kramer5150

Hi,
Just wanted to introduce myself as a new member. I bought my father in laws 2001 ES300, it has 42000 Miles and is in very good condition. He only drove it 120 miles since November 2006.

I have never owned a car this nice before.

Now on to my question...

I want to upgrade the stereo, but I like the factory headunit and CD changer. I want to keep the dash stock looking to help alleviate theft.

How can I get a line output out of the stock headunit for my amps? Is there an adapter or harness kit that will provide a line out?

Thanks!!
Garrett

92ES5sp

Im not sure about that but the stock Pioneer system isnt that bad IMO. It sounds better than my Solara with the JBL.

vin 78

You could upgrade it...

W. David

If you're just looking to power some subs, you can just splice into the wiring for the factory sub......that's all I did, and it worked perfectly.

kramer5150

Thats what I did yesterday. Heres the shocker... I'm running four 4-ohm voice coils in parallel off the stock amp... and it works!! No thermal issues, no current overload.... yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm not sure how long the OEM amp will take this kind of abuse, but I guess We'll see. If it cooks, oh well time for an upgrade. The OEM pioneer sub is 2 ohms, so I'm guessing the OEM amp is accustomed to seeing loads well below 4 ohms. If it matters, its an IB install, and the subs are fairly high Qts (.69 if memory serves me right)... here are pics.

This is just the prototype. I picked up these subs for $27 each, so they are kind of my test gunnea pigs, and I throw them into all kinds of experimental setups. Once I get things Dialed in better, I'll amp everything and switch to a much better powerbase 15.

But for now, I' happy the IB turned out decent. I'm not really a fan of IB installs, so I'm happy that this gets any kind of usable results.

Infinite baffle 12s. There is a second 12 facing forwards.


Heres the foam sealing the front from the back. I'll play around with this over the next few weeks to improve the seal.


Stock look


With rear brake light assembly removed.


Looking into IB enclosure.

Slooooooow

iTrader: (1)

Vin78, please quit showing us this head unit!!!! You're killing me with this! I really want to buy this and absolutely can't afford it right now with home renovations going on. I'm going to be forced to report your posts, because if I keep seeing this hawtness, I'm going to do something stupid like use a credit card to go ahead and get this.
- - - - -
Kramer5150, if you chose carefully, you could benefit heavily with RCA outputs, features, etc. of a stealthy looking aftermarket unit like the one above. In fact, the one above is a Toyota unit, and it's hard to get more stealthy than that.

vin 78

^^^yeah, um, that's my radio lol!

MoreMGD32

iTrader: (1)

Just remember the amp might not be overloading, clipping, or thermally over heating but if its not supplying enough current that the sub need than you can blow them from distortsion. It way easier to blow a sub with distortion than by overpowering them! dont want ya to throw away $120 bucks even tho they are $27.00 subs.

B
(ex circuit city/bestbuy installer)

MoreMGD32

iTrader: (1)

oh yea, if you do choose to replace the radio, i have a custom factory paint matched dashkit for the 97-01 ES300 for sale in the A/V classifieds or you can just PM

kramer5150

Thanks for the feedback gents!!

Yeah, I'm keeping the volumes down low for now. So far the little amp has not nuked itself, and I am not playing it loud enough to clip the waveform.

What I would really like, is to tap into the subwoofer line out, on the OEM head and amplify that line level. I live near a bunch of thieves, who will steal anything that they can get their hands on.... even stealthy looking HUs . So... I'm trying to keep a headunit upgrade (of any type) as my last resort.

thanks!!

SirSkrip

Didnt want to waste a new thread on something possibly answered 100 times.

Im thinking of doing the same for my 2002 ES. I want to purchase a powered sub, like the KENWOOD KSC-WD250 200watt 10" POWERED SUBWOOFER + BOX. Will this work by 'tapping' into the already installed sub? Since its powered, im assuming it wont drain much from the stock amp. Is this how it works? Simply tap into the speaker wires for it? yes i am not all techy on this stuff...

thanks all!

Choas

^Use a line level converter.

LXMN

Explain more on this please. I might be interested in doing this.

Slooooooow

iTrader: (1)

Choas are you thinking:
a) Stock head unit --> Line Level Converter --> Powered Sub's Built-in Amp --> Subwoofer?

or
b) Stock head unit --> Stock Amp --> Line Level Converter --> Powered Sub's Built-in Amp --> Subwoofer? (I don't think you meant this because I don't think you can run the converter after the amp)

Choas

^Sorta a line level converter would turn the high signal coming from the stock amp and turns it into a low level (rca) signal that you can plug into an amp. Likewise it would be the same for a powered subwoofer since it has a built in amp.