So my friend's amplifier went out recently and I'm wondering if there are any aftermarket recommendations or should he just buy a used OEM replacement? If he goes the aftermarket route, is it plug n play, or will he need to solder wires or is there some sort of harness adapter available? Thank you.

 

No harness adapter that I was able to find, but the pinouts of the original connection (at least in a 2006 RX without Mark Levinson) are here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ory-amp-2.html (See the post on March 5, 2019.)

The challenge is, the original amp assumes the stock 2-ohm speakers are present. Unless you can adjust an aftermarket amp to go that low, you'll probably damage the speakers. This doesn't mean don't do it -- it means, replace the speakers at the same time. Those 12-14 year old paper cones in the original speakers are probably pretty shot by now anyway, so the overall improvement will be tremendous.

I didn't even try to find a replacement stock amp -- mine still works (though it's currently sitting in a box somewhere), it's simply terrible.

 

Are you selling the stock amp?

 

Haven't decided, but I'll think about it. I was holding onto it in case I ever wanted to return to the stock config when I eventually replace this RX.

We should make absolutely certain it will work properly in your friend's RX -- there seems to have been a bit of variety across the hybrid vs. all-gas models, and of course between the ones with Mark Levinson audio (very rare) and those without. What's the year and model, and does the head unit or faceplate have "Mark Levinson" written on it?

 

It's yours (or your friend's) for $50, if you think it will match the one that's being removed. Otherwise, I'll put it up on eBay in a while.

 

Amplifiers for the standard radio and the Mark Harmon radios are not the same.

Amplifiers for the 04 - 06 RX and the 07 - 09 RX are not the same. 04 - 06 has 2 wire harness connectors, the 07 - 09 has 3 connectors.