I was not able to take this lousy "10 speaker premium" sound system any longer.

Upgraded just the speakers with decent high sensitivity (good for crappy stock amps) ones and it made a world of difference.

After getting some good advice and help from Rajeev, I was able to do mine as well. I took his document and added some of my steps, using the existing boxes structures.

To make a long story short, the front speakers accomodate 6x9 speakers, the sound is wired to go to the tweeters first then back down to the woofers, and the rear speaker magnet is just 1/2 thick and just 1" in total diameters. It looked like a thick quarter and sounded as much.

I used infinity reference speakers, 6030cs components, but bought them here.

Total install time was 2 1/2 hours which included time to learn the wire routing. The details of this car are not heavily available so most installers are asking 5-7 hours install at $89 an hour. So with this install guide, a modest $150 is all it'll cost for what local installers are asking $1000.

Here is the file.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5GR8KK8S

feel free to ask questions.

 

Excellent write-up and mod !!!!!!

You are the man !!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing !!!!!!!

 

To add a little to your great write-up, I added some diagrams in the Sound forum here.......... https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lex...ml#post6679263

 

How hard was it to remove the dash? Is the signal crossed over at the tweeter or just high pass filtered and the full signal sent to woofer?

 

No effort at all to remove the speaker grills in the dash. That's all you need to do. They pop up with a screwdriver. You never actually touch the dashboard.

the wiring in the tweeter appears to be high pass. the Amp's positive wire is soldered to the woofer's positive wire. The same for both negative wires. My assumption is the woofers were getting the full sound spectrum. I didn't test it though.

 

Been happy with my speakers so far, but now i'm ready for more. Looking to upgrade the factory amp. Anyone know the wiring diagram for the factory amp?

 

orateam: I've had my HS for about a week and a half now. I didn't realize how bad the sound was until I got a loaner yesterday (a 2013 ES350h). Now, I'm starting to foam at the mouth to upgrade my speakers. I tried the "install" link you had on your original post from 2011 but it no longer works. Can you direct me to where to find this now? Also, did you change out all 10 speakers or just certain ones? Did you use all Infinitys? If you weren't going to do them all, which ones would you recommend doing at a minimum? IMO, the stock speakers have no real highs and no real lows. Everything seems to float around in the mid-range spectrum. They've gotta go! Thanks man.

 

UPDATE:

Upgraded my amplifier now. Didn't find any instructions on the net, so here they are for those that wish to do it.

The amplifier for the non-ML is under the passenger seat.

1) Move seat forward all the way.
2) remove plastic covers over the rails in the back, remove bolts
3) do the same for the front. Lift front of seat up.
4) remove Plastic cover over the amplifier
5) There are 3 cable plugs, remove the middle one. Turn on the car, make sure everything works except sound. You might get sound from the center.
6) pull back the black sleave on the center plug.
7) Use my previous guide or just cut the puple, pink, red, white cable.
Since this is stereo system and not a dolby digital 7.1, you really only need one set of speakers to go the amp.
8) In the trunk, remove the cover exposing the rear seats/hybrid battery/ car battery.
9) splice cables from the plug and run cables along the side back to the amp. You'll need 2 to go back to the amp and 4 to go back to the cut half of the wires that feed into the 4 speakers. It will be easier to hit the sub separately with an amp or if your amp has the sub built in directly to the sub.


In short, that was it. took about 2 hours total. Any questions, hit me up. The sound jumped up incredibly. I bought a $200 amp with nearly 1000 watts (125x4) + 420x1. (alpine v70) and it trumps our 150 watt system quite nicely. It helps that I upgraded my speakers a couple years to handle this new juice.

 

I understand the document is no longer on megaupload. if you'd mike to put it up again on something like dropbox, reply here.

thanks,

 

Please do. And thanks.

 

orateam - Do you still have your write-up and if so could you please share again? Many thanks.

 

sure, you can grab the file from here.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...l%20guide.docx

 

Thanks! That is a great write-up.

 

I'm a new HS owner and really appreciate your write-up. I used it for info on removing door panels. This past weekend I put Dynamat on all four doors and noticed tremendous improvement in both road noise and sound quality (mid range is much improved). Plan to add some more later on, but the doors were a big first step. I'd definitely recommend this if you haven't done it already.

I'm contemplating swapping the speakers for the Infinity components like you had done, Orateam. Is it worth the effort? Also, have you considered upgrading the subwoofer? I found a Pioneer shallow mount that seems to get good reviews and is frequently mentioned as a factory replacement. For less than $70, and ability to use factory location, maybe this is a worthwhile upgrade?

 

I didn't add sound dampener because it's a lexus and pretty quiet compared to my other cars.

My ratings are 0-10

If i rated the stock sound of this car, it would be about a 3 overall.

In a rating of max 10...
Stock tweeters : 5
stock door speakers 2
stock rear speakers 2
stock sub 3
stock amp 1

I know stock systems with built in head unit amp that destroy our stock external amp.

The infinity speakers are about 8 in quality but with the stock amp, turn the sound to 5 or 6.

The amp i just put in, , is a 7 but brought my overall sound to a solid 7.

The sub upgrade is coming, i might just order the one you mentioned. I've been hesitant because i've noticed that no matter what i do, i still have to deal with that dang amplifier through zero line level and it will limit my sound. I've also notice that the car is just not good for sound. It the only car i've had that sounds better with the windows open than closed. The sound dyanamics suck. Tweeters firing off a windshield doesn't help.

I think the replacement of the sub is going to be difficult though. It was really not easily accessed when i did the amp and had no angle to actually take it out. I'm pretty sure i'll have to take out the seats.