JEEP WRANGLER JK KICKER SPEAKER UPGRADE

Plug-n-Play replacement at a good price. I bought two sets, one for front and the other for the back sound bar. Instructions provided are close, but not perfect. Watch YouTube videos that cover your Jeep year and model. I'm slow, so it took about 30 minutes to install the back sound bar speakers. I also disconnected the 2.5 speakers in the sound bar. Took me an hour for the front passenger side and 1.5 hours for the driver front side speakers. These are quality heavy duty speakers. Note: I got the Mopar ones, there are knockoffs which are cheaper.

I have a 2015 Wrangler and ended up buying 2 sets to replace the 4 factory 6.5" speakers that are honestly awful. I can't believe they are actually making speakers that sound this bad still, but I digress.Installation of the 2 soundbar speakers went very easily, and although I read to fill the space with Poly-fil it didn't seem to be necessary as it looks like Jeep redesigned the compartments to be closed off now instead of open. Now on to the installation of the dash speakers... I almost made an appointment to get them installed (for $90) but thought that was silly to pay more for installation than the actual set of speakers cost, so I did it myself. It was a royal pain though. It seems Jeep also decided to make it even harder than prior years to wedge your way into the speaker compartment/area. The instructions that come with the speakers mostly work for the driver's side, but are not quite accurate for the passengers. You will need a small(ish) offset screwdriver and a lot of patience. You have very limited space to work with unless you are willing to totally remove the dash (I was not), but in the end it is totally worth the hassle. I recommend to take the doors off during installation as you will need as much room as possible to maneuver.So, how do they sound? Huge upgrade from factory, but then again that's not saying much. They certainly don't sound super high end, but they are not super high end prices, so I really feel for what you pay you more than get your money's worth. These should be bare minimum quality for newer Jeeps, and maybe it was a ploy to get people to spend more on Mopar accessories once they realized how awful the stock speakers are. Who knows. There is also the matter of the tweeters, but I didn't feel they were so bad as to warrant getting more replacements. Eventually I may invest in a higher end system, but these are more than adequate for now and are noticeably louder and clearer than what I've been putting up with for the short time I've owned this Jeep.

NOTE: When I wrote the review below, I had only installed two of the four Kickers (the ones in the soundbar). Now I have completed the installation of the two remaining Kickers in the dash. Pretty good instructions came with the speakers, but the 2015 has a few small differences that are not covered. One is that there is a little metal bracket attached to the bottom of each speaker pod, and that is attached to your dashboard frame with a 10mm screw coming up from the bottom of the dash. You have to spring the plastic knee panel rearward in order to get a socket onto that screw. Wasn't too hard to change out the speakers, but you do have to do considerable dash disassembly.----------------------------I bought 2 sets of these (4 speakers total) for my 2015 Wrangler JK with the factory base-level sound system. So far I have installed a pair of them in the overhead soundbar, but am holding off on the dash speaker install until I get my new Kenwood head unit. The soundbar speaker install was about a 15 minute job, including adding a little sound deadening material above the speakers. Just three T-20 Torx screws for the grills, 3 more for the speakers, and plug-n-play wiring (no cutting or splicing of wires required). Very nice.I tried the overhead Kickers out with my factory cheap 130S stereo by fading the sound toward the soundbar and playing some Ace-Of-Bass thru my cellphone. The Kickers sounded really good -- crisp and sharp, with a good full range of sound (including good bass). Fading to the front cheap OEM plastic frame paper cone speakers resulted in muddy and flat sound with little bass. These Kickers are a winner.I have attached a photo comparing the OEM paper cone speaker with the Kickers. Note that the OEM speaker weighs 13 oz, while the kicker weighs 44 oz.I've read on the Jeep forums that Wranglers with upgraded factory Infinity or Alpine sound systems have better speakers, so installing the Kickers may not result in such a huge improvement. If you have a factory upgraded system, I suggest doing some online research before springing for the Kickers.Some people online said these Kickers have 2-ohm voice coils, which would make them a bad match for most automotive stereos (most head units are rated for 4-oh speakers). I researched this but could not find an impedance rating for these speakers, so I measured the coil resistance with my VOM meter -- turns out that these Kickers are 4-ohm speakers, which is the standard for most full range automotive speakers. See the photo below. NOTE: If you have a factory upgraded system, your speakers may be 2-ohm, and installing 4 ohm speakers like these may reduce your sound volume by half. To check, you should measure the resistance of one of your stock speakers with a multimeter (if you don't have one, Amazon has some for less than 10 bucks). Just remove one of your overhead soundbar's speaker grills using a T20 Torx screwdriver, unplug the speaker, set your multimeter to it's lowest resistance scale, and take a reading across the speaker's two terminals. If you get a reading of close to 4-ohms these Kicker upgrade speakers will be a match.While Amazon has these listed as Wrangler JK speakers, they actually fit a variety of Chrysler vehicles. Detailed install instructions for all of these vehicles come with the Kickers.In summary, if you have the base level factory radio with the paper cone speakers, these Kickers are a must-do upgrade.