Client had shopped all over the valley for someone to install some of his own gear he purchased for his 'somewhat' complicated OEM Amplifier bypass....and he quickly realized it might not be worth the expense that they wanted to charge.
Then he found Trax Customs.
We are pretty proud to be one of the only shops in the state that will install your own gear, new or used, and do so without charging you an arm and/or a leg.
After some research, here is what we both ended up deciding on:
1998 Lexus LX470
Pioneer MVH-S600BS Headunit with Bluetooth, Aux and USB Inputs
Pioneer GM-D1004 4 Channel Amplifier
Pioneer TS-D1330C 5.25" Component Speakers
Pioneer TS-D1002R 4" Coaxial Speakers
Hybrid Audio I6SW-V2 6.5" Subwoofer
Raptor 8ga Amplifier Kit with Additional RCA Cables
Custom Ordered DDIN Dash kit
The issue here is that there was a Factory Pioneer Amplified Speaker system in the car with an over-sized Multi-CD Headunit in the dash....all of which needs to be completely removed and replaced in order to get things working correctly. They don't necessarily make any plug-n-play replacement parts when you do this either, so everything needs to be custom re-wired and fabricated.
HEADUNIT
The stereo is easily removed; but replacing it isn't so easy....I only used 4 wires up in the dash and the rest of the communications heads on down under the passenger seat where the factory amp was. I secured the custom dash bezel onto the OEM dash surround and fabricated up some brackets to support the new Pioneer MVH-S600BS headunit.
AMPLIFIER
The OEM Pioneer amp wasn't as complicated to bypass as most OEM amps, because it still ran the front stage as one unit instead of breaking up the high/low outputs....so wiring up the Pioneer GM-D1004 as simple....and I retained the OEM Amp bracket and kept enough room to power up an additional amplifier if needed in the future. Right now, since we were going as minimal as possible on products and uses, this 4 channel amp became a 3 channel amp to power the front component speakers as well as the rear Hybrid Audio subwoofer....the rear door speakers will run off the Pioneer headunits internal amplifier until a dedicated subwoofer amplifier is added. This way we can power the front stage with 50 watts and the subwoofer with 150-200 watts and keep the system nice and equal.
SPEAKERS
The front stage was somewhat straight forward....as was the rear.
I had to fabricate speaker adapters for the front and rear speakers to fit into the Pioneer ported enclosures that reside in each door. Here is where you usually run into issue with having others purchase products....the customer could have gotten away with buying 5.25" Coaxials instead of the 4" ones he did....but I made the work regardless...he'll lose a bit of mid-bass but not much.
I did some router magic to copy the factory 5.25" midbass woofers with 1/4" thick ABS to create just enough depth to clear the larger woofer magnets. Then I fabricated some support brackets to make sure the tweeters were aimed correctly. Then the pioneer in-line crossovers were secured for easy access to the DB selector switch so that you can modify the sound without having to pull the entire door panel off.
SUBWOOFER
The rear subwoofer was pretty straight forward...once you get access to the box by removing half of the rear panels, then you can removed the factory box and speaker. I had to make a small spacer ring out of ABS as well as grind down some rear baffling to clear the massive 6.5" subwoofer and the magnet they put on this bad boy.
Then I retained the factory wiring from the box to the new amplifier since it was wired for a dual voice coil woofer, I had 4 strands of factory wiring to use.....so in the future if the amplifier is increased in power, the wiring can be retained as well.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This systems sound much better than the factory worn-out system.
Much more mid-bass. Much lower lows and definitely higher highs.
It could have used some sound deadening to tighten up the mid-bass....but other than that, the customer was happy, so I'm happy.
Then he found Trax Customs.
We are pretty proud to be one of the only shops in the state that will install your own gear, new or used, and do so without charging you an arm and/or a leg.
After some research, here is what we both ended up deciding on:
1998 Lexus LX470
Pioneer MVH-S600BS Headunit with Bluetooth, Aux and USB Inputs
Pioneer GM-D1004 4 Channel Amplifier
Pioneer TS-D1330C 5.25" Component Speakers
Pioneer TS-D1002R 4" Coaxial Speakers
Hybrid Audio I6SW-V2 6.5" Subwoofer
Raptor 8ga Amplifier Kit with Additional RCA Cables
Custom Ordered DDIN Dash kit
The issue here is that there was a Factory Pioneer Amplified Speaker system in the car with an over-sized Multi-CD Headunit in the dash....all of which needs to be completely removed and replaced in order to get things working correctly. They don't necessarily make any plug-n-play replacement parts when you do this either, so everything needs to be custom re-wired and fabricated.
HEADUNIT
The stereo is easily removed; but replacing it isn't so easy....I only used 4 wires up in the dash and the rest of the communications heads on down under the passenger seat where the factory amp was. I secured the custom dash bezel onto the OEM dash surround and fabricated up some brackets to support the new Pioneer MVH-S600BS headunit.
AMPLIFIER
The OEM Pioneer amp wasn't as complicated to bypass as most OEM amps, because it still ran the front stage as one unit instead of breaking up the high/low outputs....so wiring up the Pioneer GM-D1004 as simple....and I retained the OEM Amp bracket and kept enough room to power up an additional amplifier if needed in the future. Right now, since we were going as minimal as possible on products and uses, this 4 channel amp became a 3 channel amp to power the front component speakers as well as the rear Hybrid Audio subwoofer....the rear door speakers will run off the Pioneer headunits internal amplifier until a dedicated subwoofer amplifier is added. This way we can power the front stage with 50 watts and the subwoofer with 150-200 watts and keep the system nice and equal.
SPEAKERS
The front stage was somewhat straight forward....as was the rear.
I had to fabricate speaker adapters for the front and rear speakers to fit into the Pioneer ported enclosures that reside in each door. Here is where you usually run into issue with having others purchase products....the customer could have gotten away with buying 5.25" Coaxials instead of the 4" ones he did....but I made the work regardless...he'll lose a bit of mid-bass but not much.
I did some router magic to copy the factory 5.25" midbass woofers with 1/4" thick ABS to create just enough depth to clear the larger woofer magnets. Then I fabricated some support brackets to make sure the tweeters were aimed correctly. Then the pioneer in-line crossovers were secured for easy access to the DB selector switch so that you can modify the sound without having to pull the entire door panel off.
SUBWOOFER
The rear subwoofer was pretty straight forward...once you get access to the box by removing half of the rear panels, then you can removed the factory box and speaker. I had to make a small spacer ring out of ABS as well as grind down some rear baffling to clear the massive 6.5" subwoofer and the magnet they put on this bad boy.
Then I retained the factory wiring from the box to the new amplifier since it was wired for a dual voice coil woofer, I had 4 strands of factory wiring to use.....so in the future if the amplifier is increased in power, the wiring can be retained as well.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This systems sound much better than the factory worn-out system.
Much more mid-bass. Much lower lows and definitely higher highs.
It could have used some sound deadening to tighten up the mid-bass....but other than that, the customer was happy, so I'm happy.
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