Bass Mech

i decided to post a new thread but also left info in the other thread titled Mark Levinson IS350 THE AUDITION

i absolutly love the ML system, one of the best by far except for 1 thing, as many have commented the center channel is a little too loud. so loud that it causes the front staging to suffer quite a bit. i cant even tell the door speakers work at all!
so today i went to the electronics parts store and bought a 25 watt 6 ohm resistor and installed it inline near the amp on the yellow wire that is the output for the center channel speaker and now the staging is much improved. now i can actually hear the tweeters and drivers in the front doors. also the surround sound is much improved while playing DVD's because now the rear speakers can be heard better, the stereo imaging is much better also.

if your interested on how to do this it took me all of 5 minutes and i took not a single thing apart using any tools..

all you have to do is access the amp under the plastic panel on the right corner of the trunk. remove the connector that has the yellow wire in it. i opened the wire loom up a few inches and cut the wire there so if i needed to splice it back together nobody would be able to tell.
i then inserted 2 wires about 2 inches long using a crimp connector on each of the remaining ends and remotly mounted a resistor so that if i wanted to try a different value it would be easy to access.

as for values i can tell with 6 ohms the speaker is still playing near the level of everything else, i tried 3 ohms and to me it was still a touch too loud but would be good for movies where you usually want a slightly increased center speaker volume.
i think if they had a 4 ohm resistor available it would be just about perfect. which makes sence because i believe that the center channel in the amp is nothing more than a summed output. this means left and right are summed together and assuming the speaker is 4 ohms it would make sence if you installed the 4 ohm resistor it would be exactly 1/2 as loud as it is now.

bagwell

you mean with the great ML system you can't just adjust the dB's to the center speaker???? WTF???

Xanadu350

Interesting...you should have took pics while you did this, can you still take pics and just point to what you sniped, sometimes pics speak louder. I have noticed that when I use my iPod ram din the center speaker does not seem so overwhelming and I can actually hear the side tweeters and rear and sound quite good. I have ML and love it, however with CD's the center does get kinda loud, the only adjustment I see is moving from front to back so I stepped it back 1 bar. Your idea sounds good but would this void the warranty and could the dealer find out or could this mess up the ML down the road?

Bass Mech

honestly, its so easy to do it's not even worth taking pics, just buy a 25 watt 6 ohm resistor, connect 1 wire to each end (for easy installation) and find the yellow wire, there is only one.. cut it about 2 inches back from the plug and splice in the wires to the resistor. tape it up with some black tape and your done! it took just a tad longer to splice it as it took to remove the cover and reinstall it.
totally worth it!

datboililp

iTrader: (1)

would this work on a non-ml system?

Bass Mech

if you have a center channel speaker that is too loud sure it would but i dont know if your amp is in the same location as the ML or if the wires are the same.

tt061880

I don't think you have a center channel on the non ML.

Beside if you are going to put a resistor in there, why didn't you put an adjuster, that way you can adjust the level of the center channel.

Bass Mech

because its hard to find a rheostat that handels that many watts and you dont find many whos resistance is near 10 ohms
i knew a 6 ohm would be just about right.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Just curious if anyone else with an ML system has tried this mod yet? Not that I doubt the original poster I'd just like to see a few opinions on the results before I start splicing into my 4 day old car :P

Bass Mech

i can tell you this much, once i noticed the center channel was too loud it was all i would think about every time i drove the car. now i dont think about it at all, infact untill i saw a reply to this thread i had forgotten i did the mod. now i just enjoy the music because it sounds like it should.

shortbus19

iTrader: (1)

Ya there is, and personally I do not think it drowns out the other speakers at all. I have a non ML system and set the position for driver and it sounds great. I had a non ML equipped ES350 as a loaner today (got an oil change) and its system pales in comparison to the IS non ML. Hell, my Mother's RX330 non ML is not as good as the IS.

Evitzee

You have no center dash speaker in a non ML setup. Pry up the center dash grill and look underneath. No speaker.

jshap4321

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

unlikely the OP is still around but let's see if I can assist.

the resistor is probably mounted where the wires enter the amp. the amp is mounted remotely (in the trunk if I'm not mistaken) so the resister is mounted there as well, hence remotely.
he said "inline" so it's mounted in series (cut the yellow wire and connect it back using the resistor).
it will probably be ceramic and it will be low heat (this is unlike a load resistor for tail light use).

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Adding to above - don't grab a random wire wound ceramic. The wire wrap will add Henry's /inductance you don't want added. It will shift the phase and/or cause other anomalies....