DIY GX460 Stock Speaker Upgrade
01-09-20 | 03:26 PM
#106
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 6
Likes: 4
From: IL
Hello all. I read through the information on the threads about upgrading the non-ML speakers. I just bought the 2014 GX460 Luxury, with ML 17 speakers including subwoofer. The sound is terrible and it is joke compared to my 2010 Infiniti M35X, which doesn't even have the premium sound. I'm looking for help to upgrade the subwoofer and may be the speakers also. I'm in Chicago. The audio repair stores will not touch it and they refer me to the dealer. Can anyone point me in the right direction or tell me where I can get it replaced? Thanks
01-12-20 | 12:46 PM
#107
Driver
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 73
Likes: 16
From: Texas
What was the consensus on the polarity of the speaker wires? Surely the GXs use the same wires at least for the Non-ML speakers.
Drivers side has pink and purple coming from car plugged into brown and black respectively on the speaker. Pink/brown and purple/black.
Middle has yellow and black coming from car plugged into blue and black respectively on the speaker. Yellow/blue and black/black.
Passenger side has green and blue coming from car plugged into brown and black respectively on the speaker. Green/brown and black/blue.
Looking at the stock speakers facing up, the black wire is always on the right with brown/blue on the left. The Kenwoods have + on left and - on the right, so I would guess the black wires are negative?
I just don’t want to start splicing wires without knowing which is which, and I’m probably overthinking it.
EDIT: This is crazy. I took a multimeter, turned on radio, and got positive readings on the brown wire for the outer speakers, but the black wire for the middle one... Maybe our stock sound is like crap because they reversed the polarity of the middle speaker at the factory lol.
Drivers side has pink and purple coming from car plugged into brown and black respectively on the speaker. Pink/brown and purple/black.
Middle has yellow and black coming from car plugged into blue and black respectively on the speaker. Yellow/blue and black/black.
Passenger side has green and blue coming from car plugged into brown and black respectively on the speaker. Green/brown and black/blue.
Looking at the stock speakers facing up, the black wire is always on the right with brown/blue on the left. The Kenwoods have + on left and - on the right, so I would guess the black wires are negative?
I just don’t want to start splicing wires without knowing which is which, and I’m probably overthinking it.
EDIT: This is crazy. I took a multimeter, turned on radio, and got positive readings on the brown wire for the outer speakers, but the black wire for the middle one... Maybe our stock sound is like crap because they reversed the polarity of the middle speaker at the factory lol.
Last edited by captainnem; 01-12-20 at 01:02 PM.
01-13-20 | 10:12 AM
#108
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 6
Likes: 2
From: Virginia
First of I would like to thank Tecman for an excellent write up and everyone else who shared their experience with the speakers upgrade.
I went through the same process of replacing front dash and front door speakers. I replaced dash speakers first with Kenwoods reccomended by Techman - the result was excellent. Then I decided to alter a bit and installed Kenwood 6x9 speakers into the front doors. The idea was to have the same signature sound speakers. The result was devastating. The bass was worst then with the factory speakers.
Obviously , I missed the point , of what we want from the front speake upgrade in our GX. Lexus premium 9 speakers system doesn't have a dedicated sub. So if we don't want to change frontal "concert hall " staging of our sound system, then most of the bass if not all of it should come from the front door speakers. I Am not a "bass head" and prefer an accurate natural sound. But we should at least have an option for a good bass , which has to be as close as possible to a system with a dedicated sub. Then we can tune It down if needed.
After some home work I narrowed down my new choice to two candidates: jbl gto939 and alpine r-type ( alpine spr-69).
Beeng a jbl/Harman fan , I ordered Jbl gto939. And I love the result! Both mid and deep bass are there. The sound is clear and comes without any distortion all the way to the max. Is it as accurate as my BW headphones? Of course not. But it is definitely better then stock GX460 ML sound.
For Alpine fans... R-type definitely has more bass then s-type. so most likely Spr69 is a better choice for the front door speakers.
I went through the same process of replacing front dash and front door speakers. I replaced dash speakers first with Kenwoods reccomended by Techman - the result was excellent. Then I decided to alter a bit and installed Kenwood 6x9 speakers into the front doors. The idea was to have the same signature sound speakers. The result was devastating. The bass was worst then with the factory speakers.
Obviously , I missed the point , of what we want from the front speake upgrade in our GX. Lexus premium 9 speakers system doesn't have a dedicated sub. So if we don't want to change frontal "concert hall " staging of our sound system, then most of the bass if not all of it should come from the front door speakers. I Am not a "bass head" and prefer an accurate natural sound. But we should at least have an option for a good bass , which has to be as close as possible to a system with a dedicated sub. Then we can tune It down if needed.
After some home work I narrowed down my new choice to two candidates: jbl gto939 and alpine r-type ( alpine spr-69).
Beeng a jbl/Harman fan , I ordered Jbl gto939. And I love the result! Both mid and deep bass are there. The sound is clear and comes without any distortion all the way to the max. Is it as accurate as my BW headphones? Of course not. But it is definitely better then stock GX460 ML sound.
For Alpine fans... R-type definitely has more bass then s-type. so most likely Spr69 is a better choice for the front door speakers.
01-16-20 | 09:07 PM
#111
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 6
Likes: 2
From: Virginia
Metra 82-8146 6x9 adapters for Toyota/Lexus just does not work with JBL 6x9 speakers.
Unless I want to drill new holes into the adapters I might just return all the JBL 6x9s I bought while I can still return them. I heard skar audio makes a decent 6x9.
Unless I want to drill new holes into the adapters I might just return all the JBL 6x9s I bought while I can still return them. I heard skar audio makes a decent 6x9.
01-16-20 | 09:57 PM
#112
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 8
Likes: 1
From: AZ
The Metra 82-8146 front speaker adapters fit my GX963 6x9 JBLs perfectly. They thump loud. Was considering a powered sub but these speakers surprisingly shake the seats. I think it is the low impedance. I would not recommend the JBL 3.5 for dash.
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Jaerok (01-16-20)
01-18-20 | 05:22 PM
#113
Driver
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 73
Likes: 16
From: Texas
Just did the 4" Faital Pro front speaker switch today for all 3 front dash speakers. I used a AA battery and some wire to test the stock speakers to confirm the black wires were the negative wires and brown/blue were positive.
I had to make a trip to O'Reillys during the install and drove there with the front speakers disconnected. It was sad that I really couldn't tell they were missing. The stock speakers were that bad. The new speakers sound a lot clearer and better. A worthy upgrade.
I had to make a trip to O'Reillys during the install and drove there with the front speakers disconnected. It was sad that I really couldn't tell they were missing. The stock speakers were that bad. The new speakers sound a lot clearer and better. A worthy upgrade.
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nzvlnr (10-17-21)
01-21-20 | 09:30 PM
#114
Driver
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 74
Likes: 20
From: CA
It's not abundantly clear to me, and I probably missed it, but why are all of the speaker changes caviated with "non-ML" system? How does the ML system change the speaker options? I have the ML system and its okay at best.
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01-25-20 | 03:21 PM
#117
Driver
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 74
Likes: 20
From: CA
I will check the impedance. So it's not really a non-ML vs ML setup difference it sounds like. I kept seeing "non-ML" and wanted to make sure there was not some other odd difference to account for.
03-02-20 | 10:08 PM
#118
I just got some Faital Pro 4FE32 (4 ohm) speakers for the 3 front dash speakers to upgrade. I did some sleuthing on the factory service manual and figured out the speaker wiring color code for the Mark Levinson radio in my 2010 GX460 Premium with navigation after looking up 4 sources.
See attached PDF I made for the Mark Levinson speaker wire color coding. First look page 1 for the speaker naming convention, then use the speaker guide on page 3 and 4 to look up the harness number (elongated circle) and pin (number above it) for the speaker you want the wiring color for, then cross reference to page 2 for the harness and pin to get the color code abbreviation, then use page 5 for deciphering the color abbreviation.
So based on the above, for the 3 front dashboard speaker wiring colors for the Mark Levinson radio:
Left front dash
(+)pink
(-)violet
Center dash
(+)yellow
(-)black
Right front dash
(+)light green
(-)blue
See attached PDF I made for the Mark Levinson speaker wire color coding. First look page 1 for the speaker naming convention, then use the speaker guide on page 3 and 4 to look up the harness number (elongated circle) and pin (number above it) for the speaker you want the wiring color for, then cross reference to page 2 for the harness and pin to get the color code abbreviation, then use page 5 for deciphering the color abbreviation.
So based on the above, for the 3 front dashboard speaker wiring colors for the Mark Levinson radio:
Left front dash
(+)pink
(-)violet
Center dash
(+)yellow
(-)black
Right front dash
(+)light green
(-)blue
03-04-20 | 07:00 AM
#119
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 23
Likes: 5
From: TX
What are your opinions on the speaker replacement? I've been eyeing the same speakers, just wasn't sure if I should go with 4 or 8 ohm? Acrad's post indicates 6ohm, so wasn't sure if going over or under was the safest route?