I finished installing an upgraded stereo in my 17 Evora 400. The sub-woofer amplifier died so I decided to replace that with a JL RD 400/4 amplifier a JL Audio 8W1v3-4 subwoofer and JL C5-525 component front speakers. I kept the factory Alpine head unit. I’m very pleased with the results. Thanks to everyone that answered my questions and to people who had posted about their experiences with this time-consuming process- there is a lot of very valuable information here. In the interests of contributing to the group I’ve noted a few issues below that might be of use to others considering replacing all of these components.
![1257790]( "1257790")
![1257791]( "1257791")
![1257792]( "1257792")
![1257793]( "1257793")
- You need to get the low-level line out connector for the alpine headunit- the factory set up only comes with a small one for video and sub woofer. This is necessary if you want to use the low level RCA outputs for both the front speakers and the subwoofer- this enables control of the sub woofer level from the headunit which is necessary if you listen to different kinds of music. This is what I bought (although the price has gone up):
- ALPINE INE-NAV60 INENAV60 GENUINE RCA HARNESS *PAY TODAY SHIPS TODAY* | eBay
- The 8 inch JL subwoofer with screws around speaker won’t fit in the factory box-the factory subwoofer screw holes are on tabs that extend out from the edge of the speaker. To install the JL subwoofer I needed to fabricate an ABS faceplate with a smaller hole in it for the subwoofer box. I fixed this with Permatex sealant and screws.
- JL RD400/4 probably the biggest amp that will fit in the stock position. I fabricated a bracket from aluminum and mounted this onto the existing bolts that held the old amplifier. I then used velcro straps to hold the amplifier against the bracket.
- I still needed to cut the right edge of sub woofer box to clear amplifier- there is plenty of material so this did not compromise the structure. I sanded the cut edge and added a layer of epoxy.
- With my amplifier mounting strategy the RCA jacks on amp close to steel frame- if I did this again I would look for RCA cables with shorter jacks.
- I wired the power to the amplifier separately instead of splicing together the power wires from the existing connector. I went through trunk release grommet and in at top by rear window- will probably re wire this through the lower engine compartment when I have the car on the lift to do the spring oil change.
- The amplifier ground was finicky- I ended up using one of the child seat anchors that bots directly into the aluminum subframe. The steel frame does not work well.
- I ran the RCA cable through center console to the head unit- this is a major undertaking to disassemble.
- I ran the left and right speaker wires run up the sills under the carpet and tied them to existing wiring.
- I mounted the crossovers high on door pillar- these are attached with Velcro. The JL crossovers are surprisingly large.
- When threading the speaker wire from the doors I needed to remove foam packing from inside door pillar to thread door speaker wire through. There is also a tubular piece of foam that holds the wires into the hole in the door pillar- this also needs to come out.
- The factory tweeters are glued in- the bottom of the pillar trim has a shelf across half of the tweeter hole. The key here is that the tweeters have label on back that is what most of the glue attaches to so you can slide a blade under the label and release this from the back of the tweeter. It is now possible to push tweeter out by putting pressure on side that is not glued down. If the tweeters didn't have the label on the back I think they could be quite difficult to get out.
- Having removed the tweeter I needed to Dremel the “shelf” off to flush mount tweeters using the bracket provided.
- Irritatingly the JL Tweeters are just a bit too small for hole- ideally I would like to get some sort of a finisher. Annoying. I may do this later
- I used Permatex to seal the door speakers to the surrounds and to mount these back into the door shell
- I did not add a lot of dynamat- I don’t listen to music with booming bass and at my preferred volume levels everything sounds tight. However, I could see a lot of opportunities to go overboard with this.
