Hi all, I've been struggling to find any reliable info on how to upgrade the sound on the 3IS. Has anyone done it? If so, could someone point me in the right direction?

 

It is going to be difficult to find information available on the 3IS audio upgrades. But if you search the forum you may find some information on subwoofer installs as well as recommendations. I haven't seen a full install build sheet yet.

However, the good news is that at Toyotafest next month (2-May-2015) OEM Audio Plus will be announcing an upgrade kit to the IS250/350 Premium Audio. I'm pretty impressed with their system for the Scion FRS/Subaru BRZ so I'm excited to see their plug-and-play kit for the 3IS.

Best of luck on your build.

 

I'm new to the forums so I'm just gonna assume the IS350 I looked up is what you're talking about. But something I'm not new to is car audio.

It really depends on what you're looking to add; just subs? speakers too? Do you have a Mark Levinson sound system or the lexus premium audio system?

I'll jump right into adding subs and if you're looking to add more than that just let me know I'll get more into that then too. To add subs to a stock stereo system you're going to need to hook up a Line Output Converter such as the Audiocontrol LC2i. There are cheaper ones out there but this is the one I use in most cars because it's an active line out converter, it doesn't degrade signal like passive line out converters do, in fact it usually boosts the signal as well on the output side. Passive line out converters burn off some of the energy by using resistors and when that happens, it degrades the quality of the sound a bit, and the amplifier has to work harder.

Hook the line output converter to any speaker that plays full range or just the bass if you're only looking to add subs. Then power and ground and you're good to go. Don't worry about switch power either to turn the amp on, the LC2i does it through AC signal sense, so when it senses that there's music playing it turns the amp on.

 

Yes, it is the third generation IS 350.

I'm wanting to replace the speakers and put in a new amp. I also want more control over the frequencies and equalizer. If it were up to me, I'd replace the headunit, but it's almost impossible, from what I can see.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

I know exactly what you need, although this is going to limit you to upgrading the fronts only and if you have a center channel consider that gone, but that doesn't mean it's going to sound any worse. What we're going to do is go over a digital signal processor, the Audison Bit One specifically but there are a couple other options. This is by far my favorite processor and it's also the one going in my car. It can be hooked up into a factory audio system and has tons of features including 32 Band EQ per channel (not just one 32 band EQ, it has a 32 Band EQ for every, single, channel. Every single speaker has it's own EQ.) It also has time alignment to center the soundstage, active crossover networks from -6dB slopes to -24dB slopes in Linkwitz-Riley slopes as well as Butterworth. It has up to 8 Input Channels but your car from what I've read has at least 11 Speakers. This means that your rears will not be amplified unless you buy two processors, which is fine since the rear speakers don't really mingle with the front soundstage too much. You'll probably want to grab signal from your front Tweeters, midrange, midbass, and your rear sub just in case your front midbass have a crossover that rolls off the low end of the bass.


The speakers we'll probably be replacing are your front 1" tweeters, your 2.5" Midrange, and your 6.5" Midbass and you'll probably want to add a sub, it's kinda tricky to replace the one in your rear deck, as that sub is infinite baffle which isn't too hard to work with but the fact that it fires directly at the rear deck makes a lot of noise and isn't really the best place for a sub, and an additional sub would probably be wise.


I really like Focal's speakers and they make some 3 way sets that will fit into your front soundstage with minimal modification. They make the PS165F3, and the 165KRX3s that would be huge improvements to your sound. You'll probably want to sound deaden the doors especially as well as the trunk if you're putting in a sub to deaden any rattles and resonance that may degrade sound quality.


For an amplifier you're a tad limited. JL makes their XD600/6 amplifier that will run those speakers fully active with no passive crossovers so you have maximum control of your crossover bandwidth with the processor. Sub amp will be needed if you want to add one as well. There are other options you can do such as a 5 channel for the sub, midrange, and tweeter then having an additional 2/4 channel and bridging the 4 channels to two for more power to the midbass or just get an additional 2 channel amplifier and use that for the midbass.


That covers a lot of it but any more questions just let me know!


-Gage

 

Thanks for the super long explanation. It is above and beyond what I was expecting.

I don't have the ML system, so I don't think my car has 11 speakers. Also, I'm wondering about the 3way component in the front. I only see slots for a mid-base/tweeter. I've yet to see any teardown, so I might be missing something.

 

Perhaps I'm looking at the wrong generation. The one I'm looking at has the midbass by on the bottom front of the door panel, the midrange right above the window control panel and right under the door handle, then the tweeter is right at the top of the door panel just inside from the mirror. I looked at a 2011 and a 2013 and they were the same door panels but as I'm so new to the forums I may actually have the wrong generation!

 

I think you are, this is what the door looks like:

 

I have a 2015 IS250 Sport and I have been searching high and low for any info regarding the system upgrade. I originally just wanted to add an amplifier and a subwoofer but now it has gone beyond that since I was not happy with what I currently have.

I went with an Alpine MRX-M110 Mono amp driving a single 12 Alpine SWR-12D4 and I also have the Alpine Rux Volume **** up front for the amp so I can control the sub gain.. I used the subwoofer wires from the car and hooked it up to the high level inputs into the Alpine amp. I tried using front speaker and rear speaker wires but the subwoofer wires worked best. All worked fine until I noticed that the RUX **** was set to min and I was still getting base output at 0 volume so I lowered the gain on the amp and that seemed to fix the problem. Next problem was that turning the RUX **** a quarter of the way resulted in way too much bass making the **** totally useless. No matter how high I turned the **** I wouldn't get any more bass.

I came to realize that there was some bass rolloff happening at higher volume. The higher I cranked it up the lower the bass would get. I read some posts where people were saying to use the Audio Control LC2i, I read many posts about people having the same issue but not one person who is actually using the LC2i mentioned that it fixes the bass rolloff problem. So I am thinking to myself should I just buy this thing not knowing if its going to fix my problem? I figured I would just do some more reading. Well guess what, still no answers so I thought I would just go another route.

I decided to go the signal processor route and add new amplifiers to run all the factory speakers. I am going to use the factory speakers for now and see how they sound and if I am not impressed then I am going to replace them all with Focal speakers.

Here is a list of items that I ordered:

Audison Bit One (After talking to Audison they assured me that the Bit One will fix all my problems by removing any equalization and crossover that is being done and give me a flat full range signal to my amps)
1 Alpine PDX-F6 4 channel amplifier to run front doors and dash speakers.
1 Alpine PDX-F6 4 channel amplifier to run the rear door speakers and centre channel
1 Alpine PDX-M12 Mono amp to run the 12" Sub

I know I am going overkill on the 4 channel amps to run the factory speakers but I got such a good deal on them that I couldn't pass them up. I figured that I would just lower the gains on the Audison Bit One for now and if I do upgrade the speakers that I would have the power to run them properly.

I will have it all installed within the next week or 2 and will let everyone know how it worked out.

 

Just a heads up, OEM Audio Plus showed their concept at Toyotafest 2015 two weeks ago. It got quite a bit of interest. This could be great for us that would like an upgraded system completely plug and play, more bass, and better sound staging. Keep your eyes open for any updates when they appear on the forum to gage interest from the CL members

 

Any updates? I personally just want to add the amp and sub. I plan on using the Audio Logic LC2-i. What would be best remote turn on wire and what would be the best signal to tap?

 

I tried the LC2i but it was not what I expected so I ended up doing what I posted above. I would have posted pics of the completed install but I have no clue how. The Audison Bit One is an amazing unit and it resolved all the issues I was having with bass rolloff at higher volumes.

 

I've heard nothing but good things about the Bit One but it is more involved than I'd like to get. I do not have any intention of upgrading the interior mid and high range speakers. I already own a LC2-i, have a good mono amp and a 12" sub in a small box from a previous vehicle that I'd like to reuse.

Are we essentially concluding that theres no signal that I can tap to give the amp what it needs for a sub?

 

Not trying to thread jack but does anybody have the wiring schematic to hook up a DSP? Can the preamp signal be used or does it have to be post amp. I have a 3IS with Nav, non-ML and will be using a Helix DSP for processing that will feed two Alpine PDX-V9's and an M12.

 

interested in this as well