BrandonYas

Hi guys, I'm brand new to this forum so forgive me if this thread is in the wrong place.

This past weekend I got the IS350 F Sport with Mark Levinson premium speakers.

Whats the best way to set the equalizers for the best sound?

I currently have all the things how they came stocked and moved the Base all the way. This isn't the best setup so if you guys have any recommendations please share

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Welcome to CL!

Here's the 3IS specific sub-forum

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...eneration-249/

In answer to your question, I personally change the treb, mid, bass according to the songs of the genre I listen to, mostly EDM. Everyone is different though, me I like clarity over bass.

GiantsFan

iTrader: (9)

+1 on what Hoovey said. It really depends on the music. I usually listen to Hip-Hop and set my EQ to neutral with the bass at +2 or +3. Anything more than that and the base gets muddy/distorted (at least on the stock non-ML system). Also - the quality of the audio itself makes a HUGE difference as well. I have mostly AAC / FLAC (ALAC) at 320 kbps or higher. You can really hear a difference with the lossless formats.

PS - I have a 2IS with base audio ... but I feel that the principle is the same no matter what system you are using

tromly

QUOTE=GiantsFan;8236185]+1 on what Hoovey said. It really depends on the music. I usually listen to Hip-Hop and set my EQ to neutral with the bass at +2 or +3. Anything more than that and the base gets muddy/distorted (at least on the stock non-ML system). Also - the quality of the audio itself makes a HUGE difference as well. I have mostly AAC / FLAC (ALAC) at 320 kbps or higher. You can really hear a difference with the lossless formats.

PS - I have a 2IS with base audio ... but I feel that the principle is the same no matter what system you are using[/QUOTE]


great advice !

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

welcome and congrats. moving to right forum...

abcsoup

I think one thing you should experiment with is turning surround on and off. My ML system came with surround on by default, and while it sounded impressive at first, I found that I preferred the cleaner, more-natural sound of surround turned off. In particular, the soundstage with surround turned on felt artificial in some songs, and I could often hear vocals moving between the center channel to the L/R channels in complex passages.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure they tuned the EQ of the system for surround on, so if you leave Treb/Mid/Bass at the default 0 when you turn surround off, it'll sound very flat versus the same settings when surround's on. The first time I tried surround off, I thought it sounded terrible and lifeless, until I tweaked some settings.

So, right now in my car, I'm running the following settings (for BT/USB/iPod):

Surround: OFF
Treble: +3
Mid: +3
Bass: +4

When I had surround turned ON, I used:
Treble: 0
Mid: 0
Bass: +1

If you use a different source, then your EQ settings will probably have to change dramatically too. Anyone else running ML settings they'd like to share?

magne

I also use the surround setting off. I can't quite remember exact how my settings are, but the bass is turned up to +3 or +4. The treble is also turned up a couple of notches.

jennypenny

when surround is off, does that mean the the rear speakers arent working? only the front two?

abcsoup

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it just means that the surround processing is turned off, so stereo music isn't re-processed into 5.1 surround. All the speakers should still be working though.

SonyHome

This wouldn't work like your home theater setup. Keep in mind there are 15 speakers with ML package.

magne

It means that the surrond function is inactive. So the prossesing is off, and most of the sound will be delivered through your side speakers instead of your center speaker.
Both front, rear and sub speakers deliver sound when the surround mode is off.

felixlau

Hi all,
Read this thread and just wanted to share.
I noticed that most ppl will add their bass, treble or mid settings.
From my humble knowledge, we should cut / minus instead of adding.
Meaning, if u want to +1 bass, just -1 to mid and treble.
It's actually better because adding will distort the balance sound more than cutting it.
Try it and spend a little time to re-listen to your fav tracks, hopefully it will sound better to your ears.
You will notice that u will need to increase the volume more after cutting and that's when some nice & fine details will "appear"

abcsoup

Thanks, will try it out later today.

Im2bz2p345

I'm curious about the suggestions felixlau mentioned as well. If you try to turn down the opposite frequencies (i.e. mid & treble) in order to "boost" what you want more of (i.e. bass), what kind of affect does it have?

Coming from an audio mixing perspective, I know that simply boosting certain frequencies of an instrument isn't always favorable - especially if you have to constantly adjust your faders (pull them up & down) to prevent your master level from clipping.

I currently don't own an IS car, but I did test drive a fully loaded IS 350 F-Sport RWD and I wasn't that impressed with the Mark Levinson speakers. Of course, I never had the opportunity to play with ALL the settings and adjust the EQ too much. My audio source was 320Kbps mp3's on my 2G Ipod Nano so I had a good point of reference.

abcsoup - please followup when you have a chance to play with the system more. If anyone else is willing to test out lowering frequncies instead of simply adding boost, please do report back.

~ Im2bz2p345

felixlau

http://therecordingrevolution.com/20...-mixes-better/
Googled the above link n my idea is something similar to the link.
Since Lexus eq is simple in terms of mid, treble and bass, boosting any might boost a bunch of frequencies which may result in unwanted noise.
Hence , cutting might be better , just my 2 cents.