I wanted to do this write-up to show that you can have a much much better sounding radio then stock for under 500 bucks while keeping your stock head unit. The setup isn’t perfect but I am beyond satisfied of the sound vs stock. You can make this even cheaper going with different speaker setups.
Amplifier:
Soundstream PN5.640D Picasso Nano 640 W 5-Channel Class D digital Car Audio Amplifier
I went with the Soundstream Picasso Nano 5 channel amp and I am very pleased with the amps size, convenience , and output. Being that it is a smaller compact 5 channel amp it is very convenient that it can power each channel and provide a nice clean crisp sound. I used a PAC interface that goes in line with my stock hardness on the HU and provides a line out to my amp. I have read and am learning at the benefits of a proper line out converter but I went with this device on a recommendation of another forum member. It serves its purpose as giving me a line out and a location to run speaker wire to to from my amplifier ALL my interior speakers from behind the HU without cutting a single factory wire. With this line out I only needed to turn the gain up 25% and I have nice crisp sound. I can tell the amp is giving off good power. The amp runs cool under my driver’s seat ( made bracket to hide it from a side profile looking into the car) and was easily installed with the provided attachments for RCA’s , etc. The subwoofer is also hitting hard and clean thanks to this lovely little amp. There isn’t much to say about amps but for the price (150ish) this amp is perfect! Powers all 5 channels wonderfully and doesn’t take up much space while running cool. Its perfect for our cars. You will have to make a bracket if you wanted this to fit under the steering wheel though, it is not that small, and even still you would have trouble making it work due to space limitations so that should be noted. Mine is under my seat and I made a side “wall” to the drivers seat so you can not see under the seat from the side to spot the amp. All wires are easily ran to this location as well. I ran the speaker wires up the side of the center console then under the front dash up through glovebox area to the HU. Power wire was the easiest one I have ever ran going right through the firewall down the side panel then under the carpet and out where the wires for the clips for the front seat come out.
Speakers:
Kicker 40CSS654 6-1/2" CS Component Speaker - Pair (Black)
Kicker 40CS654 6.5 inch 2-Way Speakers
I went with the CS line kicker speaker and overall I think they are pretty good but if I did it again I prob would have went with Infinity Kappa’s. I do not have personal experience with many aftermarket speakers so I went off reviews and hunches and I am not sure if it is the nature of the Jeeps speaker housings or the speakers but the kicker cs components have some distortion or hiss where I feel they shouldn’t. The coaxial kickers sound very nice in the rear soundbar but the components leave a little to be desired. I may still swap in a set of Infinity Kappa’s but I am not in a rush to do so because as I said it sounds so much better then stock and better than 90% of OEM radios that I have heard and that is all I was going for. Overall it sounds better than I thought it would but now that I know what the Jeep can sound like I just wish I went with a little better front component.
My one complaint with my speaker setup is the front speakers seem to have a “rattle or hiss” on parts of the sounds that have strong mid bass. I can’t get rid of this even with extensive hi pass filtering with my amp. I do think outside of the struggle with mid bass/bass not being as clear as I wish it was, which may be the nature of the housing and not the speaker, they sound very good. They are crisp and clear on the higher end and very pleasing on the ear, both the coaxial and components. I used pollyfill in all the housings and then took pollyfill out to see if that helped the issue, and it did just not enough.
I wonder if I should have went with Infinity Kappa but that is just me, i tend to always think about the what ifs lol. But I do see Amazon has the Kappas for a great price right now! So they are always an option as well
A major note I should make is the front components sounded terrible with the stock head unit’s power. I don’t know if the standard or base kicker series would sound better but you can tell the CS line was underpowered and sounded really muddy without an amp with a hi pas filter on them. I would not recommend them without an amp. Perhaps the MOPAR kicker upgrade would sound much better in this regard so if you are on the fence about the mopar kickers or the cs line. Go with the OEM upgrade ones if you do not plan to amp your system.
Subwoofer:
PIONEER TSSWX2502 10-Inch Shallow-Mount Pre-Loaded Enclosure Sub Woofer
I had a hard time deciding if I wanted the Kenwood under the seat sub or the Pioneer sub I went with. I am still up in the air about what the better choice would have been. I wanted a nice full low end supplement in this Jeep and with how lacking bass was I was nervous that the under the seat sub with disappoint in filling the car with bass. I was more certain the 10 inch sub I went with would make me happy in that regard, and it did. Would the under the seat sub been as good? I doubt it. But would it have made me happy? I am really not sure.
The pioneer hits nice and clear, it gives a nice sound without rattling the car of shaking my plate frame outside the jeep. It’s perfect. It sounds better, louder, and more aggressive than any OEM setup I have heard but not much more, nothing ridiculous. It’s a nice mature sounding sub that will please many people if they are looking to add some much needed low end to our Wranglers. For 100 bucks, it is a bargain.
PAC interface:
PAC AOEM-CHR3 System Interface Kit to Add or Replace An Amplifier in Select 2007-up Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep Vehicles with an Infinity System
This thing is a must have for anyone installing a system with the stock HU. Makes life very easy proving inputs to your amp as well as a remote power wire! You simply plug this between your radio and the stock harness and use the outputs of the PAC interface for your amp inputs. Where the arrow is below you cut those wires , cap the side coming from the radio and attatch your amplified speaker wires to the side closing to harness which sends the signal to your speakers. It is so simple and you do not have to cut any factory wires.
Overall:
The 2016 Wranglers base stereo system was really bad from the factory. I have had the car less than a month and I wish I would have done this upgrade even sooner. Adding speakers to the stock HU would not make me happy by themselves. I installed the speakers first since I was getting the wires to amp them from behind the HU to see how it sounded and with all the kickers installed it was better, but it was not a full or a good sounding system through the stock head unit. This would still have cost 200 dollars or so, so adding a 140 dollar amp and 100 dollar sub to amp all the speakers and power the sub is a no brainer. The work is easy, just time consuming but anyone with patience and some basic tools can accomplish this easily in the Wrangler. It is not worth paying any one. Pollyfill helped for sure, and is something I would recommend like everyone else has but spending this 500 dollars will give more back to you then any other mod you can do to this car. It is extremely pleasing to put the music on now where before it was embarrassing . For 500 dollars I am certain my setup sounds better then an alpine factory upgrade Wrangler does. It’s loud and clear. My complaints earlier were minor ones but issues I addressed for those who are picky like me. Overall the system sounds amazing and I would say everyone owes it to themselves to do this upgrade.
The PAC line out interface that connects to the OEM harness was very helpful. You mod the harness by cutting the speaker wire heading back to your speakers after the connection point for the line out to the amp and attach your speaker wire from your amp there and the amp can send signal to all your interior speakers right through OEM wiring. It is extremely simple and works well. The amp has a remote bass adjustment knob which is nice and the oem head units eq sorta does its job lol . The HU is now the weakest link but it is serving its purpose for now. The stock EQ in the HU allowed me to bring in some more mids and I really can’t complain much about the sound other than the slight undesired feedback the front speakers give on loud mid bass sections of songs.
I am sure most speakers in the price range I spent are pretty similar in quality. Some might be liked more then others by any one particular person but my Kicker CS's or any other comparable speaker will all work for this application. I saw a set of 4 alpine's with great reviews after I purchased mine for 120 bucks total. One set of components and a coaxial set like mine. That would save 50 dollars more then what I did and I am sure Alpine puts out a quality speaker. Bottom line is anyone who hears my Jeeps system now (that isn’t a car stereo nut) will walk about saying my Wranglers stereo sounds “awesome” , which is something that not a single person would have said before spending this 500 dollars.
And of course, the most important thing, I am very happy and am pretty sure it will be the best 500 I will spend on the car. Along with the JW Speaker headlight upgrade I did during week 1 of ownership, I feel the stereo upgrade is almost a necessity for us Base stereo guys. It corrects the two biggest weaknesses I saw in the wrangler. Jeep should have just charged an extra 1k on top of my 42k MSRP Sahara for these upgrade or better yet included it in that price! But it is done now , so :iamhappy:
Amplifier:
Soundstream PN5.640D Picasso Nano 640 W 5-Channel Class D digital Car Audio Amplifier
I went with the Soundstream Picasso Nano 5 channel amp and I am very pleased with the amps size, convenience , and output. Being that it is a smaller compact 5 channel amp it is very convenient that it can power each channel and provide a nice clean crisp sound. I used a PAC interface that goes in line with my stock hardness on the HU and provides a line out to my amp. I have read and am learning at the benefits of a proper line out converter but I went with this device on a recommendation of another forum member. It serves its purpose as giving me a line out and a location to run speaker wire to to from my amplifier ALL my interior speakers from behind the HU without cutting a single factory wire. With this line out I only needed to turn the gain up 25% and I have nice crisp sound. I can tell the amp is giving off good power. The amp runs cool under my driver’s seat ( made bracket to hide it from a side profile looking into the car) and was easily installed with the provided attachments for RCA’s , etc. The subwoofer is also hitting hard and clean thanks to this lovely little amp. There isn’t much to say about amps but for the price (150ish) this amp is perfect! Powers all 5 channels wonderfully and doesn’t take up much space while running cool. Its perfect for our cars. You will have to make a bracket if you wanted this to fit under the steering wheel though, it is not that small, and even still you would have trouble making it work due to space limitations so that should be noted. Mine is under my seat and I made a side “wall” to the drivers seat so you can not see under the seat from the side to spot the amp. All wires are easily ran to this location as well. I ran the speaker wires up the side of the center console then under the front dash up through glovebox area to the HU. Power wire was the easiest one I have ever ran going right through the firewall down the side panel then under the carpet and out where the wires for the clips for the front seat come out.
Speakers:
Kicker 40CSS654 6-1/2" CS Component Speaker - Pair (Black)
Kicker 40CS654 6.5 inch 2-Way Speakers
I went with the CS line kicker speaker and overall I think they are pretty good but if I did it again I prob would have went with Infinity Kappa’s. I do not have personal experience with many aftermarket speakers so I went off reviews and hunches and I am not sure if it is the nature of the Jeeps speaker housings or the speakers but the kicker cs components have some distortion or hiss where I feel they shouldn’t. The coaxial kickers sound very nice in the rear soundbar but the components leave a little to be desired. I may still swap in a set of Infinity Kappa’s but I am not in a rush to do so because as I said it sounds so much better then stock and better than 90% of OEM radios that I have heard and that is all I was going for. Overall it sounds better than I thought it would but now that I know what the Jeep can sound like I just wish I went with a little better front component.
My one complaint with my speaker setup is the front speakers seem to have a “rattle or hiss” on parts of the sounds that have strong mid bass. I can’t get rid of this even with extensive hi pass filtering with my amp. I do think outside of the struggle with mid bass/bass not being as clear as I wish it was, which may be the nature of the housing and not the speaker, they sound very good. They are crisp and clear on the higher end and very pleasing on the ear, both the coaxial and components. I used pollyfill in all the housings and then took pollyfill out to see if that helped the issue, and it did just not enough.
I wonder if I should have went with Infinity Kappa but that is just me, i tend to always think about the what ifs lol. But I do see Amazon has the Kappas for a great price right now! So they are always an option as well
A major note I should make is the front components sounded terrible with the stock head unit’s power. I don’t know if the standard or base kicker series would sound better but you can tell the CS line was underpowered and sounded really muddy without an amp with a hi pas filter on them. I would not recommend them without an amp. Perhaps the MOPAR kicker upgrade would sound much better in this regard so if you are on the fence about the mopar kickers or the cs line. Go with the OEM upgrade ones if you do not plan to amp your system.
Subwoofer:
PIONEER TSSWX2502 10-Inch Shallow-Mount Pre-Loaded Enclosure Sub Woofer
I had a hard time deciding if I wanted the Kenwood under the seat sub or the Pioneer sub I went with. I am still up in the air about what the better choice would have been. I wanted a nice full low end supplement in this Jeep and with how lacking bass was I was nervous that the under the seat sub with disappoint in filling the car with bass. I was more certain the 10 inch sub I went with would make me happy in that regard, and it did. Would the under the seat sub been as good? I doubt it. But would it have made me happy? I am really not sure.
The pioneer hits nice and clear, it gives a nice sound without rattling the car of shaking my plate frame outside the jeep. It’s perfect. It sounds better, louder, and more aggressive than any OEM setup I have heard but not much more, nothing ridiculous. It’s a nice mature sounding sub that will please many people if they are looking to add some much needed low end to our Wranglers. For 100 bucks, it is a bargain.
PAC interface:
PAC AOEM-CHR3 System Interface Kit to Add or Replace An Amplifier in Select 2007-up Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep Vehicles with an Infinity System
This thing is a must have for anyone installing a system with the stock HU. Makes life very easy proving inputs to your amp as well as a remote power wire! You simply plug this between your radio and the stock harness and use the outputs of the PAC interface for your amp inputs. Where the arrow is below you cut those wires , cap the side coming from the radio and attatch your amplified speaker wires to the side closing to harness which sends the signal to your speakers. It is so simple and you do not have to cut any factory wires.
Overall:
The 2016 Wranglers base stereo system was really bad from the factory. I have had the car less than a month and I wish I would have done this upgrade even sooner. Adding speakers to the stock HU would not make me happy by themselves. I installed the speakers first since I was getting the wires to amp them from behind the HU to see how it sounded and with all the kickers installed it was better, but it was not a full or a good sounding system through the stock head unit. This would still have cost 200 dollars or so, so adding a 140 dollar amp and 100 dollar sub to amp all the speakers and power the sub is a no brainer. The work is easy, just time consuming but anyone with patience and some basic tools can accomplish this easily in the Wrangler. It is not worth paying any one. Pollyfill helped for sure, and is something I would recommend like everyone else has but spending this 500 dollars will give more back to you then any other mod you can do to this car. It is extremely pleasing to put the music on now where before it was embarrassing . For 500 dollars I am certain my setup sounds better then an alpine factory upgrade Wrangler does. It’s loud and clear. My complaints earlier were minor ones but issues I addressed for those who are picky like me. Overall the system sounds amazing and I would say everyone owes it to themselves to do this upgrade.
The PAC line out interface that connects to the OEM harness was very helpful. You mod the harness by cutting the speaker wire heading back to your speakers after the connection point for the line out to the amp and attach your speaker wire from your amp there and the amp can send signal to all your interior speakers right through OEM wiring. It is extremely simple and works well. The amp has a remote bass adjustment knob which is nice and the oem head units eq sorta does its job lol . The HU is now the weakest link but it is serving its purpose for now. The stock EQ in the HU allowed me to bring in some more mids and I really can’t complain much about the sound other than the slight undesired feedback the front speakers give on loud mid bass sections of songs.
I am sure most speakers in the price range I spent are pretty similar in quality. Some might be liked more then others by any one particular person but my Kicker CS's or any other comparable speaker will all work for this application. I saw a set of 4 alpine's with great reviews after I purchased mine for 120 bucks total. One set of components and a coaxial set like mine. That would save 50 dollars more then what I did and I am sure Alpine puts out a quality speaker. Bottom line is anyone who hears my Jeeps system now (that isn’t a car stereo nut) will walk about saying my Wranglers stereo sounds “awesome” , which is something that not a single person would have said before spending this 500 dollars.
And of course, the most important thing, I am very happy and am pretty sure it will be the best 500 I will spend on the car. Along with the JW Speaker headlight upgrade I did during week 1 of ownership, I feel the stereo upgrade is almost a necessity for us Base stereo guys. It corrects the two biggest weaknesses I saw in the wrangler. Jeep should have just charged an extra 1k on top of my 42k MSRP Sahara for these upgrade or better yet included it in that price! But it is done now , so :iamhappy: