Hi all,

I have promised my brother I would help him install his new head unit in his 1992 SC400. From what I can tell, this may be a pain in the butt. I found this guide, but it seems like a ton of work. Is there an easier way to getting the speakers powered? Would using an aftermarket amp be easier? I'd really rather not run speaker wires for all speakers back to the amp.

Also, my brother's SC400 has a Nakamichi system. Do these instructions still apply?

Any help is much appreciated! I live 4 hours away from my brother and need to get this done in one Saturday if possible. I have a fair amount of electronics knowledge (I've built tube amps, guitar pedals, and various other things before) and have done 3 or 4 car stereo installs, I'm just concerned about this Nakamichi system. Seems like Lexus doesn't do anything easy.

Brandon

 

Thats one of the best threads out here. Need to follow it for the most part. Lexus designed on the intentions of the stereo outlasting the V8 motor, which we all know we cant kill it.. :-)

Where in TN are you? I am in North Alabama.

 

id say aftermarket amp int he trunk would be easiest.. cut the wires at the stock amp that go to the speakers and connect them to the amp, run rca to front to the deck give the deck power and thats it. and run wires from the oem sub to the amp too if you get a 5 channel. if your gonna do a sub and separate amp then just a 4 channel and a mono for the sub.. use the search and ill be doing a deck soon so ill have to do something along these lines as well..
right now the only music i like hearing the is 2jz 72mm LOL

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. What feeds signal to the OEM amp? Does anyone know? I would think it would be easiest to splice into those, exactly like the how to thread did with the sub and just connect all of those to the HU's RCA outputs. Any thoughts?

Brandon

 

NO run rca to the back and aftermarket amp.. then grab speaker wires from the oem amp, cut them off and connect to the aftermarket amp.. thats the easiest way. cause then its just 3 wires up front to the new deck and ur good to go..

 

I don't wanna read the whole thing, but bro, word of advice, with these cars, there's no shortcuts or halfassed mods or else you pay the price later on. My buddy didn't want to follow the same thing, now he is down the last speaker until we find time to fix it. Lol

 

Flip... you guys respond quickly! I appreciate all of the replies.

So can anyone tell me why you can't just feed the OEM amp signal just like the OEM subwoofer amp? What is it that I don't know?

I just want to make sure I can get this done in one day for my brother.

Brando

 

Bypass everything. It's really easy. You are already going to have to run power, ground, remote, rcas, etc. Why be lazy about speaker wires?

 

Agree with all above....
That's the best thread there is
I didn't read it but i knew it existed and i though I could work my way around the system.
My alternator died and car was left running on battery and i had to inch home.
Read the thread and do everything it says.

 

if you read the other big thread ud see the the oem amp is just 40 watts and the aftermarket deck is already at that, and the factory deck is not amplified so if you feed the oem amp the sound quality is gonna go down.. and you get noise.. the rca thing is faster and easier so i dono why you wanna do more work.. its gonna take longer and that guid is for pioneer and not for nak so just no and rewire it all.. thats what im gonna do..

 

How different is this going to be since we have a Nak system?

Brandon

 

not sure if trolling or just.... dude we dont have alot of info on the nak. if we did we would have told you.. you want it done right or you wanna just throw it in and be done? if you want it done right run new wires and aftermarket amp.. if you dont want an amp then just run the new new deck to the speakers. thats it..

 

I did the lazy which let the unit run to the amp and the amp pwr the speakers

 

I'm not trolling, bro, its just that all of the information I've seen so far has been about the stock Pioneer unit and I have no clue how the Nak is different, so I asked.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Brandon

 

Ok, figured it all out today and we're up and running.

If anyone else decides to do this, just get some solderable RCA jacks from Radio Shack, solder a signal and ground wire to each one, and wire them according to the wiring diagram in this post to know what to splice your RCA jacks to (you want to splice them into the FR, RL, RR, and RL and then tie all the grounds to the SGND). Then, to tie the sub in, make sure you splice its RCA jack into the RU+ and RU-. Lastly, connect the power, accessory/ignition, antenna, and connect the AMP to the ANT. That's all there is to it. Easy.

Later on we may replace the OEM amp with some aftermarket amps. Will be really easy since we can just use all of the OEM cabling. Won't have to run a thing, unless we're majorly increasing amperage. Really and truly, though, no need to replace the OEM amp as long as its running, and we probably won't.

Brandon