Help upgrading factory Infinity stereo

ThatGuy21

ThatGuy21

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Joined
Jun 25, 2021
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Lakewood, NY
Ok, so after extensive use of the search feature along with hours on google I need some help from you guys. When searching for our "new to us" Wrangler I was careful to seek out the premium stereo as we are big audiophiles and don't care much for aftermarket head units. The premium audio in all of our other vehicles has always sounded amazing so I expected similar results. Unfortunately the sound is atrocious... So I started by swapping out all of the speakers, this made for a slight improvement but we are still light years away from being impressed. This is where I need help, my stereo upgrade experience stems from my younger years where my vehicles didn't have things like separate factory amplifiers. Since the bluetooth audio function is not providing a clear feed I feel like the next logical step will be upgrading the head unit. From what I am reading it sounds like I have three options; bypass the amp, purchase something to integrate with the factory amp or replace with a better amp. I am thinking of starting by either bypassing the amp or integrating it to see how much the sound quality increases and then go from there, thoughts? If I bypass the amp I am hoping I can utilize a multimeter to be able to splice wires from the new head unit outputs through the amp outputs to the speakers so that I can avoid running new wires for now. Any thoughts or experience would be quite helpful, I am not thrilled about having to remove an item I so carefully sought after but I certainly can't deal with this poor sound quality.

On a related note I know the next thing I will have to tackle is the factory sub, I am not for big booming bass but the bass notes out of this stereo are basically non-existent, has anyone had any luck with this, I know it will be difficult as we run solely with top and doors off but I am sure we can achieve better results than what we currently have.

Thanks in advance, you guys are great!
 
What year is the Jeep and what trim level? JKs generally all look the same, but over their 11 year production time there were huge changes.

I have a 2009 and am happy with the premium sound package. However I do have an aftermarket head unit. All stock speakers though.

I replaced the head unit within days of getting it, so I can't speak to the quality of the stock radio, however I have heard that it is the main bottleneck for quality sound in any jeep.

Crutchfield is the
 
As far as the sub goes… when I got my 08 Sahara I thought the sub was broken. Opened it up and saw it was out of phase. Plugged the wires in the right way and it sounded waaay better. I’m thinking the previous owner was messing with it and knew nothing about what he/ she was doing.
 
Hmm... 2011. The odd year.

What I mean by that is that you have the updated interior, but you still have the 3.8 that they switched to in 2012 and are still using today.

I'm not sure what that does to the electrical, but it doesn't change the idea that people rarely have anything good to say about the stock head unit in a jeep.
 
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I changed everything in ours and did like you are wanting, I just spliced into the existing wires. I installed a Kenwood head unit, JL Audio speakers all around except for the sub which is a powered 8" Fosgate. I put in a small Kenwood amp for all the other speakers and it fits perfectly where the factory amp was.
 
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I appreciate all of the input! I ordered a replacement head unit that came with the wiring to integrate the factory amp along with the steering wheel controls. I plan to make this move and see where I stand. I have a feeling I will be bypassing the factory amp next to see how the sound is from the head unit itself and if neither are adequate I will order a replacement amp. I will keep everyone posted on how this goes in order to hopefully help someone else in the future!
 
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The big names are all decent. JVC, pioneer, sony, Kenwood, alpine, and others I can't think of.

I have a Kenwood and am happy with it.
Stay away from head units from lower tier companies, stuff you find at walmart or a parts store, boss comes to mind. The sound is bad, and the interface can be... difficult.


A point you need to know, is that if you wish to maintain steering controls and if you have a premiums sound you will need to purchase a canbus adapter. These are somewhere between $80 - $300. It's not really a mix and match of choice sort of thing, you get the one that works with the stereo and vehicle.

For this reason do your research at Crutchfield.com. They have packages that include all the stuff you need. Even if you buy it from someplace else, you at least no the canbus you need to get. If you do manage to find stuff cheaper someplace let us know, crutchfield is the way to go generally.

Last I looked they were pretty low stock because of the world being on fire. You may need to be patient.
 
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