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I upgraded my daughter's 99 Jetta speakers/amp for her Christmas present. OMG, it sounds like a concert in her car. So I have decided to do an upgrade from my present set up in 996.
After doing a lot of research on here, this is what I will be doing:
6.5" Polk Audi speakers in the door
8" Alpine Subwoofer in custom enclosure
Some new dash speakers which include 4.5" and 1" speakers
JL Audio 5 Channel Amp
After doing research on amps lately, I found that JL offers a relatively high powered amp in a very small package. It is 10.5" x 7.25" x 2". I haven't set it where the CD changer goes, but my initial measurements show it will fit there. I no longer have the CD changer hooked up.
It is 75w x 4 into 4 ohms (dash and door speakers) and I will be running a 2 ohm sub, so it has a 300 watt rating at 2 ohms.
Somebody here upgraded the door subwoofers to the 6.5" DB651s Polk Audi low profile speakers (I also put four of these in my daughter's Jetta, and they sound amazing with the amp I put in). You just trim the existing opening and they fit right in.
I had previously bought some replacement speakers for the 4.5" dash and rear speakers, but I will replace the dash ones with something of better quality with a cross over and 1" tweeter. I removed the tweeter from my system previously.
For the sub, I bought an Alpine Type R SWR-8D4 1000 Watt 8" Dual 4 Ohm Subwoofer. You can hook the two coils up in parallel to make a 2 ohm speaker which gives you the 300 watts out of the 5th channel.
I will make a custom enclosure to go behind my rear seat, it will be sealed box. I bought some grey carpet from a 996 on ebay and will cover it with that.
The wiring will be pretty easy, just put the amp in the frunk, use the existing wiring for the doors and will need to run three new speaker wires into the cabin, two for the 1" tweeters and one for the sub.
It will probably be months before I make the box and then do the upgrade....but thought I would share. Only because I like you guys.....well, some of you guys. Actually, only a few.....
I've been able to get parts pretty cheap, and now looking at the speakers I have installed in the dash again, I think I will just do the upgrade and keep them in there. I bought speakers from Diablo when he parted his car out, they are JL Audio C2 400's.
BTW, I plan on driving the 996 down to Daytona in two weeks, going to be there for four weeks starting two weeks from today....maybe we can get together along with DB Joe!
I am having some work done in three weeks. Don't want to hijack your thread, but let me ask this question From what are you upgrading? What is your existing system?
Sounds good, have been a JL Audio fan for years, built a couple of systems in the past that were extreme. Not wanting to go that far, just looking to increase the clarity, and have access to the iPod for drives.
I am having some work done in three weeks. Don't want to hijack your thread, but let me ask this question From what are you upgrading? What is your existing system?
Right now I have the stock radio (which I will keep, love the look) and it has steaming capability with my Yatour BT system.
Have upgraded the front and back speakers with the JL C2's that I posted above and I have a separately powered sub woofer that plugs into the back of the radio and it sits behind the passenger seat. The stereo is okay, but nothing great. Just something to listen to, and not really loud.
You've inspired me to get my stereo up to snuff. I have a bunch of old stuff lying around from back in the old days... time to see if any of it still works I suppose. Now where to put that Bazooka tube and Kicker C10's Lol.
I am interested in the way you installed your amp.
The PO of my car got rid of the PCM2 and Hi-FI upgrade option 490 amp to install an aftermarket Kenwood double din GPS/bluetooth/ipod system with a similar amp than yours: JL XD600/6. It is well installed in the frunk, vertical behind the spare tire. I think the speakers are the OEM of the option 490.
The problem I have is that there is a whining noise at low speed coming probably from the alternator (noise following the rpm). There is a fuse wired in the fuse box that I think they used to get 12V either to the double din or the amp.
Where did you get the 12V alimentation for your install?
I'm a big JL audio fan I had a full setup in my old car, its great stuff and was still working like new years later. They also have a great warranty policy too!
Dino, I have pretty much the same Amp set up as you. The problem with the whining is the rca cables are too close to either a 12 volt power or ground wire. I had this issues for a while and just had to spend time making sure that those cables are a few inches away from power wires. In the frunk it's not to difficult. My problem was under the dash where I had a hard time finding where the cables were close to a black 12 volt line. Maybe some kind of shield works too, don't know.
Related (and I hope I'm not hi-jacking), I have the 6 channel JL with component speakers in dash/door. I have bridged the amp to run the left and right cross overs which takes up 4 channels and then bridged the amp for sub. So this leaves the rear speakers powered directly from the head unit. While the sound is great, it seams like it would be a little more well rounded sound with better power in the rear speakers. Since they come only from the head unit, they never have the power/volume of the other speakers. Anyone add a small amp for just one set of speakers? I bought all my stuff from CA Innovations and Rod is awesome, very helpful for DIY. Haven't discussed with him yet to see if there are options that are worth doing.
02-14-2016, 04:38 PM
Details of my Upcoming Stereo Upgrade
