SCoupe

I was originally thinking that I could get a nice sound upgrade on my SC300 by upgrading from Pioneer Premium to Nakamichi head unit, amp and sub. Having second thoughts about this now. Why? Seems to me that the Nak is mostly an upgrade to the subwoofer. 8" to the Nak's 10" and an incremental power increase to sub, other channels almost no change and the rest of the speakers are identical?

The best upgrade I've done is replacing the pathetic 4" cone mids in the rear deck with the Infiniti Reference 6002i 6 1/2" 2-ways and really like them (highy recommend).

My thoughts are that I should save the money of the Nak system and just upgrade the 8" Pioneer sub to a free air (Kicker 10", DSL AO10, JL10ib4 {if ever find again}, or a Pioneer 10"). Run it with a high quality amp off the outputs of the existing Pioneer amp sub out. I think that is going to sound better than the Nak system.

btw, no subwoofer boxes are going into my truck, forget it, not an option, no changes to head unit. The sub has to go into existing mount. Also, I have the third brake light in my car that I can gut. Would that extra height allow me to put in a 12" sub if i hollowed it out?

This is mixed with facts, opinions and theory. Anyone have a direct experience going from Nak to a better sub system? Most helpful are SC300/400 owners comments, other models like the LX470, EX300 owners have different Naks and sound systems.

FireCode

iTrader: (1)

just get rid of the stock sub.. add a new amp and new free air sub--simple bam done

RjRacing

so the stock sub is an 8"? Is it possible to just swap out the existing sub with an aftermarket?
I don't know if you would have enough clearance below the deck for a big 12" sub b/c our fuel tanks are located just a few inches below the existing one.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

The stock is a 10" sub, and you'll find that aftermarket 10" free air subs will just barely clear the fuel tank, or not at all. I doubt you'd be able to fit a 12" in there unless you lift the basket way out over the rear deck. If you replace the Pioneer sub, you'll need to get an aftermarket amp. That Pioneer is a 1 ohm unit and the sub amp in the rear deck is pretty flimsy. I doubt you'll be able to run any aftermerket sub with it.

BTW, I upgraded the Pioneer system in my SC to the Nak system. Now the Nak has separate speakers all around. I think if you can get a good price, it would be a nice upgrade. I was able to get the headunit, amp and Nak sub for less than $200, so it was a steal for me. I also replaced the 4" door speakers and tweeters with Boston Pro 4" components and put 6.5" Boston coaxials in the rear and it sounds much better than before. I kept the 10" Nak sub... it's enough bass for me.

The best upgrade you can do, is as you discovered, replacing those paper wizzer 4" cones. Do the front doors also and listen to see if you are satisfied. You can reuse the factory tweeters in the sail panels if you like.

DetMich1

The SC had 3 versions of audio system: stock: no CD changer and an 8" sub in the rear shelf;
stock with 12 CD trunk mounted changer, 10" sub with additional amp (a $900 upgrade);
Nakamichi which came automatically with a CD changer and also had a 10" sub.

So, if you have an 8" sub in the rear, I infer that you have no CD changer, correct?
Unless your HU has the CD button you cannot control a Lexus CD changer from the stock HU
As has already been mentioned, even the amp that accompanyied the upgraded 10" is pretty inadequate for powering any kind of substantial aftermarket subwoofer.
Regarding the upgrade to the rear speakers you have already undertaken: did you simply power them off of the stock leads comming to the rear from the OEM amp? I have been told that replacing the front speakers (which provide much more of the soundstage information as perceived by the front seat occupants) will do a lot more to improve the sound quality of the system than changing the rear speakers can. The rears are far less critical and provide mostly fill-in sound. Obviously, the sub with far less directionality than is inherant in mid-range and tweeters can improve the SQ regardless of where it is located. The trunk or rear deck is the logical location because a 12" or bigger speaker is not going to fit in very many other locations in the average vehicle.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

Absolutely true. I beleive he said he was going from the Pioneer Premium possibly to a Nak. I think the Pioneer Premium has the CD changer and the 10" sub w/ amp. If your head unit does not have a CD button, then best bet is to just rip the whole thing out and go totally aftermarket. Shelling out more $$ for one of our skipping CD changers in addition to a Nak head, sub and amp makes no sense.

DetMich1

The term "Premium" was used with even the basic OEM sound system with or without CD changer. Rather loose use of the term wouldn't you say? The addition of the CD changer included the upgrade to 10" and some additional wattage (I don't remember how much but certainly no more than an additional 100 watts). The 12 disc changer is notorious for slow cycling and skipping, that's why many have chosen to replace it with a 6 disc model from the ES. If you do a search I know you will find numerous references to which model is a direct plug and play sustitution and works perfectly with the OEM HU.

SCoupe

Let me clarify the existing system. It's the "Pioneer Premium" with the CD button and 12-cd changer in the trunk. Unfortunately I seemed to have landed the smaller sub. When I installed the Infinity 6002's I measured the sub: a Pioneer 8" subwoofer in a 10" frame.

DetMitch1, the rear Infiniti Reference 6002i 6 1/2" are powered off the existing OEM amp and play well (to my ear), these are relatively efficient speakers at 92 dB sensitivity and handle 60 watts. They pack a wallop in that rear deck, vast improvement, so if the front is an even better location, then excellent, armed with that awesome "how-to" thread from RSTSpeed I'm sure as hell going to get in there and make that swap using those potent 6002i's and fab a mount as he did for the door. Guess that leaves the tweeters...thoughts? Bother?

At this point I think I should definitly change out the 4" weezers in the front doors to the 6002i's, get a shallow mount 10" free air and a new decent mono amp to power same. I think this would surpass a Nak at that point. Keep existing Pio HU, existing amp and 12-disk CD.

btw, in a PM to me, member Salil022 states that his 1996 ES300 6 disk was a direct plug and play to Pioneer Head Units for 92-97 SC owners.

southernsc

there are also a few companies that use neodymium powered woofers that you could put in there with plenty of space inbetween the sub and tank. however i have never heard these subs in person so i dont know how they fair