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Non-AKG sound system upgrade

5.9K views 56 replies 12 participants last post by  Vuk  
#1 ·
Ok. Just wanted to share this because if you're disappointed with the non AKG sound system, changing the front and rear door speakers makes an amazing difference. I replaced the front with infinity reference 6x9s with the adaptors and wiring kit that plugs into factory door wiring. And replaced the rear with JBL 6 1/2 . Both coaxial and the car sounds clean and added enough lower bass that was non existent is now there with with the JBL speakers . I personally like it. No rattles. I am glad I did this, my wife and I love the car, I wasn't happy with the sound . Cost less than $200 with all the adaptors are free if you buy speakers from crutchfield . Anyway. Hope this helps someone. Took some pictures. 😉
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#3 ·
I picked those based on there specs, I know I wanted 4 ohm ,coaxial because I am not a fan of mids and the frequency response I was hoping to improve was lower bass , the JBL's I put in the rear doors had the best low end freq,. Response at 93db . And front infinity had similar specs , in the sizes I needed. And it did just that. I actually got some low end thump with this set up. I can hear and feel more low end Sounds pretty crisp, clean too , allot cleaner than the Bose I had in the last car. same volume maybe a bit louder at the same loudness setting ,so too me , it was the way to go, no adding amps or cutting wiring,,, voiding warranty.
 
#8 ·
I too was HORRIBLY disappointed in the sound system in my XT4. It was awful...went from premium sound in my Ford Fusion Titanium to this. My fault for not knowing Cadillac puts out cars with a crappy system. I guess I just thought they would all have premium sound systems period. I know nothing about speakers such as ohms, impedance, and so on. Crutchfield recommended Pioneer speakers - TS-G690 for the front and TS-G650 for the rear. Definitely sounds better but still not what I was hoping for, so I ordered a Kicker compact powered sub for under the seat. The problem with that is the noise cancelling system in the car cancels out the bass when I have the volume turned up. Kind of a waste of over $200! I might consider the JBL's down the road if you had such good results.
 
#9 ·
I don't notice any cancelling of bass, mine seems to be linear all the way up. I would rather of had a loudness option to turn on . Because I like the settings heavy on bass so low to mid volume has some kick ,making it too much on the ears at higher volume. A sub would definitely finish it off to be perfect but I didn't want to get and install the harness adaptor that gets low level output for a amp to run a sub . Hope you post results if you add the sub . And how you did it. I looked up a place in Texas that makes a gm plug and play line out harness that passes full range audio low line out for amps or powered subs .plugs into the signal/data line behind the glove box before it goes to factory amp. Rather than using speaker high level with distortion from factory amp.
 
#12 ·
Door panels have covers over screws. 1 in the bottom. 2 in the door armrest. Then I UN plugged the wiring harness to put the door panel off to the side. I got a couple pictures. The retainers are stiff . I got a tool looks like a claw I put a rag over not to scratch. Pretty easy. If any stay behind pull out and reinstall .I am still impressed how good it sounds now too . Well worth the time
 
#14 ·
I bought everything from crutchfield, they supplied the wiring adaptors,and mounting adaptors with no instructions. And they did not supply any pictures or xt4 specific info other than the speakers sizes are 6x9 in the front and 6.5 in rear doors. I bought infinity's for the front and JBL for the rear. Based on there frequency response and specs . They have bass . And are above 94 dbs so they sound great with factory amp.
 
#16 ·
Just ordered front and rear door speakers from Crutchfield. Went with the JBL Club 964M for the front and the JBL Club 64 for the rear. The advisor at Crutchfield recommended the 3-way JBL's for the front doors as they will bring out the high's that I want. BTW, the factory non-AKG door speakers in the '25 XT4 are made by BOSE. Go figure! Will post more after installation.
 
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#18 ·
Update: Just completed speaker upgrade on my 2025 XT4 PL. Took me every bit of 4 hours as I took my time. Door panels were easier to remove than I thought. Once you get them started at the bottom corners the rest is easy. They are very tight though at the bottom. A few clips on the rear door panels were left behind in the door but had the right tool to get them out and replace on the panel. The new JBL speakers came with a roll of foam tape which I applied to the back of the speaker frame before mounting them in the adapter brackets. The factory speaker brackets had foam tape on them where the bracket touches the door frame and carefully peeled it off and re-used for all new speaker brackets and worked great! I wrapped the wire harness adapters and connector in Fabric fleece electrical tape and zip tied the harness to the tab on speaker for all 4 doors to omit any rattle. After all speakers were installed, I tested BEFORE I reinstalled the door panels. Re-installed all door panels. Drove around with audio off to check for any rattles. None. A HUGE night and day difference from the factor crappy speakers! Bass is punching and mid's and highs are crisp and clean!

One note: If you do not disconnect the negative cable on the battery before you start, (which I didn't) you will get a OnStar Red light on the overhead console and OnStar will be inoperable. I called them and told them that I replaced the door speakers and they diagnosed that there was a code stored that there is no communication in the door modules. They did a OTA reset for the OnStar module and light then turned back to Green and all back to normal.

Hope this helps to contribute as others have in upgrading your '25 XT4 sound system. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help.
 
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#20 ·
Update: Just completed speaker upgrade on my 2025 XT4 PL. Took me every bit of 4 hours as I took my time. Door panels were easier to remove than I thought. Once you get them started at the bottom corners the rest is easy. They are very tight though at the bottom. A few clips on the rear door panels were left behind in the door but had the right tool to get them out and replace on the panel. The new JBL speakers came with a roll of foam tape which I applied to the back of the speaker frame before mounting them in the adapter brackets. The factory speaker brackets had foam tape on them where the bracket touches the door frame and carefully peeled it off and re-used for all new speaker brackets and worked great! I wrapped the wire harness adapters and connector in Fabric fleece electrical tape and zip tied the harness to the tab on speaker for all 4 doors to omit any rattle. After all speakers were installed, I tested BEFORE I reinstalled the door panels. Re-installed all door panels. Drove around with audio off to check for any rattles. None. A HUGE night and day difference from the factor crappy speakers! Bass is punching and mid's and highs are crisp and clean!

One note: If you do not disconnect the negative cable on the battery before you start, (which I didn't) you will get a OnStar Red light on the overhead console and OnStar will be inoperable. I called them and told them that I replaced the door speakers and they diagnosed that there was a code stored that there is no communication in the door modules. They did a OTA reset for the OnStar module and light then turned back to Green and all back to normal.

Hope this helps to contribute as others have in upgrading your '25 XT4 sound system. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help.
All in was $230.00 delivered. JBL Club 964M for the front doors and JBL Club 64 for the rear doors. OEM fit brackets and jumper wire harnesses, reference instructions included. Four hour install when you take your time. I was very careful not to rush and the outcome was rewarding at 1/4 price of the AKG upgrade from Cadillac! No need to replace the center or dash corner speakers as those are mainly for chimes, voice commands and turn signals. They do output audio but most is coming from your doors that matter.
 
#34 ·
I just purchased 3600 mile certified preowned 2024 xt4 sport. It has the seven speaker system. I ordered a set of JL audio 6 x 9 and 6 1/2 inch from Crutchfield, to replace all the door speakers they should be here on Friday. I'm an old guy but from 79 to 89 I had a car stereo business up in New York. I've been in Florida for 30 years, and still taking cars apart and working on sound systems of my own. I did the same speaker upgrade in my 2020 Honda passport which I still own an excellent improvement.
 
#23 ·
A '24 Escalade, yes a nice vehicle. The 2025 XT4 that I have now has the AKG stereo and It is waaay... better than the base. I would not have bought another XT4 with the base sound system after having one in my 2021. I did the front speakers on that and was considering doing the rear speakers with a small woofer unit but I bought a newer model instead. The front speakers did help though. I am kind of a stereo person :)
 
#24 ·
This is our third XT4. Had a ‘19 and ‘22. The ‘19 had the Bose system which was just OK. The ‘22 had the base system which actually sounded better than the Bose. This ‘25 sounded flat and muffled, no bass and tinny sound. The JBL’s I installed are absolutely incredible! What a difference! The factory speakers I took out have paper cones and the magnets are 1/4 the size of the JBL’s. I don’t know what GM was thinking but they failed miserably on the ‘25 base system.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I did not use them as they were not recommended by Crutchfield when I bought the JBL’s. Here is a pic of what I took out. They have no weight to them and looks and sounds what came in my 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix with the base Delco AM/FM radio. 😂
 

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#31 ·
Update:
To top off my new upgrade to my 4 door speakers, I just replaced the top center dash speaker with a JBL Club 34F. With the jumper wire harness, I installed it in 20 minutes. Sound is greatly improved up front and center! Got my whole setup from Crutchfield. They are awesome!
 
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#50 ·
Update:
To top off my new upgrade to my 4 door speakers, I just replaced the top center dash speaker with a JBL Club 34F. With the jumper wire harness, I installed it in 20 minutes. Sound is greatly improved up front and center! Got my whole setup from Crutchfield. They are awesome!
Was the center dash speaker easy to remove and install? How did you remove the grill to get at the speaker, and did you need any extra wiring or bracket, etc.? Thanks
 
#35 ·
Still have the factory speakers. The front door speakers measure 2.9 ohms and the rear door measure 2.7 ohms. Hope this helps.
 
#38 ·
I did a speaker upgrade in my 2024 XT4, hoping the sound would be much better. This is the second set of speakers. The first were Pioneers which were fine and now I have Infinity Reference in the front and JBL's in the rear thinking these are the ones to up my sound. They do sound good but I was hoping for more bass. I want more bass! I had an under-the-seat powered sub with the Pioneers but the ANC didn't like the bass and would cut the bass out so I took the sub out. It would work on lower volumes but the bass would get cancelled out when I increased the volume. Crutchfield says you can't add a sub or amp with the ANC and that you have to unhook the ANC. I'm not willing to do that nor do I know how to do that. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was hoping to download an equalizer in the car from the play store but that's not one of the apps I can download. Thanks
 
#39 ·
I totally understand your issues. Doing my research for my’25 XT4 with Crutchfield and what I wanted to achieve, I was paired with the JBL Club series front and rear doors and the speakers are rated at 3 ohms which matches the factory amp. I too like the punch of bass and the JBL’s deliver what I was looking for. In audio settings on the screen, I set my bass level to 9 and treble to 1 and left the mid at 0. I also replaced the center dash speaker as well with JBL Club 34F. Based on the factory amp, this is the best that I can get. I listen to SXM a lot but use Tidal most. This car isn’t set up from the 80’s where you can get a sweet Alpine head unit, amp, eq, and the all to favorite rear package shelf 6X9’s and have a whole wire harness plugged into a 20amp fuse under the dash!😆 I also have. ‘24 Escalade with AKG and sounds just OK at best. Not changing anything there.