I am considering upgrading my speakers on my X308 as after 22-odd years they are getting twang-y to say the least.

As a complete layperson I have no idea to start, what to look for or how to install them. I have tried looking on youtube but there isn't anything specifically to do with x308s (or so I think).

Could anyone point me in the right direction? Cost effective speakers? Is it as easy as plug and play? I have read about the rear shelf with the subwoofers although thankfully I don't have to worry about that one so (hopefully) should be relatively easy?!

 

Crutchfield.com

 

Doors has 6,5" mid bass speakers. Either doors or A pillars has tweeters. Depending what stereo system you have. Depending from stereo system depends do you have the bass speaker in the parcel shelf or not. If door speaker grills says Alpine. You'll have the more complex system. If not you have the standard system.

Door speaker is attached to the door cart. Tweeter is attached to the inner door handle(if std system). There is not much room behind the woofer so you can not choose deep install depth woofer. And powerfull woofer won't do any good just because woofer is attached to the cart not to the door.

So basic 2-way set to the front and back. With Alpine systetm tweeter has to have own passive filter in wire or in tweeter.

 

I upgraded the speakers in my previous X308 with contemporary units with polycarbonate cones made by Pioneer I think. I just replaced them with equivalent sized ones and they worked great.

The standard speakers are made by Philips and there were two different manufacturers used for the premium system earlier cars were Harmon Kardon then later models used Alpine, both have the manufacturer names on the grilles.

 

I am really happy with the Alpine units performance. The six disk changer
works without flaw and holds it's own even on bumpy roads. Everything
is crystal clear and the bass is exceptional for a stock Alpine unit.

 

The previous owner of my X308 with the Harman Kardon system let a company install Gladen M165 mid bass speakers in the front doors and tweeters in the front A-pillar and told me that they were installed without modifications for mounting. It's a 3 Ohm speaker and I believe that the normal speakers are 4 Ohm, but my Harman Kardon amp has no problems with the Gladens and it sounds great.

 

Last summer, what I found was that not all 6.5" speakers are measured the same. I didn't want to mess with fabbing up adapters or drilling new holes. I wanted something that the holes lined right up, weren't too deep or bulky to fit. I did an awful lot of shopping online, downloading the installation templates for lots of speakers, ruling out one after another. Often hard to find the templates online so finally gave up on the online thing and went to a large chain store stereo shop with one of the old speakers in hand. Then they went through box, after box, after box, after box......after box, until they came up with the Alpine SPE-6000. Perfect fit. No cutting or drilling. Screwed right in. All I did was cut the plugs off the old speakers and soldered pigtails on them so that I could easily R&R the door panels in the future without cutting the car's wiring harness. Sounds great to me tho I'm no audiophile. And very reasonably priced. You can get them on Amazon a lot cheaper than I paid in-store, but I was happy to pay for the salesman's time.

 

I just ordered a pair of Rockford Fosgate coaxial 6.5" speakers and swapped them out, was very low effort. Holes lined up perfectly with the originals, its crazy that you had to go through that much hassle.

That said, I'm not satisfied with the speakers I bought, they have a bit more range than the OEMs, but because I now have mismatched front and rear speakers, the sound levels and frequency response from each pair are not great. I also find that because the tweeters are now at the bottom of my doors instead of the a-pillars, that the imaging in the front is just awful. When time and budget permits I'll be buying a full set of matched front and rear component speakers and just replacing the whole set of OEM's. Also considering just removing the factory sub from the rear deck and going with a self powered sub in the trunk, like an Infinity Basslink or similar pre-packaged kit as I've seen some others have done.

 

Time after time I see many spend a great deal of time and effort trying to improve
the factory installed sound and it appears to me that the Jaguar engineers had the
right idea. If the Duchess ever requires repair to her sound system, I suspect that
I will try to replace with original equipment if at all possible.

 

Depends what you listen to I guess but mine lacks a bit of bass to my ears. But it is the standard system so no sub.

 

Yes, I suspect a standard system (without the rear panel sub) might be a little
weak in the bass department.

 

Have anyone here attached door speakers firmly to the door?

 

One thing to check before replacement is do the speakers work?
I have had several that did not and they were repaired with a dab of solder on a broken connection.
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