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This will serve to document the process of upgrading your speakers if you have the standard Pioneer stereo (stock) in your LS430. If you have Mark Levinson Navigation or the seemingly rare non-nav Mark Levinson system, then get out... there are pages of threads out there for you. For the standard stereo cars, your options are pretty limited unless you run new speaker wire and run the speakers off of a different amp. To utilize the factory amp, you need to make sure you get speakers that are the correct ohm rating. For the fronts, they are 2ohm. The problem is, there aren't many offerings for 2ohm speakers and the ones I had in my Crutchfield cart for ages are no longer stocked. Well, I got lucky and they took a pair back on a return and I pulled the trigger.
From Crutchfield so they come with the adapter brackets and wiring harness. You'll have to clip the connectors of the wire harness and screw them directly into these speakers, which was easy.
Here is how I oriented the bracket and only ended up drilling one hole for it. I was worried that the screw might make contact with the window, so I cut the tip off of it, though it would have been fine had I left it, more than likely.
I did use the cut out to feed a ziptie through to secure the speaker wires. On these speakers, the tweeter portion rotates for optimum sound. Neat.
When I removed both door panels, this piece fell off. I guess the Texas heat got to it, so I had to use my wife's hot glue gun to reattach.
Test everything before you button it up, including window operation to make sure nothing binds or gets hit, as well as door handle and lock function since you have to disconnect them to remove the panel. Once it was done, I fired up some tunes and they sound great. I will update this thread once I order rear speakers, which are factory rated at 4ohms, and the subwoofer, which is 2ohms. I already have the subwoofer but I'm waiting until I do the rear shocks so I only have to take things apart once.
If you're a standard stereo guy or gal, I highly recommend a new headunit if you haven't already done so. There is plenty of information on this forum about that upgrade and I will add that using the BeatSonic kit makes this a very easy upgrade, though slightly expensive.
Great information, Romanova! I liked your idea to drill the hole instead of trying to fit custom speakers in to original bracket (which I did).
I would like like to add that installing speakers of much higher impedance than 2 ohms (up to 8 ohms) will do absolutely no damage to amplifier. This is important to know when shopping for speakers.
Great information, Romanova! I liked your idea to drill the hole instead of trying to fit custom speakers in to original bracket (which I did).
I would like like to add that installing speakers of much higher impedance than 2 ohms (up to 8 ohms) will do absolutely no damage to amplifier. This is important to know when shopping for speakers.
I didn't know that... kinda' feel dumb now as I could have gotten larger front speakers!
Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the info guys, Just picked up a 2002 LS with the non ML system and speakers are blown and I can't have that..lol
So from what I read here, I can run 4ohm in the front doors without issue then?
That is correct. Amplifiers have problems overheating when running a speaker that is rated a lower ohm than they are designed to use on that channel. Using a higher ohm speaker will not cause amp to overheat. There may be lower volume at a given volume position when running a higher ohm speaker (assuming sensitivity is rated the same). But balance control will compensate for that.
If I were installing something like a 4 ohm speaker into a channel designed for 2 ohms, I'd try to find a speaker with high sensitivity (maybe rated 92db or above ).
11-02-18, 02:22 PM
How to: Speaker upgrade for non-nav non-ML LS430
For the standard stereo cars, your options are pretty limited unless you run new speaker wire and run the speakers off of a different amp. To utilize the factory amp, you need to make sure you get speakers that are the correct ohm rating. For the fronts, they are 2ohm. The problem is, there aren't many offerings for 2ohm speakers and the ones I had in my Crutchfield cart for ages are no longer stocked. Well, I got lucky and they took a pair back on a return and I pulled the trigger.
