I have mine at plus 3 for base and treble, minus 3 for midrange. Fader at factory center position. Any attempt to move the fader from dead center makes the sound worse. Surround sound "on" make the sound worse. My ML sounds great up to about 40 level loudness. Going more make the sound harsh. My test song is Eagles "Take it to the limit" or "The long run".

 

You should turn down your bass and treble. Especially when you turn up the volume. It's just amplifying distortion. I have a 2013 w/ML and my parents have a 2019 with it. Both sound best with surround "Off" and all 3 EQ settings set to mid. Depending on the recording quality, a 1 step up or down may help. If you feel like you need to adjust more than that, your source may be the issue.

 

Yeah, probably sounds harsh with all that EQ added in. But if that's how you like it, keep it My mid is at 0, treble is at 0, but I did turn up the bass one.

 

I find mine sounds better with surround ON.

 

I have hearing loss in the highs and lows and that is why they are boosted, to compensate.

 

But that won't help, it just boosts distortion, unless the recording was mixed poorly. How do deal with this when you go to a concert?

 

When I was testing out the ML system before I ordered my car I really couldn't decide if I liked the surround mode ON or OFF. I'll have to play with it more when I get my car in April.

 

At a concert I just cup my hands behind my ears and that give a huge increase in the way things sound. Can't do this while driving! When you get into your 70's many people start to have issues of all kinds, me too. Slight loss of hearing range is no biggie comparatively! But even with all my ML adjustments at factory center, the sound at around 40 plus on the volume begins to sound harsh to me. My 2010 plain jane system could play much louder with no harshness. But the 2019 ML has hugely better clarity and cleanliness and 3-D stage presence.

 

I just played a CD for the first time on the ML system and man it sounds good. Again just my ears.

 

After having the car for 2 months now, I found my sweet spot at 1 plus treble, 3 plus mid and 3 plus bass with surround on. I was really shocked by how the system won't distort even at max volume (depending on the source). These little speakers really have a nice kick to them.

 

Well done - you are the first to agree with me that SURROUND ON sounds better. Remember those settings are unique to each separate source i.e. radio, media etc.

 

Truly, the issue is the quality of your music. Theres nothing you can do about it except listen to better quality recordings.

I was totally underwhelmed by the ML in my LS460 compared to the standard audio in my previous LS460, in fact...some things sounded WORSE (XM Radio). I started playing HiFi and Master recordings streamed through TIDAL on my iPhone plugged into USB and it sounds AMAZING. Like, incredible the difference. CD will also show you that.

 

If you have a large enough amplifier it will eliminate most of any distortion.

 

Sorry, but that is not correct. Having a more powerful amp, doesn't guarantee anything but higher volume levels. Boosting specific bands will only help if a particular recording was deficient in that area, due to either poor mastering, or improper system design. The ML system does not suffer from bad design.

I'll admit that everyone is different and if you have hearing loss in a specific frequency spectrum, boosting that range may provide some benefit. If that's the case, I doubt you could tell much difference between the base stereo and the ML.

 

One source is distortion occurs from the movement of the speaker. Generally speaking, the louder it plays, the more it moves, and the more distortion increases. A more powerful (larger) amplifier would make that happen all the easier.

Are you talking about clipping? That can definitely happen from pushing an amplifier to its limits, which does happen more often with less powerful ones.