OK, so am I the only one sitting here wondering why they went with 4" speakers in a $50,000 car that was meant to set the standard in luxury sport coupes? I mean the system does sound good stock.. especially My 210W Nak.. I love it, but like many others I'm gutting the high tech enclosure and installing 6.5" components in the doors. Why didn't Lexus install somthing bigger here in the first place? Did they have trouble with door panel clearance too? Hey, if I can put together some MDF adapters they can surely do better! With all they had available, they chose 4" speakers? Why?

Maybe after spending almost half a billion (yes, with a "B") developing the engine they said.. "Hey! Bill in audio systems' got some money left in his department.. Let's take some of his! Hey Bill! C'mere!"

 

I don't know what car you are talking about but my E39 has the same thing. A lot of people do this to keep the frequencies separated. I know they will not produce the bass a lot of us want from the 4" speakers, but boy do they hold their ground in the mids. I just added a sub for the lows and it tied everything together very nicely with out or limited distortion.

 

Oh.. I was referring to the lexus SC's.

 

Why are you questioning this..?

That was a really good system when they started producing the car in 1991...

 

also the sc came with stock subwoofer in the rear.. so no need for bass :P

 

I guess it was.. Still is.. I just noticed so many replacing with 6.5's and thought would have been nice if it came that way.

 

it might have been the reason TLDriver stated.. better mids, less bass

 

Or it could be, and most likely is, the fact that they use 4" speakers in most of the cars, so it makes sense to keep them all and get a volume discount. Ever wonder why sooooo many makes share a similarly sized speaker? Take apart a Chevy truck door and you'll almost always find a 6.5" speaker. Take apart almost any Ford, and you'll find a 5x7" oval speaker. Even their "premium" systems typically use the same size, just a bit better quality (and with the ML, it appears that "bit" is a very small one). It's all about cost effectiveness for the purchase, not about what is easiest to install.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of engineering goes into how the system sounds after it is designed, and is done through the use of DSP. That's where the majority of the cost in today's complex Logic 7 systems is - the final sound after it's put in the car. They don't do it like aftermarket does and design the system to sound good then install it to hit the sound goal. They install it, then make it sound decent through the use of all the DSP's they can throw at it. This is why upgrading the speakers to a larger size makes such a huge different. The natural rolloff of a 4" speaker is severely limited in the midbass, not midrange. By upping the ante to a 6.5" driver, you lower the frequency rolloff, meaning it will mate up to a sub much, much easier, and adding a quality sub will make a huge difference.

Big Mack