. With the speakers again out of phase, there was less mid range, so less mid range harshness, but again I confirmed that the over all sound quality was better with all the speakers in phase. I suspect the mid range harshness is a result of the additional mid range volume verses the interior acoustic characteristics of the JL.

After additional testing I have concluded that the base system speakers are all wired with a negative phase/polarity from the factory. The factory wiring diagrams I have seen correctly identify the +/- speaker wires, but the wires are reversed in the factory connecter. Rewiring the Metra adaptor puts replacement speakers back to positive phase/polarity, but this puts them out of phase with any uncorrected factory speakers.

To address the mid range harshness, I decided to try lower impedance tweeters in the upper dash that would use more of the power that is shared between the upper dash and lower dash speaker pair, leaving less power for the lower dash speakers. This worked, installing some Infinity Reference REF-375TX 3 ohm tweeters in the upper dash eliminated the mid range harshness.

With the combination of getting all the speakers wired in phase and adding the new upper dash tweeters, the system so far has been able to play any music accurately at full volume with no distortion or harshness.

Here's a diagram that illustrates how changing the impedence of the upper dash speakers changes the percentage of the signal processed by the individual speakers.

 

[hotsauce]

My speaker upgrade journey started right after taking possession of my new 2018 JLU with the 5" base system. My goal was to get a quality sounding system without adding an amp or sub woofer. I avoided modifying the sound bar as long as possible, but success was finally achieved with Infinity Kappa 62ix 6.5" speakers in the sound bar and JL Audio C1-075ct tweeters in the upper dash. Following is some of what I learned along the way.

Unlike the amplified system that powers each speaker individually, the base system powers each corner's 3.5" and 4" speakers as a pair, in parallel. Changing one of the pair can affect the other. For example, Infinity 3032s have lower impedance than the factory 4" speakers and when paired, a larger percentage of their shared power will go to the 3032s. But with the 3032's base blocking capacitors blocking the lower frequencies, all the low frequency power will go to the factory 4" speakers.

I found that with all four 3.5" speakers replaced with base blocked 3032's, there is a noticeable lower frequency contribution from the factory 4" speakers. But the system still needed more bass. After running this setup for a couple years, I finally did the 6.5" speaker sound bar modification using Infinity Kappa 62ix 6.5" speakers. The 62ix sound great, especially after adjusting the fader +2 to the rear to get more sound out of them.

With 62ixs in the sound bar now providing the majority of the sound output, the last change was to swap out the dash 3032s that tend to over power the lower dash 4" speakers. I replaced them with JL Audio C1-075ct tweeters. The tweeter's higher impedance and higher frequency range allow more lower frequency power to get to the factory 4" speakers and there is a very good balance between the pair, and this front pair is well balanced with the sound bar.

Some additional tips are;
Swap the Metra adapter wires so they don't reverse the polarity of the speakers.
When the upper dash speakers are upgraded, they will very likely overpower the rest of the system and setting the fader +2 to the rear helps rebalance the system.
Stuffing poly fill under the upper dash speaker improves sound and helps with left - right speaker isolation.

Great write up. Did you add tweeters to the soundbar?

 

[Jebiruph]

Great write up. Did you add tweeters to the soundbar?

The Infinity Kappa 62ix 6.5" speakers have tweeters. I went with the coax speaker instead of components.

 

[hotsauce]

Update: I have a 2 door with the base system. Previously I added a C2PLay adapter for Car Play but thats the only mod I did to the Infotainment sys. Followed the directions for speaker upgrade by @Jebiruph (thank you) with a slightly different speaker selection but terrific outcome as a result. Chose JBL for the dash for the Dash with metra adaptors, didn't use capacitors. I may go back and add them. I used the Select Increments Pods, Infinity Reference REF-6530cx 6.5" and included 3.5" for the Soundbar. Used polyfill and metra adapters for the both the 6.5 and the same metra as before for the 3.5's. I didn't want to deal with the Crossovers even though they came with the speakers. I opted to use capacitors instead. They seem to work well. Bottom line: Very bright sound, clear highs with sufficient lows. (I listen to rock, jam bands or talk radio, don't need a ton of bass.) Very happy with what ultimately looks stock but sounds way better. Can't wait for top-off weather so I can test the volume improvement. Here is a pic of the capacitor wired in line with some heat shrink covering the connection.

And a pic of the speakers installed in the soundbar:

 

[Jebiruph]

Update: I have a 2 door with the base system. Previously I added a C2PLay adapter for Car Play but thats the only mod I did to the Infotainment sys. Followed the directions for speaker upgrade by @Jebiruph (thank you) with a slightly different speaker selection but terrific outcome as a result. Chose JBL for the dash for the Dash with metra adaptors, didn't use capacitors. I may go back and add them. I used the Select Increments Pods, Infinity Reference REF-6530cx 6.5" and included 3.5" for the Soundbar. Used polyfill and metra adapters for the both the 6.5 and the same metra as before for the 3.5's. I didn't want to deal with the Crossovers even though they came with the speakers. I opted to use capacitors instead. They seem to work well. Bottom line: Very bright sound, clear highs with sufficient lows. (I listen to rock, jam bands or talk radio, don't need a ton of bass.) Very happy with what ultimately looks stock but sounds way better. Can't wait for top-off weather so I can test the volume improvement. Here is a pic of the capacitor wired in line with some heat shrink covering the connection.

And a pic of the speakers installed in the soundbar:

Looks good. With the right speakers the base system sounds great, is loud enough and there's no need to spend more than a few hundred. The cost of my final set up was $300, it just took a few iterations to get there. It's a mistake to put anything less than 6.5" in the soundbar, even though you have to buy adapters to do it.

Did you use the Metra adapters "as is" or switch the wires? Using "as is" means the speakers will have negative polarity/phasing, but will match the negative polarity/phasing of the factory lower dash speakers, so that's what you want.

Why didn't didn't you use the crossover circuits for the sound bar speakers? The crossovers would provide all the lower frequency power to the 6.5" and all the higher frequency power to the tweeters. With the blockers you end up splitting the higher frequency power between the tweeter and the 6.5" which can't reproduce the higher frequencies.

It's the same argument for the front capacitors, using them directs more lower freguency power to the lower dash speakers and helps with seperation. Although that may not be a good thing as I found the lower dash speakers caused distortion with more power under some conditions.

 

[hotsauce]

Looks good. With the right speakers the base system sounds great, is loud enough and there's no need to spend more than a few hundred. The cost of my final set up was $300, it just took a few iterations to get there. It's a mistake to put anything less than 6.5" in the soundbar, even though you have to buy adapters to do it.

Did you use the Metra adapters "as is" or switch the wires? Using "as is" means the speakers will have negative polarity/phasing, but will match the negative polarity/phasing of the factory lower dash speakers, so that's what you want.

Why didn't didn't you use the crossover circuits for the sound bar speakers? The crossovers would provide all the lower frequency power to the 6.5" and all the higher frequency power to the tweeters. With the blockers you end up splitting the higher frequency power between the tweeter and the 6.5" which can't reproduce the higher frequencies.

It's the same argument for the front capacitors, using them directs more lower freguency power to the lower dash speakers and helps with seperation. Although that may not be a good thing as I found the lower dash speakers caused distortion with more power under some conditions.

Sorry for the delay. I eventually noticed the distortion and I went back to the soundbar, removed the metra adapters and switched the polarity to correct the phasing. I also added metra adapters to the front. New challenge is that the overall system is a little "bright" sounding. I am fiddling with the equalizer and it doesn't sound bad per se but a little more on the low end will be good. I will probably end up updating the speakers in the lower dash.

 

[Jebiruph]

Sorry for the delay. I eventually noticed the distortion and I went back to the soundbar, removed the metra adapters and switched the polarity to correct the phasing. I also added metra adapters to the front. New challenge is that the overall system is a little "bright" sounding. I am fiddling with the equalizer and it doesn't sound bad per se but a little more on the low end will be good. I will probably end up updating the speakers in the lower dash.

Mine still sounds great with the factory lower dash speakers with the Infinity tweeters. Before you do anything else, I would buy one of the $10 - $15 speaker phase/polarity checkers from Amazon and make sure everything is in phase.

 

[Jebiruph]

Sorry for the delay. I eventually noticed the distortion and I went back to the soundbar, removed the metra adapters and switched the polarity to correct the phasing. I also added metra adapters to the front. New challenge is that the overall system is a little "bright" sounding. I am fiddling with the equalizer and it doesn't sound bad per se but a little more on the low end will be good. I will probably end up updating the speakers in the lower dash.

Also consider using the crossovers for the soundbar speakers instead of capacitors. All capacitors do is block low frequencies.

 

[NothinButFive0]

Some additional tips are;
Swap the Metra adapter wires so they don't reverse the polarity of the speakers.
When the upper dash speakers are upgraded, they will very likely overpower the rest of the system and setting the fader +2 to the rear helps rebalance the system.
Stuffing poly fill under the upper dash speaker improves sound and helps with left - right speaker isolation.

Edit 2/15/2023
Highlight Posts
Speakers are negative polarity from the factory
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/base-system-speaker-upgrade.75015/post-2165887
Tweeter switch out with technical explanation
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/base-system-speaker-upgrade.75015/post-2205995

I keep reading about swapping the Metra cable wires but haven’t found what the procedure is for that. Can anyone explain? Thanks!

 

[Jebiruph]

Her

I keep reading about swapping the Metra cable wires but haven’t found what the procedure is for that. Can anyone explain? Thanks!

Here's the post about the Metra adapters, but depending on which factory system you have and whether or not you are upgrading all the speakers will determine if you want positive or negative polarity. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...r-harness-polarity-updated.49506/post-1091155

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