marcmindte

Are they full of Dung? I went down there and said what are my options to replace my 98 es300 stock Nakamichi, but keep my speakers and sub. They said that it is not doable. You have to replace all the Speakers, Tweeter, Stock Wiring and Amp with all new stuff. No head unit or aftermarket amp will be able to run the old wires and speakers.

Is that right?

MadMax96

Not sure about the Nak systems, but that wouldn't surprise me. The same thing goes with other premium sound systems in other cars like some that have Bose systems. The speakers have weird ohm ratings and are not compatible with aftermarket stereos.

The speakers that are part of the Nak system are probably matched to the headunit and/or amp.

Hopefully someone will chime in with specifics... but just letting you know that your situation isn't uncommon.

noop

actually I have read on here about a few members that have only changed the head unit to aftermarket and kept all the stock speakers... as a matter of fact I just bought a new aftermarket nav/headunit and I am going to be using my stock speakers.... until I build my trunk setup then I'll be replacing everything with new speakers and amps.

kietlander

dont listen to best buy, circuit city, tweeters, al and eds.. what ever is close to u. they tell u u need to replace EVERYTHING cuz they make money off u.

mikal

Yup, they just want you to buy a COMPLETE whole new system.

All you simply do is hook up the headunit and wire the speaker output on the headunit to the input of the factory amp right?

MadMax96

If you connect the speaker output of an aftermarket stereo to the amp - will it be at the correct levels? Or are you saying to connect the RCA outputs of the new stereo to the amp? Or is the Lexus amp is made to accept speaker level inputs unlike an aftermarket amp?

I'm actually just curious at this point...

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Now you know why you should never take a Lexus to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. You're much better off at Tweeter or a custom shop.

Here's the basic story:
1) It makes absolutely no sense to replace a stock headunit and not the amp. You can't easily mate an aftermarket headunit to the stock amp, nor would you want to. A cheap amp will be equal or better, a decent amp will be better, and if you buy something even better than that, the stock amp is severely outclassed. We're not talkin' much money here, and the headunit plugs right in.

2) If you're keeping the headunit, and replacing everything else (as I did), care needs to be taken to achieve the proper balance of electrical levels, protect from overdrive, and maintain shielding from noise and proper grounding. Not for the novice or faint of heart. Pretty useless thing to do if you have a stock Pioneer headunit, but the Nakamichi headunits are sometimes worth keeping.

3) If you're keeping headunit and stock amp, and looking for more bass/new sub, you can add a line-level converter (LLC) off the existing sub wires from the stock amp and add just a new sub amp and new sub. Use the search function to find more info on this, it's been discussed extensively and done a gazillion times.

4) If you're keeping headunit and stock amp, and replacing all speakers (the above applies for the sub at least), you will typically gain improvement in sound, but very dependent on which speakers you put in. There truly is no magic to this, many speakers will fit in, but the impedance and other characteristics of the new speakers matter. It's usually trial-and-error whether you get a big improvement in sound, usually because the amp just doesn't sound that great even with new speakers. You can also put in LLC's on all four amp outputs plus the sub output, thus making the amp basically a pass-thru that doesn't have to provide significant power or deal with speaker dynamics, so it stays reasonably clean. You then add a new 4 or 5 channel amp that does the new deed, and then your speaker choice becomes infinite.

For you newer guys, these topics have been discussed EXTENSIVELY. That's pretty much what this forum is all about. So if you latch on to some search terms and search, you will turn up a wealth of information, including install pics.

Jerry

themblues

I replaced my head unit in my '93 SC and it came out as good as you could want. I left all the Nak speakers and replaced the head unit (ran the 4 corners @ 22 watts RMS from that) and a new 120 RMS amp for the separate sub out. It was as clear as a bell and was at least as loud and clear as the stock amp. The Nak speakers can take it, but much more than what I mentioned would be dicey. This is a much cheaper option than replacing all the speakers and leaving the head unit. I'm not sure about keeping the head unit, but you would have to buy at least a new 5 channel amp. But I think the Nak system (and perhaps the pio) uses a DIN cable for signal which is a real pain to replace/modify