Speaker sizes…

[D9LLT]

Hi all

I know this has been done to death BUT I’m struggling to find exact speaker sizes. I have trowled through YouTube/safari/forums/socials and am aware that there is lots of talk about this but…

I cannot find the quantity’s and sizes of speakers I need to replace from my 770w meridian AND is it worth installing an aftermarket amp?

If you could kindly help, I’d be very appreciative.

[Crezzer]

Three in each door, tweeter, 100mm mid and 200mm bass, then there's a pair behind each seat, that's for the meridian, the meridian surround option adds a coaxial speaker in the centre of the dash.

[D9LLT]

Ah. So there’s an exact replicate version behind the seat? I’m surprised they’d put a tweeter there.

Is there room to increase speaker depth?

[genp729]

Hi D9LLT. firstly here's a summary table of the F-Type speaker sizes, engineering and JLR part numbers that I compiled as part of the upgrade I carried out on my Meridian 380W system. Basically plug and play swap out of standard paper cone speakers, to the much more responsive kevlar coned Meridian Signature series fitted to high end XJ and LR models.

As you might detect, the rear 'woofer and tweeter' are not standard sizes. In fact there is nothing else in the JLR speaker inventory that can be used to upgrade the standard set up which looks like this -->

The rear tweeter is too big to be a 'proper' tweeter and the rear woofer is too small to be a 'proper' woofer, so they just do their best to fill in the sound from behind the seats, but don't add much to the staging as they are usually pointing straight at a seat back some 3 inches in front! In addition, replacing the rear speakers is complicated by the fact that the rear woofer is a 'twin coil' affair and is driven by two individual inputs from the 380W amp. There are very little replacement options to replace unless you ditch the factory amp and go for a new standalone. Altough this then throws up the issue of where to pick up a clean low level input for the new amp. The rear speaker combo comes as a fully moulded integrated unit, which entails either gutting the standard speakers or building a custom cabinet.

There's not much space to play with in terms of building a decent custom enclosure -->

and the space that is available is shallow and irregular in shape. Some owners have succeeded, but with a lot of ply, fiberglass, time and effort.

Finally, as you have the 770W Meridian Surround, you also have a 100mm co-axial mounted in the centre vent, but this can be upgraded using a Meridian Signature speaker.

There are a couple of good threads worth looking at over on the Jaguar Forums -->

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f-ty ... ost1272309

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f-ty ... ost2211853

Personally, I went for the Meridian Signature plug and play upgrades for the doors (Kevlar cones, titanium tweeter) and the very rare Audison/Bold combo for the rear using second hand speaker frames. I didn't fancy the expense/effort of rewiring the car to mount aftermarket amplifier(s). No centre co-axial in my case (although the car does have a 100mm centre speaker, which is used by the Telematics system in case of accident). With a three layer sound proof application on each door the difference in sound quality after the changes was markedly improved with a much sharper and cleaner mid-range and a tight base underpining everything. For me it was the best price/performance combination, but then again I've been riding motorbikes most of my life, so my ability to appreciate high quality audio, is probably not the best

[D9LLT]

Wow.

You’ve answered every single question and more.

Thanking you so much for this.

Off I go!

[MajorTom]

If you haven't already, start by sound proofing the doors properly. That in itself makes quite a difference to the sound quality you get out of the speakers.

I'm very happy with the improvement it brought with my 380W system and toyed with the idea of replacing the speakers too but wonder how much more it would actually bring considering that it isn't the quietest car cabin, especially at speed.

Since you already have the 770W speakers, replacing the speakers perhaps wouldn't add that much value.

[D9LLT]

Thanks Tom

I’ve already got all the equipment to soundproof it all.

I’ll be replacing the 770w so if you’re interested, the speakers will be for sale.

[MajorTom]

Nice! Good luck with the soundproofing.

What are you going to replace the speakers with?

Can't see it in your signature but I guess you're in the UK and not down here on the continent. Otherwise I might have been interested.

[genp729]

Quote "Since you already have the 770W speakers, replacing the speakers perhaps wouldn't add that much value". There is absolutely no difference between the speakers fitted to the base, Meridian (380W) and Meridian Surround (770W), only the quantity of speakers and amplifier power plus a bit of DSP on the Meridian Surround. The standard speakers all use basic paper cones (not the door tweeter) and are not really well regarded in terms of the quality of sound they produce. Although I'm no audiophile, I can definitey vouch for the 'plug and play ' Jaguar OEM 'Meridian Signature' upgrade speakers with Kevlar cones, the difference in sound quality is clearly audible, especially the base frequencies. The big bonus for me was the simplicity of the upgrade with no need to consider speaker adapter rings or wiring adapters.

[Jimmyrn85]

Genp729, what a fantastic and informative post, thank you!

I might see if you're up for a beer sometime, I'd love to quiz you on how easy it is to get that whole rear assembly out in order to replace and sound proof the rears.

Is there any value in replacing just the centre speaker at the front with the kevlar version? I know this speaker is really easy to get to. I have the Meridian surround option.

Cheers