romwarrior

I just had my first backseat passenger in my IS and he mentioned that the stereo sounded like it had no bass. When we parked I went back to listen to the speakers on the door, and the bottom speakers (which I am assuming are full-range speakers) had very little bass if any. I listened to the speakers on the front doors (which I am assuming are the same), and the difference was night and day. The front door speakers sound full-range with lots of bass and the back door speakers lacked any bottom end, mostly just mids and highs. I am assuming this is not how it should be...

So, I've made a lot of assumptions here. Am I correct in my assumptions? I have checked all my fader/eq settings and they are ok...

Also, is the speaker under the back window only the subwoofer??

cmusic

Change the P.SEL (Position Select) setting to "all" and the bass should return to the rear door speakers. I think the P.SEL settings are driver, front, rear, all, and off. With it set to "driver" or "front" most of the sound, including the bass is directed to the front speakers.

In the non-ML systems the only speaker in the rear deck in the sub.

In ML systems there is the sub and two small 2.5" mids in the rear deck. You can tell a 2IS with ML by seeing two small speaker grills on either side of the rear brake light.

romwarrior

I don't see any setting specifically labeled P.SEL, but I'm assuming you are talking about the position selector under the DSP menu? Yes, I would have been quite embarrassed if that was the problem, but it is not. I just did some more checking with that control, though, and here's what is happening for me:

With position set to ALL, backdoor speakers have no bass.

With position set to REAR ONLY, backdoor speakers have plenty of bass.

Is this how it is supposed to be? Can someone verify that their backdoor speakers have plenty of bass in both the ALL and REAR settings?

G35TOIS350

Yeah, when I set it to "rear" only there's like no bass. But if you put it in "all" the front hits hard. Same thing if you only select "front" or "driver"...almost no bass. Weird.

BounceNY

iTrader: (9)

same here...no bass in rear.

cmusic

In non-nav 2ISs the radio has a P.SEL button that changes the position selection. EDIT: I have not used my factory deck in a few months so I forgot which setting produced the most bass from the rear. Romwarrior, thanks for the correction. When I was using the factory deck I always had the position selection set to driver or front.

The audio system in the IS is designed to simulate being at a concert. How many concerts have you been at where some of the music is coming from the rear? I would say vertually none of them unless the performance specifically is desgined to have some of the sounds coming from the rear. All the sound is coming from infront of you no matter if you are sitting or standing. That's why the DSP in the 2IS puts most of the sound in the front speakers, to get the sound infront of you.

I consider the audio system's attempt to simulate a real concert much better than the audio systems in many other brands of automobiles. This shows that Lexus put a fair amount of effort into designing the system. In most other cars all the sound system is designed for is to reproduce sound, and poorly at that.

Personally I don't care what the rear passengers hear. When I am driving with the CD/radio on I want to have the best sound possible for me.

romwarrior

OK fine, but why not give us the choice? Why simulate a concert for ALL discs? Why not allow me to go full range in all my speakers? Studio discs don't need to sound like a concert, especially if you have people in the back seat who apparently are relegated to the equivalent of lawn seats.

That is assuming that this really is the motivating factor behind this. Do you know this for a fact?

Pittdawg

Good one, got me LOL

WManhattan

I have the same problem, 350 with Nav, not ML. I tend to leave the setting on all and just crank the volume up to get better sound, but it really sounds better to me when it is set on just the backseats. I think this really bites as a setting from Lexus. I like to be surrounded by the sound in a car. Stupid geographical distribution. No ML unless special ordered in the NYC metro area (same for radar cruise, but I really only care about the audio). Well, at least I saved some money and the audio as is, is sufficient.

silversx

i think rom warrior is talking about the speakers on the rear door

the reason the rear door speakers have no bass is because the woofers for the back are on the rear deck below the rear windshield..

the front door has 3 speakers each high mid low

dainese954

iTrader: (1)

hmm have to check that out

romwarrior

The back doors have the same 3 speakers as the front door, and they have plenty of bass when you select REAR in the position selector. The rear deck is for the subwoofer, which covers a lower range than the woofers in the doors. They are meant to complement each other, not substitute...

silversx

so when POS is set to ALL.. there's no bass from the rear doors??

only when set to REAR the bass comes out? does the front door bass go away when set to REAR??

can anyone else try this out?? i dont have my car here

romwarrior

That is what I and at least a couple others are experiencing...

The front door speakers are pretty much all off when you set to REAR (which is what I would expect). It is the fact that the bass disappears from the back doors when you set it to ALL that is most aggravating...

Destrier

I hate to resurrect a 7 year old thread, but I recently got a 06’ IS350 and pretty fed up with this sound system.

I have the same gripe – poor all around speaker performance in all P.SEL options and fading doesn’t help as it seems the P.SEL option limits power to certain speakers. Pretty unbelievable that it could get like this through Lexus design, as I definitely don’t find this to be a premium quality system. My friends Hyundais and Nissans sound better than my car.

Any fixes or observations out there? Do newer year models see any changes?

I’m not a complete audiophile, but I appreciate a nice system and can recognize faults in performance. It’s so bias to the front on All/Front/Driver modes, and then in Rear mode the rear really comes alive but the front becomes so tame. The best settings I’ve found to get the most out of it and involve the entire system is

P.SEL – Rear
Fade – F2 or F3 to involve them more
Bass, Mid – also upped these to 4,2 to try and get even more out of the front.

It’s clear that these settings take a hit to front performance, but the entire back of the car exists now, which didn’t before, and to me it feels more whole. On P.SEL other than rear, it does feel like everything behind the driver seats are broken.

Sorry to rant, but this is incredibly frustrating. Not expecting to hear any miracle fixes from you guys, and I’ve looked into the audio upgrade posts, which makes this even more frustrating. Thanks Lexus.