Hi i have a 2018 jk with the stock touch screen head unit. I also have the mopar kicker speaker upgrades all around. I have plans on adding a JL audio stealth box with a 10” sub. I am looking for ways to improve sound quality and volume and wondering if getting a new head unit will make a big difference. I am planning on getting a kenwood double din touchscreen head unit. I think it pushes 22 rms to the speakers.

 

IMO.. & Mine.. 600W amp with the OE radio - Kickers in front and sound bar.. its good for me... Its about the RMS watts matching the Speakers power capability.. The AMP is really putting out 400 watts which is 100 per channel and at RMS this would be 50w per channel. I went with a marine amp .. just in case

 

No answer to your question, as I changed everything. All speakers, two amps, subwoofer, and a Kenwood head. Sounds great, but since I did it all at once I can’t say for sure if just the head made a difference.

But on a side note, If you don’t mind giving up the CD/DVD player, Kenwood has a nice DD multimedia receiver now that is only half as deep as the regular units. The advantage is that it mounts in the JK without having to cut or remove the factory rear radio/dash support. Look at their DMX-706S.

 

I'll say this, we recently bought a 2013 sahara that had a kenwood head unit in it and it sounded terrible, due to a bad install on the head unit. Well after fixing the head unit wiring and replacing the front speakers and the roll bar speakers, it sounds good but has no base at all, even with the factory alpine subwoofer. I found a few things online that talk about the factory sub and aftermarket head units etc. to where they don't perform as well, but I haven't come across anything definite as to why we lost about 90% of the sub performance. I'm currently looking for a mini amp with high level inputs to install just for the sub to give it more bass.

 

how hard is it to install a new amp. If i’m being totally honest i don’t know anything about speaker systems.

 

Not terribly hard, but you do need to have basic wiring skills. Amp power comes directly from the battery. Then you need to run RCA cables and the turn-on wire from your head unit to the amp. THEN every speaker needs a pair of wires coming directly from the amp. Lots of wires, but taken one at a time it’s a simple project. Hardest part for me is always what turns into a complete interior disassembly to properly route all of the wires and cables. Usually a full day job.

 

I would agree with what he says. If you decide to tackle it, I would definitely do some research, watch some videos, read some articles etc so you get an idea of what your getting into and it will make it a whole lot easier going in prepared. An after market head unit will definitely make it easier to install an amp, as it will have all the RCA outputs for you. If you don't do an aftermarket head unit they have some plug-ins/adapters you can get that.

 

This is what my experience is right now. I have a 2012 with the "Premium sound" and my radio shit itself a few years ago. Replaced it with a Pioneer unit. Sounds MUCH worse than stock. Also, not near as loud. Spoke to a shop different from my installer and was told what you state. The stock stuff just doesn't work with non-stock stuff. I really hate this because I was perfectly happy with the sound I was getting out of the Infinity speakers and sub. I asked if it was a matter of adding an amp to improve the signal to speakers and was told that won't fix it.

I would love to find out he was just trying to sell me some gear and know of a solution.

 

I'm glad i'm not the only one. Ours doesn't sound bad other then No Bass from the sub, I recently purchased an open box 2 channel mini amp and I'm going to install it just on the sub and see if that works. I'll try to remember to respond back with my results, hopefully i can get it done this weekend if the weather holds out.

 

So i got the amp installed on my wife's Sahara this weekend. This amp in only powering the factory sub, all other speakers are through the factory amp, and we have an aftermarket kenwood head unit. The amp for the sub was hooked up using the RCA's off the aftermarket head unit, then new speaker wires ran to the sub. It did make a difference, you can actually tell there is bass, where as before you could not. It didn't add as much as I'd hoped but hopefully the wife will be happy with it, and overall it does sound good. I still want to try and tune it a little better, maybe add some poly in the sub box and try to fully adjust the equalizer on the head unit etc. Hopefully this helps