mdbrown

Curious, has anyone here replaced the speakers but kept the stock audio system? I have a 2000 ES with the Pioneer system. Typically the speakers in almost any system are the weak point so I figure replacing the speakers while leaving everything else would be the highest value improvement until or unless I decide to replace the HU... I'll probably leave the Sub for the moment as well until I feel like pulling apart the interior to wire in an amplifier...

MyEs300Yea

I changed the Head Unit and all 4 speakers, replaced them with Pioneer, HU and Speakers.
The sound is way better then when it had the stock HU and speakers.

Beav

When you changed the HU did you bypass the factory amp or did you use the harness that integrates them?

MyEs300Yea

Im still using the amp, i didnt feel like running wires so i hook up to the amp.
I bought this HARNESS
And its was really easy to hook up.

mdbrown

Okay, so no one has ever replaced just the speakers in their ES??

JamesBond1

I wanted to do the same thing as you but I heard you won't be able to use the new speakers to their full potential...

mdbrown

I would think not since a good set of speakers (I plan on getting Boston Acoustics) would likely be much better than the stock head unit. It would be an interim step for me as I would eventually like to get an in-dash Alpine Nav unit.

Say... shouldn't you be driving an Aston-Martin or BMW???

dmight

I replaced the rear speakers in my 96 ES300, just did a little measuring and research, checked ohm and wattage values, bought basically the same thing except newer technology and by Pioneer. Had to solder the wires to the speakers but that wasn't difficult and probably better.
On a side note, if I were going to replace the sound system, I believe I would do a total rewire to the speakers (replace those too) bypassing the original sound system completely. Reason being, the weakest part of the system would be going thru the old amp. etc.

JamesBond1

Is that a joke towards my username.....or something else?

mdbrown

James Bond always drove an Aston Martin or a BMW...

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

GEt an in-dash first. It will bypass the current amp, and your oem speakers will sound better than vice versa.

The new one's could be rated at a higher wattage but will run on lower since the limitation is the oem amp. Almost all aftermarket HU's will amplify your current speakers better than the oem amp... OEM is something like 20w/channel, where headunits now can do up to 50ish on average.

If i decide to dump money into this car [still] i will get a nice HU, and upgrade the oem sub to a better 8" and leave it at that.

Another thing is, unless your current speakers are blown the aftermarkets will sound the same [no noticeable difference] than the oem's with that HU.

BradTank

I wouldn't just replace the speakers and leave the factory amp, you'll be disappointed.

You would think better aftermarket speakers would mean better sound, but the factory speakers were designed with a low-powered amp in mind, aftermarket speakers usually need a lot more juice to sound good. There's also all sorts of unique crossovers that you'll need to figure out.

The factory Lexus system is actually pretty good, the last car I had I put in some pretty decent Infinity aftermarket speakers and Clarion head unit, and honestly the stock Lexus system sounded better. If you just put a more powerful sub/amp combo in, it would probably be what you're looking for unless you're a real hard core car audio enthusiast.

mdbrown

I used to be major car audio guy but not so much anymore. At some point though, I will be getting an Alpine in-dash Nav unit and I won't use it with the stock speakers. Looking at a set of Boston Acoustics coax speakers for the back doors, components for the front doors and an Alpine amp and JL Audio 8" sub... will do the speakers first. Once I replace the head unit I'll re-wire all the speakers at that time and run the sub amp off the pre-amp outputs of the head unit.

The stock unit is nice but the lack of tweeters in the rear contribute to a slightly tinny sound to the high end... kind of annoying.

Robert_J

I'm not as familiar with this version of the ES but I recently upgraded the audio system in my ES-350 in steps. It is covered in detail in the ES-350 section.

The first upgrade was just the head unit with a PAC-TATO (Pacific Audio Corp. Toyota Digital Amp Interface) to work with the factory system. Immediately, the mids were better and the highs were excellent. Bass was still lacking.

The second upgrade was adding a 10" sub and amp to power it. I used the new head unit's internal crossover to filter 80hz and below from the factory amp. This allows the amp to run more efficiently and really let them run with no distortion. A 10" sub with 250w were enough to provide great bass.

The final upgrade was this past weekend when I replaced the door mids and dash tweeters with a component system. The factory door speakers ran full range in parallel with the tweeter. The pulled the sound stage down. The 2nd order crossover in the new speaker set filters the highs from the door speakers and really locks the sound stage up on the dash.

Each part of the upgrade makes a difference. You need to pick the one that works for you.

mdbrown

That's what I was thinking. The mids in both the front and rear doors are running full range which really screws with the highs. Speakers first...