Topic: Sound System and Speakers. Chime in!

[sharpxmen]

Will I need an amp if I add anymore speakers than the 4 I already have?

if you have 4 outputs (2xFront + 2xRear) you can have 4 speakers, if you want more you need to take the pre-amp output(s) and add an amp. There's most likely a sub output as well (to which you would also need to add an amp to use it). The outputs are for a certain impedance speakers, so you need to match that rating when you buy your speakers, lower can burn your internal amp, higher you don't get the rated power out of them.

[N8whitie]

I just recently saw a CJ that had boat speakers mounted to the rear diagonals of his cage. They were those boat speakers that mount on the wakeboard towers and look like pods or tubes. From where I was standing... about 30 ft away... it sounded excellent. They're also water resistant which is a big plus. Not sure on the rest of his set up though.

[stan98tj]

i think I may also add sound pods on the front of the roll bar in addition to the soundbar which i have behind the roll bar

[jfrabat]

if you have 4 outputs (2xFront + 2xRear) you can have 4 speakers, if you want more you need to take the pre-amp output(s) and add an amp. There's most likely a sub output as well (to which you would also need to add an amp to use it). The outputs are for a certain impedance speakers, so you need to match that rating when you buy your speakers, lower can burn your internal amp, higher you don't get the rated power out of them.

Its not ideal, nut you COULD wire two speakwers to the same output.  Just dont do it parallel!  But if you want good sound quality, then you need to go the amp route...

[stan98tj]

Its not ideal, nut you COULD wire two speakwers to the same output.  Just dont do it parallel!  But if you want good sound quality, then you need to go the amp route...

Space is the issue, i don't want to take up too much space and i need everything to resist water. So an amp would be OK if it were thin enough and could be sealed. I dont think i want to mount anything to the floor of the trunk because i carry tools back there when I wheel. Maybe if there was an IKEA for sound system arrangement, that would help lol

[sharpxmen]

Its not ideal, nut you COULD wire two speakwers to the same output.  Just dont do it parallel!  But if you want good sound quality, then you need to go the amp route...

i might be wrong here but i thought if you have the amp rated for 4ohm speakers you can wire 2 speakers in parallel that have 8 ohm impedance - I meant to mention that in the previous post. On the other hand if you have 4 ohm speaker rated amp and you put 2 of these speakers in series you pretty much 1/2 the power output and in this case you shouldn't wire them in parallel (what you said).

[jfrabat]

i might be wrong here but i thought if you have the amp rated for 4ohm speakers you can wire 2 speakers in parallel that have 8 ohm impedance - I meant to mention that in the previous post. On the other hand if you have 4 ohm speaker rated amp and you put 2 of these speakers in series you pretty much 1/2 the power output and in this case you shouldn't wire them in parallel (what you said).

Depends on the resistance of the speakers, but a few (OK, more than a few, but who's counting!) years back, I wired the stock stereo ofm Toyota CORONA to drive 2 speakers in the rear (series) and both the speakers and the stereo held up just fine.  As I said, it is not IDEAL, but it works...

[chrisfranklin]

Bought this cheap JVC "Digital Media Receiver" yesterday.  http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX50BT/JVC-KD-X50BT.html?tp=5684

Currently have a Kenwood receiver I paid 300-something for in like late 2003.  Also have a Sirius tuner wired to it, but killed my satellite account awhile back -- just wasn't driving my Jeep enough and was using Pandora at my place anyway.


Was looking to get a new receiver that was compatible with Android phones and that would let you wirelessly play the Pandora app.  

Wanted to get built in HD-Radio, but it didn't look like Crutchfield had anything along those lines in DMRs regardless of price.  

So, got the $99 JVC unit that handles neither add-on HD-Radio or Satellite tuners (unless you maybe happen to be some kind of fairly l33t car receiver hacker)

Buyers at Crutchfield seemed to like this low-dough JVC unit pretty well.  Let you guys know how it works.  

[chrisfranklin]

Bought this cheap JVC "Digital Media Receiver" yesterday.  http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX50BT/JVC-KD-X50BT.html?tp=5684

Currently have a Kenwood receiver I paid 300-something for in like late 2003.  Also have a Sirius tuner wired to it, but killed my satellite account awhile back -- just wasn't driving my Jeep enough and was using Pandora at my place anyway.


Was looking to get a new receiver that was compatible with Android phones and that would let you wirelessly play the Pandora app.  

Wanted to get built in HD-Radio, but it didn't look like Crutchfield had anything along those lines in DMRs regardless of price.  

So, got the $99 JVC unit that handles neither add-on HD-Radio or Satellite tuners (unless you maybe happen to be some kind of fairly l33t car receiver hacker)

Buyers at Crutchfield seemed to like this low-dough JVC unit pretty well.  Let you guys know how it works.  

I've got this JVC receiver in and encountered an issue that you might experience if you have a tuffy center console with room for a receiver. 

This JVC unit gives you the option of putting a little bluetooth plug in the front USB port or on the end of a wired USB cable at the rear of the receiver.  If you install the JVC receiver in the tuffy center console and put the bluetooth plug in the front USB port, the metal lip on the Tuffy console obstructs the line-of-site between a windshield mounted phone and the receiver's blue tooth plug.  This seems to cause significant reception problems between the phone and the receiver

What you do to get around this is put the bluetooth plug in the USB cable and stretch that cable underneath and out beyond the tuffy center console.  Mount it under the carpet, etc. so that there is no real signal barrier between the phone and the receiver.  Anyway, PITA and I've had to pull things out and put things back together to get this done. 

Upside, though, with this JVC DMR is that the sound quality is surprisingly good. 

No stretch here on my part, either.  I'm using the same speakers as I used with my Kenwood and Sirius setup and somehow the Bluetooth/Pandora signal seems to be coming across with greater fidelity that the digital Sirius signal.  Could be the JVC receiver, cheap as it may be, is simply technically "sorted out" better than the 8 year old, 3x more expensive Kenwood receiver. 

Now, yes,  I do have to admit I pay Pandora the $30 some a year for their higher quality signal.  But even so, can't believe that's going to surpass Sirius digital in terms of sound quality.  Anyway though, pretty happy with this JVC unit for $100 from Crutchfield -- heck I would have paid $300 for it and still thought I got my money's worth.

[Tr00b]

I'm a huge audio junkie.

This is what I did: I gave up. Jeeps absolutely suck for getting any sort of sound quality out of them, due to several factors including a flat windshield, lots of metal surfaces, loud noises, limited space, as well as everything having the potential to get wet. Its hard to hide the speakers if you install them so I worry about parking in urban areas... Cause some people will do anything for crack rocks, and soft tops are a very small obstacle for a box knife. I just run junky 4x6's in the dash off of a CD headunit.

No great ideas here, sorry.

[chrisfranklin]

I'm a huge audio junkie.

This is what I did: I gave up. Jeeps absolutely suck for getting any sort of sound quality out of them, due to several factors including a flat windshield, lots of metal surfaces, loud noises, limited space, as well as everything having the potential to get wet. Its hard to hide the speakers if you install them so I worry about parking in urban areas... Cause some people will do anything for crack rocks, and soft tops are a very small obstacle for a box knife. I just run junky 4x6's in the dash off of a CD headunit.

No great ideas here, sorry.

I was looking at rear speakers and amplifiers over at Crutchfield.  One or two people there -- apparently with Jeeps -- sound like they got the audio output they were looking for by installing an amplifier.  There are like 3 reviews for this pretty cheap Alpine amp used in TJs.   http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTP445U/Alpine-KTP-445U-Power-Pack.html?tp=35782#customer-reviews-tab.  

If I get some rear speakers -- nothing pricey, maybe the $70 Polks or Rockford Fosgates -- might spring for the Alpine amp or something small along those lines.  The 4x6s I've got in the front are old Polk Momos that still sound good and the new JVC receiver is worth about one whole tank of gas  , so my budget ceiling is staying pretty low when it comes to any additional components.

But you're right, long way from great environment in Jeeps for sound quality.

[stan98tj]

my biggest concern is space. THat's why i don't want a sub. I want the best quality speakers possible to put into the dash and my soundbar. I may add pods on the sound bar as well, again with good qual speakers. If i can find a center console sub that resists water, then I MAY do that as well.

[Jeffy]

my biggest concern is space. THat's why i don't want a sub. I want the best quality speakers possible to put into the dash and my soundbar. I may add pods on the sound bar as well, again with good qual speakers. If i can find a center console sub that resists water, then I MAY do that as well.

Well right off the bat, the stock locations for speakers is horrible.  Not to mention the size limitation.  Subs aren't limited to large wooden boxes.  You can mount a sub just about anywhere you can think of.  They are non-directional unlike regular speakers.  Also, most speakers have treated paper or plastic cone with a foam or neoprene flex ring.  There are even speakers that are waterproof.  How do you think they put sound systems on ski boats?  They have been making sound systems for SxS ATV's for a few years as well.  All roll-bar mounted...  Space really isn't an issue.

[chrisfranklin]

So far, the downside on my cheap JVC DMR unit is a couple of things to do with bluetooth. 

Lets say you have the vehicle started, you have the phone in the bracket like you were using it for navigation, the radio on, it still takes about 10 or so seconds before the radio gets a bluetooth connection with the phone.  Then you've got to open up the Pandora or Spotify or whatever app on the phone and hit a bunch of things there.  Oh yeah, and make sure the volume is all the way up on the phone handset since that controls volume as much as the volume knob from your receiver.  Generally doesn't cut out once it is set up though.

So opinion using the JVC DMR bluetooth on the road is its a lot of work, but music is good and you don't mind so much once you get going.  You can use any of the online music services, but Pandora seems to be the only one with display features worked in on the receiver.   If you cut the voice on the phone navigation (which also starts to play through the speakers now) you can run navigation and music simultaneously -- just navigation is getting the display.   

But...one thing.  Kill the engine while you have phone and receiver connected by bluetooth.  Phone stays on due to battery.  Turn key back on so you can run accessories.    Receiver comes back on.  For whatever reason my receiver and phone don't get bluetooth going again.  Have to -- IIRC -- dig around in "settings," and re-sync the phone and receiver, then you get a bluetooth signal again... 

Certainly am going to go over the manual and so forth, because maybe there's a procedural error on my part.  But, if so, then there you go:  a new procedure, or more work, or new work to listen to music...   Given the thing was hitting 4.5 or 5 out of 5 on Crutchfield and Amazon on hundred-some reviews was figuring it'd be a slam-dunk. 



 

[chrisfranklin]

Well right off the bat, the stock locations for speakers is horrible.  Not to mention the size limitation.  Subs aren't limited to large wooden boxes.  You can mount a sub just about anywhere you can think of.  They are non-directional unlike regular speakers.  Also, most speakers have treated paper or plastic cone with a foam or neoprene flex ring.  There are even speakers that are waterproof.  How do you think they put sound systems on ski boats?  They have been making sound systems for SxS ATV's for a few years as well.  All roll-bar mounted...  Space really isn't an issue.

Was looking at my interior -- was going to put an amp in the tuffy center console and get some rear speakers.  Well, rear speakers are going to have to sit in, probably, tuffy boxes on the wheel wells or I'm going to have to get a soundbar or TJ pods and gut those in favor of some other speakers.  PITA.  And my jeep isn't setup for a sub, so any new speakers would have be picking up the bass slack.