I am trying to remain positive, but can't understand why, between Meridian and JLR that they cannot give us the dimensions of the speakers in the 380W system. Forget the "guesses" as to why. I know they don't want people to change them out, and come back to parts if replacements are required. As a man of common sense, I could dream of a dozen reasons. But it is a simple request.....and without this, I need to go in myself and create more work than it takes. It is a matter of "simple customer service" to requests, and I called 6 dealers and it was like talking to Daffy Duck with a million reasons/excuses. One lady said....Bring it in and we can take the care apart and check for you. I laughed at this, not her, since this is what I am trying to avoid!!!

Options:
1. - I need more base, and the trunk isn't the spot for a sub (already too small)
2. - Behind the seats the speakers are a "joke", and if I can get speakers into these slots with more base, the system would be outstanding, as I like the highs. Recognize that I could separately amp these and take the pressure off of the other speakers.
3. - I am satisfied with the Dealer fix on the rattles and hums in the system...Thanks "Madison, N.J. Jaguar"! Job well done!
4. - After all of the nonsense with the systems in the 2015 F-Types, would be nice for an assist here.
5. - Actions taken thus far were to do the following:
a - Call Meridian US....they deferred to the UK (still waiting)
b - Call Meridian UK, and they said, don't know why the US didn't have this.
c - Meridian UK dude was really nice as the US guy was the same. He
did say that it would take until Monday/Tuesday to get this...hope so
d - Deferral by the US to the UK is still in process as well
6. - When you call parts or service for Jaguar, the schematics are like asking Hillary for her "hidden tapes".....nowhere to be found on such a "SIMPLE" request.

I believe that the speakers in the back, once replaced and separately amped will give the type of bottom that I think the 380W system needs. The tweeters in the upper doors, as well as the speakers in the doors below are fine.....

Just sharing, not blaming, but questioning why, in my opinion, something so easy is such a PITA to get. Too bad.....!!!!!

I did inform Meridian that for such a fine company, it was sad that the brand is taking such a hit by F-Type owners who can't resolve the issues from the cab engineering and rattling and lack of base/bottom. He documented it, and I did it for his own teams good. I would want to know this for my organizations brand image as well.

 

Marketing...

 

The speakers behind the seats on the 380w system are an absolute waste of time. They produce next to no volume and what is produced is upper mid and treble only. I've literally heard better audio on cellphone speakers.

And let's not forget, prior to the 2016s the US base system was an upgrade on the base audio in many other markets.

It really is garbage.

 

It amazes me that we've all had to work so hard to solve this and at the ambivilance JLR has shown.

No company can be this silly can it?

 

Porsche can.

 

OK, thats really bad. Poor bloke. I thought in the US you at least had lemon laws to protect you from Friday afternoon cars.

We need Lemon Laws in the UK to protect us from the Jaguar CRC.

 

Has anyone tried to contact Crutchfield? They seem to have specs on almost every single car on the market from head unit size and depth to speaker sizes. I don't see the F-Type listed on their site...

Maybe contacting them would either get the ball rolling, or perhaps they just haven't updated their site...

 

Porsche ended up buying his car back from him. There are good posts from Steve Lehto on Jalopnik about some crazy lemon law stories. Worth the read if you have some free time.

 

Crutchfield has no clue!!! I looked at the site, then I contacted them, and they were clueless!

 

Also posted this in the Meridian Audio thread:

Just to report that Autocar - the UK's leading car magazine - continued its coverage and came out in support of our push against Jaguar. For those of you based in the UK, its on page 60.

Here's the paragraph: "The rest of the cabin stood up well, with the notable exception of the passenger-side front speaker, which developed the annoying habit of resonating loudly enough to be heard over road and engine noise. It seems our car wasn't alone in suffering this issue with the otherwise-impressive Meridian set-up and there's an owner group lobbying Jaguar about it. We can wish them well in forcing a cure, because it was darned annoying when it popped up."

Huge thanks to John Mcilroy at Haymarket publishing for his support! Top guy!

I know many at Jaguar read Autocar, so lets hope their ambivalence gets vibrated loose...

 

I have email Meridian requesting some specs on the speakers such as power handling (peak and RMS) as well as frequency response figures and sizes, (they have these published for other systems) but I have received NO response...

 

It is now Thursday, and two folks (one from US and one from UK) promised me the same, >1week ago, and "NOTHING". I don't understand the problem, and think this is adding insult to injury. One would think...."this guy is trying to make a situation better for himself, let's get this to him and make it go away". Not my way of behaving, but then again, par for the course I guess. Wanted to remediate the situation on Saturday, and now it becomes more complex as I have to take the back apart, and study what is back there (cause there ain't anything coming out worth saving as of this writing)!

 

I must say, that Jaguar's CRC have been responding to me promptly of late. Its just that they continue with the same arrogant company line that they have been pushing at me - and us - the last 20 months now.

Parts of Jaguar - in this instance, the Customer Relations Dept - really don't understand that customers define a brand today, not the brands themselves anymore. They may spend millions promoting the new XE, but when you undermine the experience you deliver your customers on your halo product then you cause yourself a world of pain. Unfortunately, their increasing profits seem to be creating a reality distortion field that they can't see through.

Lets keep pushing them to be a responsible manufacturer.

 

Manwheele, could not agree with you more on this. My wife's lease is up in July/August, and we were looking at a Jag for her, believe it or not. At this point, if the "F" type audio scenario isn't resolved, despite the awesomeness of the rest of the car, we will go to an alternate brand. This is totally unacceptable.

Today, I spent the day on this system with my "Audio Pro" whom I have worked with for many years. He said...."this is a shame that Jaguar fell asleep at the switch on this audio system". THEY DID!!!

I did find out from him the following:

1. - The rear "subs" :-( are not heard because they are 10", very shallow, i.e. minimum magnets, and mounted with a plastic part as a major part of the speaker.
2. - The seats when pushed back to a normal persons height, actually cover the 10" subs that are in the rear compartment. when you push the seats all of the way up, a bit more base comes out, but still lame. The engineers missed the fact that the seats kill the rear speakers and mids...."How could they have missed this only God knows"!
3. - The resonation on both doors is "BACKKKKK!!", rendering the "Dynomat to be a totally failed effort".
4. - I must admit that the highs coming out of the top of the doors (tweeters) is stunning and the best I have every heard. However, this is the only set of speakers, not impacted by obstruction, i.e. the seats for the base and mids, or the doors resonating on the 4 speakers mounted in them.

I just sent the report to all of the "friends of ours from Jaguar and Meridian" to report thoroughly what the findings are, with the excerpt of the review from the UK audio magazine about the resonating. I also asked that this gets resolved before the next snows hit, as I don't feel like spending the entire months of June and July, seeking resolution and back and forth with my dealer.

BTW, the dealers are at a loss on what to say or do. I made sure that all of the Jaguar folks recognized "NOT TO SEND ME BACK TO THE DEALER"! They are out of options.

If the 16's are not problematic (jury is still out), did they do a phantom fix with the engineers, and what was that? I can't wait for the reports to come out on the 16's, as if fixed, what was it (Phantom fix), or if not, the problem keeps marching on and on and on. I do trust that Jaguar execs are after a fix here, and that the ethics of such a fine enterprise will prevail. After all, owning two of them, I vested a strong level of trust in them. The XJL 2014 is wonderful, period end of story. The F-Type is near perfect for sure, but the audio system to a musician who likes the sound of a motor/pipes sometimes, and David Crosby others I want what I paid for in an Exotic Auto.

Good Luck, and let's keep each other posted on resolution. I trust in the professionalism of Meridian (their brand is getting hurt as well), and Jaguar, the same.

Have a great rest of weekend,
Joe <PILING ON FOR SURE TO THE AUDIO PROBLEM :-)

 

Useful stuff, although if you're not buying a F because of the stereo, there are many other cars that will meet your needs.

 

F-Typical, thanks for your perspective, which is what makes this world so interesting, i.e. differing perspectives. I bought "THE PACKAGE" as advertised, and maybe I haven't been clear enough on my point. There is one car that I researched and I paid "EXCELLENT" money for it. It was not as advertised regarding an important feature "to me", i.e. the audio. Again, this is "my perspective", which makes my world go round and is why I am relentless to get this resolved accordingly.

This needs to be fixed, and besides, why did they go to "Meridian", which is supposed to be one of the best audio co's in the world? Answer is that they knew that there is a market by which enough folks find this to be brand appealing and want outstanding audio in an Exotic. I thought it would be as good as my 2014 XJL, which it isn't. Too bad this is the case for an audio/exotic car lover like me and many others.

 

Totally. In a Porsche, when you upgrade spending almost identical money, you get a Bose system. Another excellent brand - although at the mid-market level nowadays. That system blows away the Meridian, vibrations aside.

The vibrations though are something both Jaguar and Meridian should be ashamed of. In fact they are so ashamed they've been in 20 months of red faced denial. Even when well reputed magazines tell them there's a problem, guess what, its still not something thats ever been reported to them. They actually say "We've just not had many reports of an issue."

Really? Reaaalllllyy?

 

You did appear to be saying that you wouldn't be buying one for Mrs slojotaa because of the stereo - hence my comment.

HTH.

 

ahhh, in that context you are absolutely correct. Many other choices is a fair statement. Thanks!

 

Me too. Less to do with the fact the stereo implementation in the F-Type is sub-standard, I chose to not purchase an additional JLR product for my wife because the customer experience is shocking.

At the time, my company had a special agreement with JLR for an employee purchase program that included significant discounts - even then I felt NAH. On top of which JLR has also offered me an additional discount due to all the faults on my car.

JLR are far too painful, take no responsibility for their faults and have such poor systems to capture issues across themselves and their dealer network - this was not a brand I could buy into anymore.

Cars are for many an emotive purchase. For some they are transport. I live in the former and when I pay for that type of experience - as we all have done with the F-Type - then I expect a professional customer experience.

And yes, even in the F-Type, when we pay $1500 extra for a decent sound system, thats what we should all expect. #dontcompromise

Porsche give it you, so does Audi. Even Aston with their old electrical architecture deliver an appropriate high quality sound system.