Toog4me

I consider my system pretty good:

4 kenwood monitors (2 in headrest, 2 in visors)
pioneer p7300dvd + 7 inch widescreen fold out monitor
pioneer navigation and dvd player
polykevlar components in the front and back (replacing them with rainbows)
2 Kove Armageddon U-2 Series 12s custom installed in the trunk
2 1.0 farad capacitators
1 zapco z600 c2-sl for the components
1 c2k 6.0x for the subs... insane power...

thinking if i left anything out...




dont even get me started on home theatre. does b and O bangfen... 2 in each rear corner, my whole entire wall (appx. 100 feet diagonal) is my screen, and so on and so on...


i love that there is a forum where we can talk about this stuff... what are all of you running in your home and car?

Lex Luthor

Toog, adopt me? I'm reaaally starting to hate this kid....

lex400sc

Toog4me, post some pics of your Cessna and Scarab too! Oh and how long is your yacht??

Fantius

I purchased the Pioneer when I had my stereo installed and was told by the installer that it was too deep to clear the gas tank, so I still have the Nak sub in there, but the other stuff is upgraded. I would like to hear what aftermarket sub drop-in replacements have people been succesful with?

lex400sc

Fantius,

You have about 4.75 inches of space from the baffle to a stupid screw that is placed right below the sub opening on the gas tank. The JL Audio 10IB4 is about 5.2 inches deep. However, you can and should put in an MDF board in place as a baffle between the metal rear dash and the woofer. This will add 0.75 inches to your clearance, which will make the JL 10-inch free-air a perfect fit. And these JL free-airs knock pretty impressively.

Fantius

I just tried to measure my Pioneer that I still have laying around, but I wasn't sure how you were measuring. The overall height of it is 5.75", or the height measuring from the back of the mounting ring is just over 5". Do you think it will fit? How much does the spacer add? Where can I get one? Thanks for the info.

Fantius

Okay, I just got done pulling the rear seats and checking out the situation for myself. The pioneer doesn't bump up against the gas tank, but the supports [on the sub] between the mounting ring and the magnet won't fit down into the hole. So I put everything back together the way it was. Taking the seats out was pretty easy, but I wasn't able to get the rear dash clips back in place, oh well, the seat belt brackets hold it in place pretty good.

There looks to be plenty of room for two 10" subs in the back between the two midranges. But you would need to do some serious cutting and make a new steel plate to replace everything that was cut out and to mount the subs to. Anyone tried or thought about this? I just hate the thought of eating up what little trunk space we have with a sub enclosure. I won't do it.

PERRYinLA

You are right- there is room to install 2 subs back there, which is what "retrodrive" did in his LS- see his post and pics at:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...highlight=subs

The other option (see pic below) is what "marcman18" did out of fiberglass - that's a 1 cubic foot box that only intrudes maybe 6 inches into the trunk area. The amp goes where the stock woofer was. I've been researching the fiberglass techniques necessary to build such an enclosure and it ain't easy, but I'm getting closer to taking the plunge. I'll let everyone know what I end up doing.

Lex Luthor

lex400sc, you have to use the frame from the oe sub to run the JL free air in there, the rear deck isn't curved in a way that you could put an MDF baffle there, at least not on the top side, and it wouldn't do nearly as much good on the underside.

Fantius

Thanks PERRYinLA. He did a nice job, but it's totally different without the gas tank in the way. The other reason I don't want to go to the trunk is you'll have to push more power to get the same sound inside the cabin. It's not like most cars where there is just a thin layer separating the trunk from the cabin -- we got lots of metal. And more power, especially in the trunk, means more unwanted rattling.

Toog4me

Trust me, this is really all i got.. no boats, nothing like that. just this, and one summer house.
Most of the money came from insurance a few years back and we had to build our house so we saved a lot of dough... the rest came from my grandfather who was murdered by ***** in the holocaust, and trust me, ive had to work my *** off for this stuff, maybe not as much as i should have, but i think ive deserved some of it.

lex400sc

We were just havin' fun with ya Toog . The fact that everyone here owns a Lexus makes us all a little privileged by world standards. The main point is that we all share the same cool cars, which is the reason we're here. That is truly horrible what happened to your grandfather, I'm sorry you never got a chance to get to know him .

Toog4me

Thanks... yeah, i never got to know him but thats who im named after, benjamin.
I think this site is the best forum site every; i never heard of it till three weeks ago, and i put up two threads about a serious question, and i got thirty replies within two days... and the way people think of their cars- even the cars that are 12 years old, really interests me and l can tell that lexus owners really apreciate their cars. When i go to the bmw forums, people refer to their 95 325ic as a piece of **** and it just shows how ungreatful they are..


keep up all the good work moderators and posters.

strongsail

Great stuff, I came looking for info on this exact subject! I'm a new SC400 owner, may be cruisin' these forums quite a bit - -

My car has the Nak system, and it sounds fine as far as general accuracy and staging go, but bass is definitely lacking. I end up cranking the bass control all the way up to get decent bass at moderate volume levels, and that bugs me - as an old home hi-fi hound, I like running everything flat! I don't have any desire to make my car into a "thumpmobile" (too old for that, and a jazz fan) but really want more low end.

I will definitely look into the free-air subs mentioned above and will install one of them and report back how it worked out.

In my search for an answer to this admittedly less-than-critical problem, I have learned that Nakamichi has cut the cord with Lexus, now that they have moved on to Mark Levinson as their high-end system vendor. Nak has handed all its Lexus-related repair work, manuals, etc. to Pioneer, who I guess provided most of the system anyway. I have inferred from my research that Pioneer supplied most of the Lexus audio stuff in the SC300/400, including the dash unit and the CD changer in the Nak system - the only Nak part is the 5-channel power amp. Is this true? Does anybody know? Because I need a cassette door for the dash unit too - not that I plan to use cassettes all that often, but the hole where the door should be looks ugly! The Pioneer factory parts desk (800-421-1404) absolutely needs model numbers off the units before they can look anything up. Does anyone have the numbers for the dash unit and the Nak amp??

And - - last question (for now) - does anybody know the power output of the Nak amp? I gather it is rated ar 4 ohms, but that's not surprising - it will look more powerful rated at 4 than at 8. I am obviously most interested in the output of the sub amp - -

TIA for your good feedback,
strongsail

PERRYinLA

Welcome to ClubLexus, strongsail ! I'm certain others will post useful information on this thread to help you out, but keep in mind there is a wealth of information on this subject that you will find by searching previous posts.

The Reader's Digest version: There are several free-air woofers that fit right into the stock woofer frame and can run off the stock Nak amp (woofer channel output- about 100W RMS). They do sound better than stock, but serious bassheads seem to feel you have to use an enclosure in the trunk and fire the air through the hole left by removing the stock woofer.

Armed with all the information ClubLexus members have so generously provided, I'm gonna be upgrading my Nak stereo as well this summer, so we can compare notes!