I got quotes from high-end car audio shops here in the Boston area to upgrade the 400 watt system. Both said the only solution was to install an entirely new system. Cost options were $10K and $13K. I decided to swap out the tweeters with Focal Utopia tweeters from Crutchfield. Very easy to do yourself. To my ears, it now sounds almost as good as the 700 watt system in our other Defender. However, the Focal Utopia woofers actually sounded worse than the OEM woofers when I tried swapping those. So those woofers are now in my daughter's Honda.

 

These $2K tweeters or some other variant?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091TBM/Focal-TBM.html

 

Yes those, but I bought the kit with the woofers included for the same cost:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091165...a-165W-XP.html

Once you pry off the tweeter covers, you will need to cut out the OEM tweeter mounting tabs and glue-in the new tweeters since they are oval. I used JB Weld. You will also need a little extra speaker wire. Crutchfield sells it by the foot. Know that these Focal tweeters will need to break-in and sounded far better after about a week.

 

Hi there.. new to this forum just cruising some threads, not sure if ever addressed the rumble. It is exactly the ASD (active sound design) feature from the factory. they pump in engine sound to the cabin for what they describe as an immersive feeling with the vehicle. Unfortunately , it comes through our speakers that should only emit musical notes. hope that helps if you haven't figured it out yet

 

the active sound or active noise cancelation is built into the meridian digital sound processor and not a separate module you can disconnect.

You can have it programmed out with one of those tuners that add features like adaptive lights etc. the purpose of active noise cancelation is to reduce road noise by creating a low frequency from the oem sub. when you add power and a much larger sun you really hear the difference.

any source played through the oem dsp will have this. my system has 3 separate sources, oem(carplay) direct hifi bluetooth and direct coaxial. the direct sources bypass the oem dsp into my aftermarket dsp and no issues with the ACN

 

Not sure if too late with this but if you're able to get to New Jersey it would be Joe Bruno Designs Berlin, NJ . Maybe a ride for you but he installed, diagnosed and solved all the issues everyone here seems to be having (rattles, vibrations, disconnecting ASD feature causing the bass rumble etc.) All with an OEM look like nothing was ever disturbed other than a small black **** for 12" sub control. I have a 23 D90 V8

 

With the ASD, if you have nothing playing then there is no sound being sent to subs to counter road noise - it only works when playing sound thru the oem? I'm getting ready to have a complete install of Helix 12 channel DSP and replacing all factory speakers with Blam Multix. Wondering how the ASD affects the signal it sends to the DSP and how that will alter the programming - and if I had a Direct connect to AMP (bypassing the factory oem) would I still get the meridian sanctioned signal being sent to sub etc?

Thanks for any responses

 

ASD is always on and will send signals even when not playing music. you will hear rumbles from your sub but will be dramatically magnified if you are running new amps and subs

if you are running a new dsp which should have a digital source you will not have any issues with that digital source. Its only when you are using oem source i.e carplay, sirius you are going to have the issue.

i primarily use a hi-res bluetooth connection direct into my mosconi dsp which basically bypasses the oem meridian dsp. the meridian dsp is where all the problems are

sounds like you are building a high end build. your installer should know what to do.

but i did end up deactivating the ASD. JLR active has a new remote activation program. they mail you a laptop and he logs in remote and adds or deleted what you want within minutes.

 

the reason why your woofers sounded worse is that the utopia are 4 ohm speakers and your meridian amp is at 2 ohm. basically you reduced the amps power by half. The utopia speakers are cream of the crop and need additional power to drive them to begin with

i surprised you went so high end on the speaker replacement without adding other components

 

Any contact info for JLR active ?