Jelous400

So I got a 99 LS400 with the nakawichi or whatever sound system installed in it. I bought the car because my friend has a 98 LS400 that was so amazing to drive, I figured i'd pick one up. Now I noticed that mine has the naka sound system logo on the stereo/cd changer, while on his 1998 LS400 it just says "Lexus Premium Sound".. He claims that he has the Naka sound system and that in 1998 Naka systems didn't have their logo on the unit due to some licensing issue with the in dash navigation at the time. I did some research online and found that someone else was talking about it and said this regarding someone asking a similar question to mine...

"If it is a mark 4 without sat nav, it may well be the Nakamichi sound system. (although it does not say “Nakamichi” on the photo like the mark 3 cars do, it does say “premium”). I remember reading somewhere when Lexus made the mark 4 they had an issue in that Nakamichi would not allow their head unit to be operated from a proprietary touch screen interface and / or around that time I think Nakamichi went bust ? Hence mk4 cars without the sat nav were fitted with the premium 280 watt Nakamichi sound system. The mark 4 LS400s with the touch screen sat nav were fitted with the 190 watt Pioneer sound system."


anyway I am wondering if there is any truth to this, and if anyone with a 1998 LS400 Mark 4 actually has Nakamichi printed on the stereo..

Kansas

No. Not true.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

completely false.

the nak was a separate package, available throughout the LS400's life ('89-00). The navi on '98-00 cars uses the pioneer audio processor, amp, and harness.

ls400geek

I have a 98 and my stereo has "Nakamichi" on it. If it were my friend I'd let him/her believe he/she had a Nakamichi and keep it to myself lol.

Jelous400

that is a nice thing to do,... you must be a female aren't you hahah... (not being sexist)

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

yeahhh no.

Nak systems had different components.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

those marked with Nak are indeed Nak. the rest marked with "premium" are just the normal pioneer models. plain and simple!

etex

I have a 98, but am unfamiliar with the Mark 3 or 4 designation. What is that?

Kansas

Both the standard Pioneer and optional Nakamichi systems are, after all, both made by Japanese companies. I would not be surprised if you found some of the same components in both the Pioneer and Nak and also in Honda and Nissan radio systems of the same era.

I just now did a side-by-side comparison of the audio system diagrams of LS400 Pioneer and Nakamichi systems of several model years. They sure look very different to me. I've posted a lot of these diagrams on this forum in the past which you can probably find by performing a search.

SW17LS

I can attest that my Dad's 98 LS said "Nakamichi" on the face of the radio, so your friend is wrong.

He was probably lied to by a salesman at some point.

LScowboyLS

when I removed my head unit from the dash (marked Lexus premium sound system) I not only found the Pioneer logo, but the exact Pioneer model number of the unit on the back or the bottom of the head unit.

Interestingly, I have a rare model of 96 in the fact that it has no sunroof (a fact which I love) and even more rare, it came with no CD changer whatsoever from the factory, has anyone else seen an LS400 model this late that wasn't equipped to play CD's from the factory?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

Even for 1st gen cars if you look at how the systems are set up you'll realize they're quite different.

I've seen 2 '98s without factory CD Changers. The changer was a factory option for the entirety of the LS400's life. Given it's low cost it was an almost-universal option, but there definitely were some shipped without them.

VanCityLS4

iTrader: (1)

Any pics of the LS upper glove box without the changer ? Is it still the same woodgrain trim piece ?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

nope. (95-97)