Hey everyone.. New to the site. Just bought my brother's sc300 from him about a week ago. Love everything about it but I need to do some upgrades on the audio so I have some questions. I have the pioneer system.

I would prefer to keep the stock HU.

I already know the stock speakers are 4" so I'd like to upgrade those to 5.25" front and 6.5" in the back. I found nice adapter plates for the front ones (hopefully the speakers will fit in them) and I've read that the rear ones you can basically make fit with some bending. I'm going with Infinity kappas for front and rear (leaving the stock tweeters).

On to what I am unsure about:
I know replacing the factory amp would give me better sound but I'm not sure how to replace it. Would I have to run all new wires to the speakers and to the back of the HU? How do you go about wiring a new amp? I can't just plug the wiring that was in the factory amp into the new one, right? I know where the amp is located and how to get it out so I would rather not pay $100+ to get an amp installed.

The same goes for the sub and its amp. How would I wire that? Any idea which subs will fit without a lot of modification?

I listen to all kinds of music so I want a nice, full-range system that has refined bass (nothing heard down the street, but can hit lows).

I'm also not interested in putting subs in the trunk. I'll just stick with a free air sub.

Any advice/help would be really appreciated. Thanks!

 

look into an audio control LCQ1 it should go in line after the factory amp..but u can try going directly from the head units output.. then simply add an after market amp to drive the speakers.. the LCQ1 also adds an eq into the mix so u can fine tune your sound more than the bass/mid/treb from the stock h/u

footnote: the LCQ1 also has a remote turn on feature.. when it senses signal from the source unit it turns itself on then turns on any amps down line in the signal path...

 

Not sure what year you SC is or how the system is set up, but I can tell you for sure that bypassing the amp in my '06 IS (keeping the factory HU) resulted in no volume control. The volume level is sent from the HU to the factory amp. I tried this after being unhappy with using OE interfaces to add amps for my doors and sub stage. I ended up making a custom face plate and going with an aftermarket HU. Much better SQ than what you get from the factory HU and amp. Just sayin......

 

Why not 6.5's up front?

 

well if it helps, i had kappas all the way around in my sc. You have to cut and bend in the rear, also those ebay pods for the front suck. If you plan on keeping the factory deck then just leave the stock amp running the kappas. Its either all or nothing with most of these cars good luck.

 

What size kappas did you install up front? I found 5.25 adapters on car speaker adapters. com. Not sure if they'll work well. Might have to widen the hole or something to fit the magnet through. Did you keep the factory amp? Jw if they'll be powered enough. I just want more low end. The volume is loud enough for me with the stock stuff in my 1993.

 

I found adapters for 5.25s so I figured those would be good enough and easier to install than 6.5s.

 

It's a '93. I will just keep the factory amp if it provides enough power for the kappas otherwise I'm probably just gonna bypass the amp for an aftermarket HU's power.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into it. I've never heard of it but if it's easy to install that would be a good option.

 

I really appreciate the replies. I wanna do all the work myself I'm just hesitant on taking everything out. Seems very costly and time consuming. Does anyone have experience using aftermarket speakers with the factory amps? I would like to just do that for the time being if it gives me more low end and same volume. I'm probably gonna end up replacing the HU eventually since the CD player in the trunk is missing the magazine and I have no idea if it works. Does anyone know how to bypass the factory speakers amp for an aftermarket HU? How do I go about doing that?