Hi ClubLexus

As some may of noticed, the LS430 has quite difficult to replace dashboard “tweeters”

Doing more research I’ve determined the dashboard speakers are a small speaker driver and a tweeter in 1 assembly.

I notice that sometimes with heavier bass music, there is small undesirable speaker noise in the dash speakers.

Reducing the bass in the audio settings seems to help avoid driving the speakers to the point they make audible noise like you’d expect with failing surrounds or damaged voice coils.

Now knowing there are speaker drivers in the dash speaker assembly, I wonder if steps can be taken to preserve them.

Has anyone considered wiring a passive crossover to eliminate low frequencies from “bumping” the dash speakers?

any idea of the impedance of the dash speakers?

Look forward to thoughts - as I may venture to perform this mod as my dash speakers work very well unless too much volume / bass is introduced.

thanks

 

That speaker is not going to go down more than about 150 Hertz. Is that a capacitor I see? What size is that speaker? Put an ohm meter on the terminals you'll get the approximate impedance.

 

thanks for the reply.
I don’t have the speaker uninstalled it was a photo grabbed from a listing.

but yeah I’d suspect they wouldn’t get lower frequencies but I do notice they buzz with bass at high volume so I imagine they have a cross over (perhaps in the ML amp) but the speaker driver may still get some movement in the lower frequencies

also given it’s a tweeter with the speaker, you’re probably right the tweeter having a cap to remove low and mid end frequencies.

I’ll check into the wiring and see if I could pull the impedance from the ML amp output wiring

 

The ML amp does have internal cross overs. Bass, and full range (no low end) tweeters filtered via capacitor. Speaker wires should be obvious on the harness they are usually pink/purple cyan/blue red/white etc.

 

I was thinking the same.

for the wiring, the LT and RT terminals below are associated with the dash speakers.

My theory is to attach additional passive crossover to these channels to achieve less mid bass in the dash speakers to extend their lifespan with their age and avoid “blown speaker” noise

I’ll try and take some videos of what kind of sound is going to these speakers, perhaps temporarily attach a normal full range driver to one of these channels to determine what the cross over point may be, if any.


Credit: Freestyle5

 

How do you even get the speakers out? It's like in the dash

 

It's possible that something in the crossover circuit has died, but far more likely that the speaker is damaged (suspension torn/rotted) or has a piece of something sitting in it.
I've not done it, but the writeups I've seen show that it is a PITA to get at those speakers.

 

Thanks big boomer - I agree I also suspect the beginning of foam rot type of failure.

I should clarify - the idea here is to not remove the speaker at all, rather to add a passive crossover at the wiring near the ML amp output going to these speakers.

The advantage here being you don’t have to remove the speakers to fix any “rattle” and by removing the lower frequencies, perhaps the speaker life can be extended and not become worse.

hadn’t got to tinker with the output yet - lots of rain here.

 

I suspect that you NEVER want to remove those tweeters.

 

I'll give you an answer, but I'm sure some won't like it. The only way to remove those speakers is to pull the dash. I worked at a custom stereo shop for 7 years and had the same issue with my dash speakers. I ended up replacing everything in the stereo system with aftermarket stuff, and my solution for the dash speakers isn't really "in the installation manual".

The grilles in the dash pull out relatively easy. You can actually fish a wire through the hole and down under the dash. I mounted a silk dome tweeter to the underside of the grille, and connected it to the factory wiring near the passenger kick panel. The original speakers are still in the dash, but are now disconnected and not in use. The Alpine silk dome tweeters installed sound excellent, and I don't have to hear the terrible blown dash speakers anymore. Hope this helps.

 

Darn it. I have a standard non levinson ls. Im upgrading stereo and bought an lc7I line output convertor for my old amp. I dont think I need that fancy loc because I thought I had to do line summing but it looks like they just used full signal and a capacitor. My door speakers have crossovers and i installed them today without the LOC or amp and they seem full signal. I couldve gotten a cheaper kicker loc.

 

This sounds like a good way (rather than pulling the entire dash) of fixing the broken OEM dash speakers. I will investigate the wiring near the passenger kick panel and am wondering what model Alpine silk dome tweeters were used? I am looking at some SKAR one inch tweeters that may fit but wondering if I can use the existing dash wiring or if it is even accesable through the dash grills? I am working the doors already and have replaced the 4 speakers there with aftermarket.