There is no “best” setting and we all have different tastes.
I like my bass “tight”. I listen to many different types of music. I have worked with recording studio designers and have gotten a lot of advice over the years. On my home systems I do love bass!! I have three rooms each with 2 subs. Not because I like bone shaking bass, but to to have even across the room accuracy and detail. Two of the rooms have non ported. The basement with cement floors get the ported. Those are bombastic.
These are not Best Buy grade. I take my bass serious.
But for the car I like a balanced environment. when I was younger I would have added more. Now I like the accuracy, detail and the texture this stock system puts out. Is it perfect? Of course not. One can always improve anything.
Try this: Lower the Treble one from zero and up the bass and midrange one. its not going to resonate right away because thats not how fine tuning works. This car is carefully tuned as it is but obviously we all want “more”. Try it for two weeks. It won’t blow you away but then neither does ear fatigue with extreme settings. Let the amp’s do the work. Its the strongest part of the system.
I use Tidal as my primary streaming service. I have not even tried satellite service on this vehicle. Bloody awful sound on any vehicle. It Would negate the ML goodness.

 

IMO the stock equalizer does not help with the ear searing brightness of the ML system because I think the problem lies in the upper midrange. The system is otherwise very well tuned.

I highly recommend adding a dedicated parametric equalizer like a MiniDSP into the line in signal. Massive night and day difference.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...on-system.html

 

So many people talk about viewing video/film and hearing music/ audio accurately... my problem is that I usually prefer a different look to the film, (brightness/contrast/saturation) than the film’s director or a different mix/production than the recording artist/engineers.

And of course the quality of the source matters. Quality of uploads/downloads differ and often alter the characteristics of the sound. DJs add their own tweaks to music, altering the sound to their tastes.

I like to make the sound the way I like it. With that said, I wish the ML was more “tweakable.”

 

The sound is fine for me, definitely not the best I’ve had but it’s enjoyable enough and balanced enough. The issue I’m really struggling with is the staging and how forward bias the system is. I get why it’s done but I’m so used to being immersed in the music that I just can’t get used to it.

 

Thanks for reposting. You no doubt stimulated my tweek curiosity. You talking to someone who would plug in a dragon fly DAC on the road, headphones, anything that I could “Improve”. Madding really! lFew years ago went to Mexico with some friends and not happy with one bluTooth audio box Jerry rigged to have two playing at the same time with adaptor. Years ago Dragged a Cambridge audio sub and satellite suitcase system on vacation to Jamaica. Then an Apple iPod hifi. My friends used to chip in and get those for me on my birthday. They loved to see how far I’d go and enjoy the benefits of great audio on the beach.
I’m slowing down. Now I just fly with my Jambox or mini jambox which is OK.
I still manually calibrate my home systems but use a sub EQ to tame things. Bass when accurate and balanced is an acquired taste and once done can’t go back. Its a form of audio snobbery I suppose. Spent 4grand last year on bass for my living room. My wife understands. Good friend of mine spend $4000 on new tv, Sonos sound bar and surround. When I asked him about the lack of a bass module he said “its $699!!!!”.
Love the DSP idea and tempted but that I’d have to plug my phone in to it and thats where I cross the line. I’m rare in the the car for long trips and have tried to temper my tweeking. “Listen to to music not the quality of it”. They are both important but one crossed to the dark side then its not abut the music anymore. Please don’t confuse my statement as being critical! I have many black boxes and over the top is fun!
Breaks my heart when someone goes big money on system either in the car or home and is enamored by the weight of a magnet or the quality look vs. what is really going on. In a car what the manufacturer provided is often a compromise but its an awful environment to reproduce audio! With new equipment what often happens is there is a boost In some areas of improvement but the balance is gone. its exciting to add and recreate but the true test is when the newness is gone and the fatigue sets in. Basically then one needs a new Amp, or new bass “upgrade”.
I would love to hear what that Mini DSP could do! Thanks for sharing.
Sorry to run off on a tangent. I love reading about some of the work done on the ML.