Hi,

For my 1999 XK8 with Premium Audio, and with the intermittent operation it seems it is now time to bring the audio system into the 21st century. I have sourced a new Blaupunkt head unit and amp, but there is some question in my mind regarding the output to speakers. The Factory Premium setup has several outputs:
1) Driver Side Rear Speaker, and Passenger Side Rear Speaker 6.5", in the box in the rear quarter panel (these I know how to manage)
2) Passenger Side Fascia Speaker (2.5") connected in parallel with Tweeter in the door "sail"
3) Passenger Side Door Speaker 6.5"
4) Passenger Side Rear Quarter Speaker (2.5" in the Box with the
2), 3), 4) are repeated for Driver Side

My question is, for those who have gone here before: what is the most reasonable method of connecting these speakers for best results, and what are the potential pitfalls?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Jerry

 

Jerry, I've never been in there, but from looking at diagrams and replacing the super tweeter in the sail, it appears that the factory amp has built in active crossovers.

Now the super tweeter has a capacitor in series at the speaker + connection which crosses it at around 7khz, so not to worry there.

IMO if your new amp doesn't have high pass crossovers built in, you should do something about the squawker in the dash - at best, it's going to distort trying to play low frequencies with the door speakers.

So many others here have replaced the factory amp, I will defer to them on the best solution.

So, for them: do you play door speakers full frequency?

What did you use as a high pass (term means to let high frequencies pass through for those not familiar) frequency?

Jerry, I ask this in case I'm right and the squawker distorts with new amp. Unless you are lucky to have a crossover network from an old car speaker set laying around, your next question will be how do I fix this. A good crossover frequency from someone's experience will allow us to build a simple 1st order crossover with a good bipolar capacitor in series just like the super tweeter.

FWIW, I can see you care about good sound. That factory supertweeter is (hmm whats a nice way to say pos?) let's say really lacking ;-). Someday think about replacing it after you get used to the amazing sound from your new components.

hope this helps Jerry, let us know how she sounds when you're done.
John