Hey everyone what is the best aftermarket stereo for my 08 x type looking best fit, easy to install, reasonably priced, and compatible. Also would like to add an amp nothing too big with good speakers to match. I was wondering if I could use the sub woofers that goes in the rear dash with an aftermarket stereo. Well looking forward to hear your opinions. Thanks again.

 

Playerpetegunn, what you are asking is a very loaded question. What I think of as a good radio, others would laugh at (keep in mind, I am the guy that had a karaoke radio in his car back in 93). Lets start with some features that you want the radio to do. Do you need the radio to do CDs, CD changer, navigation, cell phone connectivity, etc? Answer this and then we can start figuring out a decent radio to put into your car.

Actually, thinking, there is a question that we need to answer before you start all of this because of 1 thing you point out. Because you mention that you have the subs in the back of the car, you have the upgraded stereo system. Does your car have nav too? If you have nav built into your existing car already, upgrading the radio is almost a no go. The factory radio also controls your A/C-heat and to retro fit back to the more basic system is a royal PITA. So, this may shut everything down right off the get go.

Assuming that you have the more basic radio (ie, non-nav), you are looking at a complete re-wire of the stereo system. All of your speakers are powered from an external amp built into the car already (it uses a single data cable to transmit the data to the amp which is not found on aftermarket radios). So, to do what you are after, you are going to need to bypass that amp. At that point, it is going to be easier and better to simply run new speaker wire from the aftermarket radio. With this being said, you have separates in all 4 doors. So, to take a standard aftermarket radio and power these speakers, you are going to need to add some passive cross-overs (not expensive, but when you look at buying 4 of them, you can plan on adding another $150 or so to the project and then you need to make sure that they have the correct cross-over frequencies, if not sure, let me know).

As for the subs in the car, they are adequate, but if you are upgrading the rest of the system, you are going to get much better sound upgrading them too. The factory speakers are only 8" subs and don't hit the bass like what you are most likely wanting. So, this is where stepping up to dual 10" or possibly a single 12" sub is going to do you right. Granted, now we are talking about eating up some of your trunk space. That alone may be a deal breaker. Then we need to look at powering this equipment. I don't want to drone on about this, but there is a lot of misleading information out there about the power an amp puts out. You will find that most companies post that high number for their power and just say "this is a 1000 watt amplifier". Yes, it is true that their amp can hit 1000 watts, but that is for a split second. I don't know many people that only listen to their music for a single note. This value is what is referred to in the industry as peak power. If you ask me, that is a completely worthless number. It is only good for making people have a bragging right. The number that you should care about is what is referred to as "RMS watts". This is average power (ie, power over a long time). The X-Type can reasonably handle a 700 Watt RMS system without having to upgrade the electrical system. A 700 W RMS system will be plenty of volume. NOw, this power needs to be spit between the components (ie, subwoofer(s) and door speakers. As a general rule, half the power needs to go to the subwoofer(s), the other half gets split between the door speakers. So, you can run say 300 W RMS to the sub, then run 75 W RMS to each of the doors and have a nice, balanced system.

So, when it comes to price, I would say that you can probably plan on spending around $1000 to do the stereo up right. May even get up near $1500. I am sure that this number is setting you back a little bit. But, this is what I am seeing: $300 for a head unit, $100 a pair for door speakers (for a total of $200), a subwoofer ($100), a box for the subwoofer to sit in ($150), an amp to power the system ($250), dash kit to mount the radio and make the steering wheel controls work ($100), and then all the needed wires to connect everything ($200). This totals out to $1300 and this is assuming that you are going to do the install yourself. To get all of this installed at a shop, you are looking at another $300-400 on top of this.

I am sure about now, you are looking at how to cut costs. This is what I will tell you, you can go with a smaller amp which will let you get smaller (wattage wise) speakers and that will save you some money. But, DO NOT!!!!!!!! cut costs with the wiring. I can not tell you how many times I have seen people spent thousands of dollars on stereo equipment and then wire it together with some 20 gauge wiring. This is bad for 2 reasons. The bigger issue is that you are forcing too much power through the wiring and it can catch on fire (not sure about you, but having a BBQ'ed kitty is not on my list of "good eats"). The other reason I will equate to filling a swimming pool. You need to fill a swimming pool, do you want to fill it with a garden hose or a firehose? Same thing is true with wiring. Small gauge wiring is a restriction, it restricts that power going to the speakers, less power, less volume. Sure, you can overcome this with buying a bigger amp, but for the cost of simply buying the correct gauge wiring will save you money in the end. For what you are looking at, I would say that the speaker wiring should be 16 gauge wires and the main power wires (12 VDC and ground) going from the battery to the amp and then to ground should be no smaller than 6 gauge wire. Yes, this is going to cost some. I don't argue that. But, you can pay me now or pay me later when you are wondering why your car doesn't make a lot of volume and/or your amp cuts out when you crank it up (ie, most amps will protect themselves if the input power drops too low and they will turn themselves off, causing you to loose your music).

I have been doing stereos for a long time and I work electronics for a living. Just trying to give you some practical numbers for what to expect. If you have more questions, ask away. When it comes to stereos, trust me, I am just skimming the very top of things. I can tell you how to get surround sound in your car without getting a surround sound processor and the whatnot. BUt that takes even more planning and playing around to get things just so. This is where you need to decide what you need, what is a must have, and then we can go from there.

 

Wow Thermo didn't know it was that much to do with the Jags but here's where i am I tried to convert my standard system to premium system without the navigation but it never worked could be cause the factory amp i got came from the junk yard lol but i followed a post on this forum that was very detailed and the amp and subs never came on but my radio still worked as normal and still works. So what i would like to do now is try to finish that project i also have the cd changer now so will connect that as well. I have all the wiring but going to get the door cards with the tweeters on it and then run the wiring again . I also have original Jaguar speaker wire in great condition. So I'm going to go with that cause its too expensive and time consuming for me to go the other way. But still can use any help available thanks.

 

PlayerPeteGunn, how much have you added? I say this as you have to add a lot of different stuff to make the Nav work and stuff like that. Replacing the radio is just one step of many (and I mean many). As for the amp, it could be a lot of things. Could be the data link, could be that upgrading the system, you don't have the right fuse installed, could be a bad amp. This is where being able to put your hands on something is going to be vital. If you need a set of wiring diagrams, let me know. I can help you out there. But, much more than that, I would need to put my hands on the car and unfortunately, I am near DC. SO, it would be one hell of a drive.

 

Yes Thermo that would be one hell of a drive since I'm in Illinois lol but I did check all fuses they are good, I don't have the navigation radio but I wasn't trying to do that I just wanted to get the subs working with the regular radio, I got 3 CA230 clips, all original Jaguar wires in great shape no breaks in them and yes i took me a long time to pull them from the junk car lol, I even took the radio out of that car which had been connected to the amp and subs, I put that one in my car and some sound came out but it was very distorted and the radio got very hot so i took it back out put mine back in and it still played good but no sound from the subs. I do need to change the rear door cards as mine don't have the tweeters. So there is another one at the yard so I'm going back to get more wires from that one but this time I'm going to pull them from the front to back as far as the data link wires or the black wires with the white clips on the end I have 4 of them 3 for the amp and one for the cd player and i have the cd player. Funny thing is when i pressed the button on the cd player it did eject on old cd that was in it lol. So when i go back to the yard Wednesday cause that car been there for a while so got to get before they crush it going to get all i can. I in this to win it so next response I will send pictures of what i have.

 

Unless you have to have an aftermarket stereo, I recommend:
* Using the stock one
* Buying an AudioControl amp or another amp that has high pass inputs.

I explored the prospect of going aftermarket head unit. I'll tell you what I ended up doing.

I started looking into upgrading the stereo primarily because the two 6" subs in the back shelf didn't really hit the way i wanted so I figured I'd put in a Sub instead. If I put in a sub, then I'd need a new head unit for the RCA outputs since the stock head units don't have RCA outs. Venturing in this direction and considering an aftermarket unit was made easier in that I did not have the navigation head unit. I had the regular head unit with just the CD changer.

Ultimately though I learned that if I replaced the stock unit then i'd lose all steering wheel controls etc.. and I didn't want this. I also learned, or was told, the car security system was wired through the stock head unit so i'd have to bypass that and put in an after market anti theft system. Maybe I was misinformed, i don't know, but I'm not at all unhappy with what I ended up with. I did not upgrade to an aftermarket head unit. I actually kept the stock unit and got my hands on an AudioControl LC 6.1200 Amp. AudioControl historically was in the audio processor business enhancing car audio systems with bass boosters, high pass filters, EQ and line drivers etc... They never really ventured into the Amp business, but recently they launched a line of Amps. They have a great reputation quality and their equipment is priced fairly. They consistently out perform their ratings and they have been around for ages (no i don't work for them).

I upgraded the components with Alpine Type R-S65C mids and tweets. All four doors. Afterall the speakers grills already say Alpine....and I've always like Alpine. They are rated 100 watts continuous (300w peak). I also had the AudioControl LC 6.1200 installed. It is a configurable 6/5/4/3/2 channel amp that is 200w x6 @ 2ohm or 125w x6 @ 4ohm and can be bridged at 400w @ 4ohm if someone wanted to do 4ch + one bridged. If that's too much, there's an LC 4.800 too. Anyway, the thing about the AudioControl that made my life easier is that it has built in high pass inputs as well as RCAs. So all that needed to be done was the signal wires from the stock head unit (formerly to the speakers) wired into the amp and then the speakers wired off of the amp from there. This should be the case whether you have the regular stock unit without the Nav or the Unit with the Nav. The only signal that needs to be wired to the amp is what was going to the speakers.

I had a pair of old school free air 6.5" Kicker Comp subs from the late 90's sitting around the house and I had them installed in the shelf to replace the former under powered alpines. Kicker makes a newer version, but I don't know if they perform as well as the old school ones. I've heard conflicting reviews. And you can't just put any old 6" sub speaker in the back shelf. They have to be designed to perform in a free air capacity. Otherwise an enclosure would need to be built and that gets expensive. I learned that when I originally planned to use two 6" JL 6W0's. If you want to forgo the subs in the shelf then a sub in the trunk is fine. Either way the subs run off the amp as well. I have full function of the steering wheel controls, the security system works fine, and there's been no issue with the head unit. The only thing I don't get is an AUX input to hook up my iphone/andriod and listen to my play list. I also can't get sirrus or things like that which an aftermarket unit would get me. But I use an FM bluetooth transmitter and have no issue listening to my playlists. I still get to use the hands free for talking on the phone, I can mute the music, change the channels, turn the volume up or down. All that jazz, I don't lose any functionality. And I can control the sub bass from the stock unit still and the AudioControl Amp has a built in bass boost if I wanted to bump up that channel the subs run off of.

I've had it installed for about 2yrs now. Overall i've been happy and no one would know I had an aftermarket stereo. The bass sounds great and people in the car think I have a 10" in the trunk but it's not so loud that everyone outside the car hears it. That's my style though. The Alpine components are crisp and perform well at high volume with little distortion. I bought everything at separate times, but the Amp was about $500. I bought one set of the Alpines off of a local for sale site for $150 (they were unused) and got a deal on the second set of Alpines for $200 from Car Toys if I had them do the install. The install cost me around $350. So all said and done I was invested for probably $1300. I probably could have done the install myself, but I err'd on the side of caution considering the car and wiring etc... My personal opinion is this is the way to go. Adding an aftermarket head unit just makes the application more complicated to achieve the same results.

 

Well guys going to have to put it off for awhile cause my car was hit in the rear on the side where the amp goes so if any of you know about body work let me know. Smh I was totally upset can't use the word I'd like to.

 

.............hiya my name is Matthew I'm from UK. I have recently bought a jaguar 2005 and the previous owner cut out the stereo and the navi unit Could u send me the wiring diagram 4 the navi system and radio 4 2003-2004. There's only one plug and why is that in and my a.c. and heater is stuck on hot other stuff does not work. Could do with the diagramsof both and pictures of wiring loom and plugs behind stereo if possible can't find the wires 4 second plug its driving me mad

 

Matthew, send me a PM with your e-mail addy and I will send you the complete set of schematics for your car. That will have all the info that you need.

 

Just as a thought, modern Android head units are pretty good. I managed to squeeze a 9 inch screen in the slot.
Does Satnav, music, radio, bluetooth etc, the steering wheel controls work, if I had a reversing camera that would work too...
Amp is built in, or they can also have low level outputs for external amps. Mine was direct wired, no external amp, so that was easy!

On Amazon, I think mine was a 'YYKJ' 9 inch head unit if you're interested

 

Dear @Thermo ,

I hope you don't me asking if it would be possible to send me this diagram too.
I have installed an aftermarket radio and I am trying to find out which wires to tap on to for the steering wheel controls. My tech knowledge is good enough to know how to follow wires but I'm not skilled enough to discover this in particular myself.

Thank you in advance!

 

Menno, PM me your e-mail address and your year/make of car and I will send you the diagrams.

 

Hi @Thermo , Thank you for the quick reply and offering you help!
Thanks to reading several threads last night, including this thread, pushed me in the direction I was looking for and after some more time trying I successfully managed to identify the correct wire! I learned that the steering wheel controle wire seems to be somewhat sensitive which made it a bit more challenging to identity.
It turned out to be the white and green striped wire.

Have a nice day

 

Wow, thanks thermo, have used a couple of tips you've offered to others. My head's spinning from all the stereo info. My '03, plain Jane stereo took a dump. Thought I'd just get a good used unit to replace it. I not really an audiophile,, thought mine sounded great,,, then one night, coming home it croaked. You can still hear the radio or a CD, very low no bass. Is there perhaps something to check out??? We were jamming, but nothing that shoulda ragged anything out. I really enjoy the questions and answers on here. So nice to engage in civil discourse. Thanks to all.

 

Slimbo, if you have the basic radio and you have lost bass, then there isn't a whole lot you can do. The only other check that I would say to do is to verify that your speakers are functioning properly. IT is possible that you have had speakers failing and didn't realize it and now that the final speaker has gone, you are noticing the change. The only way that you can really do this is to unplug the speaker (the ones in the back deck are the easiest to get to) and then wire up a second radio and play music through the speaker. If you get the same "no bass" sound, then your speakers are shot. if you get good music, then your radio took a dump.

 

My after market Android has way way more features than stock and everything works same as before, security and steering wheel controls. And amp wise, accoring to some folks on this forum, anything more than 600 (or less) RMS is probably over powering the electrical system, the alternator. Build is in my sig.

 

That may be. I couldn’t speak to the max watts the car would handle without it leading to problems.

I know that I’m not drawing much more than the wattage that the stock premium sound already did, despite it being a 1200w amp. The amp is merely relevant because of the high pass inputs, I can’t do anything about how many watts they built it for with 6 channels. The replacement 6” shelf subs are probably running off 75w each, so I’m not winning any SPL competitions (it’s been decades since I even did any of that). But it all does sound immensely better than the stock premium sound did. I was surprised how well the low level bass improved and it sounds like it should have. Those stock alpine subs, in hindsight, were embarrassing and underwhelming. My lights don’t dim due to power draw and my alternator, 2yrs since the install, still runs strong and it’s the same one i’ve had in there since 2011. So if it goes it’s probably not going to be because of the stereo. But maybe....