Good afternoon Club Lexus. I have a 2017 IS350 F Sport AWD and upgraded to the Mark Levinson sound system / navigation. As you know, not a cheap upgrade. Over the past few weeks, I'm having horrible distortion in XM, CD, and iPhone...the sound quality frankly sucks. I took it to the dealer a week ago and they listened and play with the settings to "make it sound better", but it is still horrible. The dealer said they can't fix anything until they are able to listen side-by-side with another 2017 IS with the ML package. Crazy I think when the two people at the dealer that tested it said "this sounds like crap. Something is definitely wrong." So, (1) any thoughts as to what the issue could be...anyone run into something similar and (2) any idea how I can convince the dealer to try a few repairs (install a new Amp for instance)? Sound is missing parts of the music (i.e. mids are absent) and the highs sound like finger nails on a chalk board. Sorry for the long message, but any audio experts out there I'd love to hear from you. THANKS!

 

Welcome to the forum!

Politely insist on testing it on an ES or RC if an IS is not available since the systems are "similar". Not the case with the LS and LC as they have a higher-end ML system.

I have ML on my RCF and prior RX and sound is great though your source quality of course plays a big role. Good luck!

 

thanks and I will gently push that. I think they are wanting to try and swap parts like/like per Lexus policy. But at least a listen in the RC will prove how crappy the sound is. Thanks again.

 

For those that may be interested, dealer and Lexus have been absolutely no help unfortunately. They said other ML owners (from LX and EXs) have complained about the "lack of depth" in the sound, but as they can't pinpoint the exact issues on any of these cars, they simply are ignoring making any actual changes/fixes. That the dealer recognizes the issue but refuses to fix is a huge issue for me. Any thoughts on reaching out directly to Lexus? As a sidenote, my rear-spoiler started peeling after owning it for five days (was installed at the port on delivery). So, my Lexus experience has been far from good. Would love the Club's thoughts.

 

Which dealership are you going to? Don't post it here pm me and I will pm you back.

I find that my experience with Lexus is night and day when I go to certain CT dealerships vs going to certain MA dealerships. I am honestly of the mind that the CT dealership is cooking the books to make their review scores look better because I have NEVER in 3 visits left satisfied.