pikes

I just bought a 2010 Lexus ES350 with nav and I want to upgrade the sound in it. First I'm going to add in a sub and see if I'm happy with the sound. Apparently it's a huge pain to replace the stock speakers so hopefully I'm happy after just putting in the sub. I've done a ton of research but this is my first sub install so I'm kind of nervous. One of my best friends has installed many car stereos and helped me put this together but I wanted to get more opinions on it.

I mostly listen to EDM (electro house, dubstep, etc) so that's what I'm trying to base my system around. Here are the parts:

• Amp - Kicker KX800.1 ($380) - http://bit.ly/1d8icAe
• Amp box - Custom built by myself
• Amp wiring kit ($54) - http://bit.ly/1d8iOpF
• Sub - Rockford Fosgate T1D412 (2 ohm) ($330) - http://amzn.to/JAxVeJ EDIT: ended up getting JL audio 12W6v3-D4 instead
• Audio control (to hook into the factory sytem) - LC2i ($75) - http://amzn.to/JACDcn
• Wire connectors for LC2i ($9) - http://bit.ly/1bF20ju
• Capacitor - Boss 30 farad ($72) - http://bit.ly/1d8is2g
• Trim tools so I don't **** up my interior with screwdrivers ($12) - http://bit.ly/1bF22In

I definitely want to keep the factory head unit as it's integrated with the climate control, etc. So what I plan on doing is tapping the LC2i into the front driver/rear passenger speaker wires before they go into the factory amp. From what I've read online the factory amp is in the trunk so I'll mount this in the trunk as well. I'll continue to use the factory amp for the internal speakers of course. One guy I talked to mentioned that the factory head unit might not put out enough current for the LC2i to use. Do any of you know anything about this? I really don't want to have to tap into the factory amped speaker wire.

I went with that Boss cap because most of the music I listen to isn't hard single hits but more long whommm sounds (for example, this: http://youtu.be/J1j8k3cvG88?t=3m22s ) and I want to make sure the amp has plenty of power to run the sub during these parts. I understand I might have to upgrade the factory alternator if I run into problems which I'll do once I find out if it's necessary.

If I decide to upgrade the speakers too I'll just replace the LC2i with an LC7i and buy all the additional parts I need to replace the speakers.


So, what do you guys think about this build? Am I missing any parts or is there anything I didn't think of? Thanks for checking this out. I plan to take a lot of pics and post about it once I complete the project to help anyone that might be in a similar situation!

xanderES

iTrader: (8)

I see a couple of things here I would change.
1. Lose the cap.
Anyone who tells you that it is necessary has no idea what they're talking about. If you end up with a dimming problem (you wont in your case with the 800 watt amp) all it does is add more strain due to charging the cap + running the amp.
2. Different subwoofer.
There are many companies that make a immensely better product than those mass marketed woofers. Less marketing = more $$ spent on products. Theyre around the same price and worlds better in terms of quality. Check out Image Dynamics or FI car audio.
3. Big 3 upgrade will help out with the grounds as well as a higher flow of power from alt to battery.

I ran ~2000 watts in my ES and never had a problem. The only thing that would freak out when playing something crazy loud was the digital clock.
Ask away, but there are most likely more knowledgeable members here. I had mine installed professionally about 2 years ago so I am recalling what i can. There is quite a few threads on audio upgrades.

pikes

I ended up keeping the cap because my friend who has installed many car systems and by trade is an electrical engineer recommended I get one based on the music I listen to. I did change the sub however, to the JL audio 12W6v3-D4.

Over the past few days, I cut the MDF for the box and I started to assemble it. One tip I would give to anyone building their own box would be to email or call the company that makes the sub and see if there are updated drawings for building the box (assuming they provide the schematics). The one on JL's website is extremely misleading on how the box should be designed but when I contacted their customer support they sent me an official drawing that was a lot more helpful. Unfortunately I already cut my pieces so I couldn't use it but the box will still work the way it is, the pieces just don't fit exactly like they are shown on the updated drawing.

I started putting the box together last night, see attached for a pic!

Robert_J

Not using a cap is recommended by installers who do this for a living. For the average person, a big 3 upgrade is the best bet.

Good luck with the JL. Good sub but still over priced due to marketing. For subs, I would have gone with http://www.parts-express.com/tc-soun...oofer--293-658 or something from PSI Car Audio.

And the factory speakers are not difficult to replace. I cover it in detail in a thread. Just look at my profile and find one of the 3 threads I started.

Blueshark

You will also need some dynamat on the doors and trunk. I did the same setup and the car rattles. Dynamat will give it a nice solid bass sound thruout the car. I bought a roll on Ebay and the result was noticable. In my case, i wanted a set of components with a 3rd amp to power it, but the project went south.

You will enjoy for years to come with an updates sound system in this beautiful car.

Robert_J

My gas cap door rattles and that is it. That's all I can hear in the cabin anyway. With enough volume, I don't hear any rattles at all and I don't care what people outside the car can hear.

pikes

After I get it all installed and working I'll let you guys know if I hear any rattling or anything like that.

I was thinking about soundproofing too but I figured I would wait to make sure it was necessary before spending the time and money on it.

Last night I went to work on the box again and ran into a snag. Basically, since I added the top and bottom before assembling the internal port guide pieces, the back one was a ***** to get in! I didn't get to glue it on the top and bottom before adding it because it was such a tight fit it would just push the glue completely off of it when I slid the piece in. So, I just got the piece in where I wanted it and put glue around the sides. Hopefully this works. I guess I'll find out when my box falls apart after using it for a bit

Tonight I plan on finishing the box completely, including mounting the sub and the wire cup. I'll post pics and another update later.

pikes

Does anyone have any tips or links on the easiest way to get a 4 gauge power cable from the battery to the trunk?

Robert_J

I checked my thread and it turns out I did NOT cover that - https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...-a-2007-a.html

It's simple. I ran a cable from the battery to a fuse I mounted near the air intake. From there, I went to the black gasket on the firewall that is in-line with the steering wheel. I used a knife and carefully cut a slit. I taped the end of the power wire to a long screwdriver and forced it through. My helper was upside down in the cabin with his head near the foot pedals and saw it come through. He untaped the wire from the screwdriver so I could pull it out. He pulled wire while I fed it through the gasket. From there, I hid it behind the footwell panel and then into the wiring channel that runs along the door sill. Once we got to the back of the car, he fed the wire between the bottom of the seat and the side of the car and squeezed it into the trunk This takes small hands. I was in the trunk and grabbed it.

pikes

AWESOME! Thank you for the tip. I'll check out your post too and see if I can get some more helpful information on my install.

I got a stomach bug yesterday so I've been down for the count and haven't been able to progress any further on my install. But, I was able to finish the box right before I got sick (except for carpeting)!

pikes

I got the sub installed and working on Sunday, woo hoo! It sounds great. Here are the steps I took with important notes on each step of my install for anyone wanting to install a sub in their ES350:

1. I started by finding the gasket that Robert_J was talking about. It was right where he said it was. I had to make a cut on both the interior (on the top-right side) and exterior side (at the top) and I used a long screwdriver to push the cable through. I put duct tape on the end and pushed it through then used a knife cutter to cut the tape off under the dash.
2. It was super easy to run the cable to the back seat. The trim pieces on the driver side popped right off and I ran the power cable and the bass control cable right along the guides under the trim. I had to move the driver seat all the way up in order to get it past the middle trim piece but it wasn't hard.
3. I used these plastic trim removal pieces I bought on crutchfield (highly recommend you buy this) to remove the auxillary panel (the one that has the trunk opener and gas cover opener) so I could install the bass control **** that came with the amp. I used a dremel to cut a bunch of the plastic off and screwed the **** on. You just gotta play this one by ear if you're doing it yourself.
4. To get the cables into the trunk I removed the back seat by pulling up really hard on the middle of the seat behind the driver and the middle of the seat behind the passenger. You may need help pulling up but they'll come out.
5. I removed the left and right carpeted pieces in the trunk along with the floor carpet and spare tire cover. Then, I shined a bright light in the trunk to see if I could see any light in the back seat, and I did! I actually pushed the long metal piece that you use to turn the jack all the way into the back seat, taped the cables onto it, and pulled them into the trunk. Then I put all trim pieces back and replaced the back seat (remember to put the seat belt things upwards before you replace the back seat)
6. Now that I have the cables in the back I can start hooking everything up to test. I wanted to hook everything up (without mounting it) just in case I needed to get a different part or something didn't work right.
7. I used needle nose pliers to remove the factory plug on the amp that's on the right side of the trunk that contains the speaker wires I needed to tap into. I used the crutchfield taps on the driver/front and passenger/back to hook into the LC2i. This would be pink (front/positive) and white (back/negative). I ran 18 gauge speaker wire from here into the LC2i.
8. Next I tried to find a place to mount the grounding wire for the amp. There aren't many places I could find that would be easy to use, but I eventually used a spot on the right side that didn't have anything hooked to it but there was a bolt there. I used the dremel to remove the paint first, then used a ratchet to put the ground cable there.
9. I used some wire cutters I bought to strip off the shielding on the end of the ground cable and put it into the capacitor.
10. I didn't think I'd have enough extra cable in my wiring kit to connect the amp to the cap so I bought some extra 4 gauge cable at lowes but it was real rigid. I bought some flexible cable on amazon to replace this and give me more flexibility on how I'm going to eventually mount it. Here's what I ordered http://amzn.to/1a0cm3d for power and http://amzn.to/1a0crUL for ground. I connected the cap's ground out to the amp and the cap's power out to the amp. I also connected the LC2i's +12 to the power out on the cap and the LC2i's ground to the ground out on the cap sitting these small wires on top of the 4 gauge wire so the screw on the top would hold it in.
11. I remembered that I still needed to mount the sub in the box so I cut some 12 gauge wire to connect the sub to the connector cup on the side and connected it to the sub and wrapped it around the terminals inside the box and used electrical tape on it. I still need to carpet the box so when I do that I'm going to solder the speaker wire to the connector cup but the tape should work for now. I marked, pre-drilled, and screwed the sub into the box with 1 1/2" wood screws. I had 2" wood screws but they were too big for the holes on the sub.
12. I put the box in the trunk and connected the amp to the cup with 12 gauge speaker wire.
13. I connected the LC2i to the amp using RCA cables.
14. I was ready to power up the cap, so I had to finish my install under the hood. I connected the power cable to the battery and dremeled out the side of the power terminal cover so it would fit on top of it after adding the amp power cable to it. I installed the fuse box on top of the existing fuse box under the hood. I drilled 2 holes and used nuts/bolts to hold it on. Installed the fuse and screwed it on and then used electrical tape on the top of it because the screw cover that came with the kit popped off and I couldn't find it. I also used this opportunity to put black silicone sealant (I got this at advanced auto, ask the guy there which one to get) around the gasket where I cut the hole in it just in case. I'm done under the hood now.
15. Now it's time to charge up the cap. It came with a resistor for you to connect the power cable from the battery to the power-in on the cap. This does 2 things - keeps the cap from creating a large spark when connecting the cable for the first time and also keeps the fuse from blowing. The instruction manual said it should take 3 to 60 seconds to do this. I expected to see the LCDs light up on the cap but they never did so I got out my volt meter to see what was going on and called my electrical engineer friend for some advice. He said based on the resistor stats and the cap, it should take 25 minutes to charge from my battery! I verified that the cap was charging very slowly by checking the voltage on the cap side of the resistor. The battery side was 12 something volts and the cap side was raising very slowly up from 0. My buddy said it shouldn't blow the fuse at 10 volts so I waited until 10.5 volts and then connected the power cable to the cap. There was a real small spark but it worked fine.
16. Time to test it! I turned on my car and put on some music but the sub wasn't working. My amp has 3 power on modes, one that detects power, one that detects a 6v signal from the speaker wire (I assumed the LC2i would send this to the amp so I put it on this one), and the last one detects when there's music coming in and turns on that way. I had to flip it to the 3rd one in order for the amp to power on. The LC2i manual says "After the LC2i turns itself on, it provides a 12 volt trigger output to turn on your amplifier". This is absolutely hilarious because there's no 12v out on the LC2i so I have no f'ing clue how this is supposed to work. I just did some research on this and maybe it's the remote out connection? If so what would remote in be used for? Maybe I'll try to get a hold of audiocontrol and see if they can shed some light on this for me. Weird. Anyway, moving on.
17. So now I'm hearing the sub, hooray success!! I followed the LC2i's gain instructions here (AudioControl level matching - YouTube) with not much luck. I figured out my problem was that the accubass was turned down. I put it to the center detent and it worked. I had to turn the main all the way up to the max level for it to be maximized. I played with it a bit and decided the amp needed to have the gains at about 75% for the bass control **** I installed at the driver seat to work effectively. The sub is only rated at 600 watts RMS and I have an 800 watt amp so I wanted to be careful not to blow it.
18. I set the low-pass filter on the amp to around 60 or 70 hz. I might still mess with this a bit but I'm pretty happy with it around that setting. I turned the subsonic filter to somewhere between 20-30hz. I might mess with the KickEQ stuff on the amp later but I'm not sure it makes sense to increase the gains at specific frequencies. Any advice on this?
19. I haven't mounted anything in the trunk yet but I screwed the amp and cap to the top of the box temporarily so they aren't sliding all over my trunk. I put the LC2i between them and it fits snugly in the cables.

Once I'm 100% completely done with the install I'll post pics and more info. I hope this helps anyone that wants to do the install on their own! A lot of the info I got on these forums has helped me a lot so I wanted to give a little back. Feel free to reply or send be a PM with any questions.

Robert_J

200 more will not hurt anything in the short term. PSI makes a 3,000w sub that takes 25,000w bursts for under 1 sec.

Rarely do you boost EQ, you cut.

In my home theater, I used the PEQ Spreadsheet ( http://peq2.tripod.com/index.html ), a Radio Shack SPL meter and a disc that had sine wave test tones matching the frequencies in the spreadsheet. I measured the SPL of each frequency and graphed it for the in-room response (in car response in your case). The Spreadsheet is nice because it emulates a 12 band parametric digital equalizer. In the home theater world, that's called a Behringer Feedback Destroyer. http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-BEH-FBQ1000-LIST This allows me to get bass response between 100hz and 15hz + or - 3db. I have usable bass down to 10hz.

Room EQ Wizard is a more sophisticated and faster way of measuring.
If your amp doesn't have enough EQ bands, Mini DSP http://www.minidsp.com/ is very popular with both the home and car audio crowds.

pikes

That is some interesting stuff but it may be a little deeper than I wanted to go with this project. What would I gain from doing all the research to figure out what you're talking about and implementing it myself?

MikePA

How much time do you spend in the car that makes this much money and time worthwhile?

Robert_J

Quality sound. Flat frequency response. I admit, I'm a little nuts about my sound quality but I want to hear the details of the song. I want to hear the bass player's fingers slide up and down the strings as he changes notes. I want to hear the hum of Stevie Ray Vaughan's amp as the song fades out. I want to hear the broken keyboard on "My Immortal" by Evanescence.

If you are thinking about doing all of this but planning on using iTunes downloaded music at 92kbps as your source material then it is not needed. No matter how good you tune your system, feeding it poorly compressed material will just yield poor sound.