DIY: 2001 LX 470 Apple CarPlay stereo install, Mark Levinson Amp Removal, Speaker Replacement (1 Viewer)

[EastTN01LX470]

Thanks! So, are you using the stock speakers or aftermarket? IIRC the stock speakers have a non-typical resistance rating (2 ohm vs 4 I think) so I replaced them. If you're using the stock speakers, take a look at the picture gallery in my writeup, I think I included some diagrams from the electrical wiring diagram manual that show how the stock speakers connect. Did the mids/tweeters work before the install?

Also, with regard to the sub, take the panel off and verify that it's still in good shape. You can re-cone them and someone else has a big long thread on that, but I don't believe you can just hook up an aftermarket amp to it unless you find the wires going to it specifically and pull those out of the harness. Then there's the single-vs-dual voice coil subwoofer, so you'll have two or four leads. I said forget that mess, since it's only a 6" sub anyway. I bought a 10" rockford fosgate powered sub and called it a day

I am running the stock speakers currently. I haven't owned it very long and now I'm questioning whether the tweeters and mids in the front doors were working. Not sure if its common for all four of those speakers to be dead at the same time. Im gonna buy a voltmeter and see if I can determine if any signal is getting pushed through the wires. Im only using the headunits built in amp. Im not wanting to buy a separate amp to power anything. Just trying to economically, get bluetooth streaming and handsfree calling technology.

The foam on the rear sub is definitely shot, If I can figure out how to power it with the Mark Levinson amp I will buy a repair kit for it.

 

[Pyrenees]

I am running the stock speakers currently. I haven't owned it very long and now I'm questioning whether the tweeters and mids in the front doors were working. Not sure if its common for all four of those speakers to be dead at the same time. Im gonna buy a voltmeter and see if I can determine if any signal is getting pushed through the wires. Im only using the headunits built in amp. Im not wanting to buy a separate amp to power anything. Just trying to economically, get bluetooth streaming and handsfree calling technology.

The foam on the rear sub is definitely shot, If I can figure out how to power it with the Mark Levinson amp I will buy a repair kit for it.

The way the headunit interacts with the amp is weird, like it's got a common ground or something. I doubt you can use the ML amp for anything once the headunit is bypassed in that regard. If you do, please post it.

 

[chogunn]

I am running the stock speakers currently.

I didn't know this but Crutchfield's tech support helped me understand that my modern head unit (Sony XAV-X1000) would overheat if used with my stock 2ohm speakers. I ended up ordering new speakers and a powered sub. Maybe I bought a sales pitch hook line and sinker, but I think I read somewhere on here that this could be the case and I've generally felt like I could trust Crutchfield's not to upsell me.

 

[Pyrenees]

I didn't know this but Crutchfield's tech support helped me understand that my modern head unit (Sony XAV-X1000) would overheat if used with my stock 2ohm speakers. I ended up ordering new speakers and a powered sub. Maybe I bought a sales pitch hook line and sinker, but I think I read somewhere on here that this could be the case and I've generally felt like I could trust Crutchfield's not to upsell me.

You are correct that your amp will work harder and you do risk damage, although I don't know how likely or extensive it is. It's not all that much more expensive to put aftermarket speakers in the LX, it's just the time involved to open the door panels/etc. I put all sorts of measurements and pictures of the speaker boxes in my photo gallery above. Even a cheap set of aftermarket speakers (like less than $100 for all four doors) is probably far superior to the 17 year old rotted cones that are likely to be in that vehicle.

 

[chogunn]

You are correct that your amp will work harder and you do risk damage, although I don't know how likely or extensive it is. It's not all that much more expensive to put aftermarket speakers in the LX, it's just the time involved to open the door panels/etc. I put all sorts of measurements and pictures of the speaker boxes in my photo gallery above. Even a cheap set of aftermarket speakers (like less than $100 for all four doors) is probably far superior to the 17 year old rotted cones that are likely to be in that vehicle.

Your photo album and walk through are very helpful!. Something that you had mentioned that I was pleasantly surprised about - I removed my Mark Levinson amp and without doing anything with those two wire bundles hooked the battery back up, and the new head unit powered right up. Everything worked. I was concerned about power going up to the HU from the amp, but that doesn't seem to be the case. All I need to do now is run the new 9 wire bundle down through the interior, disconnect the four pairs of speaker wires running to the doors, and marry them together correctly.

I ended up buying this kit to install in doors and under the passenger seat:
Rockford Fosgate R14X2 - 4" rear doors
Rockford Fosgate R165-S - 6.5" front door with crossovers in the tweeters
I got foam speaker baffles for both sets of door speakers, maybe they'll work but they were cheap
Sound Ordinance B-8PTD and the installation kit

So hopefully that'll do the trick. It should! It's gotta be better than my bluetooth speaker sitting in the cupholder right now.

 

[Pyrenees]

@chogunn how did it go?

 

[chogunn]

@chogunn how did it go?

Everything is working great. On a 3500mi road trip and it is so nice to have CarPlay for maps, music, etc.. the rest of the Cruiser is great to have too.

 

[longshanks]

Sound Ordinance B-8PTD and the installation kit

Just curious why you went with this rather than re-using the existing ML factory sub?

Did you HU not have a sub output?

The one I am planning to use says it has pre-amp outputs for a sub, and I rarely blast bass, so wondering if I could get away with just hooking those pre-amp outputs directly to the factory sub to get "just enough" bass...

 

[chogunn]

Just curious why you went with this rather than re-using the existing ML factory sub?

Did you HU not have a sub output?

The one I am planning to use says it has pre-amp outputs for a sub, and I rarely blast bass, so wondering if I could get away with just hooking those pre-amp outputs directly to the factory sub to get "just enough" bass...

My reasoning was - super easy to set it up underneath passenger seat, and I had removed the nav unit and factory AMP, so my new head unit does have a signal for sub but no amperage.

Also, I was anticipating selling everything stock to put me in the green with the project. I’ve sold the ML amp, Nav ECU, stock sub, and stock head unit, and definitely recouped my expenses plus a little more. That’s a great swap in my book!

 

[z450]

Hi! I have been putting over your pictures & posts! They are awesome!

I am about 25% of the way through the process you went through & have a couple questions.

1) How did you identify the reverse wire near the head unit? The reverse wire near the camera is easy, but not sure how to track it down in the front.

2) did you go the eBay route on all the components you removed? I will basically have a full nav system, amp and speakers when I am done & wasn’t sure the best way to try and recoup some of the investment.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Pyrenees]

Hi! I have been putting over your pictures & posts! They are awesome!

I am about 25% of the way through the process you went through & have a couple questions.

1) How did you identify the reverse wire near the head unit? The reverse wire near the camera is easy, but not sure how to track it down in the front.

2) did you go the eBay route on all the components you removed? I will basically have a full nav system, amp and speakers when I am done & wasn’t sure the best way to try and recoup some of the investment.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

1) Honestly it's been so long that if I didn't document it somewhere in these posts then I have no idea anymore.

2) I sold off the amp and headunit either on here or ebay. The speakers were all completely trashed and I just threw them away.

 

[prwillard2]

Hi! I have been putting over your pictures & posts! They are awesome!

I am about 25% of the way through the process you went through & have a couple questions.

1) How did you identify the reverse wire near the head unit? The reverse wire near the camera is easy, but not sure how to track it down in the front.

2) did you go the eBay route on all the components you removed? I will basically have a full nav system, amp and speakers when I am done & wasn’t sure the best way to try and recoup some of the investment.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Ebay for the parts. I got nearly as much for the stuff in my 01 as I paid for the new parts

 

[z450]

Ebay for the parts. I got nearly as much for the stuff in my 01 as I paid for the new parts

Awesome!

Any suggestions on locating the reverse wire for the new head unit?

 

[prwillard2]

Unfortunately no. I had a professional shop install my backup camera and wire in new amp/speakers/sub once I changed the hvac controls

 

[Surf123]

I didn't know this but Crutchfield's tech support helped me understand that my modern head unit (Sony XAV-X1000) would overheat if used with my stock 2ohm speakers. I ended up ordering new speakers and a powered sub. Maybe I bought a sales pitch hook line and sinker, but I think I read somewhere on here that this could be the case and I've generally felt like I could trust Crutchfield's not to upsell me.

Crutchfield is correct, 2 ohm speakers would definitely have tortured your head unit. 8 ohm speakers would have been fine though the output volume would be less than expected. It is also true that a $100 worth of speakers are better than the 17 year old ones in the car and may have been better 17 years ago.

For those wanting to keep their OEM speakers there are kits to replace the rotted foam. Easy to do it yourself and I think it was something like $80 for the kit to do (4) speakers. I did the speakers in my '02LC and a friends '06LC including subs in both. Makes the speakers effectively brand new again and you will be shocked at what it is supposed to sound versus what it sounded like with the rotted foam.

 

[TxTchRR]

Thanks for this guide. Didn't change the speakers (yet), but saved my bacon with removing the cigarette lighter piece, would have sworn I was going to break it and would have probably quit until I read your part of that.

Also, for future reference, if you're installing an Alpine head unit, make sure you buy a parking brake bypass. Grounding the wire doesn't work and they lock everything down. Temp fix is to jump parking brake wire from the headunit to the illumination wire and then toggle headlight switch. Not smooth, but at least got me up and running, will install a bypass later.

 

[Poussard321]

Firstly, thank you for this write up, it made installing my Alpine ILX-507 head unit with the TYTO-01 Harness a breeze!

I have a 2001 LX470 that came with Mark Levinson Sound but without Navigation. It's been 4 or 5 months now, I love the head unit and I've re-foamed the Mark Levinson speakers and the Mark Levinson subwoofer and they sound decent, but now I'm ready to upgrade to a new 5-channel amp, new door speakers and a new Subwoofer in a separate sealed enclosure. I have a question since it looks like there's a few guys in this thread who may have done something similar:

If I'm planning on keeping and using the factory speaker wire for all 4 door speakers, and since the signal for those speakers will be fed to the amp via RCA from the head unit, do I need to run any new wires at all from the head unit to the new Amp, aside from maybe 12v remote wire? (or could I possibly use the remote wire that told the factory amp when to turn on and not have to run any new wires?)

Thank you in advance!

Don

 

[Pyrenees]

Sounds right to me, RCA cables and turn on lead (and obviously, the amp will need power and a ground too). You might be able to hijack the original turn on lead, but honestly I'd probably just run a new one along with the RCA cables since you're already there.