Crawn

Our 2007 ES 350 now has about 1,500 miles. It only has the base system. We added dealership installed XM Satellite, which picks up through an antenna on the trunk. (I'm still trying to figure out if the XM signal reaches the base unit by FM modulator or direct wiring.) Unequivocally, I would not have bought this vehicle if I'd really done my research on this audio. I can get acceptable sound for our Ipod through the jack in the storage bin between seats. Perhaps the CD is ok but who carries CD's anymore. However the FM stereo is poor and the XM Satellite (our favorite on our 2004 GMC Yukon) is terrible. Shame on me for not doing better research. Everything else about the car is outstanding. This audio will drive me nuts and I'm no kid - try 60. Like others, I look forward to any suggestions that might at least tweak improvements in the system.

moucheur

I just took delivery of my ES 350 today, and tested out my base FM radio with precisely this thread in mind. Yes, at the default settings it sounded really pitiful. However, it improved significantly when I dialed the treble down one notch, the midrange up two notches, and the bass up three notches, and adjusted the fader so that the front-back balance on the little graphic display was centered just behind the front of the rear seats. The result was still not quite the level of bliss you'd expect to hear in a $40,000 car, but enjoyable enough at least to keep me from grumbling as I flipped through the stations. If anyone's so disappointed as to consider shelling out extra dough for replacement speakers, I'd certainly recommend fiddling with the fader and bass/mid/treble adjustments before you take out the wallet again. It does help. I think I'll be able to live with mine.

(Other than that, and the discovery that I can't see the dash buttons at night even with the overhead lights on, I love my car. No rattles, wind noises or tranny trouble yet -- knock on wood. That must be what those little chips of walnut on the console and doors are for.)

LexFather

I find the latest base Lexus systems to now be average, instead of above average if not class leading. For instance the GS 400 had a I believe 210 watt standard system, the GS 430 went to 80 watts!!!

It almost makes you want to get the ML.

Robert_J

It's a direct connection to the radio.

My wife has numerous discs of her favorite songs in WMA (320kbps) format. They sound better than XM.

Wattage ratings are almost useless in car audio unless you are an SPL competitor. Listening at normal volume (where you can still have a conversation), you are pushing around 5 to 10 watts to your speakers.

By putting the mids in the doors and the tweeters in the dash, they have introduced phase issues as well as off-axis imaging problems. A simple tweeter mounted an inch or two above the mid in the door would have made a big difference. I'm also disappointed in the bass response from the 10" "sub" mounted in the deck. It only took my wife about a week to inquire about the difficulty of replacing the sub. I've already looked at a few drop-in options. A better upgrade would be a larger sub(s) mounted behind the seat. There's only some carpet pad and a trim piece between the trunk and the cabin.

-Robert

Crawn

My thanks to those that have continued with good responses and suggestions. I do need to make a clarification. Our ES 350 has the Premium Audio w/ Nav. I'm not sure the radio in the Premium is any different that the base unit. Regardless, it does seem poorly designed and I sure wish I'd better checked into the ML.

To Robert J, thanks for your very helpful comments. It does sound like you are considering changing out at least the sub. Several have wondered about the impact of changing speakers. If you've now done so, I'd sure welcome hearing the results. By the way, is the sub in the dash that middle speaker up there? That is, there are 3 speaker "holes" in the dash. Or, are they all tweeter?

To the poster suggesting changing the bass, mid, treble settings, also my thanks. That said, I'd already run them up to a much stronger range. I do need to try changing the "center".

If one pays the cost, does anyone know if the Levinson system can be installed in an existing vehicle?

psp

True to a point. Digital radio is probably more compressed than the 320kbps WMA format. Also, I have had better success with the sound of Sirius than with XM. My Sirius sounds very much like the iPod connection I have (VaisTech) and those songs recorded in Apple LossLess have good dynamics and pretty good definition. Unless it is un-listenable, then isn't it the music that really counts?

Wrong. The more power the less prone to distortion your system shall be. You don't need to use all the power continuously but music is a dynamic medium unless you listen to sine waves at a set level (boring). Remember Robert, for every 3 dB increase in SPL (the perception of just louder) you need to double the power. Also, most of the time, you are probably using less than 1 or 2 watts continuously.

Isn't it an 8 inch subwoofer? Thank goodness the ML system has mids and tweeters in the dash.

Robert_J

Definitely.

I've heard reports of both. I think it really gets down to the channel and sometimes the song playing. But I'd rather have the deeper play lists of XM (even though they recently have been accused of not going as deep).

I've seen the frequency response graphs of AAC lossless compared to the original. They are idenitical to the ear and extremely close to identical when measured.

I didn't mention distortion because the average reader in this section of the forum wouldn't know THD if it bit them on the rear. I was just making a point that power isn't everything.


Again, I was just trying to make a point for the non-audio guys here.

I haven't measured it but I have stuck my head and uppper body in the trunk and looked at it with the intent of replacing it. It's a dual voice coil and each coil is labeled 2.5 ohms. I haven't had time to measure to see if that is DC resistance or nominal impedance. I have a Lambda Acoustics 10" with a copper faraday motor and a Blueprint 10" with an XBL^2 (low distortion technology) motor and both look to be a drop in replacement.

I'm not a fan of mids and tweeters that high. That places them too close to your ears in relationship to the speakers in the doors. In fact, replacing the door speaker with a coaxial would probably have the biggest improvement. The only problem is finding a quality coax speaker. I'd be looking at something from CDT or DLS if I were to go that route.

-Robert

moucheur

To the poster suggesting changing the bass, mid, treble settings, also my thanks. That said, I'd already run them up to a much stronger range. I do need to try changing the "center".

To my ears, the treble at the standard setting was too high and made everything sound tinny. I dialed the treble down, not up, and the mid and bass up.

ncblue

Yesterday I upgraded my speakers! I replaced the fronts with Polk 5x7, the rears with polk 6.5 and The two front tweeters with polks. The sound is much better than the stocks. The bass is much more solid and deeper, the the mid range is much more detailed. The high are no longer tinny sounding, over all it was worth the effect!

TJazz

Is it possible to have my ES base stereo replaced with the Mark Levinson system? If so, what would this cost?

ncblue

It would'nt be worth the cost to upgrade, the deck, speakers, amp and wiring would have to be changed. I don't think Lexus would do it!

Robert_J

You can't just post this information without details of the upgrade. Better yet a complete how-to pictorial. Questions below:

1. Were the 5x7's drop in replacements in the doors?
2. Were the 5x7's you used coaxial or just mids?
3. How difficult was it to remove the grills in the dash?
4. How difficult was it to remove the door panels?
5. Did you use a cross-over on the Polk tweeter or did you just leave the factory cross-over in place?

-Robert

ncblue

I’m at work, so I’ll give a brief summary of the install!
The 5x7’s were Polk db571 coaxial and the rears db 651 coaxial, on the rears I used a Toyota mounting bracket. After the door panels were remove I found that the 6.5 inch front speakers were molded into a 6x9” adapter. I then had to create an adapter out 1/4” MDF. I used the original mounting bracket as a template, I had to increase the height of the speaker by tracing the outline of the speaker and cutting a ring. This gave the speaker (bottom) the clearance needed to clear the glass . The tweeters were not difficult to install, take a small screw driver, gently lift the grills to remove. I used a 10 mf. cap to filter the highs! (The Toyota speaker harness will work on your ES).
Removing the front door panels wasn’t that difficult. You have to remove five screws! Remove the plastic cover under the (inside) door handle by prying near the front with a small flat head screw driver. Remove the window switch area by lifting from the back of the wood trim and then use a small screw driver to lift the front of the wood trimmed ( lift straight up). Remove five screws (one under door handle, one in air vent at the front of the door, one under under the felt material in door’s arm rest and one under the wood area door switch and the last near back part of the door).

There are 9 plastic expanding plugs that hold the panel to the frame. There is one at the upper back corner, another below it about level with the top of the arm rest. The next is more or less in the middle of the curve between the straight vertical portion and the bottom horizonal portion. The bottom horizonal edge has 4, more or less evenly spaced, though the 2 toward the front are closer together. The final 2 are at either end of the front straight edge below the vent. Pull outward at the bottom of the door, and once the bottom is detached lift the panel upward with the door tilted away from the door frame. The panel is difficult to reinstall so once I started the other front door I didn’t remove it completely, I only tilted it outward and used a racket to remove the speaker. Sorry that I don’t have any pictures, I was at Circuit city, and decided

Robert_J

Great info on the removal process. Now more questions:

1. Why did you use 5x7's in the front door if it already had a 6.5" in it?
2. Do your 5x7's in the front doors play full range or is there a factory crossover filtering out the highs?
3. Did you test to see if there was a factory crossover on the tweeter?
4. What is the DC resistance of the factory speakers?
5. What's the approximate mounting depth of the factory speakers (both front and rear)?
6. How did the tweeters actually mount to the dash?

I'm thinking of doing a DIY component set and already have a set of 6.5 mids but the magnets are HUGE. I may want to go with a more reasonable set of mids if there's adequate mounting depth without using an MDF adapter plate. I'm also trying to determine if there are any inline factory crossovers that may interfer with the ones I want to install.

Finally, when are you going to tackle the sub upgrade?

This has been a HUGE help.

-Robert

amf1932

I don't know of any Lexus dealer that would attempt this change, although there is a possibility that this could be done by a "knowledgeable" company that knows all the many changes that this involves.