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May I ask what you did for the power cable to the audiocontrol? How did you route it? I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing with the sub, and doing a stealth build with the stock in-panel sub box.
Also, did you have to do anything special with the door speakers to get them to sound good? I originally tried replacing mine with some Infinity Kappas, but they sounded awful.
I ran 8 gauge power wire from the engine bay to the rear along the driver side. There is a rubber nipple in the engine bay that I poked through which leads above the pedals and took the trim panels off to route the wire down the side all the way to the back. For the door speakers the crossover range in the ML is for a midrange speaker in the door so unless you bought a 6x9 midrange speaker then they probably did sound bad that is why I looked until I found a midrange only in the Audio Frog and the sound is pretty amazing. If you are running a 6x9 with tweeters or highs in it then it will not even sound good. You just need a 6x9 that is tuned for midrange frequencies only. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_898GS6...rog-GS690.html
Everyone who posts about stereo upgrades should be required to disclose the kind of music they listen to. This info's not helpful unless we know the reference point.
Everyone who posts about stereo upgrades should be required to disclose the kind of music they listen to. This info's not helpful unless we know the reference point.
I listen to classical, new age, trance, dance, rock and once in a blue moon hip hop. You can't pin point one range of musical taste to what the sound quality is because every song is different. I have had some new age music that the bass will out perform a rap song. Classical is probably the only genre where the bass is lacking because they don't use synthesizers but it plays it clean and loud with tight bass. I even drive around with Yanni live at the Acropolis DVD playing and that sounds amazing because I have the beat-sonic STN7028 Navigation and DVD bypass that allows movies to be playing while driving. If I only listened to rap I would of just made a box with 2 12's in it and put it in the back but I was looking for a stealth super clean sounding system with controlled bass that isn't sloppy that can handle a broad range of music that I listen to.
Everyone who posts about stereo upgrades should be required to disclose the kind of music they listen to. This info's not helpful unless we know the reference point.
Truth, lol. There are those that try to tremble the very earth we walk on and those who just want to enjoy music. I have literally driven next to a car where the subwoofer was so strong that my car was vibrating when I idled next to it at a red light. Now if you ask them, whatever upgrade you do will be considered weak and non existent.
Simply, yes, however dynamic listening environments require different solutions to produce sound identically in different spaces. It's nearly impossible to do on a specific budget.
Thanks for the info. That's exactly how I've done my installs in the past. I was experimenting with the idea of tapping the 3rd row seat power connectors since they're 30a, but I think running a dedicated cable is the way to go. I'm not looking to do any crazy wattage, just 200-300w.
As far as the 6x9s, I think you're right. I was getting a very specific midrange sound out of the Infinity speakers and it sounded like the speakers were broken. It almost made me think that the difference in ohm rating affect the bandpass in some way. Putting the old speakers back in, the sound was normal again. I'm just surprised that the speaker output itself was filtered.
Can tell anyone before you look at making any factory upgrades try this. I started with an iFi hip dac portable headphone amp, then moved up the line to the iFi diablo red. Use my IPhone with camera adapted to convert audio out to usb into iFi. Then 3.5 audio quest cable into stock 3.5 aux input jack. I use either the hdradio app or quobuz as music source. This takes the ML system to a new level even with stock speakers. There are times that the bass will loose some of its tightness and sound boomy, but it’s mostly the song production not the system. The thing to remember when listening to music you can’t make the song sound what is not produce in it. The more resolving your system is can expose bad recordings but it can make well recorded songs sing.
The system is holding up fine. I have had no problems with the system. Going from 6ohm to 4ohm for midrange/midbass speakers is not going to strain the levinson amp there's no worries there. I have a back ground in competing with car audio 30 years ago so wiring this stuff and running different impedances I am familiar with. It's been awhile since I have done car audio but have enough knowledge to work on my own vehicles when it comes to doing stuff like this. Now if I was dropping the ohm to an aftermarket sub from like 8 to 2 that is where the main strain would come from and would be worried it wouldn't hold up over time. I'm sure the amp would run real hot too if ran long enough. If I was just doing a sub swap and keeping everything factory I would get an 8ohm sub and be done with it but I felt I still wouldn't get enough of bass from that alone. I did test my 2ohm sub with the factory amp and it did play but I wouldn't keep it that way as that is a big strain for the factory amp I just wanted to see if it would play it without shutting down and it did. Sounded decent but still not that car shaking loud.
The stock sub is 8 ohm and I'm pretty sure it is running at 80 watts from the levinson amp. It is anemic looking in total build quality compared to a good aftermarket sub. I'll post a pic of the levinson sub below and I don't think even adding more watts to it would matter it is that weak looking. I replaced the stock sub with a pioneer TS-D10LS2 which is 2 ohms and used an audio control 2 ohm mono amp which is 300 watts for the sub. For wiring the sub it was easy. I took the 2 wires that were originally going into the factory sub and ran those into the audio control amp line level speaker inputs and then ran speaker outputs from the audiocontol amp into the pioneer sub. Pioneer sub dropped right into the factory sub box in the wheel well. Only major change I made since the post was to no longer use surround sound mode. I guess I never made enough comparisons and after awhile of switching between the 2 settings I agree with the other posters that non surround sound mode sounds better. Here is a pic of where I put the sub amp for now. Eventually I need to tidy up the wires better but for now it's fine.
Here is pic of the factory levinson sub in case anyone wondering how small the magnet is.
Any way to add an external dedicated amp for the sub while still using the stock ML amp for the other speakers?
Can tell anyone before you look at making any factory upgrades try this. I started with an iFi hip dac portable headphone amp, then moved up the line to the iFi diablo red. Use my IPhone with camera adapted to convert audio out to usb into iFi. Then 3.5 audio quest cable into stock 3.5 aux input jack. I use either the hdradio app or quobuz as music source. This takes the ML system to a new level even with stock speakers. There are times that the bass will loose some of its tightness and sound boomy, but it’s mostly the song production not the system. The thing to remember when listening to music you can’t make the song sound what is not produce in it. The more resolving your system is can expose bad recordings but it can make well recorded songs sing.
Agreed, the aux jack sounds decent if you have a good source. I tested with my Ipod and could hear a pretty significant diffence between aux/usb. CD's also sound pretty good.
Agreed, the aux jack sounds decent if you have a good source. I tested with my Ipod and could hear a pretty significant diffence between aux/usb. CD's also sound pretty good.
What you need to know is by using the iFi products you are upgrading the dac component. Yes all iPods iPhones and anything with audio out has a dac. IFi does a fantastic job in portable dac implementation. It’s the same with a home stereo system when you go from internal dac to upgrade external dac with some costing upwards of $30,000 for the dac alone. The iFI products are a very cost effective upgrade that no one will regret. Especially when you have a system that can’t be upgrades outside speakers.
i am not sure about ML on the GX since my previous 2019 GX didn't have ML. but my new certified pre-owned LX 570 has ML. and it sounds amazing. It sounds better than my 16' macbook pro, my TV. not sure about the ML in the GX. I guess it is the same. I am pretty happy with it. the classical piano sounds so real it literally feels like you are sitting next to a pianist. not a musician so not that picky. I have never heard of any better system.
One more thing to consider is how you are playing the music. Spotify and other crap streaming services do not give good audio quality, and no matter what speakers you play it through it will always be low quality audio coming out.
If you are playing a CD it will sound completely different. Same with using lossless file formats (wav, aiff, etc). If you are going through the effort of upgrading speakers or seeking out a car with the ML system, I strongly advise to also use non streamed cd quality or higher music to get the most out of the speakers.
