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My girlfriend has recently got a 2004 SC430, and after the system I put in her last car, the ML cant compete. So Were doing a fully rear seat delete for a sealed box, similar to the one found here -->
, Except housing 4 skar SDR-8's, and possibly a component set of 6.5's. I know itll be a headache, but im willing to do everything for it. I know the headunit will be a pain, but were gonna do a 3 amp set up, 2 skar RP.800, and a separate 4 channel skar? (Haven't made my mind up on what 4 channel im going to use) All that means factory amp will be out, dont care about losing navigation screen as we just keep that hideous thing closed. SO i think we need the Axxess TYTO-01, to retain the steering wheel controls, will that work? Only really looking to keep volume controls, but need be, we can live without them.
What im mainly looking for it is depths for the stock 6 x 9's as well as if anyone has found proper 6 x 9 brackets. While on the topic of the front doors,
1.) has anyone put a one inch tweeter in the tweeter location
2.) That mid range speaker bracket, could i fit a 2.75 inch or it that pushing it too much?
Anyways, ill post everything i do step by step from here on out, with dimensions and everything incase anyone else wants to use it for inspiration. First order of business is creating a floor for the sub box to sit on in place of the rear seat, so im doing that later today, then once thats complete, im gonna get final measurments for the box and draw it up in solidworks.
-2 KnuKonseptz 4 Way Distribution Blocks, 1 for power and one for ground
-2 KnuKonseptz 30 ft OFC 4 Gauge Wire, 1 Red and 1 Black
-1 Skar Audio 30 ft OFC 10 Gauge Speaker wire
-2 Skar Audio 30 ft OFC 14 Gauge Speaker wire SPEAKERS AND INLINE CROSSOVERS -4 Skar Audio SDR-8 D4, 2 pairs wired in parallel for a 1 Ohm Final Impedance at the Sub amps
Front Channel
-Kicker CS 6x9 Component set
-Metra 82-5606 Front 6x9 Speaker plates
-Dremmeled out Old tweeter griller and flush mounted the 0.75 in Tweeters
-Reused Old bracket for torn up ML midrange squaker
-DS18 PRO-X4.4BM 4 inch Loud Speaker
-2 Dayton Audio 5000 hz Low-pass Crossovers
-Reused rear 4 inch speaker bracket
HEAD UNIT AND INTEGRATION
-Dual XDCPA73W Head unit (2 year warranty was 20$ at Walmart, has wireless car play)
-Axxess AXSWC-TL Steering wheel Control Interface
-Metra 99-8161SS Dash Kit
-PixelMan Backup Camera MISCELLANEOUS
-KILMAT 50 mil 50 SQFT Car Sound Deadening
-2 Flush Mount USB Extenders For charging and Wired Car play
- 4 3.5 In Speaker Terminals
-2 4ftx8ft Sheets of 0.75 in thick MDF
-Various Wire Connectors
-Various Heat Shink sizes
-Various Wire Ferrule Gauges
-Black Universal Automotive Carpet 79"x59"
-Light Brown Vinyl Fabric 2 yards, 56" wide
-3M Spray Glue Overall, I'm very happy with it, Gets extremely loud, and it is still crystal clear when driving at highway speeds with the top down. For 99% of people I'm sure it would be the best car audio system they've ever heard. Is it perfect? No. So here is a detailed cons list. CONS
-The front door houses the 6x9, 2.75, and 0.75, So I have 2 14 gauge wires running into it. This means I don't have True F-R Fader control, Since the Mids are there, I am essentially using the fader as a little bit of a “Midrange” volume Control. I would prefer if I could have (I will probably change this later) Kept the fader control.
REMEDY: Another 2 channels of audio and some RCA Splitters
-I am working with four channels and a total of 8 speakers. Since I want cross over control, I want at least another 2 channels of Audio, 4 Would be even better. If I go 2 channels I could run with the tweeters and front mid ranges on the same channel, leaving front 6x9 and rear 4 in to have channels to themselves
REMEDY: Another 2 channels of audio and some RCA Splitters -This particular Kicker Component system includes 0.75 in titanium dome tweeters. I prefer silk dome has titanium its a little “harsh” or “Bright”. They come with a passive crossover with the woofers having 30hz to 4000hz and the tweeters have 4000hz to 20000hz. I mounted the crossovers in the doors as instructed in the kicker manual. This crossover also has a tweeter boost of either 0db, 3db, or 6 db. So If I wanted to change I gotta take the panel off, which is a PITA. On top of that, at the systems full tilt, the 6x9’s bang HARD with the midbass, unfortunately, the tweeters (or passive X-over) cannot keep up and the crossover kicks them off for a little bit. It will do this no matter what I have the tweeter db boost set at even though I have it running at the rated 150 watts RMS. This really pisses me off because I would Ideally like even more treble in order to get it to flow nice with the midranges. I don't see myself keeping these specific tweeters for too long. Only problem is I can't seem to find any 0.75 in 75-100 watt tweeters. If anyone knows if a 1 inch tweeter will fit in the OEM spot let me know.
REMEDY: Higher wattage soft dome tweeters and independent passive crossover -Can't really hear much from the rear speakers because of the aforementioned 4 channel issue, kicker KS mid ranges are 50 w rms and the 4 inch DS18’s are 100 w rms, not a big deal and not a world killer since the midrange has a much smaller frequency band it will essentially even out when F+R fader is set to “Top down” mode (Completely centered on Head unit).
REMEDY: Another 2 channels of audio and some RCA Splitters -Im very happy with the rear seat delete for the subs, don't really regret it much, especially when compared to the alternatives which would be two sealed 8s in the very back of the drunk in a fiberglass molded box, using the entirety of the trunk for subs with a big fiberglass box, or putting a different 8 inch sub where the original one sat. This way I get to keep the storage in the trunk, get to have a spare tire, and it looks badass.That being said, I am not a wood worker or professional box builder, so I could have dimensioned the box slightly smaller so it sat flush with the rear wall, but the height and width is perfect, could have had more width if I shrunk the the length from 42.5 to 41 or so as there is a bolt on each side preventing the box from sliding in perfectly. The Skar subs themselves BANG and are a bargain for 60$ a pop, that's not even the price of a full tank of gas for this car. Now Looking back, I probably would have made the box ported knowing how far it can actually stick out because before I was worried about the seats touching the subs and ruining everything. SO I went with a sealed and while it maintains a great volume with the top up or down, it doesn't quite get low enough for me. Again not a world ending for me but I'll eventually address it. Also, the 3m spray glue is terrible at least for my particular vinyl and the MDF box is VERY heavy even for me.
REMEDY: Build a slightly different dimensioned ported box, use different spray glue and use a Rabbeting bit on the edges of the side panel so it looks a little cleaner. Make box out of birch plywood -Ordered an LED Lexus logo for the box as seen in the video in the last post. I couldn't find someone who actually had something like that so I bought it without really knowing how big it was from a Chinese website. It was comically small. I guess it was meant to go on the trunk as a trunk logo. I didn't end up mounting it so thats sucks but Ill find a use for it somewhere
REMEDY: Different Lexus logo, maybe one from etsy for a “man cave”? Would have to find a way to make it work without the wall power but it shouldn't be too hard. INSTALL SPECIFICS
-Made a “False Floor’ Out of the layers of the 0.75 inch MDF for the Box to sit on, Had to use two layers so I could have a slice out of the bottom one for wires to route through, I also had to remove the steel wire protector that comes from the factory under the seats of the SC430. -Took out the old ML amp and the Navi Unit, made a board for the two Bass amps so they are hidden in the trunk with “some” access via the GPS cd slot in the trunk, Terminal cups are directly in front of the old ML 8 inch sub cut out for easy install -The 3 way active crossover and Stinger amp fit snugly under the convertible top cover. Top still closes and I have great access to both of them and can sort of “hide” them under the little trunk cargo cover that has to be out for the top to go down, After I finally removed the seats while I was doing the final fit and securement of the sub box and floor I realized I probably could have put the amps there. No big deal and I can't hear the fans from the cabin when they in the trunk so just something to be aware of if you plan on doing something similar. Would have also saved a bunch of wire. There's pros and cons to under the seat so make sure to weigh them to see what you would prefer. -Head unit wasn't as much of a nightmare as I initially anticipated. The Axess SWC Control works flawlessly. But since I didn't get a dongle for the radio I did have to cut into the original radio wiring for the power ground and accessory signal for the head unit and the SWC module. NBD -I haven't found a good place to mount the microphone yet, I have it mounted under the steering wheel currently and it will occasionally come undone from the mount and hang there if I try to get in the car without moving the seat back. (Its my GF’s car so she sits as close to the steering wheel as humanly possible…) Not a huge deal but the microphone is ugly so I didn't want it visible in a place like on top of the steering wheel -Back up camera is fine, but instructions are written in broken english, if i want it to come on when it is in reverse i'm going to have to run an entirely different wire to it for constant accessory power while running and use the reverse light wire as the signal. Instructions told me to use the reverse light power wire as both the power wire for the camera and the signal wire that connects to the included RCA wire. This caused my Head unit to completely spaz out when I tried to turn it on so I just cut the signal wire to the radio for now, and if I want to use it I have to press it on the radio screen. Which sucks because the head unit goes immediately to apple carplay when the car is started. Anyway if I absolutely NEED the rear camera I have access to it, just something I'm gonna have to mess with soon if I want it to turn on when I go into reverse. -Probably can get away with not buying the brackets for the 6x9’s. The ML speakers are secured using a torx bit and look similar to the rear 4in speaker which just unscrewed and released the stock speaker leaving you with just a bracket. But since the amazon listing for the speaker brackets did not state if it was sold in a pair, i went ahead and bought two brackets, so i now have an entire spare set of brackets. -2.75 inch mid ranges will fit the stock ML bracket. All you have to do is remove the old 2.75 in speaker, bend the metal back on the bracket a little bit so it slides in nicely and ensure the metal isn't bridging the two channels of the speaker by touching them. Also helps to buy some longer thin small bolts, nuts, and washers to secure the midrange to the bracket as well as the 6x9. I think I used M4x 2 cm long but don't quote me on that. -As far as securing the subs go, I used some 1.5 in wood screws to secure it to the false floor. Used 4 L brackets and self tapers to secure false floor to rear firewall (or whatever you want to call that where the upper part of the rear seat used to be) and finally I used 2 Grade 8 ⅜ in bolts as well as grade 8 nylon lock nuts, grade 8 metal washers, and rubber washers. These bolts are inside of the sub box and an appropriate sized hole is drilled through the rear firewall. I used a hole saw (1.5 inch I think) to cut a hole in the rear carpeting of the trunk so I could take the sub box out without taking the entire trunk apart. -As far as mounting depth goes, I had maybe a half inch to an inch to spare with the 6x9 before it would have interfered with the widow track. I did however have the driver side window glitch where it wouldn't close all the way and would roll itself down halfway if I tried to roll it up. At the time I would just roll the window all the way up, keep the button engaged, open the door, and shut the car off and it would stay all the way up. This randomly fixed itself after about 5 days of living with it so i don't know what happened. -When it comes to sound deadening and treatment, I bought entirely too much. I just wanted to coat every surface except the floor, but Lexus did a great job with this. They used acoustic foam on the door panels and panel where the rear speaker is behind. So I really only had to put it in the doors outermost metal surface and of course around where the sub is. You could get away with much less sound deadening than I bought but, I do plan on using it for other projects so no biggie. -I Originally planned on doing all dayton crossovers for the tweeters, woofers and the other two, but they wouldn't have fit in the door and I really didn't want to run three wires into the doors and have the cross overs in the trunk mainly because copper is fn expensive. That's why I used the Kicker provided crossovers. Well there you have it, that's just about everything I could think of when it comes to this system, if you finished this entire essay then kudos to you and good luck building yours. Keep your composure and take the time to fully disassemble the car when attempting something like this. Please reply with any questions or answers you might have! Thanks for reading.
Epicenter is a must for me because I listen to old 80’s &90’s music when the bass is missing with the epicenter it bring it back. If you listen to today’s music it’s a waste of money. DSP is a must I have a zapco DSP and mounted on the little coin tray that my master volume controller and my pre set DSP setting for what type of music I decide. Rock/rap or country
my navigation screen is still OEM factory one, never change it just added a Naviks interface which allows me to install back up camera when I put in reverse and CarPlay/Android auto. That controller next to the ashtray voltage is my CarPlay/Android controller when phone is connected I can navigate like Waze,iTunes etc.. with a switch I can go back to the factory oem screen with the factory navigation and all the door open and close like it should.
Amazing! I wish I understood 10% of what you know about this!
I’ve been delighted with a simple install of a car play system via an alpine head unit. Much better sound overall, but I will have to replace a few speakers this winter which seem to be failing as I play some loud cruising music. :-)
Yea DSP is something i haven’t played with yet, i got the skar sound processor thing bits mainly just so my 1 bass **** controls both the amps.
But with the metra double
din kit one of the bigger complaints i got with it is that part of the radio is too low to follow stuff like carplay directions so that top carplay interface would be nice
2004 Full Audio System Upgrade
