Help me out here guys,

I have been having some trouble with the audio on my new to me X350 XJR.

I found that the door speakers in the front were quiet and muffled and by cranking the volume I could get the left one to work but the right was still muffled, I soldered a jumper wire to the voice coil and continued testing, same result. I decided I had a blown right front door speaker and a failing amplifier, I also had no sound coming from the dash top speaker on the right despite the fact that the speaker works if you connect it elsewhere, again I assumed the amp. I replaced the amp and right hand front door speaker and thankfully, this has improved the audio quality, however, My upper dash speaker is still not working (Speaker works fine when plugged in anywhere else). Stupidly, I have also done all my testing without the drivers door card in place so aftter putting it all together, I found the tweeter on my drivers door isn't working either, tbf, this could be a blown speaker, But I find it odd that it's the two upper rightmost speakers that aren't working, do the tweeters and dash speakers share the same channel on the amp? Any other suggestions of where to look? and what to look out for? no power seems to be coming from the dash top speaker as my multimeter picked the connector up as open circuit, where the other speaker connectors in the car that I tested continuously flip from open to closed circuit.Do they plug into the back of the nav screen or something? This happens to be the highest end, most expensive sound system I have had in a car...and the one that is the most broken lol, I don't think I have ever experienced blown speakers and I certainly haven't seen a blown amp before. Its the alpline premium system btw. cheersSammy

 

Lots of connectors between the amp and the speakers. All the door speakers, 6.5s and tweeters, share a single connector under the dash at the transmission tunnel, then the connectors to each door, and the connector at the speaker itself. The dash speakers (called fascia speakers in the wiring diagram) share none of those, but they do tap off at the amp from the same lines that feed the front tweeters; the left front door tweeter and the left dash speaker are the same channel, and similarly the right front tweeter and the right dash speaker. The rear tweeters are on the same amplifier channel as the rear door speakers.

You can find the electrical guides in the stickies somewhere, but here's the speaker connections, one for left and one for right, simply because at 100% the page was to big to snip all at once.




This chart is the component and connector locations.

 

Hi wfooshee,

Thank you for your reply, this is very helpful!

I take it from what you are saying then, if the door tweeter speaker is not broken, then there is a problem with the amp or the line between the amp and that tweeter and fascia speaker.

Sounds fun, I don't know what to hope for lol.

 

In summary. The front door speakers are powered by a separate channel on the amp. The dash speaker and tweeter run off one separate channel for each side of the car. The rear door speaker and tweeter run of another channel.

I originally guessed that the 4 door woofers and rear tweeters run off the headunit and are being fed 140w peak. The extra 180W to reach (320W) are sent via 4 channel amp to front tweeters, dash speakers (2 combined channels), and rear parcel subwoofers 1 channel per sub

 

My car doesn't have the premium system. But you are telling me if you disconnect power from the rear alpine amp that the entire car will have no audio? The factory cd player does absolutely no output? Why would jaguar waste that power from the headunit? It makes no engineering sense.

 

If you have an amp in the trunk, then you have the "Audiophile" system. The "Premium" system is actually the base for this car: no amp, just the head unit and CD changer. All amplification is from the head unit, but there are no subwoofers and no dash speakers. It's a basic 4-channel system, each door being a channel. The "Audiophile" system adds the amp in the trunk (with a lot more power than the head unit in the premium system,) and the dash speakers and subwoofers. The subwoofers are each a channel, the front door mid-woofers speakers are each a channel, the rear doors are each a channel with mid-woofers and tweeters combined on each side, and the front tweeters and dash speakers form a left and right channel, for 8 channels off of the amp. Yeah, that's weird: the front tweeters are driven on a channel shared by the dash speakers, not by the door midrange speakers. The head unit contributes no amplifier power, as it is source selection and controls only, and its output to the amplifier, including audio and all control information, is encoded on the fiber network.

So yeah, if you un-power the rear amp, you have no sound. That amp doesn't supplement or boost the head unit, it is the amplifier for the entire system. How that doesn't make engineering sense escapes me... Fiber link for all audio, meaning no possibility of alternator whine. Also zero copper wires from the dash to the trunk for output from the head unit. It makes a lot of engineering sense!

 

I think premium = base as there isn't a lower spec offered for sale in the US market. And I really appreciate the info. Thanks

Actually there an engineering reason for the headunit just providing the signal to the amp and no output power. It all has to do with DSP and logic 7 system.

 

As far as I am aware, it is called the Alpine Premium Audio system in the UK, but it doesn't matter, It's the 320W system with Amp.

Im guessing I need to check every single 1 of these connections to these two speakers before I conclude I have 2 Amps broken in the same place...all good fun eh.

 

I think only the profolio system with 400+ watts had 2 amps. The 320W system has one amp. I would use a cheap old 4 ohm speakers and test the amp output. It should be fairly straightforward and not too time consuming.

Another thing that I would do from amp outputs is measure the impedance in the wires with a voltimeter. If it is an open circuit; most likely that speaker is blown

 

No, as in I have replaced the amp with a supposed tested working unit, and whilst it has improved all other channels, there is still no audio coming through the rh dash fascia speaker or the tweeter.

Does your test involve simply trying a different speaker in their place? Because as I said in my original post, the issue here (at least for the upper dash fascia, tweeter unconfirmed) is that the speaker works ok when plugged into one of the other outputs, for example, in the left hand side of the upper dash.

 

Sorry for my vague response. In this case; I would use a stethoscope near the tweeter and see if you get any output. if you do; then it is probably bad wires to the dash speakers. Why don't splice the wires near the dash speaker (that isn't working) and hook it manually to any other working speaker? if you get no sound from dash but you get sound from the tweeter; you have a wiring issue. if the tweeter is also silent; then IMHO that channel on the amp has malfunctioned.

Don't quote me on this but the speaker leads from the bad dash speaker shouldn't be an open circuit. They should display the impedance of the tweeter.

 

Ok, did some more digging, I cannot find the grey 10 pin connector on the A pillar, it must be hidden somewhere.

You cannot measure any impedance on the tweeter speakers from the dash speaker connectors.

There no noise coming from the tweeter.

And my wiring is of a different colour to those diagrams (mine is an 05 XJR for reference).

I will access TOPIx tonight to see if I can find a diagram specific to my model and I will install my new tweeter when it arrives next week.

I will take it from there, but I can see me giving up and running 2 sets of wires from the door bass speaker to the tweeter and the dash speaker in the end...unless I just need to power the tweeter, we shall see.

 

If taping the speaker leads in the dash leads an open circuit (no impedance) and your tweeter isn't making any sound; then I believe your "pre-owned" amp has that channel broken or it isn't connected properly.

Btw removing the door panel isn't hard. There are plenty of videos on YouTube discussing it. Pm me if you want the exact link.

But I feel your amp isn't supplying a signal to that channel or the wiring has corroded due to age. I am sorry for the bad news

 

Yes, this is why I feel it may be necessary to run a wire from the door speaker to the tweeter and dash speaker, effectively tapping into the door bass speaker channel of the Amp, I'm sure it's not going to be quite as good, but hopefully it will do.

I have had the door card off twice now anyway to diagnose and replace the door bass speaker.

It does strike me as odd that 2 amplifiers have both failed in the same place.

 

This will not work as in the Alpine system the front door woofers only get mid-bass signal. You will not be getting a full range signal. It will sound like crap and you will probably blow the dash speakers

 

I have fixed it, it was a dodgy connection to the blue speaker cable junction box in the boot. I just removed the offending crimps from the connectors and re crimped them bypassing the junction box.

 

Horay and thanks for the update. Great Job

 

No problem, hopefully this will help someone else.

 

I never said the head unit doesn't provide signal to the amp. I said it doesn't do it over copper wire. EVERYTHING from the head unit to the amp, including audio, source control, balance, fader, bass, treble, and volume controls, is encoded on the fiber ring.

When you asked why they would waste the available power of the head unit, I assumed you meant output power to the speakers. They replaced that power with a much stronger external amplifier.

 

@samstagmoonyham So did your lower door mid base speakers in the system start playing any significant volume after fixing the connector? I had a look at the wiring for mine at the amp in the trunk and initial visual inspection is fine.

On my Alpine Audiophile Jaguar factory installed system in my 2005 XJ8L X350 G48653 VIN I cannot detect any sound at all on all my four lower door 6.5" round speakers (mid-base?) even with the volume cranked up and base setting, but all the other speakers, fascia, etc., are working including the rear deck subwoofers.

What is odd is that the mid-bass rears are, according to the schematic, connected to the same wires as the rear door tweeter, and the rear tweeters work, as do the front door tweeters, but the front mid base speakers also have no sound. IF the Head and amp are not generating mid base as in the Audiophile configuration, I think those speakers will do what I am finding - no sound.

In my dealer configuration in IDS / SDD v125 (5.03) there is only a selection for a "Premium Audio System" which is only eight (8) speakers, and I am wondering if my vehicle configuration file is incorrect (I have some messages the file is corrupt) to allow the other four speaker amp outputs in the Audiophile Alpine to turn on those four outputs for the door speakers?

The Audio amp has been throwing some "module bypass" codes which IDS says "reconfigure the module" which I have now twice in the past year using only the "automatic" configuration, occasionally I get buss communication faults between the two audio busses. However, if my VCATs file is not correct then "automatic" module configuration may be using the incorrect configuration.

Solutions?