Success.

Finished install of the 6 speakers and newly purchased sub (Thanks E46CT for sub, front speakers and some direction). And thanks to liera21 who's part list I used for some last pieces. And those who posted with some input.

All-in I'm at about $400, budgeted $500 for this deal.

Already owned the amp for the sub so had I bought one used I'd be at about my $500 mark.

Sounds much, much better. Very happy with it right now. Used "Riders of the Storm" as one of my before/after test song lol. Lots of sound and hi/low with enough bass. Can hear the WHOLE song and don't need volume cranked up to try pull more sound out of the OEM speakers which just did not have more to give.

May hook an amp to the speakers one day. But for now, this project is done (except going to go install my wire taps for a cleaner job).

So to answer my own question, yes it is doable to have a big improvement for about $500 without going all out (doing the work myself...about an hour and a half for speakers...maybe 2 hours to figure out the sub (stop for online research) and get it wired up to LC2i and amp).

I'll post a parts list soon for reference.

 

Congrats!!
To me, audio upgrade is a big achievement and I'm surprised at how easy it is to do in the CT, specially with the battery in the back and foam storage insert for electronics. You more than halved the shop quote.

 

Hi everyone,

Last week I bought my first CT, a 2012 F Sport and recently joined this forum. It's great to have found this community.

I'd like to upgrade my 10 speaker system and would be grateful for your views. I'd like to follow E46CT's plug & play approach if possible.

I have some nice speakers (Focal 165 V2). Does it make sense to install these 2-way components (woofer & tweeter) and keep the CT's stock 3.5" midrange speakers and rely on the crossovers in the headunit?

 

What is the factory size of speaker you'd be replacing with the Focal's? The same? Generally a speaker like that needs a fairly high current amp to make them shine factory units are designed to push high sensitivity, low wattage speakers. The 165's are 90.5db sensitivity which on paper is good but hard to say how they would work in your car. If it was me I'd install them see how they sound and go from there.

 

The speakers are the same size. My question is mainly regarding the OEM crossovers. Several forum members seem to have dropped in replacement speakers and kept the OEM crossovers, but typically they would replace all the speakers using the same make/model.

 

When you say OEM crossovers, isn't that built into the amp? The Lexus systems I've seen were like this the head unit sends audio to the amp (could be digital) then the amplifier filters for the various speaker outputs.

 

Yup; I meant the ones built into the headunit or amp.