Hey Everyone,

Looking for some help in upgrading my ML audio system. I know a few of us have upgraded the BASE system, and I believe u/losiglow had upgraded his ML system. Looking for some insights to make sure I'm following correctly.

I was wondering if a simple swap would be effective for the front 3 dash tweeters/top door tweeters. Does anyone know where to find the RMS/peak wattage that goes to these speakers from the factory ML amp? I know the system is 1800W total, but I'm concerned about sending too much power to the speakers and blowing them. I'm thinking about the kicker KS or CS series.

In terms of the 6x9 speakers in the front/rear doors - would I be able to do a simple swap here for these, or at this point would I need to get a separate amp/dsp to feed aftermarket? I'm leaning into kicker/jbl. Would 6.5in speakers be able to replace these? Looking for more "thump" and clean bass here.

I'll probably go the route of a ported enclosure & 10" JL audio/alpine sub with its own amp. Will probably get a shop to help with this one.

If anyone has any feedback or guidance please let me know! I tried reaching out to crutchfield and the guy I spoke with seemed like he knew less than me as he was not very helpful in answering my questions.

 

check this forum. Many posts. I found easest way is to use google to search. I do remember the RMS for all speakers except rear was just about 1000. less than half of stock ML amp. I used Kickers 3 way. no regrets!

 

1000w RMS??? that seems wrong
I did search this forum & google and went through many posts, this thread from here was the most relevant. But maybe I'm too new to audio upgrades and wasn't quite sure. I've tried contacting shops and they all want me to add in amps/DSPs saying that the factory amp won't provide adequate power... but 1800W should be MORE than ample for a swap. Now if the speakers need to be tuned, I can understand adding extra bits.

Maybe I'm not explaining my concerns correctly as I'm not finding much about changing the ML system. Everyone upgrading basically has the base system, which I'm not sure would fit in my situation

 

Amp would have to draw about 200 amps to output 1800 watts it's not even close. Real output total is probably 300 watts. You can use whatever modern speaker you like, and one that is compatible impedance wise.

I have both Kicker and JBL speakers I like them both.

 

OK, up to you. I am happy when using low volume or I crank mine up.2022 ES300h UL ML Stock ML Amp with Kickers, 2 in dash, two in each front doors, 1 in each rear door. needed extra amp for rear speaker, but passed because I have rear screen and rear camera. The Amp added base, don't know how, but it did. Anyways, Did not need. extra Amp or speaker

 

The factory amp appears to have more than enough juice to power the Kicker KS 3.5's (47KSC3504). I also purchased the Alpine Kenwood Excelon KFC-X3C which have worked well. They sound a bit sharper than the Kicker but work fine.

I also wouldn't worry about the amp having too much power. I don't know the exact output but with most speakers, it's not excessive wattage that causes damage but excessive volume at too low of wattage, resulting in distortion and killing the voice coil.

I've been running the Kicker 3.5's for about a year and a half now with a lot of high volume. I've had one kick the bucket. It started to crackle and pop which is a complaint from a few reviewers on Crutchfield. One out of 7 isn't bad. I don't think that was from the amp but the fragile nature of the speaker. I also purchased them used on eBay to begin with so they already had some mileage when I bought them.

Moral of the story - you should be just fine with the Kickers if you want to go that route. A few other options are available such as the JBL which some say are better. Pretty much any of those are better than stock IMO.

 

So, 7 identical Kicker 3.5's (47KSC3504) is just a drop-in replacement for all existing speakers (one for each door, plus left/center/right in the dashboard)? No need to purchase anything more (just remove old speakers -> insert new ones, crimp the connection)?

Did you switch out your subwoofer? If so, is that just a drop-in replacement too?

I'd also be interested in hearing if anyone has tried with JL Audio C1-690x speakers.

 

Technical stuff is over my head but the wiring harness Metra-Toyota 2020 Speaker harness {72-8109) makes the swap a true plug and play, without the need for crimping wires. Highly recommend.

 

Sort of. There are two issues.

1. The current speakers are closer to 4" and are secured by two 10mm bolts if I recall. Any 3.5" speaker is likely going to be slightly small. There isn't any adapter I'm aware of. As such, the only practical option is to secure one bolt normally on one end of the new speaker and then use a washer with the other bolt to effectively pin down the other side of the 3.5" speaker mount so it's secure. It's not rocket science. But some might consider it a jury rigged option. I really wanted to do things the right way with this car since it's the nicest one I've owned. I've done some hack jobs in the past and didn't want to repeat those mistakes. This method has worked fine for me and I've never had any of them come loose. Another option would be to try a 4" speaker but I believe most of these will be too large. The existing speaker isn't exactly a 4" or 3.5". Just like the "6x9" door speaker isn't exactly 6x9 or 6x8. They're all custom sizes just to mess with us apparently

2. The connector between the factory speaker and input wire is a proprietary connector that I couldn't find an adapter for. Maybe one exists, but I wasn't able to find it. I really hate to cut wires in a car like this but I knew that the chance of me reinstalling the old speakers was 0%. Especially since I sold them all on eBay . So I went ahead and cut the stock connectors and used some heat shrink tubing to secure the input wires to the crossovers for the new speakers. I used this kit which has worked very well for a variety of electrical connections. It has a waterproof adhesive which further seals the wire:


Yes, I went into detail on that in this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...-speakers.html

Luckily, yes, it's a fairly precise standard 10" subwoofer unlike all the other goofy sizes speakers. A more shallow subwoofer may be better since the 10W6v3-D4 I dropped in hangs down quite a bit. Crutchfield has a large variety of shallow subwoofers specific for this type of application. But even that meaty JL Audio sub didn't pose any issues with the trunk springs or anything. It's just sometimes an issue when I put something in the trunk that is large. I drive Uber sometimes and occasionally a suitcase won't slide back all the way because the sub is hanging down. Small price to pay though. The low end frequency on that particular model is great. Well worth it IMO.

Can't comment on that. It may come down to preference.

 

Should have read that before my reply above about cutting. Oh well, too late for me. But I'd certainly go this route if I were to do it again.

 

I'm honestly thinking of just making a change to the sub at this point and doing the JL 7W.

u/losiglow, you put one in the OEM location along with a mono-amp - did you ever get all the rattles out from the rear deck? I thought that the ML system was running everything on 8 ohms, and that has me quite confused about how to approach this and getting an amp to match the sub.

Alternatively I can get a 12" and put it in a ported box in the rear. I almost wanted to do a sealed box, but I have been told that since the seats don't fold down, I'll likely want something ported if I chose a box. I'd primarily be playing hip-hop, electronic + pop. Some rock. Thoughts?

 

Todat I went back to the audio shop where I was advised. My bad. I was 300 RMS with Max 900W cranked full At MOST. Sorry for bad info. Suffering from CRS (Can't remember ****)

 

Yes, by about 90%. There are two main sources of rattling - the rear deck and the headliner. I started with the rear deck by slapping dynomat (Amazon brand) just about everywhere under the rear deck. That also helped reduce air flow between the trunk and cabin thereby reducing some of the "infinite baffle" that exists in this situation (a sub without an enclosure). I also did this by removing the rear seatback and laying most of the sheet metal with dynomat. The headliner also caused a lot of rattling. I'm presuming this was between the headliner and metal frame. I wasn't excited about completely removing the headliner. That's a big job. But I was able to peel back some of the headliner from the rear window. I strategically placed some foam blocks between the headliner and frame while the sub was turned up fairly loud, thereby determining if I'd effectively quieted the contact between the two.

I'm pretty happy where it is at this point. I can still get some rattles at certain levels and frequencies but it's usually when the sub is up loud enough to be uncomfortable. At that point, it's a warning to myself that I'm probably damaging my hearing and should turn it down

As far as impedance, I don't know how much it matters. If you're using the sub-level signal as your amp input (which is really the practical way in this setup) the amp is going to process that as needed to output the signal to the new sub. I haven't encountered any problems.

 

I really like having the 10" JL in the OEM spot, but I think I'm going to lean into a 12" sub in a ported sub in the rear. Just a lot easier for a shop to help with and (hopefully) less rattling out of the rear deck (big hopefully). A lot of the audio specifics are going over my head, sadly

 

Hey Man - do you know if this harness will work with the ML amp as well? I know people have had success with the base audio, just want to make sure if will fit. I'll have to probably supply these to the audio shop once I make the jump to add in a new LOC + Amp for a subwoofer. Just want to make sure they don't do all the work and it doesn't work afterwards due to an incorrect harness