Hi everyone,

With the purchase of my white cat I'm left without the premium sound system that I had in my '07.

So I was looking around on the web and noticed the following URL that lists the components for the Premium B&W sound system..
SOUND SYSTEM for 2013 Jaguar XK

My question is.. would this actually be doable? are all the cables already in the chassis and are all the holes available for the speakers to be placed in? I'm pretty handy with power, cabling and soldering..

I guess (I noticed a similar XF forum thread) that the Radio upgrade would be through a computer connection (similar to enabling AUX). Does anyone attempted this? or know the configuration steps required ?

although the price is a bit steep ($3k), perhaps there are other better options? But wanted to know feasibility first before I go and start any negotiations..

 

If your dead set in spending the money, I'd first visit a reputable car audio installer and look at options that will work with your existing head unit.
In honesty, I,ve never seen the base unit, but the B&W premium in my 2010 is still lacking any sort of serious output or quality for that matter. It's a great improvement over my 07 Premium, but I was wishing for much more when I stepped up to my 2010.

I can say that pulling the Alpines in my 07 and replacing them with Focals made a HUGE difference.... Oddly when I moved them over to my 2010 the sound difference was negligible, showing the B&W speakers to be of pretty good sound quality.

BOL
Vince

 

can you tell me more about those Focals? which range, diameter etc? is it a simple swap? did you add an amp? or just swap the speakers themselves?

its not that i want to spend my money.. i just want a "simple" upgrade that doesn't require a boom-box in the back, an amp somewhere under the dash and cables running around everywhere.. If i can get better sound by just upgrading the 4 (main) speakers.. i'm happy to do that too

 

Focal is supposed to be great stuff. I would just upgrade the speakers if you really think the sound is that important. Look for Focal dealers and see what they think can be done. Labor is expensive; keep that mind.

 

I believe all the US cars have the premium B&W as standard. At least every XK I looked at in the 2012 model year had the premium sound? Curious if anyone in the US has an XK/XKR without this option.

 

Yes, that is what I thought as well, or at least never saw one without them.

 

Yes you can upgrade the base audio to premium, it needs quite a few components swapped out and some added, a little wiring, and the car needs to be reprogrammed to activate the premium functions.

When I get back to my pc I'll post up some more info.

It's not a small job though, quite a bit of work involved.

 

That would be superbe.. thanx!

 

OK...

First of all, the B&W speakers are different to the speakers in the Base system, you would have to decide if you wanted to put in the original B&W yellow-coned speakers in, leave the existing "Jaguar branded" ones in there or go for aftermarket ones. Checking the prices for the B&W ones as spares from Jag, they are not that much more than Focals would be anyhow. You also need to add the center fill speaker in the dash, there are two versions of that one, a B&W one or a "Jaguar Branded" one. I doubt you will find an aftermarket speaker that will fit perfectly in the existing mounting position.

You need to add the subwoofer which is mounted in the passenger side footwell, under the carpet. So you need to remove the center console, passenger seat, and door jamb trims, in order to remove the carpet "bucket" to access that location.

The subwoofer assembly is the exact same part for all X150 XK & XKR regardless of model year, so one out of a wrecked car would be easy enough to find on eBay. It'll probably come with the amp fitted to it as well so bonus points there. The amp is also the same for all X150 XK & XKR regardless of model year.

You need to change the head unit "IAM" (Integrated Audio Module) as it's different between Base and Premium systems. I mean the actual unit where the CD's are loaded in, in the middle of the dash. They pop up on ebay regularly, they're the same head unit as the XF's and Land Rover Freelander2 / LR2, up until the Meridian systems were introduced.

As for the wiring... what you can do to check is lift off the speaker grille from the center of the dash and see if there is a connector there on a loom for the center speaker, though it does appear that there is a different dashboard harness for Premium Sound, knowing Jaguar that means the center dash speaker wiring loom will be missing from the base cars. Not a big deal to add it if it's missing.

The rest of the wiring is a bit hard to explain.

The wiring loom for the Premium system, from the amp to the speakers, is in place already. The connector at the Premium amp which runs to the speakers is called CA116. For the Base system there is a loom which runs from the head unit (IAM) behind the center of the dash, to where the amplifier & subwoofer would normally be fitted. This additional loom runs from connector IP058 to connector CA116. So you unplug that loom at CA116 in the passenger footwell, and plug it into the amplifier. The connector IP058 behind the head unit is left unplugged, it's not connected to the Premium head unit.

The 2-wires for the center speaker are actually in two parts. 1st section is from the amplifier, connector CA116, to another connector IP052. This is probably already there. What's likely to be missing is the 2 wires from IP052 to the speaker in the dash. It's just 2-wires and a plug which goes into the speaker, can be easily made up.

You then need to connect the MOST fiber optic loop into the Amplifier, which means you may need an extension, probably a splitter as well. These can be found easy enough. Also the power connector to the amplifier, might already be there, if not it's not the end of the world to add a couple of heavy power cables to the amp.

Last thing is to edit the Car Configuration File to activate the Premium Surround options. This can only be done with the SDD diagnostic system that JLR dealers have. HOWEVER the function to edit these settings is locked out for them, so a dealer can't do this for you. They would have to request a special password from JLR Tech Support, which they won't get if they say that they need it to retrofit a Premium Surround System. However there are ways around this if you have an unlocked/offline SDD, like some of us do...

EDIT

I forgot one thing....

There is a cooling fan which needs to be mounted next to the amplifier, and a wiring loom which runs from the fan back to the rear junction box...

 

And here's some more trivia for you...

The door midbass speakers and tweeters in the Base system are the same ones as the X350 XJ, and the X-Type.

You could use the Surround Sound amp from the XF and the Freelander2, and add additional surround speakers to the rear of the car for more sound (if you had a coupe, probably wouldn't work in a convertible)

You could also add a pair of front mid range speakers, same like the XF and LR2, assuming you could find somewhere to put them.

And if you wanted, a pair of tweeters in the rear as well.

The "440W Bowers & Wilkins" system in the XK is "only" an 8-speaker system, whereas in the XF and LR2 it's a 14-speaker setup. With two additional midrange speakers in the front, two surround speakers in the rear, and two tweeters in the rear as well.

 

Thank you Cambo! very very good write-up!

So for= the components, I'm assuming the difference between the Alpine and B&W is only the actual speakers? or is the main unit also completely different? Perhaps I will first go for changing the speakers themselves, and if that is not enough later-on add the sub and other components..

For the sub.. is it located near the center (passenger side) left foot (RHD) "behind the radio" or completely below the carpets where both feet are? Does the entire dash needs to come off for this?

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...l-sl382438.jpg

I want to stay "a bit original" so not making additional holes for additional speakers ..

 

The only difference between the Alpine and the B&W is the speakers, the badges and maybe the software that's loaded in the IAM (i think, have to check about the software), all other hardware is the same.

The sub is located between the firewall and the carpet in the passenger footwell. There is quite a big cavity in there actually. It's down on the floor, not behind the dash. No you won't need to remove the dash, just the passenger seat and center console.

 

That is excellent news.. it means i can go to a local junkyard and see if they have an old '07 available for all the components.. and then only order the 7 B&O speakers.. or just stick with the complete Alpine systems (center + 2x tweeters + 4x regular)

 

It seems there aren't so many subs with amps for sale at the moment, actually none with the amp included... so i hope you can find one for a reasonable price!

The amp was a "special" only for the XK, as it did not have an internal cooling fan, and the heatsink was smaller in order to fit into the available space.

I dug out the sub/amp assemly that is going to go in steve_k_xk's car (this is a RHD assembly, for the left side of the car) and you can see the differences between the XK amp and the one from the XF/LR2.

(note that this XF/LR2 amp is the "mid-line" version, and it has the extra socket on it for the headphone connections in the back seat of the Land Rover, so technically not a "surround" amp for the XF/LR2)



The mounting holes line up, the plugs are the same, the housing of the amp is same dimension, just bigger heat sink, and there is a small fan on the back of the XF/LR2 amp, not on the XK amp, which is why it has that additional external cooling fan. The XF/LR2 amp would fit if you trimmed the heat sink.

I'm 99% sure we could flash the software from the XK amp into an XF/LR2 one, if we had to...

 

Are you upgrading the sound on Steve_k_xk car too then?

For the components I think its best to shop around locally here in Dubai.. Shipping it over from eBay might be costly due to the weight of the speakers. I managed to find some on ebay, (center, fronts, rears), except for the tweeters, they usually come with the doors attached.

I noticed a fully equipped Sub on this link but with a hefty pricetag.. a sub alone with woofer was around $180..
But as said.. I think I will need to visit some shops (junkyards) in Dubai for the goods..

The only thing what worries me now is the configuration of the car through the SDD program. As the car is still in warranty till 2018 I don't know what the garage will see and if it will void it.. mostly the ability of the car to recognize the serial number of the radio (which needs replacement we think) and the registration of the AMP into the MOST system is a bit worrying for me. Are we sure we need a new radio unit too? I did not see any changes on the connectors outside, but perhaps there are other parts inside that actually control the Dolby Digital part.

Another way I thought of was to go a completely different route, upgrade the speakers, add the sub, but use the existing speaker-out connections from the stereo CA116 connector and plug those into an aftermarket amplifier.. then reroute the speaker cables back to CA116 to the actual speakers. I would not have Dolby Digital, but still can control the sub and drive the individual speakers through the standard config of the car.. and I would be able to place the amp on top of the DVD nav unit (where usually the Sirirus radio is.. )

If you happen to have any plans to visit Dubai in the coming year.. let me know

 

It's on the to-do-list yes, but he's been a bit occupied with building houses and chasing horsepowers, me too actually...

Yeah for sure, if you can find parts local it would be easier.

I cannot say for sure how things will go in Dubai re warranty. But it's a very thin argument that changing a sound system could be voiding a warranty on an engine, for example.

Yes absolutely 100% the head units are not the same between Base and Premium systems, this is also detailed in the parts catalogues, and it's the same situation with the XF and the LR2, which uses the same "system".

You won't get the subwoofer level control on the touchscreen without changing the CCF to the settings for Premium system though. There are other "interfaces" that could give you the right outputs for external amplifiers, via the MOST network. I haven't had a chance to play with one yet though.

Actually I was in Abu Dhabi some weeks ago, well Ruwais to be exact, but no plans to come back at the moment...

 

Well if you do start.. dont forget to take pictures .. .
That's too bad .... but how was Ruwais?

 

How about just putting in good drive units for the existing speakers and adding something like this:

TS-WH500A | Pioneer
or
TS-WX710A | Pioneer

 

HOT!!! It was 54°C out in the desert...

 

How would I control these then? I'd still need an amp right? and how to drive it from the current (just speaker out) connections?