I've been reading a lot of threads about the mark levinson system. I came across a few that talk about the cooling fan and airflow.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...placement.html

Since I'm going to have to remove the amp to get at the wiring harness anyway, I figured I should open up the amp and replace the fan since it's 13 years old and there would be no way to know if/when it dies until the amp is killed.

The thread above mentions the stock fan moves 4.3 cfm and produces 30.05 db of noise.

I've decided to replace the fan with this model, which moves 7.7 cfm and produces only 4 extra db (34db). I don't think the extra 4 db will be audible from the cabin, as the fan is in the amp, which is in the covered area, which is inside the trunk. (and a 4db increase is fairly small)
This will be about 79% more airflow and reduce the risk of fan failure by replacing a 13 year old fan (mechanical part).
MR3010E12B-RSR
https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...346-ND/7606131



In addition... looking at the design of the amp in the picture below, the case of the amp screws into the heatsinks, turning the whole case into one big heatsink. I'm going to put a layer of thermal paste (arctic silver) on the top of the heatsinks where they meet the case. This will greatly improve the thermal conductivity from the heatsink to the case. This is what is used on heatsinks that cool CPUs for the same purpose.


as a side note, by moving the subwoofer to an external amp and only using the ML subwoofer connection as high-level inputs for the new amp, I imagine it will take quite a bit of load off of the amp since it doesn't have to drive it's largest speaker anymore. In theory, this should increase longevity and overall performance.

 

I was mistaken about the wiring diagram... the ACC is just the trigger, there's a 12v line in that harness (marked B for battery in the schematic).

Also, I swapped the fan. Used a heat gun to get the black metallic part off undamaged, soldered the old fan plug onto the new fan's wires.

There actually already is a thermal paste between the heatsinks and the casing. They really designed this well.


1 side note, the fan wires are REALLY thin and kind of a pain to work with. I kept hitting the core when trying to strip the jacket, make sure you have a very small gauge stripper and make your life easier.

 

interesting, our fan:
https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...B3-8-ND/444077

different than the ones in the old threads. This one only does 2.3CFM and produces 18.5 db.

 

Install is under way... Let me caution anyone thinking of doing this to get a smaller subwoofer, lol.

While this does technically fit, it's going to require some custom work to hide it and make the rear trunk cover fit. The problem is actually around the diameter of the subwoofer, there are very thick supports that don't allow the original trunk cover to sit flush. Also the magnet is enormous and won't clear the liner. Also a little shaving of the seat foam in the center to allow for the movement of the sub. I'm going to have them move the box that's right right in front of it a few inches back, I'm not sure if it's necessary, but I feel like having a giant magnet near that isn't a great idea for the electronics inside.

I think a 10" would be a much easier install, but a smaller 12" is probably doable too.

 

ok, system is 99% done... but a big word of caution to anyone contemplating this in the future. We made brackets to make the trunk cover mount around the sub but this didn't work because it sat out too far and the top wouldn't retract.

I have to remove the trunk cover (the pull out shade) to make this sub work. If you really have your mind set to a 12", you're going to need to find one that isn't so bulky but even still, know that you may have to lose the trunk cover if you really want a 12". I imagine a 10" is a much easier size to make this work. The shop is going to make some covers for the original mounts and make it all look nice later this week. I'm keeping the shade in the part of the trunk with the sensor for now so the top operates and so I know not to put things past that point in the trunk.

Now, for good news, this amp is the PERFECT size for our trunk. They mounted it in the spare tire half-well, they just needed to notch the tool tray slightly to fit it. It's completely invisible day-to-day. Also, the sub/amp combo is fantastic, I have the amp's bass **** all the way to the lowest side. The door/rear speakers were an AWESOME upgrade. They really shine with the top down at highway speed when you crank it up. Crystal clear all the way up to volume levels you wouldn't even want to use. Hard to know how much impact new power & ground leads had on the stock amp because I did the speakers at the same time, but it sounds great.

If you're not as brave (read: stubborn) as I am, I really doubt you could go wrong with the 10" version of the FI Audio sub I used and the same amp. I could not be happier with either product.


A note to anyone considering the fan upgrade on the stock amp. Because I was going off different specs for the oem fan, I got one that was a lot louder than stock without realizing until I opened it up. That being said, at 34db, You can hear it slightly in the cabin if the music is off. I didn't notice it until I parked the car and turned the stereo off and then I heard a slight noise in the back. If you pop the trunk you can definitely hear it. Since it's pushing about 4x more air than the stock fan, I don't have to worry about my amp dying, lol. But I recommend you find a fan that's closer to the stock 20db and still pushes more air than stock (since fans are so efficient these days).

If the stock amp was easier to remove, I'd probably swap it, but it's not noticeable enough to tear apart the back again, lol.


I'll post pics of everything once all the work is complete, but I can definitely say that this was a huge net positive, even though I just missed the mark on my goal to make it completely invisible.

 

Very impressive Joe! I really like your work!

 

Someday for me too!

 

ok, so getting wireless phone mirroring + bluetooth to work was a real challenge with an iphone. If you play audio with bluetooth, it won't mirror over airplay. If you connect airplay, you lose audio because the naviks needs an aux input to carry audio.

Here is my solution:

https://any-cast.com/products/m100-wireless-display

I used a cd changer "Y" cable just like the Grom install (I put it before the grom), and I used a cd changer adapter and cut off everything but the 4 pins I needed to create an AUX input. Then I used a "line adapter" as the input because it's easy to solder. The Naviks RCA "output" connects to the RCA plugs on this adapter.




You get to keep the control via stereo/steering wheel buttons because even though when you mirror, the audio is routed through the naviks to the line-in and not through bluetooth, the bluetooth audio controls still work because its connected in the background through the GROM unit.. This was crucial for me. When you don't mirror, you're automatically back to playing bluetooth through the GROM unit, no hassles.



I got this idea from an old thread about aux inputs, it should be noted that if you JUST want an aux input, if you use this cable you have to keep a blank cd or something to keep the cd player thinking there is audio playing. I did not have to worry about this because the GROM does that for me automatically.


PS. I tried the GROM aux input adapter before all this, but the GROM only lets you use 1 at a time. So if bluetooth is connected the aux doesn't work and if you disconnect bluetooth, the grom aux adapter works but no controls. This sucked, so I made my own cable pre-GROM in the chain.

Also, The anycast's lowest resolution is 720p@60hz... it works well enough. In landscape mode there's a tiny bit of overscan on the right side but it doesn't really matter. You have to understand if you're retrofitting our old screen (800x600 I believe) and using naviks it's not going to be cutting edge video, it's an imperfect solution, but it works just fine.


EDIT: here is the old thread with the pinout info, many thanks to retroplay:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc4...aux-input.html



EDIT: see my post later in the thread for corrections on this.

 

I realized I never uploaded pics of the finished rear.


I would have prefered if you couldn't tell the soundsystem was upgrade by looking at the car (keping stock appearance), but the sub was so big that this wasn't possible in the trunk.

Here is what they came up with to make it look nice once we realized I had gone overboard with the sub, lol.


I bought the cheapest trunk cover on ebay (saving mine in storage) and cut it where the "shade" meets the handle part. This way I still know where not to put any items that would interfere with the top and the sensor still functions to allow the top to move.

 

Interesting solution. So how does it sound?

 

Well, over the years I've had a "nice" aftermarket sound system in many cars. Components/big or multiple subs/etc... I can easily say that this is by far the best sounding car system I've ever owned. It basically sounds like home audio in your car, because, well, it IS. All the 8ohm drivers are for home audio and the subwoofer was technically originally developed for home use even though they sell it for both.

I'm actually really glad I kept the stock headunit with all the mark levinson eq built-in. For all the power and the monstrosity of a subwoofer, the system sounds balanced and musical (not boomy or harsh).


I HIGHLY recommend the cabin speakers as an upgrade, they weren't even expensive and they sound absolutely fantastic. I'm over the moon about the sound of the sub, but it does slightly bother me that I had to disrupt the aesthetic of the car, even if it's only in the trunk. I bet if I went with the 10" version it would be fantastic as well and be hidden.

Overall, from the audio side of things, I love it. From the video side of things, I'm starting to think I should have skipped the naviks and just gutted the OEM nav and put a modern, high-res screen in place of it and figured out how to wire up the cameras/phone mirroring/etc. Retrofitting old tech is always going to be a challenge.

 

So would you say that replacing the door speakers with the Dayton Audio PC68-8 speakers made the biggest difference?

 

It's hard to say since I did it all at once and I rewired the stock amp as well. If you're going to do the fronts, I would say do the rears too. I don't think you'll regret it.

 

I was just looking at the rear speaker choice, the Eminence Alpha 4-8. It seems to be a fuller range which they seem to speak more highly (& charge more for) of than the Dayton Audio. What is the reason behind having different speakers for front and rear?

 

yes, the fronts are 2.5" and the rears are 4". The 4" version of the dayton if my memory is correct, was only 20 watts RMS power handling. I believe the mark levinson amp is putting out more than that, so just to be safe I went with a speaker that could definitely handle anything the amp throws at it without pushing to it's limits.

Also, without knowing exactly what the crossovers are set to in the mark levinson system, a full range speaker was an easy way of making sure that it reproduced exactly what it was supposed to accurately.