This is going to be a bit of a long (first!) post but please bear with me and I'd appreciate any help or input. I am planning to upgrade the stock 770W Meridian 12 speaker in my new-to-me 2016 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe that I picked up less than a month ago. I've read through a ton of posts on this forum over the past two days and have learned a lot, Cambo's and 0to60in4's posts have been especially enlightening. I'll detail my plan below. I have a few questions as well that I haven't found answers to in my research on this forum and the rest of the internet. I have quite a bit of experience with aftermarket audio installations, but on much more common vehicles than this one. I'm trying to spend in the neighborhood of $1,000.00, trying to make it sound "good" not "audiophile" level.

I plan to install Dynamat or equivalent on the interior door panel surfaces as well as in the rear speaker area. I want to keep this as stock looking as possible and will be using the existing mount points. I will be upgrading 10 of the 12 speakers in the vehicle; dash coaxial speaker, door tweeters, door mid-ranges, door woofers and rear woofers. I will be forgoing upgrading the (2) 3" rear mid-range speakers since they are such an odd size and all of the replacements I found that would fit in the stock bracket are incredibly pricey.

I will be utilizing the stock amplifier to power the (1) dash coaxial speaker, (2) door woofers, (2) door tweeters, (2) door mid-range speakers and the (2) rear mid-range speakers. The (2) rear subwoofers will be powered by a small mono amplifier.

Speakers to be powered by stock amplifier:

From what I ascertained from 0to60in4 here (https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...anning-146775/) the door tweeters are 3.6-ohm while all other speakers are 2-ohm. The rear subwoofer is a DVC unit, each coil is 2-ohm. I found here (https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...f-type-213038/) that these voice coils appear to be fed by independent channels from the amplifier.

That said, I am looking at two options for these speakers;

1) Upgraded Meridian Signature series speakers as detailed in this thread (credit to Cambo) https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...-146775/page3/. The C2D24865 will fit the dash with minor modification and the LR033292, LR033293 and LR047119 will fit the doors with no modification. The (2) rear mid-range speakers will remain stock as noted above.

2) I may look into aftermarket speakers; Dash would be a 100mm coaxial 2-ohm speaker, door tweeters would be 30-ish mm 4-ohm, door mid-range would be 100mm 2-ohm, door woofers would be 200mm 2-ohm. Does anyone know of any speaker adapters that work in any of these locations or are universals the way to go? I want to avoid using MDF, I can make adapters out of plexiglass if need be but a pre-manufactured solution would be desired. Additionally, does anyone know of any speaker wire wiring harnesses that work at any of these speaker locations? Metra 72-9002 harnesses came up as a match with some searching, but I'm leery that they are the corect harness. I'd like to avoid tapping the existing speaker wire or cutting of the OEM connector.

Rear Subwoofers:

Lastly, the rear subwoofers will be replaced with 6-3/4" Kicker CompRT's, part number 43CWRT672. These are 2-ohm dual voice coil subwoofers. I will be pairing these with a Kenwood KAC-M3001 amplifier. I've used this combination before with success. The factory subwoofer connectors will be left in place and I will use one of the (4) disconnected channels to feed the amplifer at speaker level. If I do not like the quality I am getting with speaker level inputs I'll add in an AudioControl L2Ci line out converter. Since the Kicker's are the same resistance and dual voice coil, I can power these by the factory amp if ever desired with no modification. I'll be keeping the gain on the amplifier input sensitivity fairly low to avoid overpowering the other components powered by the stock amplifier.

I'd appreciate any recommendation or input on how to proceed with the aftermarket speakers I plan to power via the factory amp or any other recommendations. Thank you!

 

Subscribed. Thanks for consolidating all of that into one post.

 

Planning to have local audio shop doing install, or self install?

Buying your speakers online or directly from shop?

Parts cost?
Install cost?

 

I'll be purchasing most everything online and installing myself. I'll be sure to post pictures. I am hitting a snag finding 2 ohm components. I'll need to do some more research on the factory amplifier and speakers to see if I can substitute with 3 or 4 ohm components and maintain adequate volume.

 

I'm less confident that the stock door component speakers are actually 2-ohm. They might be 4-ohm.

0to60in4 noted that he used a multi-meter to take the measurments. It's possible he got a reading of 2.5-ohms or something and rounded down but a reading of around 2.5-ohms would actually indicate a 4-ohm speaker. I cannot PM him yet as I don't have enough posts but if someone who is looking at this thread could ping him that would be very helpful.

If anyone has any of the stock speakers around it would be greatly appreciated if you could post what impedance measurement you are getting from the multi-meter, or if you know the correct impedance that would be great as well! Otherwise I could remove a door panel and check when I get back home.

 

+1 although I do not plan on anything other than the upgraded stock speakers. Will definitely be following with interest.

 

Alright, so I spent Saturday retrofitting the rear speakers. I'm going to wait a few weeks to decide if I should add in the L2Ci or not, it sounds just fine with the line-level input right now. It does make the system sound better as is, I have not done the door or center speakers yet but plan to do so soon.

Here are some photos from the install, I have more that I will upload later showing the amplifier and speaker wiring dressed as well as the panel sound deadening. If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll fill you in.

 

I was giving some pointers to another user via PM on installing subwoofers in the stock location. I figured I would share this information in this thread as well for reference in case someone stumbles upon this post later.

The subs are open, this isn't great for low frequency response. To help combat this; with the subs and bracket installed, I placed polyfill behind and around the sub. I then placed foam (dense stuff, almost like memory foam) around the outside edge of the bracket. I made the cuts of foam large enough so they were compressed when in place to make a fairly solid barrier. Its a quick process and made a big difference in sound quality.

The subs will cause the trim to vibrate and cause rattling noises. Be sure to dynamat contact points of any removed trim.

A few more tips;

You will need to cut the (3) support brackets that run on the back of the bracket. That is the only way the sub will fit, it is too deep otherwise. There may be other sub options that get around this.

If you choose to install the same woofers I did you will run into a small clearance issue between the woofer surround and the grille of the carpeted trim. The way you should install these to avoid this clearance issue is as follows; cut out the opening of the MDF mounting ring to very slightly larger than size of the sub. With this ring laid over the face of the sub you should have a reveal of about 1/16" of the plastic face the abuts surround (the rubber gasket that runs on the outside circumference of the cone). After you have confirmed this, put the MDF ring in the bracket that you cut the factory sub out of. Silicone the hell out of the bracket and the ring (front and back!) to make a very solid mount. Let this dry for at least 24 hours. To make sure you have the clearance you must install the bracket with MDF trim OVER the face of the sub, the plastic face that says "KICKER" will be behind the MDF trim. Flip the bracket over and mark the mounting holes on the MDF trim ring. You will use small bolts to through-bolt through the MDF trim so drill holes in the trim roughly the same diameter of the bolts. Make sure the shaft of the bolt fits through the subwoofer mounting holes. Use washers if possible if the head of the bolts you use are small. I also used a few toggles on each speaker (you can see it in my pictures) to catch the back fins of the sub so sandwich these to the ring, it helps to relieve some of the stress the cantilever mounting creates.

 

nice. subscribed.

 

Did you end up replacing the door speakers yet? I have the premium tweeters and mids all ready to go but haven't picked up midbasses yet. I'm hesitant to spend $250 on the premium units knowing what I can get aftermarket for similar or less $. The issue is not knowing the impedance and sensitivity of the stock drivers and not having any control over the levels for tuning. I've read that the 200mm drivers in the door are 2ohm. I could go with a similar 2ohm replacement or a 4ohm driver with relatively high sensitivity and hope for the best.

Did you manage to remove the rear trim panel to access the subs and wiring without removing the seats? Looks like you still have the driver seat in place in one of those pics. Did you only use a single sub channel to feed your L2Ci? Ae you sure the stock system is running 4 channels of mono and not stereo for the subs?

 

Did you manage to remove the rear trim panel to access the subs and wiring without removing the seats? Looks like you still have the driver seat in place in one of those pics. Did you only use a single sub channel to feed your L2Ci or one channel from each side?

Did you end up replacing the door speakers yet? I have the premium tweeters and mids all ready to go but haven't picked up midbasses yet. I'm hesitant to spend $250 on the premium units knowing what I can get aftermarket for similar or less $. The issue is not knowing the impedance and sensitivity of the stock drivers and not having any control over the levels for tuning. I've read that the 200mm drivers in the door are 2ohm. I could go with a similar 2ohm replacement or a 4ohm driver with relatively high sensitivity and hope for the best.

 

You definitely don't need to remove the seats to take apart and work on the whole back wall in the convertible. With the coupe, it might be quite a bit harder to get in there with the seat in place.

 

Yes, I replaced all the speakers in the door as well as the dash speaker. Overall I'm really happy with the way it turned out, it sounds much better.

There is no reason to remove the seats as long as you can contort yourself a bit.

I used both sub channels to feed the L2Ci unit. I'm unsure what the factory system outputs but it sounds great and seems to respond normally.

 

Is there a video or description of how to remove the rear panel behind the seats? I'm ready to start tearing into this project - can't stand the floppy speakers and buzzing panels any more.

 

This should help. Good luck.

DC

 

Thanks for posting. I'm starting to plan for an audio upgrade as well.
I've only had the car a week but I've played with the available audio settings a bunch to see if I could get it to sound OK and to see what it may need.
1st, I turned off all of the surround BS. I also moved the the fader up a bit. My goal was to create an old school 2 channel stereo sound.
The Meridian drivers aren't too bad. The factory system is actively crossed over?
Then I turned up the subwoofer because I love my bumps. Then I turned it down. Wow.
It looks like the factory system is using the trim panel as the speaker baffle? It also looks like the speaker bracket might need a little beefing up?

 

The entire system is active.

Not sure which speakers you are talking about in your last sentence - the subs behind the seats? There is no true baffle for the subs. They aren't in a sealed enclosure but also aren't in a proper infinite baffle situation either. You can try to make the best of the stock location by creating a better "enclosure" or do what I plan and eliminate the factory subs and use a pair of 8' or single 10 in a small sealed enclosure in the trunk. Either option will only require 1cuft max external enclosure volume. As an added benefit, it will also eliminate the rattle and buzz from the big plastic trim panel behind the seats since the subs won't be firing at it.

 

I haven't taken the back panel off yet but your idea of abandoning the existing and doing a small sealed in the way back sounds like a good alternative if I can't figure out how to tame the resonance.
I was thinking the existing spots might be a good application for the new AudioFrog GS8ND2's. But I was also considering the Kicker L7T's. Either way, I'd have to glass in an enclosure.

Right now I'm thinking of doing the AudioControl DM-810 to gather the six door channels and the two sub channels together, put that back out to an LC6.1200 for the doors and an LC1.1500 for the subs.

Ideally I like to do the new Morel MT-300 tweeters, abandon the Meridian mid and do AudioFrog GB40's inplace of the door's larger drivers. And keep the sub's down by my butt.

 

I just want the system to not suck. I may very well have one or more blown drivers. I'm just going with the plug and play JLR Kevlar drivers and good sound deadening in the doors and hoping that is sufficient. I'm not really interested in replacing the entire signal chain. I'll grab a sub channel from each side (the rear subs are actually dual voice coils with each running off its own amp channel) and run an AMC-1.300 to a pair of Image Dynamics ID8s.

 

I’ve just purchased a MY2019 F-Type R coupé, and I’m thinking of upgrading the OEM sound system. I’d like to pick the brain of anyone here who has made such an upgrade, either by going to a car audio shop or by doing the work themselves.

Please PM me!