Replacing Factory Speakers 1996 Es300

bradm20 · May 27, 2004

I have a question for the A/V people out there. I am looking to replace my front and rear speakers with a good new set of speakers (probably Kappa's). I was wondering if these speakers can be used with the factory amp, or will a seperate amp be needed. If so what should i expect to pay an audio shop to install the new speakers, and wire the amp. Any help or recommendations are appreciated.

jragosta · May 27, 2004

I have a question for the A/V people out there. I am looking to replace my front and rear speakers with a good new set of speakers (probably Kappa's). I was wondering if these speakers can be used with the factory amp, or will a seperate amp be needed. If so what should i expect to pay an audio shop to install the new speakers, and wire the amp. Any help or recommendations are appreciated.

I would probably not just replace the factory speakers with new ones. The factory speakers are designed with high sound efficiency (paired with the relatively low power of Lexus amps).

You could choose your own speakers and amps, but I would again recommend against it. Speakers that sound great in the shop may sound terrible in the car due to the acoustic signature of the car. A good installer will help you select speakers that are going to sound good with your car and then will equalize them to get an even better sounding result. You're probably not going to be able to do that on your own (or you wouldn't need to ask this question).

Price? You can find lots of people who will simply slap a cheap amp and speakers in for a few hundred dollars. To have it done right is going to be expensive. I would guess that $1 K probably barely gets you into the range of decent systems. The total could be many times that figure if you go all out.

Unless you're very, very picky about your music, you may not consider it worth the expense. I listen to music all the time and find my stock Lexus system to be more than adequate.