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I'm not a huge car audio fanatic any longer, but it's clear Mark must be getting old. The lack of mid and low end frequency response from the GX460 almost makes me think that my kids messed with the settings and turned the mid and bass all the way down. I don't expect chest thumping type of performance, but SOMETHING would be nice! My GX470 ML system had a much more "full" and well rounded sound, and some might think it was aftermarket. But you have to crank the GX460 so loud to get anything out of it that by the time the drums are loud enough to inspire air drumming, my ears are ringing from the highs.
My only concern is the front dash and tweeters are not replaced but are EQ'd.
So I'm curious as to how that sounds vs replacing them outright.
The total system is $3K so I would like to know the answer before investing in this solution.
It is a clean install.
The Helix sub unit in the video is this one: https://soundtech.shopping/products/helix-u-10a
Not a cheap solution but available from Europe for much less if you are willing to go that route.
Used this thread to replace all the stock speakers in my 2021 GX 460 non-ML. Peacebay's post was really helpful as I ended up doing the audiocontrol D6.1200 amp/dsp. The PAC APH-TY02 did work with my 2021 vehicle and using Peacebay's pic was able to figure out the wiring. Just adding this cheat sheet (excuse my handwritting) which shows speaker locations relative to the PAC harness. The PAC harness is nice as the wires are all labelled making it very easy to hook up. I checked the polarity of the speaker vs the PAC labelling on the door speakers and it was correct. The center dash speaker was left hooked up to factory amp but it was causing an echo sound so it is unplugged at the speaker. Hope it helps.
Looking to do a very similar speaker replacement with the same Focal speakers and a bit different center and corners. As the factory amp already sends only certain frequencies to each speaker, did you also wire the in-line Focal crossovers for the 6 x 9 and tweeters?
The factory amplifier runs a pair of channels to the door speakers. The amplifier runs a seperate pair of channels to the dash/tweeters with a passive crossover for the tweeters.
I'd recommend against a simple speaker swap, or you will be leaving lots of performance and customization/tuning on the table for the sizeable investment in a good 3-way set. Not to mention you'll be horribly underpowered IMNSHO (the least of the concerns, but a valid concern if you like to get above 90dB SPL or so).
You'll have no way to tune the crossover (which door-to-dash is set very high in stock form), relative gains, delays/all-pass filters, or EQ to get aftermarket 3-ways to blend as intended. So basically you'll also need a DSP-based amp, or DSP plus separate amp (preferably 6 channels worth for a true active 3-way). Then you'll still need to feed the front door and front dash stock feeds into the DSP Hi-Level inputs, and combine (sum) them there, and re-process accordingly for the new speakers. Of course, most DSP's will also allow you to come directly in with a Phone/BT or SPDIF, and bypass the entire stock system and the horrors of factory sound tuning and un-bypassable loudness curves (bass boosts).
For podcasts - I'll still have my phone come into the factory system over USB for the convenience of the factory touch-screen, and feeds the DSP via high-level speaker inputs. Factory BT still works in this scenario as well.
Then, for music enjoyment, I'll switch the DSP to SPDIF or Line Level to get the factory system out of the loop altogether *(but this also kills factory BT for phone, and any vehicle sounds/beeps). Some more complex DSP's can re-mix the factory BT/Phone, vehicle sounds and beeps back into the DSP while allowing playback direct from Phone/BT/SPDIF.
Bottom line: A descent 3-way speaker setup deserves something more appropriate than the stock system driving it. Even if the stock quality and power are sufficient, it is not configured nor tunable to drive a more-competent 3-way setup.
12-09-23, 01:26 PM
