Hello everyone, I just seen a post where someone wants to swap out their stock subwoofers with newer ones...I had thought of doing that too not too long ago but never got to it...now I want to put two 10" subwoofers or one as I'm not a "basshead" but....I'd like to use the factory stock unit, my 2005 s-type has the premium alpine system but without navigation...Is it possible to use an aftermarket sub/amp with the factory stock unit ? If so what would you guys recommend for subs & amp ? Price range $0-$500 If possible I would most likley have to pay someone..a professional to do as I have no idea on wiring.
thanks !

 

Yes it's possible. Rather simple actually if you're not afraid of delving into wiring.

Basically you need to splice a line output converter into the sub outs of the alpine amp. That will get you a line level RCA output that is just the SUB frequencies.

Then you need an aftermarket amp, and subs, enclosure etc. The battery is in the trunk on these cars as is the amp and all the stock stereo wiring, so you can do the whole install in the trunk.

As far as cost. That's up to you. How high end do you want to go? Personally I'd do 1 12" sub instead of 2 10" subs. It will play lower, and take up less trunk space, and allows you to use a mono sub amp. 250-300 watts of amp should be fine. Any more than that and you will overpower the hell out of the stock system. This will give it the bottom end it's missing.


Here's what you need.

High power line output converter.

Amplifier of choice

Subs of choice

Enclosure of choice

Wiring for amp and signal.

Take care,

George

 

Can you just replace the rear subs with better ones and run them off the stock amp? Will this help with sound? These subs are HORRIBLE! Sound like absolute garbage...

 

Can anyone post pics of what androulakis is talking about, specifically about where you would make the splice?

Maybe a more in depth explanation of this process, step by step

Maybe where you could get the high powered line output converter, is this a common thing that could be purchased at a regular car audio store?

 

The Line Output Can Be Purchased At Just About Any Place That Sells Audio Equipment. I Spliced Mine At The End Of The Sub Wires... Where It Plugs Into The Subs. It's Very Simple And Straight Forward.

 

I don't know about 2 10"woofers, but I have a single 10" Alpine open air sub installed in mine. They installer put it in the exact same location where the 2 factory smaller subs were installed. The 10" Alpine is deep coned so it is a little intrusive and limits trunk space (height) but the install was straight forward we built a board for the woofer to sit in and screwed that to the deck lid over the old sub openings. It was super easy and was able to be wired in using the original factory subwoofer connections and powered through the stock amp.

It does sound a million times better and it gives you all the base you need believe me...

I can post a picture of my install later this week once the car comes back from the shop if you are interested...

Cheers!

 

I'm interested in seeing this cbharley10

 

Me too !

 

Okay guys, I will post some pictures as soon as I get the car back. She's over at the dealer right now getting some new oil lines installed. Finally after 11 years and 150K miles she sprung a leak in the oil cooler lines...

I will post the shots Friday for your viewing pleasure!

 

I will be taking mine back to the dealer for both rear axle seals and transmission cooler lines that are leaking! Not too happy about this being how the Jag dealer I bought the car from last week is 3 hours away. Such an inconvenience. Makes me wonder if they even looked the car over at all. Not to mention a front park light bulb that was out! How can something so little and easy to replace be looked over? Or something as big as cooler lines which are soaked and dripping be missed?

 

I would love to see the pic of this too, sounds pretty straight forward thanks for the input

 

Hey everyone the time has come where I want to continue with this small project I did some small research on how the installation would go and I think I pretty much got it...or at least I hope so . I did a poor drawing outline...Someone please tell me if I'm correct on my drawing outline !

For hardware I'm going to purchase:

Kenwood KFC-W3013PS 12" Subwoofer
Kenwood KAC-1502S 350Watt Stereo Amplifier
(does it matter if I get a mono or stereo amp?)
Scosche LOC80 2 Channel Line Output
Single 12" Subwoofer Enclosure Box
And wires

What do ya'll think ? I'm not going super high end I just want some thing better than the stock subwoofers

 

Hey,

I don't have the tools available to edit your diagram but there is one important thing to note here.

First, you need to cut the wires going to the factory subs and wire them to the line output converter. Don't just tap off of them. Trust me you will NOT miss them. Ideally you want to remove the factory subs from the rear deck to allow the bass from the new sub to penetrate the cabin better.

Second how many channels the amp has doesn't matter, but be careful with class D subwoofer amps. Make SURE you can turn the crossover off. The signal going to the factory subs is already filtered, and if you can't turn off the electronic crossover in the amp, you will filter it again, making the amp pretty much useless. In your case I took the liberty of googleing the amp you mention and you are good. You can turn the filter off.

Here is the link to the amp owners / install manual.

http://manual.kenwood.com/en_content...ad/1000009188/

Make sure you keep the amp like this - filter switch set to off:




Third, you need a remote turn on wire to turn the amp on and off. There is no such wire in the factory amp harness. HOWEVER there is an accessory power plug in the trunk that jaguar hid. It's behind the driver's side electronics rack above the battery. It's a plug with 3 female spade connectors. It should be clipped to the top bracket on the rack. I believe that the bottom right connector is ignition switched +12v but it's been a while so don't quote me on that. Use a multimeter and find out for yourself. There will also be a ground and a constant +12v in the harness. A simple male spade crimp connector will plug into this harness.

Here is a pic of the connector with the remote turn on attached:



Now onto grounding. There is a bolt on the passenger side beneath the tail light area that is a factory ground point that will work perfectly.

Here is a pic of the bolt with my 4awg ground wire attached:



I hope this helps. If you have additional questions feel free to ask.

Take care,

George

 

Just a quick addition, that amp can take speaker level inputs ie has its own line converter built in so you would not need the external converter or an rca cable.

The factory filtration point for the standard 'subs' is too high so I would still use low pass filter set to approx 80 Hz to clean up the sound, definitely remove the standard subs and have your new one orientated so it faces out of the boot as opposed to up like the standard ones as this will improve the sound no end .

Lastly set up with the dsp on front, this boosts the signal to the sub and means you can quickly and effectively reduce its output by simply switching to 'All'.

I am running a focal 12 inch sub with focal monoblock amp and it sounds infinitely better than stock ! Enjoy.

 

So I wouldn't need that Line Output Converter? The amp has one built in you say =o ? I re-edited my outline drawing to what you said in your post, hope it's correct =D I already purchased the converter last night including RCA cables which came out to $27 =( Going to try to cancel my order & save myself $27 !

 

androulakis, thanks for the reply ! Yea I know not to tap the wires direct to the stock subs I forgot to mention it in the outline/post LOL. I ordered everything last night and total came out to about $210..not bad at all ! Going to post pictures of the setup once I have everything installed ! Thanks once again.

 

Wait!

Well ok your amp has speaker level inputs, but are they designed to handle an already amplified output? Don't forget this isn't a radio output but you are taking the output from the existing amp. I blew the input stage on a sony amp a while back trying to do this exact thing in an old BMW 740i I had. Reisistor got so hot it unsoldered itself from the board.

That's why I recommended the high power line output converter. Could you maybe get away with it? Sure.... But I wouldn't try. The line output converter is guaranteed to work, and wont cause any issues.

Just my .02 of a dollar.

Take care,

George

 

Probably not ! I'll just use the external line converter. Just in case ! I have no knowledge in car audio so I'm agreeing with what everyone else says as you can see LOL !

 

Actual rms output of the standard amp is not much more than an aftermarket head unit it just has more channels, ran mine the way I outlined for the past 18 months with no issues. If it were the full 300w through the two channels that would be different remember that amp supplies 12 speakers so in reallity lucky if it's 30w plus unless it's a higher end line converter the same issue outlined by George would still be an issue as that device is also designed for unamplified outputs!

Just make sure all connections are good as improper ones especially speaker inputs can cause signal spikes leading to amplifier issues.

 

The newer, "high power" loc's have larger resistors / capacitors in the input stage than the older ones did. They are designed to handle 80w rms inputs. I have a couple made by scosche here at the moment.

If I recall correctly the jag alpine amp allocates 40w to each sub. A decent aftermarket head unit makes about half of that. I'm not saying it won't work your way. But I don't know if the $69 kenwood amp being discussed in this thread will be up to the task.

Take care,

George