Hello,

I bought a ‘13 JKU last October. Being a music lover, I was not impressed with the sound. The previous owner had upgraded the head unit and that was it. Over the last 9 months or so, I have updated the stereo.

My goal was to create a decent entry level stereo, with a somewhat easy installation so I could handle most of it myself. The speakers I choose because they were easy to mount in stock locations with plug and play wiring clips that connected to the stock wiring. Reviews seemed to be positive for the speakers, and they are pretty common. The sub and monoblock amp I got from a family member who had them in storage for years! Yes they are older Alpine stuff, so far they are working great!

Head Unit: Sony XAV-AX3250

The 4 stock 6.5” speakers I swapped with the Mopar/Kicker 77KICK10’s.
(75w RMS, 4ohm)
These weren’t too bad to install. The soundbar locations were simple. The passenger side took a bit of work but still simple. The driver’s side was slightly more involved but also wasn’t too bad. The soundbar was stuffed with polyfill as were each front speaker pod.

77KICK10

Stock speaker in foreground, 77KICK10s in background. Huge magnet difference!


An Alpine mono block was installed under the driver seat to run a subwoofer.(Alpine MRP-M450, 400w RMS @ 2ohm)


A Hertz amp was installed under the passenger seat to power the speakers.
( Hertz DP 4.400, 75w RMS x 4 @ 4ohm)


I installed the Quadratec SuperTweeters in the dash tombstone mounts.
(JK-TWEET11s, 50w RMS)
These were a fast swap. Jist removed the old ones, added the new ones and hooked them up with the included crossovers inside the side dash panel.
Stock Tweeter on the left!



I had a 12” Alpine Type S that I mounted in a ported box in the trunk.
(12” Alpine Type S SWS1242D,300w RMS, 2 x 4ohm coils)



My next step will be a couple stages of sound deadening treatment, starting next week. I will be laying down some dampening mat in the doors, firewall, floor and anywhere else that is practical. After will be closed cell foam on trim panels. I should have done this first, but we live and we learn! After that I will be getting a headliner kit.

The sound is already obviously much better than stock. The upgraded speakers were nicer than stock on the headunit, but adding the amp really helped them. The tweeter upgrade was a massive improvement and was done after the amp. The subwoofer was also a huge improvement to bass, as I was finding it impossible to generate any meaningful bass from the speakers even when they were amped.

I am very happy with the way the upgrades went. It certainly isn’t high end, but each component added something, and the transformation really made me happy as I completed each step.

 

That was a lot of improvements.. I run the Kickers, with Kenwood amp (60w) and stock tweeters.. did the Polyfill in the sound bar on the '13 JKU. Not much more.. good enough for our ears and loud enough.

 

I have a lot of fun working on the audio in my vehicles, its sort of a hobby. 25 years ago I would be doing 100% of the wiring… these days, I pay for the amps to be installed.

There is something about being on the highway alone with my favourite music cranked that gives me a rush I don’t get anywhere else. I don’t want to bother my neighbours, so its the one place I can do that.

Cheers 2013 JU brother 👍