I’m running 2 amplifiers with an LOC equaling just under 100 amps total draw at full tilt. Wanted the extra head room for a third amplifier down the road if I decide to add. Always had good experiences with this type of 1/0 awg ofc fine strand thick shielded welding cable. I also notice less voltage drop with the thicker ofc cables on longer runs like this one. Will likely go back to 4 gauge ofc on the next car like in my previous 2021 Lexus. Easier to run and work with.

 

WOW you are supplying 100 AMPs in your car. How well do you 12 volt batteries last ? Does you whole car vibrate, shake, and thump. If you have that much going into you subwoofer, What kind of amps do you have driving the rest of your audio system ? WOW and WOW again. Sounds like ML on steroids.

YMMV,
MidCow3
.

 

Sounds great! Thanks for your input. Have a great day. 🙏

 

Your amps are really drawing 1200 watts?

 

My sub amp is 1240 RMS @ 2ohms and my 4 Channel is only 260 RMS @ 4ohms. Might as a third. This is obviously only at full power. Both are Hertz amplifiers. I got the sub amp and power cable with distro block new for free as part of a trade with the person I sold my last car too with full system in it. Thinking to make a full video/tutorial walk through once it’s fully complete. Deadening the entire car as we speak but surprisingly, it doesn’t need as much deadening as I thought. These Lexus’s are built really well and and I like now rattle free they’ve become over the years to a reasonable level without any deadening applied. Never claiming to know everything and I’m forever learning and improving. Just trying my best and figured I’d share my experiences. 🙏

 

Priest Be concerned w mis-information regarding the run from the 12v battery and the amp, especially if you are running the wire from the front of the car to the back of the car. Your two amps need way thicker than 12 gauge wire (which you have done) but your choice may be an overkill as you mentioned , there is a big difference between the gauge needed from the 12v battery to the speakers than from the amp to the speakers......consulting a stereo installation website for materials information may be wiser than on a Lexus website for details.

 

Really appreciate your reply and thank you for the sound advice. Truth be told I use to install at a shop when I was younger and have a good amount of experience. Always looking to learn more tho. Personally I would never run less than 4 AWG OFC but that’s just me. I like a strong system and never less than two amps.

I like to read through all these related threads on any car I own to learn as much as possible about a specific car to save my self some time and troubleshooting during the install before I tackle it. I try to share information as I go too to give back because the information does help me. Thank you all for contributing. 🔥

I contemplated the power wires run location through the firewall for some time and really looked in different places with different flashlights and weighed the pros and cons with each possible location. A dedicated hole behind the upper part of the glove box seemed like the best place and it turned out really well. I loomed the cable and wrapped it with 3M Super 88 just to be safe. Copper ferrels to a good quality fuse holder mounted and fused at 100 amps for now. Terminated to the battery with a pure copper lug. Turned out really clean. I will post some pictures tomorrow. 💯

 

sounds like you should be giving advice rather than taking advice. Based on your posts, it sounds like you took the safest way out for optimum power transfer to your amps....yup, share the pictures, Ive got a hybrid and so the number of feet from the battery to the amp was minimal.

 

Well, installed the Kicker 46HS10. Bass is definitely better than the stock sub + Fios amp and there’s no annoying popping noise when car turns on/off.

However, I think I’m getting a sort of feedback loop from the cars Active Noise Cancelation (ANC) when using the upgraded sub. Often the sub puts out series of pulses, even when there’s no music playing. Reading online, it seems the ANC mics try to pick up sound/vibration and cancel it out via the speakers (including sub) — problem is, it also picks up the vibrations the sub itself makes and also tries to cancel those out (or it's trying to cancel noise and the signal it sends is too high since the sub is now boosted). Wonder if this is why the stock system (incl. ML version) are so light on bass?

Are there any solutions for this problem while keeping the upgraded sub, apart from disabling the ANC? I don’t want to go down that route as I am after the quietest ride possible. Note I already have ESE disabled.

 

Disabling ANC by pulling the plug is the only sure way I know of my friend. I have a post on this thread a few posts back that will show you how to unplug it with no disassembly required. I’ve had no issues since. Hope this helps. 🤞

 

Thanks all so much for the info in this thread! I'll add a recent data point for anyone to help out.
2025 NX 350h. I only did the dash speakers so far. I am not an audiophile by any means, but can clearly tell the improvement in clarity. The stock side speakers were just very muffly and muddled.

I picked up a pair of Kicker 46CSC354. Crutchfield still says it will not fit an NX and did not even include any wiring adapter, but they do fit fine once you pick up these from AliExpress Toyota Speaker Adapters

Here is the adapter from the stock Lexus harness then clipped into the new Kickers.


Note that the clips for the speaker grilles are only on the rear side (green), so pop that rear up, disengage the clips, then it will slide out backwards.
As others have said, the Kicker has smaller flanges that do not seem to fit, but just run the screw down and it will seat well.


Same for the the passenger side.


I also lowered the volume on the center speaker, per the recommendations in this thread. I picked up a 2 ohm 5W resistor. You can buy a 1 or 3 ohm as well to try the impact (stock speaker is 4 ohm already). I used another of the Toyota wiring adapters to avoid touching the vehicle harness. I spliced in the resistor to this adapter.
From playing with the speakers, the Kickers were the best sounding, but the center speaker was very tinny and hollow, so I figured the corner speaker when dimmed out would at least be better (is also a coaxial with tweeter instead of just a mid). So I moved one of the old Pioneer corners into the center spot (same physical size and attachment). I could not find a male adapter for the stock speaker harness, so I taped the wires into the speaker bus bar directly. Works fine. Now the poor speakers do not mess with the upgrades, but still provide a bit of surround effect.


Same deal assembling. Note the center speaker has a ton of clips - 6 that were very hard to remove. I found out after you are supposed to remove the defrost grille first, but I did not need to.


All in, took only half an hour and there is an immediate improvement! Nothing was damaged if you want to return to stock.

 

Great work and thanks for sharing my friend. Smart move with the tape. 💯

 

Do you have hybrid? or gas?

I have gas and wnat to do the fios on the existing sub but waiting for someone to do a step by step write up with pics - not afraid of DIY just need to be guided.

 

Any thoughts on comparing the Infinity Reference REF-3032cfx to the JL Audio C2-350x ? Currently have the JL Audio's, but actually feel like they might be trying too much to put out low end/mid-bass? Or am I just crazy?

 

Buy these instead
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20651K...50.html?tp=105