I'm starting to change a little bit the ML audio from an ES350 08 with the ID 12' sub and amp (300w) in a sealed box in the back. What is the next step while keeping the ML stock amp ?

My contraints: i don't want to strain all the juice of the car.

i have a set of Infinity Kappa Perfect 5.25 speakers (90wrms each) with tweeters components with Xovers laying around, can i just swap the Infinity speakers to the OEM front doors without an additional amp, will it make a difference in the SQ ?

Any ideas to optimize the ML ?

thank you.

 

Aftermarket speakers are always the way to go for any type of stock audio upgrade. Drop them in - you might be very shocked at how well the Infinity speakers do when compared to the ML stockers.

 

i am currently doing the same, but with boston pro's. you will need something along the lines of the audiocontrol lc6 or lc8, depending on what you would like to do. you could go all out with the RF 3sixty.2 or JL cleansweep also. you 'should' be able to get the wiring schematic from your dealer to help identify the channels. you may want to go with something like the RF, as i am having a few issues with the ML crossover points. right now i feel like things are too muddy, given the 'punchiness' of the ML mids. the boston are much more sterile imo. we shall see how things sound when the install is complete.

 

I'm really surprised to hear than Kappas would outperform ML system

 

Let's put it this way - almost any decent speaker out there will outperform the ML stockers. ML went with the metal cone route. Metal cones are great for cranking out in mass production numbers, but they suffer from inherent ringing effects. This goes true for ALL metal dome drivers, whether it be titanium, aluminum, ceramic, etc. About the only way to get a metal driver to sound acceptable is to use a patchwork dampening circuit, which is very difficult to design if you're using the ear as the final arbiter.

They are really easy to design on the computer, but the effects of the ringing are quite tricky - the ear HAS to be the final judge. Once when you've listened to the effects of one, you can spot them off quite easily. I know of NO metal dome driver that is properly damped. Not MB Quart, not the ones that Wilson audio uses (titanium) or any other companies.

There is an exception however. George Short at Northcreekmusic has experimented with some metal/ceramic drivers - it took him a VERY long time for the trap circuit to be implemented. But he's the only successful one so far. You can check out his stuff at the following link - http://www.northcreekmusic.com/

It's better to use soft dome drivers for the dampening. Then use a good and well designed xover network. Otherwise it's just a joke.

 

I've read a lot of threads and still don't have a firm idea on what to do. Most of the speakers in my '03 GS430 are shot. So I'd like to replace all the speakers and use the ML amp to drive everything but the sub. I wasn't going to amp the sub but it seems like the right way to go. Do I need crossovers? I thought the ML is set-up as a component system, which I thought wouldn't need crossovers. I just need to put mids in the doors, tweeters in the pillars and a sub in the back? I think the ML is a 8 ohm system, at least the sub is. So do I need 8 ohm 6 1/2's for the front and rear doors w/wo crossovers? I'm not sure what to put in the dsah for the center speaker. What power rating would I want to match up with the stock amp? I see it takes a 10 inch 8 ohm sub. But if I'm getting an amp for it do I just match the ohms of the sub to the amp. And it appears that I need to attach a LOC to the stock sub wiring and then the amp and then the sub. These LOC's have many different choices for the number of channels. But seeing how it's only for the sub, I would think I only need one channel. I don't need to go all out. I just want to enjoy listening to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and maybe something less then 30 years old for around $600 to $800.