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I've had my '17 GS w/ Mark Levinson for a year now, and it took me a while to get the audio adjusted to my liking. I spent quite a bit of time test-driving a non-ML GS prior to purchasing mine, and I was reasonably impressed with the standard audio but wanted, and sought out, the ML system.
I keep my treble at 3 clicks above (+) middle, mids at 2 clicks + and bass at 3 clicks + and I learned that disabling the surround sound opened up the staging. I have the fade set to 2 clicks rearward. I initially had mids turned down quite a bit but realized that was unnatural and gave it a hollow sound. I'm an audio enthusiast, but I'm also lazy, so I primarily listen to compressed audio from my phone paired via bluetooth. I purchase most of my MP3s from Amazon, which are reasonably high quality, and if I rip a CD I use the highest quality settings through the Lame encoder. I have found that the same MP3s on a thumbdrive have marginally better audio quality as they lack the additional bluetooth compression.
The real breakthrough for me in appreciating the ML system, however, was volume. I spent quite a bit of time just sitting in my car in the garage tinkering with settings and I realized that if I had volume in the 22-28 range it really came alive. In turn, I began to diminish my phone's output volume and rely on the ML system volume to get to a natural listening level at around 25 at highway speeds. This was a game changer for me and I'm convinced this is one of the best car audio systems I've encountered.
Another note, I have my music on my Android phone and I use Poweramp to play and stream - it's one of the few aps I've purchased. I use minimal sound modification settings in the ap (it has a full EQ, which I shy away from), but otherwise, the sound output from Poweramp is excellent.
Hope this helps.
ML audio settings
I adjusted my settings to this on my way home and it made a huge difference for me. Thanks for sharing.
Just purchased a 2015 CPO GS50 FSport with the Mark Levinson. Thank you for those that have put in so much effort into the sound settings. I still find it difficult to believe that Lexus would accept a sound system that is almost unbearable to listen too. Has anyone gone back to Lexus and asked for them to help solve the issue or at least help find a way to make this sound system usable?
Just purchased a 2015 CPO GS50 FSport with the Mark Levinson. Thank you for those that have put in so much effort into the sound settings. I still find it difficult to believe that Lexus would accept a sound system that is almost unbearable to listen too. Has anyone gone back to Lexus and asked for them to help solve the issue or at least help find a way to make this sound system usable?
Sound is different to each person. Everyone hears differently. My sister has to turn the treble all of the way down on stereos because she is extremely sensitive to those frequencies. I always increase the treble.
I found that adding the powered sub allowed me to turn down the bass a little to keep the door speakers from over exerting. I use similar settings to the ones shown above and find the system to be fairly decent. I will probably tap into the front door speaker signal someday to add a little more frequency range to the sub, but over all the system sounds pretty good.
Thank you for getting back to this request so quickly! I agree that each person hears sound differently. I did use the sound settings as offered above. For the driver and passenger it is bearable, not great. Going to try the PowerAmp to see if that helps with the source coming from my phone. I keep getting complaints from those riding in the rear passengers seats. So I climbed into the back seat to see what it sounds like for my passengers? It is horrible, very muffled. They don't get the benefit of the front speakers. What they can hear is the system trying to over compensate bass for the front passengers. Still find it hard to believe that Lexus hasn't had multiple complaints about a $1380 sound option.
Thank you for getting back to this request so quickly! I agree that each person hears sound differently. I did use the sound settings as offered above. For the driver and passenger it is bearable, not great. Going to try the PowerAmp to see if that helps with the source coming from my phone. I keep getting complaints from those riding in the rear passengers seats. So I climbed into the back seat to see what it sounds like for my passengers? It is horrible, very muffled. They don't get the benefit of the front speakers. What they can hear is the system trying to over compensate bass for the front passengers. Still find it hard to believe that Lexus hasn't had multiple complaints about a $1380 sound option.
Do you have surround turned off? If that is on, it will make the back seat listening experience even worse.
Yes I have the surround turned off for all the sources: Sirius, CD/DVD, radio, bluetooth, jack input. Still not sure how to use the USB connection. Tried using that this weekend and only got charging, no USB connect. In fact the USB source was "grayed" out making it impossible to select.
Not sure what audio sources you all are using, but I've been a Spotify user for a long while now and more recently have been using Apple Music a lot more. The sound quality and clarity difference, especially at lower volumes even over Bluetooth Audio is insane. I'm afraid I'm going to have to start looking for easy ways to get all my music from Spotify into my Apple Music playlists.
Today, went on a quick lunch run and was seriously impressed by how "Hella Good" by No Doubt via Apple Music sounded. Really impressive and dare I say it... It sounded hella good I recommend giving it a try.
i have two options of car to choose which i love the color combo or one with ML and my secondary color choice --- DO you think ML is worth it?
I'm biased but I absolutely do think it's worth it. My first color choice was Starfire Pearl but "settled" with a Liquid Platinum GS with all the goodies and I'm smitten with the silver. It's so much deeper than I initially thought. I've driven loaners with the premium system and there absolutely no comparison with the ML system IMO.
i have two options of car to choose which i love the color combo or one with ML and my secondary color choice --- DO you think ML is worth it?
Only you can make that decision. It seems to be split on the board as to whether people think the ML or the premium sounds better. You need to sit in both with the same audio source and see which one you like better.
At the retail price of $1800, you could (if you can do your own audio install) replace all of the speakers, add and amp, sub and processor in the premium system and possibly have a system that sounds much better than the ML. That is what I did in my ES.
In my experience, it costs way more than $1800 to get a better sound....at least one you're happy with. It all sounds good in theory, but then you get the system all put together, if you already didn't exceed $1800 and find out you have peaks and valleys in the sound you hadn't accounted for. You then go out and add sound shaping components and chase that around for a while and finally get to a point where you're sort of happy with it. Now you have stuff taking up most of your trunk space and another $$$ you'll never get back when you sell the car. It's not a bad thing if you want to go all out and do something totally custom that blows your socks off, but $1800 it won't be. The ML system sounds quite nice with the adjustments posted here. Generally stock cars sell better too, especially if the electrical isn't all cut up. Just my 2C.
I recommend giving it a try.
