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Lexus GS450H Premier 2015. Poor sound quality. Sound seems biased to front. All speakers working and balance moved rearwards as much as possible. Sound quality poor even compared with other cars standard setup (VW/Honda). Better on CDs/Ipod but still not great. Surround sound makes it worse. Best radio is FM (not DAB) and needs Bass and Treble up with Mids as low as possible. Is this normal?
having all the sound pushed 100% to the rear is definitely going to make it sound like garbage.
This is totally subjective to what you consider good and/or bad as well.
Are you saying it’s lacking something? The ML completely default is mixed with a forward bias but a couple clicks to the rear (-2, -3) center it up nicely.
turn off the surround sound.. it really screws up music, no need for it except if you are watching a movie.
the sound gets crisper the higher the volume, it really lacks below 25 IMO.. I keep the mid and treble at+4 and the bass at +2 .. not great but much better than most OEM systems.
Apologies. Not made myself clear. Sound still predominantly from front even with system set to max rear was stated just to show how forward biased the system is. However my current settings which give best results are:- Balance:Centre, Fade: 2 clicks from rear. Treble + 2 clicks. Bass +3 clicks, Mid - 3 clicks. Surround Sound Off. To me these seem extreme from standard but are necessary for sound to be acceptable. Maybe my expectations were too high. I think being able to play with sub woofer settings on their own and not having front speakers up by windscreen but in the doors would be a better set up. Bottom line is that I was expecting system to be better (or at least as good) as standard set up in our companies passats and golfs. At the moment I can't get as full a sound as in my Old Honda or my wifes mini. I'm going to have system checked as a couple of colleagues agreed that it sounds thin and tinny.
Lexus GS450H Premier 2015. Poor sound quality. Sound seems biased to front. All speakers working and balance moved rearwards as much as possible. Sound quality poor even compared with other cars standard setup (VW/Honda). Better on CDs/Ipod but still not great. Surround sound makes it worse. Best radio is FM (not DAB) and needs Bass and Treble up with Mids as low as possible. Is this normal?
This is exactly what I an experiencing in my 2017 GS 350 F Sport.
I have the mids turns way down as well. Also fader to the back. Otherwise everything is coming from the front center.
At the dealer they just listen to another car same model and it will invariably sound the same.
Apologies. Not made myself clear. Sound still predominantly from front even with system set to max rear was stated just to show how forward biased the system is. However my current settings which give best results are:- Balance:Centre, Fade: 2 clicks from rear. Treble + 2 clicks. Bass +3 clicks, Mid - 3 clicks. Surround Sound Off. To me these seem extreme from standard but are necessary for sound to be acceptable. Maybe my expectations were too high. I think being able to play with sub woofer settings on their own and not having front speakers up by windscreen but in the doors would be a better set up. Bottom line is that I was expecting system to be better (or at least as good) as standard set up in our companies passats and golfs. At the moment I can't get as full a sound as in my Old Honda or my wifes mini. I'm going to have system checked as a couple of colleagues agreed that it sounds thin and tinny.
Sound systems are very subjective.
However, there are basically two types of sound systems:
(1) Sound systems for the true audiophile.
(2) Sound systems for the bass booming pop music enthusiast, or night clubber who isn't into audiophile magazines etc.
(1)
For the true audiophile, the "Staging", in other words - the stage - must be at the front, because we never listen to music with our backs against the stage.
Secondly, true audiophiles like to have exact reproduction of the original music.
To achieve this, true audiophiles do not boost the bass and treble while depressing the midrange by so many decibels.
True audiophiles have absolutely no interest in artificial "thumping bass"; audiophiles want bass to be reproduced as it was originally generated!
True audiophiles listen with the graphic equalizer set a "flat".
Of course, true audiophiles don't prefer synthesized 3D sound either; they prefer sound as it was originally.
If it is stereo recorded, then it is stereo recorded, but of course, a true 3D recording with 5.1 microphones for Dolby Digital 5.1 is always a bonus.
(2)
The second group of music enthusiasts are the bass boomers.
This group likes pop music, and they like a lot of thumping bass.
This group are also audiophiles, however they are not "true" audiophiles in the purest of sense.
Thumping bass is often enhanced by boosting the bass and treble, and simultaneously reducing the midrange volume.
The Mark Levinson system is actually designed for "genuine" audiophiles, and it is not designed for bass boomers who want thumping bass...
Mind you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with thumping bass.
Thumping bass sounds great, but it is not what Mark Levinson is designed for.
.
Last edited by peteharvey; May 27, 2018 at 05:44 PM.
I thought I was the only crazy one. My car search came down to 2 gs350 fsports. One with ML, and one without. To me, the Premium audio sounds much better. Same issue with the JBL system in my wife's Highlander. It's not just the sound stage being pushed forward, but seemingly everything. In my opinion you don't get the correct imaging, and it ends up not being immersive.
I didn’t see this mentioned, but ASL Auto Sound Leveler should remain off as well. Will all of the above adjustments, the final audio output sounds better than non ML, but not by much at low volumes. Mid to upper sounds much better. It still can’t touch the ML in my previous GX 470. Neither were anything close to the HiFi Carver system in my Z4. That thing could crank over wind noise at 80mph with the top down and sound fantastic. I’m not sure how BMW/Carver did that, but you still had to turn off all sound shaping to get decent sound...just like the GS.
I found that adding an aftermarket amp and sub to the ML system made it sound 10 times better. ( I am also using a DSP for bass correction so that makes a big difference as well)
I found that adding an aftermarket amp and sub to the ML system made it sound 10 times better. ( I am also using a DSP for bass correction so that makes a big difference as well)
Have some specs and details? I love the native ML sound, but once in a while I would like a more powerful low end.
Last edited by jonathancl; May 26, 2018 at 09:34 PM.
Have some specs and details? I love the native ML sound, but once in I would like a more powerful low end.
I added an Alpine PDX-1.600 mono amp along with an 10" Alpine Type R DVC in a sealed box. The DSP is an AudioControl DM-810. It is overkill for just a sub, but I had it in my ES running all of the speakers and 2 amps.
I removed the stock sub, used a Toyota speaker adapter to pull signal from the sub output. remote turn on signal is pulled from the ML amp.
I also have the ARC-3 remote mounted in the front of the center console so have quick and easy access to adjust the bass output.
I still need to add in the quick disconnects so I can remove the sub as needed.
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.
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
Just wanted to say that I've been using these settings now for a few days and have been really enjoying the sound quality much more and have been finding myself quite impressed with it overall. It also seems much more usable at lower volumes which has allowed me to appreciate the quiet cabin of the GS (somehow, raising the bass hasn't resulted in a lot of booming/thumping but rather feels like it's allocating more sound to some of the speakers, strange way to word it, not my forté but I was surprised in a good way).
To anyone having issues or anyone who is unsatisfied with their ML system (honestly, even if you are satisfied with your current settings, seriously, give these a shot), try these settings out in addition to turning off the automatic sound leveling and surround. Big thank you, @GeoloGSt!!
Finally feel like the sound quality with a wide variety of music is what it should be when you think of a 17 speaker Mark Levinson Lexus audio system
Those settings take the sound system from garbage to tolerable. I’d still prefer the soundstage to be more in front, but I never think about the system much anymore. Definitely better than MOST factory systems, though ML has definitely done better in other models.
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mark levinson sound quality issues
