[rcm78]

Hey everyone, New here and looking for some advice...

Finally ditched the factory radio in my 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I installed a Kenwood DMX957XR with an iDatalink RR and all the associated harnesses and adapters to make it all work. Radio came out great and now I want to start to upgrade the speakers.

Here are my thoughts for a clean/clear system that's not over the top. Let me know if I'm off base...

1st upgrade is the sub. JL Stealthbox. These are made to fit where the factory sub is and increases the size from 8" to 10". The sub is also rated at 500 watts rms.

2nd upgrade are the front and rear speakers. Focal 165AS components up front, Focal PC165 coaxials in back. This Jeep has the 10 speaker Alpine system so I should be able to run the Focal's off the factory amp for a while.

3rd upgrade will be an amp to power it all. The JL Audio RD900/5 is 75watts rms X 4 at 4ohms and 500 watts rms x 1 at 2ohms.

Some questions. Since the radio has all the DSP built in I assume I don't need a dedicated DSP?

Is it worth while to upgrade the center speaker in the dash or the two rear speakers at the top of the rear hatch?

After all this is done will the factory amp serve any purpose? This is a 10 years old vehicle with an old version of U-Connect. I'm using the bluetooth from the radio along with Apple CarPlay.

Lastly, Is my order of upgrades correct? Would it be better to install the amp first and then build around that?

Thanks in advance!
Ralph

 

[clange2485]

Hi Ralph and welcome aboard.

Your plan sounds fine to me but you missed a couple things. #1 Sound treatment! not sure if you’ll be doing the install yourself or have someone doing it for you but it’s not to be overlooked and will make a big difference no matter what speakers you end up choosing.

#2 While you can run the focals off the alpine chances are it’s not going to sound very good or be much of an improvement. So i would plan on doing the speakers & separate amp at the same time.

I don’t know anything about the dsp section of your HU but I’m assuming it’s not as user friendly & most likely feature limited compared to some of the amp/dsp combo’s. I could be wrong here but either way, all dsp’s need to setup & tuned properly. This and the install itself are the most important parts.

Skip the center and additional rears for now. Your main focus should be on the front stage so spend your money there. If you’re not set on these components check out the classifieds there’s always good deals popping up.

 

[rcm78]

Hi Ralph and welcome aboard.

Your plan sounds fine to me but you missed a couple things. #1 Sound treatment! not sure if you’ll be doing the install yourself or have someone doing it for you but it’s not to be overlooked and will make a big difference no matter what speakers you end up choosing.

#2 While you can run the focals off the alpine chances are it’s not going to sound very good or be much of an improvement. So i would plan on doing the speakers & separate amp at the same time.

I don’t know anything about the dsp section of your HU but I’m assuming it’s not as user friendly & most likely feature limited compared to some of the amp/dsp combo’s. I could be wrong here but either way, all dsp’s need to setup & tuned properly. This and the install itself are the most important parts.

Skip the center and additional rears for now. Your main focus should be on the front stage so spend your money there. If you’re not set on these components check out the classifieds there’s always good deals popping up.

Thanks. Yes, sound deadening is part of the plan. Forgot to mention it in my post.
The radio is a Kenwood Exelon Reference series unit. The DSP section includes crossovers for front, rear, sub, time alignment for tweeters, fronts, rears, subs, graphic EQ on each input, and some sound effects like bass boost, loudness, staging height.
What would a dedicated DSP offer that the radio doesn’t have?