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Plug and Play amp upgrade to basic system

JeepKindaGuy

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That second video demonstrated every step really well (wish I had seen it before wiring my sub). In the end I didn't go through the firewall at all. Instead, I went from the same battery post as the guy in the video, and then went underneath. If you look behind the passenger wheel well, there is a boxed rail that runs back the Jeep. I routed the sub power through that rail- which passes right by the rear drain plug (at least in the two door, there is a rubber drain plug under the carpet right behind the front seat). I ran the power cable back to that plug, drilled a hole in the plug (like he did with the grommet at the firewall), ran the power cable through the plug then a short distance under the carpet to come out under the seat. Everything is still waterproof, because the hole in the rubber plug is slightly less diameter than the power cable. I like this route better because if you're putting the sub under the passenger seat, it just doesn't make sense to me to run the power cable the whole way across the back of the engine bay, through the firewall, and then back across the Jeep to the passenger side (plus, to be honest, I didn't know about that factory hole in the firewall until I watched the video you posted :)). Anyway, the route I used is completely protected- there's no way the cable is ever getting pinched or snagged (unless I crush the boxed rail, in which case I'll have bigger issues).

It's a good question, and one I wondered about as well. From what I can tell, although there are 8 speakers, there are only four channels. The upper dash and knee panel speakers all feed off the two front channels and the four speakers in the sound bar all feed off the two rear channels. When I went to the 6.5" speakers in the sound bar, I connected both speaker feeds to each speaker. I'm told this is called "bridging," and it really seemed to make the 6.5" speakers sound full- this makes me suspect there is a crossover somewhere in the rear channel wiring that directs different frequencies to each speaker in the back, but I could be wrong. Since my 6.5" speakers have both a woofer and tweeter cone, it would make sense they would sound better when they receive the full frequency range. Either way, the head unit only produces four channels of sound.

The KTP amps all four channels, and allows you to set filters on them as well (so you can limit the signal going to the front speakers to mostly high frequencies, and put most of the bass in the back- even if you aren't installing a sub).
I just realized that the JKU has for its larger sized speakers 6.5". On the wranglerforums website, someone, I forget by now, suggested unplugging all four tweeters and installing four 77kick10's(6.5"). I did that, and I was more than happy. The 77kick10's are coaxial, so unplugging the tweeters made sense, would be to0 much highs. But now I realize that the stock larger speakers for the JLU are smaller than the JKU"s by 2", they are 4.5". This leads me to think that the radio is less powerful, just a guess, and that one would have to use an amp to power upgrading all the JLU's 4.5" speakers to 6.5" speakers. I would say that upgrading to four 6.5" coaxil speakers and having no other tweeters plugged in with an amp would be the equivalent. I can't believe they downgraded the stock size speakers in the JLU. Doing this, would you still have to bridge the rear speakers? Seems like four channels to me.
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TJJL19

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Seems to be some a question on what negetive cable to take off on the forum:what is this wire? I posted this!
I found this on the internet, when I was looking at the alpine pss-23wra on my JL.
In the video by Quadratec,they just take off, the ground, from the main battery!
They run the power wire without any seen problems.
 
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Varilux

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JeepKindaGuy said:
I just realized that the JKU has for its larger sized speakers 6.5". On the wranglerforums website, someone, I forget by now, suggested unplugging all four tweeters and installing four 77kick10's(6.5"). I did that, and I was more than happy. The 77kick10's are coaxial, so unplugging the tweeters made sense, would be to0 much highs. But now I realize that the stock larger speakers for the JLU are smaller than the JKU"s by 2", they are 4.5". This leads me to think that the radio is less powerful, just a guess, and that one would have to use an amp to power upgrading all the JLU's 4.5" speakers to 6.5" speakers. I would say that upgrading to four 6.5" coaxil speakers and having no other tweeters plugged in with an amp would be the equivalent. I can't believe they downgraded the stock size speakers in the JLU. Doing this, would you still have to bridge the rear speakers? Seems like four channels to me.
Size isn't everything with speakers (Bose and Klipsch make some really great home audio speakers that are quite small but produce a surprising quantity and quality of sound), but yeah- smaller speakers are definitely challenged when it comes to producing lower frequency sounds. As you mentioned, I have a feeling the stock head unit on the non-Alpine (base) system is only putting out 15w or so per channel (which is why adding a 45w/channel amp requires you to turn the gain pretty much the whole way down). If the head unit supplied even 25w per channel, it would probably drive the stock speakers quite nicely, but...

As far as bridging the rear speakers goes, the one thing I haven't seen discussed is whether the base system uses crossovers. Since there are only two rear channels- but four speakers (and these speakers are not coax if I recall- they have one cone each and they are of different sizes)- I strongly suspect there is a crossover somewhere in the wiring that separates out the various frequencies. So, if you're replacing the two sound bar speakers with a single coax speaker, it seems to me (and I could be completely incorrect), that you would want to connect both feeds to that coax speaker- because otherwise you're going to missing a range of the frequency scale. At least that's the theory I'm going with for now (plus, I've had my coax speakers hooked up this way for a while now, and they sound great).

Anyway, when the harnesses are used the KTP amp is really easy to install (maybe an hour), and costs less than $300 for everything. IMO, the difference it makes in the base system seems like a pretty good bang for the buck.

TJJL19 said:
Seems to be some a question on what negetive cable to take off on the forum:what is this wire? I posted this! I found this on the internet, when I was looking at the alpine pss-23wra on my JL.
In the video by Quadratec,they just take off, the ground, from the main battery!
They run the power wire without any seen problems.
That's a really helpful video (I'm glad to see they routed their power cable the same way I did through the drain plug- makes me think that's probably an okay way to do it).
 

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I keep posting this but just want you guys aware of a great option, Alpine PWD-X5, google it. 8" powered sub with 165 RMS, 250 peak. 4ch amp for front and rear speakers at 25 RMS 50 peak, and a DSP built in to boot!!! Getting mine installed July 11th...
 
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Varilux

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I keep posting this but just want you guys aware of a great option, Alpine PWD-X5, google it. 8" powered sub with 165 RMS, 250 peak. 4ch amp for front and rear speakers at 25 RMS 50 peak, and a DSP built in to boot!!! Getting mine installed July 11th...
Thanks for posting the PWD-X5. Although I'm already done with the Jeep, we're ordering one for my son's car- it's a great all-in-one solution!

I looked through the manuals of the PWD-X5 and the KTP-445U to see if (just by some stroke of luck) the connectors were the same. If they were, the harnesses used to install the KTP could be used for the PWD. Unfortunately, they are very dissimilar. However, the harnesses should still make it really easy to install a PWD (you'd just have to snip all the speaker connections at the amp side of the main harness and use the PWD's harness to make connections between them... a bit of wiring, but a lot less than the alternative of cutting into the factory harness).
 

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Thanks for posting the PWD-X5. Although I'm already done with the Jeep, we're ordering one for my son's car- it's a great all-in-one solution!

I looked through the manuals of the PWD-X5 and the KTP-445U to see if (just by some stroke of luck) the connectors were the same. If they were, the harnesses used to install the KTP could be used for the PWD. Unfortunately, they are very dissimilar. However, the harnesses should still make it really easy to install a PWD (you'd just have to snip all the speaker connections at the amp side of the main harness and use the PWD's harness to make connections between them... a bit of wiring, but a lot less than the alternative of cutting into the factory harness).
Well I'm not comfortable ripping apart the dash on my new Jeep, and I dont wanna fuck anything up so I'm letting a pro handle it. Plus I'd have no idea how to tune it correctly with the 10 band EQ and the time correction etc... Hope it does the trick, its as far as I'm going with the audio.
 

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Update on the hacked version of the Alpine PSS-23WRA (bought all components separately and saved major cash...see below link and others' previous posts for details on how to do that).

Installed the PWE-S8 (sub), KTP-445U (amp), SPR-10TW (1 inch tweeters), and added JP-1014 (metra pods for knee panel speakers) and R-S65.2 (6.5 inch coaxial speakers) in the knee panel pods.

Sounds A LOT better, especially the highs, as you might expect. The bass is a bit underwhelming, especially if you use the low gain settings they recommend. I had to lower the low pass filter to about 75Hz and increase the sub gain to half way between mid and max in order to get my setup to give me at least a somewhat acceptable level of base (so I basically ignored their recommended sub settings). Overall, definitely 200% better than stock and I really like it. Cons: As others have pointed out, the 8" underseat sub will help, but will leave you wanting more kick. I will do another update in a few weeks when I replace the soundbar speakers which I left alone this time.


https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...mp-upgrade-to-basic-system.51309/post-1158263
 

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I just got a email. from crutchfield. that my kicker 10 powered sub has shipped, so I'm almost ready.
I have a 4 guage copper power wire and wondering if I should run that instead of the power wire that comes with the kicker. I've been going back and forth on what sub to install and might change my mind if the kicker dosen't put out.
 

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I just got a email. from crutchfield. that my kicker 10 powered sub has shipped, so I'm almost ready.
I have a 4 guage copper power wire and wondering if I should run that instead of the power wire that comes with the kicker. I've been going back and forth on what sub to install and might change my mind if the kicker dosen't put out.
Let me know how the install goes and what you think of the sub. That’s the last piece to my upgrade. Where are you going to put it?
 

TJJL19

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Let me know how the install goes and what you think of the sub. That’s the last piece to my upgrade. Where are you going to put it?
I WAS TORN BETWEEN THE SSV WORKS SUB AND THE KICKER. I have two Boxers that love riding in my jeep, I installed Mopar's gap hidder, so thier legs wouldn't get broke.
The SSV bolts onto the JLU back seat bolt, I couldn't get any information from SSV or Curtchfield on whether it would work with the gap hidder or not, so I went with the kicker.
 

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Varilux

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TJJL19 said:
I have a 4 guage copper power wire and wondering if I should run that instead of the power wire that comes with the kicker. I've been going back and forth on what sub to install and might change my mind if the kicker dosen't put out.
Assuming the 4 gauge is the thicker of the two wires, that would seem to be the best choice (only want to have to run that wire once). It's like leaving the board just a smidge long (I can always take a little more off- but it's awful hard to add a little back ;)). Looking forward to what you think of the end result with the sub added.
 

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Well I started my install and have some pictures. Getting 4 gauge wire acroos the back of the engine was a chior. Getting the plastic pice open, that runs across the back, was a lot harder then I wanted.
Once I hit the slevee that's on the wire,it was a lot easier to run. I didn't have an idea how to get the plug pulled and found you just pull it off.
well the 4 gauge is ran and that's all the time I had for it today

plug in.jpg


plug out.jpg


plug.jpg


ready for fuses.jpg


whole wire.jpg


wire.jpg
 
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Varilux

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Nice work... on the upside, you're going to have a super clean install. My dad always said to spend the extra time when you're building (or in this case installing) something because it may take an extra hour now, but you're going to be living with the result for thousands of hours (I try to remember that advice :^).

Anyway, looking forward to how the rest of your install goes!
 

JeepKindaGuy

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I think your good. Even after replacing every speaker in mine yesterday most of the sound is coming from the front and if you wanted more highs that would be where I would place them. The knee pods are directed down and I think that will minimize both “highs” with your setup. The tweeters I put in my sound bar are only noticeable if I’m sitting in the back seat. When everyone says that the sound bar is just filler they are 100% correct. Granted I went with different speakers and everyone has personal preference but I suspect that you’ll be fine. For ease of assembly your better off with the two ways in the soundbar versus my separates.
Jeep Wrangler JL Plug and Play amp upgrade to basic system wire
So you would recommend having 6.5" coax speakers(woofer along with the built in tweeter) in the bar and not your larger speaker with that little tweeter?
 

TJJL19

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Nice work... on the upside, you're going to have a super clean install. My dad always said to spend the extra time when you're building (or in this case installing) something because it may take an extra hour now, but you're going to be living with the result for thousands of hours (I try to remember that advice :^).

Anyway, looking forward to how the rest of your install goes!
Thank you, once I opened the bracket, seeing it had no sleve on it and it was wire spaghetti, I got scared, I had to use a second screw driver to pry it a little. I had a panic attack, thinking of the forum, Don’t use passenger side grommet to get wires through firewall!
I got the wire run under my drivers seat.
After I got the wire ran, I wondered, if runing the wire your way, might have been easier.

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