Satellite Radio for ES 300

[balthazarad]

I have a 1995 ES 300 in mint condition. I want to add satellite radio but do not want to remove anything from the interior of the car. (existing radio, dash board elements, etc.) What is the best solution to this problem? Sound quality matters to me.

[Toysrme]

I'm sure they make an FM tranciever version / module just like CD players do.
Tune the installed radio to whatever channel the sat radio's FM transmitter boradcasts on.


The problem is that you loose large amounts of quality in the process. The average joe wouldn't mind, but an audiophille would go bezerk listening to music over one.


Otherwise you're SOL.



You can pull the factory radio & replace them. You have to re-wire into the stock harness by hand. (Very few plug & play adapters work) Easy to do with a harness.
Keep in mind the ES power ant's are tuned length. They have a high & low setting depending on the frequency. You will loose this & just have a down / up ant.

The stock AMP typically needs to be bypassed with a good aftermarket head unit, or when upgrading to non-paper speakers as the amp can't drive much power. It doesn't sound very good to amplify and amplified signal! Tho a good headunit will have pre amp out's. If so, the stock unit can be retained.

Stock speaker wiring can stay unless you're going to push a lot of power through them. (The speaker wires need to be spliced together at the amp wiring harness if you bypass the amp - Obviously)


AFA the faceplate... The stock wood in most ES's is a dark, or light mohogany. If you really try, or really want to pay some money, you can get one of the aftermarket wood dash companies to make you a faceplate for the radio.

Personally, I put down a mohogany floor last year. I picked a scrap piece that matched fairly well & cut it to fit two gauges & my radio on a scroll saw. It was free, but took a few tries to get everything right. Isn't a perfect match, but is acceptable.