skikayaker

An amp install is definitely something you'll want to have done by a pro. Circuit City charges $70 plus approx. $35 for an amp kit. The factory amp is located in a tight space behind the back seat and is tough to get to. Once you get to it you'll need to either use it as the power signal source to your new amp or use a signal processor. In any case you'll need to do a little wiring. Furthermore, the space where the existing factory amp is located is not big enough for most of the amps on the market. I even had my installer place a "Memphis Belle" long and narrow amp into the car to see if it would fit and it did not. I got an Eclipse amp (normal size) and had it mounted with four screws on the back of the smaller flip down back rest of the back seat.

There is not room under the seat for a "real" and/or valid subwoofer. To gain a meaningful subwoofer sound for your RX300 you'll need to take up a little real-estate in the back cargo area and place a sub with enclosure in the back. I disconnected my factory sub speaker wire from my amp and plugged in my new sub speaker wire. If I'm ever going on a trip where I need the cargo space I can simply remove the new sub from the back and re-plug in my factory sub that's under the passenger seat. The difference between a real 10" subwoofer and the 5" air port sub under the seat is astounding and probably made more of a difference than any addition to my sound system. I have seen some very small 8" subs w/ a small footprint enclosure that may suit you best, but it would still need to go in the back cargo area.

The tweeter for the Alpines are 1". The factory tweeters in my 1999 RX300 are 1". The problem with the fit is that the 1" Alpines are enclosed in their own enclosure, and the RX300 dash mounts are the enclosure for the factory tweets and disassembling the tweeter from the enclosure in either the factory enclosure or the Alpine enclosure is not recommended. I am still looking for a solution as I don't like the way the tweets are mounted on the frame. I think a crafty audio guru can remove the tweeter from the enclosure and carefully fit them into the factory dashboard enclosure. That's my next little task.

The amp is an Eclipse EA3532 5-channel amp outputting a total spec of 650watts MAX but the real rating is the 4 ohm rating of 40 Watts RMS per speaker (4 speakers) @ 4 ohm and 120 watts RMS x 1 to the sub @ 4 ohm. The output is a bit higher running at 2 ohm and the I have the sub running at 2 ohm since the speaker wiring is configured parallel instead of in series. The THD (distortion) output for the Eclipse amp is low at .004. I am still working on the gain adjustments of my amp. The 6.5" 176a Alpine component fronts are rated at 50 watts RMS and 200 watts peak, and the 6.5" 174a Alpine rear door speakers are rated at 40 watts RMS and 160 watts peak. I think the match is ideal. I think the gain adjustments are still a work in progress. Don't get me wrong, it all sounds very good. Looking at the size of the magnet and the quality of the speaker in the Alpine when comparing them to the OEM Pioneers that were removed from the car it's hard to believe there was even the slightest comparison in sound. I've also found a subwoofer Audiobahn protective cover that may work with my Alpine sub and I'm going to go that route and keep the Alpine sub if I can get that protective cover to work. Incidentally, Pyramid puts out a nice amp fan that top mounts that may be very effective in cooling your amp. I liked what I saw and may very well install that device as my amp has gotten pretty warm/hot.

I finally got my new speakers installed and I can confirm with certainty that despite the factory rear speakers in my 1999 RX300 being 5.3" Pioneer speakers the rear door will support 6.5" speakers, actually, much easier than the front since the depth on the front doors is approximately 3" and the depth on the rear door is approximately 4". The limited depth on the front door speaker mounts required that we modify the mounting frame by popping out the factory front speakers from the mounting frame and reusing the mounting frame with the new speakers since the Alpine fronts were getting in the way of the glass and needed to be anchored a little further away from the glass by reusing the factory 6.5" mounting frame. Even though the tweets on the dashboard are designated as 1" tweets by Lexus, the new tweets were not able to fit in that proprietary housing so I had to have the new alpine tweets mounted on the interior car window frame. The end result is that I have a new 10" sub, new Alpine Tweets as part of a 6.5" component set for the front, new Alpine 6.5" speakers for the rear doors as well. The sound is incredible, but the speaker improvement is not as great as I expected. It turns out that the Lexus Pioneer OEM speakers held their own despite being much chincier looking and much smaller than the new Alpines that I had installed. The big differences were a result of the more powerful amp, and the sub. In fact, the way I had everything installed was incrimental. I first had the amp installed, then the subwoofer, then the door speakers and tweet. The amp definitely overpowered the weak sub under the passenger seat, but when I put the Alpine 10" sub in to place the sound system was incredible. The speaker upgrade resulted in a slight sound improvement with much less distortion at higher volumes. Final thoughts: Anyone thinking of upgrading their 1999 RX300 sound system should keep the head unit, upgrade the amp, upgrade the sub and see what they think. Add speakers if you want, but the factory speakers compete nicely. Although I got a 5-channel amp I'd recommend a four channel amp for the door speakers and tweets, and a separate two channel amp for the sub since that seems to be the part that heats the amp up the most. Anyone thinking of getting an Alpine SBR-102CR which is a great sounding Alpine 1041D 10" Sub integrated into a proprietary Alpine case that is made of great quality should know ahead of time that there is no protecting screen made to mount on that enclosure box. This is a big dissappointment since I will be sharing the sub with groceries, golf clubs, ski boots, kayaking paddles, and my girlfriends bike accessories. I will be returning this sub for that reason alone. It sounds great, but I would definitely puncture the woofer without the needed protection plate. I will be getting a fully enclosed sub and enclosure within a week. That's it for now. Happy listening to all!!

I had a guy install my Eclipse 5-channel amp into my 1999 RX300 and he was faced with an issue of not enough juice to the new more powerful amp, and he simply used the existing Pioneer/Toyota 190-watt amp located under and behind the rear seat to provide the necessary electronic signal to the new amp. It works!!

Check out the thread named "AUDIOPHILE" in this RX300 section of this board for detailed information regarding the RX300 audio system.

I just got off the phone with Lexus Customer Care and they gave me the following info: The 190-watt Pioneer/Toyota amp. located under and behind the back seat outputs 108-Watts of RMS (continuous power) at 4 Ohms and handles the electronic crossover internally. The THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is 0.1. The 6.3" front full range speakers in the front doors are separate from the 1" tweeters located on the dashboard. I originally thought these were components with a built-in crossover but it seems that the crossover is handled by the amp. The rear door speakers are only 5.5" full range. The sub located under the front passenger seat is a 5" sub. The Circuit City audio department installers catalog listed the RX300 as having 6.5" for all door speakers. This may be true for the space available. I hope so because I've already ordered 6.5" Alpines all the way around and I don't want to do any cutting. That's all I have for now.

I agree BV. Just looking at the amplifier kind of tells the story. When they showed me the amp it had all the factory wires plugged into a plastic housing that was somewhat proprietary. The wire gauge was a bit thin and the design was good for production in an assembly plant, but not so good for upgrading your amp or high end audio output. I'm glad I had someone who knew what they were doing to install my new upgrade amplifier.

One more point for those who are reading these posts and are interested in upgrading their 1999 RX300 audio system. When my amp. installer did an ohm test they tested 4 ohms for all four main speakers in the car, and they tested the subwoofer to be rated at 2 ohms. I presume that the oem factory Pioneer speakers are a cheaper paper cone than standard aftermarket stuff and I'm guessing that the watt rating is approx. 15-watts RMS (it would be considerably higher for peak). I'm basing this on how my factory speakers are handling my 40-watts per channel RMS amp and on what my amplifier installer told me.

Hi SK, I forgot to answer the preamp question: you wrote: i am not sure about the installer being ingenous the better way it to add a line level convertor ( much different from a 10 dollar piece for speaker to rca line outs) my answer: I really don't know why the installer did what they did but when they were installing my new amp. upgrade they said that the signal coming from the head unit was not strong enough to deliver a strong signal to feed the new amp, so they opted to use the existing amp to feed the power signal to the amp and deliver the necessary signals from the head unit. This is really all Greek to me, but I hope this makes sense.

Thank you for your reply SK: My main point and question is this: There does not seem to be much information at all regarding specifications regarding the 1999 RX300 Pioneer OEM factory audio system. I managed to see the factory amp and that is how I got the Pioneer/Toyota model number and I searched http://google.com and there were no results when typing in the model number. I upgraded the factory amp and noticed a great improvement in power and clarity as my new Eclipse 5-channel amp (650watts MAX) outputs 40watts RMS x 4 and 120watts x 1 direct to the sub. This is to be expected since the factory amp is a small little 190watt max amp. I've always respected the factory system as being very good for a factory unit and was wondering if I needed to upgrade the speakers to compliment my new amp. So I went back on Google to find specs on the factory speakers, and found nothing. I'm wondering if I need to upgrade the speakers. The reason why I ask this is that when I was offered the Nakamichi upgrade by my Lexus sales rep he said that the factory speakers would not be upgraded, just the amp which would have been a 230watt amp for an additional $600 from the dealer. My thinking is that the speakers were designed to handle a more powerful amp than the Pioneer 190watt, but how much more? If you know the model number of the speakers perhaps I can find specs on them online somewhere, so if you know, please tell all :-) Before the amp install I would frequently want a little more power and noticed a little distortion that seemed to be a power issue. I installed the new powerful amp and I now get the power, and notice the speakers seem to be a little overwhelmed when driving them hard. That is why I've ordered the speakers that have not been delivered yet. Details about the speakers I've ordered to compliment the Eclipse 5-channel amp I had installed last week are listed below: The Alpine specs can be obtained from http://www.alpine-usa.com: Alpine Front Components (SPR-176A/R-Type): http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/pls/admn/i...ain=10&p_more=y Alpine Rear Door speakers (SPR-174A/R-Type): http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/pls/admn/i...ain=10&p_more=y Alpine Subwoofer (SWR-1041D/R-Type / SWR-102CR): http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/pls/admn/i...ain=10&p_more=y I'm actually getting this: (1041D w/ enclosure package) http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/pls/admn/i...y=150&p_main=10

I have a 1999 RX300 and it came with two programmed keys, one valet key, and one wallet key that is flat and fits into a credit card mold for easy wallet placement. The $250 replacement plus $50 for programming is a bit overpriced ... I think you can find a better price than that.

I currently have the factory Pioneer premium sound system installed in my 1999 RX300 and although it sounds great I am planning to upgrade for more overall power and sound. The factory install is complete with the blue screen head unit, 6-CD Changer in the glove box, 190-watts Max. power amplifier (Pioneer/Toyota - Model GM90862T) located behind the rear seat mounted on a bracket bolted to a steel beam going across the car (don't bother trying to install a replacement amp in that spot as it is way too small of a space and you may need to re-connect back to that amp when you sell the car or use the amp as a pre-amp to a better amp), and 7-speakers (I think they are Pioneer OEM speakers) 2-tweaters on the dashboard, 2-fronts (6.5") (I believe the front and tweeters are component and come equipped with a crossover), 2-rears (6.5"), and 1-sub-woofer located under the front passenger seat that uses a port type of system for mediocre woofing noises :-) I've already installed a 5-channel amp (had to mount it on the back seat rest of the left/smaller side seat back) and noticed a considerable improvement in power and now I realize that I've outdone my speakers. So I ordered an Alpine 10"sub (1041D R-Type) and front Alpine 176a R-type components and rear Alpine 174a R-Type speakers. My Question: Does anyone know the specs on the Pioneer OEM factory speakers that come with the 1999 RX300? How they compare to the speakers that I have on order, etc.? I've searched the internet for details to no avail. I've even punched in the model number of the amp on Google and nothing comes up. One final interesting note: When I had my new Eclipse EA3532 5-channel amp installed, the RX300 head unit did not deliver enouch pre-amp juice to power the "real" amp. so the installer ingeniously used the exisiting 190-watt Pioneer/Toyota factory amp to act as the pre-amp signal to the new amp, so the factory amp is still in place. I've decided to leave the sub under the passenger seat so that if I ever get rid of the car I can just remove the Alpine 10" sub and reconnect the speaker wire for the factory sub.