Speakers, speakers, and subs?

[Wounded_Fighter]

Looking to do a sound system update, so I'm gathering thoughts and information.

 

What are the factory speaker sizes in each location? And what size have you made "comfortably fit" in each location, preferably without visible modification. What size sub can you fit behind your benchseat, my guess is a 15" but who has actually done this?

 

4" rounds in dash?

5.25" rounds in doors?

5x7" in rears?

 

Is this correct stock information?

Did comanche come with door speakers? Mine doesn't have a slot in the panel for it?

[Jeep Driver]

50 minutes ago, Wounded_Fighter said:

size sub can you fit behind your benchseat, my guess is a 15"

 

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-pM6snUgLqws/p_13693330/JL-Audio-ACP108LG-W3v3.html?XVINQ=GLX&awkw=132253908505&awat=pla&awnw=g&awcr=69546578425&awdv=c&awug=9013407&gclid=CjwKCAjwq4fsBRBnEiwANTahcEPIpujXW3P8o2qyMOMW-4qkFSCkynrDQn-EVIABDyuib9Iyhi6pSBoCwikQAvD_BwE

[WahooSteeler]

Stock size for rears are 4x6, but people have made 5x7's and even 6x9's work. IMO the sound is drowned out in the rear speakers unless you use the location for mid-range component speakers, even then it's a very inefficient location. In addition to the unit Jeep Driver posted above, a Bazooka tube works very well in Comanches. I have a 6.5" dual voice coil tube in my truck with 70w of power running at 2 ohms and unless you want people to hear you coming from a block away, it gives plenty of thump in that little cab. An 8" tube would fit also and obviously give a bit more punch. The Bazookas can be had with or without a built-in amp. I have 5 1/4s in the doors and that's it. Obviously it depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to spend. There are some good write-ups on here with component speakers up front with the tweeters being mounted on the windshield pillar or in the area of the door handle. Again, depends on what you want to do. 

[Wounded_Fighter]

8 hours ago, WahooSteeler said:

Obviously it depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to spend. There are some good write-ups on here with component speakers up front with the tweeters being mounted on the windshield pillar or in the area of the door handle. Again, depends on what you want to do. 

 

I have a few ideas in my head, mainly looking for what the stock specs are supposed to be and what people have gotten away with fitting. 

 

[Jeep Driver]

14 minutes ago, Wounded_Fighter said:

 

I have a few ideas in my head, mainly looking for what the stock specs are supposed to be and what people have gotten away with fitting. 

 

You are asking a loaded question that no one will ever satisfy you with a correct answer. 

 

If you want stock and cheap........go to Walmart. 

 

I you are willing to spend some money, study and shop and be prepared to get creative.......stock goes out the window. 

 

Start here..........he's good.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4FiN46mPTtkJxzRXJY21lQ

 

 

And see my build thread for what I'm doing.

 

 

[Wounded_Fighter]

2 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

You are asking a loaded question that no one will ever satisfy you with a correct answer. 

 

Every answer is correct. Curious what others have installed. But yeah, I suppose it is a loaded question. 

 

I'll read up on some more of your stuff jeep, and check out that link tonight. 

[schardein]

I've used Alpine 4x6 speakers in the rear location of my MJ and 2001 Silverado.  It is the stock size for both.  They were relatively inexpensive compared to other brands of similar quality, and sound good with small amp (in the MJ) and a larger amp (in the Chevy).  Obviously, the small speaker won't do much, but it rounds out the sound.  

 

I have Alpine 5.25 in the doors.  Small Alpine amp and Kenwood HU.  No subwoofer.  Bass really suffers, but I hesitate to add one because my interior is in pretty good shape and I don't want to modify it.

 

XJs with the factory Jensen Accusound stereo system had factory tweeters mounted behind the grills on either end of the kick panel.  I don't know if MJs ever had them, but they could be retrofitted.

[Minuit]

The steadily growing "MJ audio system" copypasta that will hopefully answer the most common questions all at once:

 

Stock speakers are 5-1/4" in the doors and 4x6" in the B-pillars near the cab floor. Depending on your truck's options, your truck may have had speakers in all 4 locations, just the doors, or not at all. Radio delete trucks will have door panels that cover the factory door speaker locations. There are also a set of unused factory tweeter locations on either side of the dash at knee level. These were used in the factory Jensen Accusound 6-speaker system on the Cherokee only. The brackets that come attached to the factory Jensen tweeters can be used for some aftermarket tweeters. For example, Morel Tempo Ultra tweeters fit in the Accusound brackets like they're made for it.

 

Mounting depth is not a major concern in the factory door locations due to the split window design.

 

6-1/2" speakers can be made to fit in the doors relatively easily, and I don't know what else can fit in the B-pillar speaker locations since I continue to believe that rear speakers in an MJ are useless - AT BEST - unless carefully controlled with a lot of DSP tuning.

 

Subs - you're going to have to come up with your own solution. This could be as simple as a premade powered sub, or as unsimple as building your own frequency tuned box with 800 watts going to the sub. My suggestion is to look up what other people have done in their projects. Use the search function with "sub" or "subwoofer" as keywords. At the time of this writing, Jeep Driver is currently in the middle of an extensive build including audio system. He does good work and I have no problem suggesting his build as a source for inspiration from your system. Search for "Evolution '88" on ComancheClub.

 

As to everything else:

 

I'm a big fan of small amps that can be completely hidden from view. For "low power" (I'll define that as being more than headunit power, up to about 100 watts per channel) builds with 4 or less speakers, my go-to recommendation for an amplifier is the Alpine KTP-445U. 45 watts into 4 channels or 90 watts into two is a huge bump from headunit power, but in a small enough package that it can be hidden from view. There is no shortage of good options here. Cruise Crutchfield's website and see what you like. They are a quality retailer that sell quality products.

 

Now is where you ask "how crazy do I want to get?" No matter the answer, if you want to end up with a vehicle you actually want to get in and drive, you're going to want to do some sound deadening. You'll get just as much improvement out of that as you will throwing subs and amps at the problem.

 

A stock MJ is an absolute tin can. Now that I'm putting my 89 back on the road, it's all coming back to me how noisy and unrefined these things can be. You're going to want to do a lot of deadening to make things livable, and I'm not just talking putting a few sheets of Dynamat on stuff. That'll help (and Dynamat is a quality product), but it won't bring the noise floor down enough for a true "audiophile" system. And then you'll no doubt have plenty of wind noise to worry about once you've done that. The doors on these are especially bad. They're twice as bad if you have power windows. It took a while, but I finally got my doors to stop rattling, but there's a lot of closed cell foam, MLV, and felt in my doors. The time and money spent on sound deadening makes just as much difference as the actual audio parts. The factory attempt at sound deadening consists of a square of vibration damper on each door and a piece of foam on the inside firewall. That leaves plenty of room for improvement.

 

I've made life a whole lot harder for myself by being a fussy purist. By that, I mean I don't want to be able to see ANY audio equipment other than the headunit, which also looks stock. That limits me to the less than great factory speaker positions and a stock-looking radio, albeit one with some secrets under the hood. If you're the kind of guy that chases every percent of improvement at all costs, you'll probably be doing some custom installation sooner or later.

 

Before you spend any money, do some reading on here and other car audio forums and come up with an idea of what you want out of your system. Making sure the sub and amps are going to fit in the truck is the big consideration. Make sure the parts you're picking work well together. For example, if you don't plan on running rear speakers (and my suggestion is to either forget about the rear speakers or use a DSP to control their frequency range) either buy a 2-channel amp or get one that can be bridged to 2 channels. 

 

For me, a component set of some type is a must-buy. The dash tweeter locations aren't very good, but having your left tweeter pointing at your ankle is even worse. The best thing to do is build them into either the A-pillars or the sail panels. You may find that you want more flexibility than the passive crossover you got with the component set, so at some point you'll want to go active. That's where I am now. Pretty soon, I'm going to be building a custom "stock" radio with RCA outputs and going 2-way active up front, probably with a MiniDSP 2x4 HD. I'm 90% happy with the way my truck sounds now, but I know I can squeeze more out of it with some tuning. That being said, I'm always trying to squeeze every little bit of improvement I can, within the limits I'm willing to cross. You might do a headunit, amp, sub, and coaxial speakers in the doors and find that you're perfectly happy and don't want any more. That's for you to decide.

 

I don't know your level of car audio experience, so I apologize if I'm telling you things you already know.

[NC Tom]

My add to this topic is to start with a quality amp. A good, clean amp can make even cheap speakers sound good. Just be sure any aftermarket speakers are a good match. While most of you may know this, speakers are "blown" due to being under powered more than overpowered.

[88towmanche]

Consumer electronics are as cheap as they have ever been - I replaced everything in the MJ for about $200 a few months ago.

 

Found a deal on a mechless Sony head unit (no CD player but bluetooth, usb etc) - $45

 

Kicker speakers to replace all 4 stock units - stuck with OEM size. - ~$60ish

 

Rockville powered Sub - $80

 

Got all the speakers off of Amazon - picked up the head unit local.

 

The cab is so small on these trucks, doesn't take much to get decent sound.

 

 

 

 

[NC Tom]

On 10/28/2019 at 2:17 PM, 88towmanche said:

Consumer electronics are as cheap as they have ever been - I replaced everything in the MJ for about $200 a few months ago.

Found a deal on a mechless Sony head unit (no CD player but bluetooth, usb etc) - $45

Kicker speakers to replace all 4 stock units - stuck with OEM size. - ~$60ish

Rockville powered Sub - $80

Got all the speakers off of Amazon - picked up the head unit local.

The cab is so small on these trucks, doesn't take much to get decent sound.

Sweet! I have an oldschool Rockford Fosgate Punch 45 amp, but I'm intimidated by the wiring. Guess I'm not man enough for it!

[88towmanche]

1 hour ago, NC Tom said:

Sweet! I have an oldschool Rockford Fosgate Punch 45 amp, but I'm intimidated by the wiring. Guess I'm not man enough for it!

 

The Rockville sub I picked up on Amazon is powered with an internal amp - no need for separate unit.

 

Wiring was pretty straightforward - bought one of the Amp wiring kits, the main power wire for the sub/amp is almost as big as a battery cable - running that through the firewall and routing under the carpet/trim to behind the seat was the biggest hassle (wanted to make sure it was not rubbing/pinched anywhere) - instructions come with all of the components.

 

Replacing the factory speakers was simple - for the head unit, I was able to use the Scosche harness that was already in there, but easy to pick on up from Crutchfield for cheap.

 

Most of the install places I talked to had pricing something like:

 

Head unit install $100

Door speaker pair $60

Amp/Sub $150

 

So around $400+ to install $200 worth of equipment - I opted to DIY, took a few hours and some youtube vids.

 

 

[ghetdjc320]

My plan is using 5.25 component speakers (morel or JL). Will be mounting the tweeters in the door panel and the b pillar panel. There are 4x6 to 5.25 adaptors for the rear pillars (common adapters for tj dash speakers). Head unit I’m not sure about the head unit but I definitely want to do double DIN. A pair of 10” JL subs and amp. My entire interior was dynamated after I replaced my rusty drivers floor board and coated them. Used ACC carpet with a heavy mass backer. New windshield seals and door baskets. Cabin is nice and quiet so should make for a good tune. Although it’s true you can find “cheap” consumer electronics, you still get what you pay for up to a point. 

[NC Tom]

On 11/2/2019 at 5:57 AM, ghetdjc320 said:

Head unit I’m not sure about the head unit but I definitely want to do double DIN. 

 

UH OH! Serious dash modification on the horizon!

[ghetdjc320]

17 minutes ago, NC Tom said:

 

UH OH! Serious dash modification on the horizon!

Thinking about an alpine Halo setup... still in the contemplative phase though

[thecodemonk]

51 minutes ago, ghetdjc320 said:

Thinking about an alpine Halo setup... still in the contemplative phase though

 

If you do, please post up the pics for it installed.  I've been thinking about this for a while (my wife's car has me a bit hooked on android auto) and was starting to give up because I want something that looks really clean.

[ghetdjc320]

Will do! Contemplating a dash and sound overhaul