Complete Stereo Overhaul (1 Viewer)

[SmoothLC]

I'd also suggest putting some sound deadening material on the rear wheel wells. You might be surprised how much unwanted road noise that comes through them without it.

 

[TheForger]

@larryt Honestly I'm not sure yet. Although, since the tweeters are built into the door speakers I don't know why I would use the factory tweeters. Would it be a good idea to use the factory ones as well or ditch them?

 

[GregLCA]

When you say crossover, are you referring to the mid to tweeter...... Or are you asking about how to crossover those doors speakers to the sub?

Most modern amps should have a low-pass crossover built in, and most decks have a dedicated set of outputs for the sub... Which typically means the deck can strip out a low-pass signal for the subs to use.

Ideally, you want to limit the frequencies going to the door speakers. Don't go much lower than 80-100Hz.... The speakers won't be able to play it anyway, and it wastes a lot of amplifier power trying to do it. They will sound much better crossed over properly, even with a very modest amount of amplifier power.

-G

 

[larryt]

Sorry, I might have misunderstood your question about the crossover. The Kenwood set you are buying is complete and does not require an outboard crossover.

 

[TheForger]

@GregLCA I am referring to an outboard crossover like THIS.

Thank you @larryt that is what I was curious about. Glad to know it's all there in one.

 

[larryt]

@GregLCA I am referring to an outboard crossover like THIS.

Thank you @larryt that is what I was curious about. Glad to know it's all there in one.

Both the head unit and the amps you have chosen have active crossovers to separate the sub-bass frequencies from your sub and your door speakers. Depending on where you mount your amps, it would probably be easier to use the head unit crossover so you can tune it from the driver's seat.

 

[El Cid]

I'd also suggest putting some sound deadening material on the rear wheel wells. You might be surprised how much unwanted road noise that comes through them without it.

Listen to Smooth, he's pre-med. I would honestly tell you that the value proposition is to do the back and wheel wells first, then doors, in any order. I realize it's not a free money situation for anyone, but do the back and wheel wells and you'll notice the biggest impact. No sin if you don't, but it works sort of like a conch shell to seal the back and put a good subwoofer in, it will carry nicely to the front.

The noise in the back is definitely what causes the most sound pollution, and when you get the plastic out, you can line a lot of the panel space of the vehicle. it's easy work too, just need to clean the metal surface, use a box cutter to cut the product and apply to the sides.

 

[SmoothLC]

Listen to Smooth, he's pre-med.

lolrotf

 

[Traskew3]

Are you getting the wire harness from crutchfield? They say my 98 doesn't have a harness kit avail and I'll have to custom wire everything!!

 

[SmoothLC]

Make sure they're not thinking the '98 is an 80 series.

Sometimes there was confusion over the '98 since it was the first year of the 100 series.

 

[TheForger]

@Traskew3 Yes, I am sourcing the harness through Crutchfield. It says the Metra 70-8113 Receiver Wiring Harness is the appropriate one for my 2000 UZJ.

@El Cid Considering the amount of money all of this stereo equipment is going to cost I really want to do as little sound deadening as possible. I like the idea of just doing the rear wheel wells but I think I am going to draw the line there for right now. Further sound-deadening is definitely on my list of upgrades but right now I'm working on a tight budget. Heck if money grew on tree's I'd have the doors, front and rear foot wells, headliner, and tailgate Dynamated by now! Do you mind if I ask what materials you used and where you sourced them from?

Thanks to everyone for all of the valuable tips and recommendations! I really do appreciate the help guys, this forum is awesome and really does make these types of projects easier considering the infinite amount of knowledge available here. Cheers!

 

[El Cid]

@Traskew3 Y
@El Cid Considering the amount of money all of this stereo equipment is going to cost I really want to do as little sound deadening as possible. I like the idea of just doing the rear wheel wells but I think I am going to draw the line there for right now. Further sound-deadening is definitely on my list of upgrades but right now I'm working on a tight budget. Do you mind if I ask what materials you used and where you sourced them from?

Smooth and I copied from many of the same sources. I bought 2-3 boxes of Dynamat/Dynaliner. The Dynamat runs $150 per 9 sheet box. Dynaliner is $45 per, think I needed three as well, it''s far easier to work with. After that, it's all manual labor. There are better products for sure, but this method is cost effective. Three boxes would cover ONE wheel well, tailgate and most of the cargo floor, you could skip an area or two.

I totally understand the cost, mine ended being a three tier project

1)new subwoofers with re-wiring and a homegrown wiring harness
2)sound deadening the rear cargo area and tailgate
3) re-carpeted the rear cargo area and tailgate.

I could have knocked it out in two days, made it cheaper and I need to do a write up to show everyone an efficient way to redesign what I think is a problem area due to space and technological obsolescence. The benefits to what I did have been:

-it feels cooler, better insulated in the back
-the sound quality due to deadening and new subs is dramatically improved
-the carpet replacement with Bed Rug makes it easier to clean and it looks better than the matted, worn carpet.

 

[TheForger]

What would be a few options I could consider on securing the enclosure in the cargo area? I do a lot of offroading and I don't want that thing bouncing around everywhere.

 

[El Cid]

Velcro works fairly well.

 

[LEX]

Okay so I have changed a few of the components I intend on using. I plan on going with the JL Audio CS112RG-W3v3 after reading a few reviews and deciding I wanted a 12" sub in the back, along with the Alpine MRV-M500 mono amp to power it. After having an online chat with a Crutchfield advisor they pointed out that the Sound Ordnance amp I wanted for the door speakers supplied 75w RMS to each speaker, but the Kenwood speakers can only handle 35w RMS. I changed that amp to the Kicker DXA250.4 which matches up perfectly. I also plan on taking @El Cid advise and sound-deadening the doors and possibly the driver and passenger foot wells. What does everyone think about that setup? One question I forgot to ask Crutchfield was is a crossover unit required for the door speakers since the tweeter is built in? I want to go ahead and purchase the headunit, door speakers, and amp to power them this evening. After letting my funds recoup I will order the sub and mono amp next week.

Cross overs will not be needed for coaxial speakers (2 way speakers).

Sound deadening made a big difference in my 100% stock system. It'll sound killer in yours once you have everything up and running.

Just curious, why aren't you going with component speakers in the front doors like it did from the factory? Sorry if I missed that.

 

[TheForger]

@LEX I don't plan on using the factory tweeters so I figured I would go with the coaxial to make up for that. Is that a bad route to take? Should I stick with component speakers all around and keep the factory tweeters?

 

[GregLCA]

@LEX I don't plan on using the factory tweeters so I figured I would go with the coaxial to make up for that. Is that a bad route to take? Should I stick with component speakers all around and keep the factory tweeters?

I think his point was that the factory front speakers are a matched component set (separate mid/tweet) so you should probably replace those with a matched set from your preferred vendor. (I finally settled on the JL Audio C2-650 - 6.5" component set) and will remove the factory tweeter and replace it with the JL one in that kit...

For the rear doors, the speakers are a simple coaxial 6.5", so you just swap what's there for whatever you like.


-G

 

[TheForger]

@GregLCA In that case I may go with the Infinity Primus PR6500cs up front which have a separate tweeter for each speaker.

 

[GregLCA]

@GregLCA In that case I may go with the Infinity Primus PR6500cs up front which have a separate tweeter for each speaker.

I seem to recall at least one stereo thread around here where someone used Infinity components up front and swapped the tweeters.... it had a few photos too. Looked easy... just reused the small factory bracket and secured the new tweeter to it.

-G

 

[TheForger]

I have also got about 20 CLD Tiles from www.sounddeadenershowdown.com headed my way to begin the sound-deadening process. I will follow the advice of those in this thread and start in the cargo area and wheel wells where the sub box will be. Any leftovers will be used in the doors. I was thinking of putting 2 tiles together and cutting out the circular shape of the speaker in them and mounting the tiles around each speaker to dampen any resonance.