When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Well, I replaced the front door speakers with Kicker 40CSS694 6"x9" and Faital PRO 3FE22 3". The difference from stock is significant. Both sound much better in all respects. I left the stock tweeters as they were.
For the rear sub, I had already ordered the Audiopipe, but I decided to order the MBQuart as well for future plans. I will give some details, if anyone is interested.
I did a simple rough comparison of hooking the speakers up "raw" to the wires after fading all sound to the rear. The OEM and Audiopipe had about the same amplitude of movement. However, even though larger surface area and (presumably) more inertia, the MBQuart showed a lot more physical movement when hooked up raw compared with the other two. I look forward to making an enclosure for it and hooking it up at another time.
Here is a comparison of the OEM subwoofer, the 6" Audiopipe, and the 8" MBQuart. As you can see, the OEM sub in my GX470 is NOT dual voice coil. I cannot tell if it is 8ohm or 4ohm.
Here is a look at the subwoofers from the back
Side view
Height comparison
Here is a comparison next to the enclosure. I must have looked up information on the wrong model because this was not nearly as large and oddly shape as the one I was expecting from other photos.
Here is the Audiopipe with a 6" x 1/4" plastic adapter plate that I decided to use over top of the OEM hole (SAK049_55)
Unit model number of my Mark Levinson sub enclosure
I went with the Audiopipe because it was small enough to fit the space (sort of) and I had already ordered the MBQuart. I will use the MBQuart in another project.
I silicone'd the adapter plate and screwed it in place. I had to trim the molding. I plan to cut a hole into the original plastic grill and fit a grill into it which sticks out a bit.
Honestly, I probably wouldn't do this again because the stock amp sucks anyway. I tested it out with dual voice coils in series and parallel. Series was too weak to notice. Parallel drew too much current and would cause it to cut out if I turned up the volume. Perhaps my amp has some dead capacitors, but even with a single voice coil hooked up, it has bad clipping at even moderate levels ...... which are nearly unnoticeable in terms of the sound as a whole. The front 6x9's easily provide more bass and cleaner sound than the subwoofer. I find it a bit pathetic.
My eventual plan is to make an enclosure for the MBQuart sub to fit in the rear door panel where the current bungee net alcove is located. Then I will replace the OEM subwoofer amp with a Rockford Fosgate Ultra Compact amp (which I have used in other vehicles) and hook up a single voice coil of the Audiopipe and both voice coils of the MBQuart
I have been pondering the idea of using an AudioControl LC2i to power an amp and a subwoofer. Has anyone tried this out before I go through doing the sub swap like above.
I've blown 2 Tang Band W8-2022 sub's. Not sure what to do now. 2005 GX470. Try the AudioControl LC2i ? Is the Amp bad (the OEM sub was working just fine, I just wanted more bass).
8 ohm replacement sub, had to reverse phase / polarity
Shoved a Polk DB842DVC into the enclosure after a little bit of dremel action. Wired in 8 ohm/ series, reverse polarity, this made a major difference. Correct polarity seemed to cancel the bass from front speakers.
Also replaced the front door speakers with 6.5" Skar 8 ohms, also a little trimming and I put (Design Engineering 050380) Boom Mat 6x9 baffles behind the skar 6.5 and mounted with a 6x9 to 6.5 adapter (SCOSCHE SA69). Trimmed the factory enclosure so the speaker would sit inside. Basically, trimmed factory mount, boom mat, speaker, 6x9 adapter bolted to factory mount. Basically held in with friction against the adapter plate.
Purchased another set of 6.5s and boom mat for rear row. Figure I should take all the rotted crap out.
It was cheap and sounds impressive for the $120 I have spent so far to bring this ML system back from sounding like crap.
Also the original amp was dead, threw an amp from an 2002 LS430 in to replace it. Removed the dead 86280-0w140 and installed older 86280-0w040, that I picked up for $100.
Basically this is a Frankenstein setup. And works really well.
I bought a 2005 GX470 w/nav & the ML audio system back in February. After installing the Bluetooth media player in place of my cd changer... I found that both my front 6x9’s sound “blown”. I took the door panels off to find that the rings were coming apart like all other gx470... big surprise. Lol
so I installed Rockford Fosgate prime R1 4ohm 6x9’s in the lower front doors.
The system sounded great again! I know of all the 4ohm/8ohm ML BS. So I was careful not to push it too hard while I kept an eye on the heat the amplifier was letting out... it didn’t change.. so I jammed away for a few more days(3hr round trip to work everyday)... the amp remained at the same temps.. basically cool to the touch up to a little warm if I listened to the stereo turned way up for over an hour straight.
So I then decided to put matching RF prime R1 5.25 full range 40hm speakers in the rear door. To my surprise.. the speakers in the rear doors were in excellent condition.. and they have a tweeter mounted on a dome on top of the speaker.
but I decided to put the RF’s in anyway.
The sound quality didn’t improve but got louder at lower volume levels because of the ohm change.
After listening for about 30 mins at 50% volume, the amp would get very hot to the touch. It never shut off or had the component protection activate... but it got a lot hotter than before.
So so needless to say I removed the rear RF’s and put the factory ML’s back in.
And now the amp temperatures are back running like stock. I still have the front 4ohm 6x9’s installed.
I added a 300 watt 12” skar audio sub with a 300watt rms mono block amp and used the high level speaker inputs of the barn door speakers for signal to the amp.
This gx470 sounds fantastic now!!!
so the way I see it... your safe to run a 4ohm full range speaker in the lower front doors because of the way the 3 front door speakers are wired(like components with a crossover)... it doesn’t seem to affect the amp in anyway..
but when you add a 4ohm load to the rear doors... you will eventually kill your ML amp from heat. Probably because of the way the rear doors are wired to the amp and no other speakers are involved in those channels.
That’s my experience so far... just thought I’d throw in my 2cents.
Has dahoseman or anyone else been able to fit an 8 in sub into the stock (OEM) enclosure on the GX470? If so, how did you manage to get it in? Or did anyone build a enclosure for an 8 in subwoofer? If so, would you be willing to share the specs/dimensions?
I have used SKAR Audio 8 inch 8 ohm sub for the Mark Levinson equipped GX470 and SC430. It fits and works, the problem is that its too much speaker for the AMP, it really needs more power to be driven.
My end solution was yanking that out completely and stuffing the MUCH better Kicker Hideaway under the seat of my SC430. and the same is possible with the GX.
The ML AMP is just doesn't have the juice to put anything into the cabin.
I love the Kicker and I also recently tried the Devmo GELF 10" on my boat, check Amazon, its clearly not as well made as the Kicker, but dirt its cheap ($105 ~) and it can be run right off the output of the ML Sub out.
Not 8" in OEM enclosure.
But I am going to try to fit this 7". If anyone comprehends these specs, please let me know if I am wasting my time!
I hope the worst case scenario is that I have to add a MDF ring spacer...
*bump* anyone have updates with their mods?Especially with their amps. (fried channels/amps/etc) How resilient is the Mark Levinson when you're pulling more than rated amps? Not that anyone knows actual ratings, but I did find these diagrams. Is it reasonable they used the same amp throughout?
Is there a straightforward replacement for stock speakers and subwoofer without having to make too many modifications? I think my rear door speaker or sub is bad, started making rattling sounds yesterday with certain stuff played on the radio
For a ML system? Not really. You either replace the entire system (all of it), or you investigate why that one speaker sounds different.
Chances are, it's old and the foam surround has decayed. You can glue a new one on - Simply Speakers might have a rear door kit. I think they are 6.5" (measure before ordering)
Or you can get a used speaker from eBay in the $50-70 range.
For a ML system? Not really. You either replace the entire system (all of it), or you investigate why that one speaker sounds different.
Chances are, it's old and the foam surround has decayed. You can glue a new one on - Simply Speakers might have a rear door kit. I think they are 6.5" (measure before ordering)
Or you can get a used speaker from eBay in the $50-70 range.
Chip H.
looks like the subwoofer in the rear is making the horrible noise... you're saying I can't swap in an aftermarket sub of same/similar size without replacing the whole system?? I'm a newb with audio/speakers so may be a dumb question
The ML sub is a 6" long-throw woofer in a special enclosure that fits the space. You can try a wedge or box sub with it's own amp with a high-level converter & DSP.
But I've replaced the foam on the sub and once you get to it, it's not hard. And then you're back to factory original. I posted instructions here:
10-30-17, 09:30 PM
