Hi all, just a quick question about mark Levinson sound system, as I didn't get the 2018 Lexus is350 fsport 3 that has the sound system, so is there a way of adding in the mark Levinson sound system to my 2018 Lexus is 300? Or is it too much cost now or very difficult to add in?

 

For the amount of effort it would take, I think it'll be much more cost effective to put together your own kit if you wanted to upgrade.

I have the ML in my car, and while it's a nice upgrade from the standard one, it still leaves something to be desired.

 

Audiophiles says ML is not worth the money (or not much of an upgrade). Spend that money to place your own customized setup. I have ML but I regret getting it.

 

If you look up most car review videos, the critics seem to love ML. I guess what they say isn't gospel, but I do find this disparity interesting.

I had a loaner with ML once, and I thought it definitely sounded better than the base system.

 

I have no personal experience of standard vs ML, so you may be right and the audioshop guy was just doing his sales thing.

 

No, next to impossible to get it installed outside of factory (find past threads on the subject).
I love my ML and it is a huge step-up in audio quality from the standard, for my own ears of course (have two Lexus's, one with ML the other without).

 

The ML system isnt the best. But it most definitely sounds better than non ML. I dont plan on changing up mine so I went with the best I could from the factory. My old e46 had a Harmon kardon system, and my Subaru has a custom one. So standard setups just arnt enough for me personally.

You can definitely make a setup much better on your own

 

 

I have listened to both base and the ML before I bought my FIS350 and it IS NOT worth the upgrade. Spend your upgrade money somewhere else. Coming from a CEA audio technician.

 

Yeah I think if you have the stock system in the car already, it's probably going to be far better to go with an aftermarket system. Yeah ML is pretty good, but probably too expensive to warrant installing it aftermarket. Sorry my prior post was confusing.

 

Any suggestions as to which car audio shop or sound system to install?

 

For any audio system, it's all subjective on whether something sounds good or not. I think it all depends on what types of music you typically listen to in addition to the format/quality the music is in. Our cars are no different. I have ML in my car and while it definitely sounds noticeably better than the base audio, I've also heard and experienced better sounding from other system setups - mainly aftermarket.

But as far as coming directly from the factory, ML to me sounds great - clear and crisp for the highs and has clean punch for bass. I'm not the type that needs to share my music with every car next to me at the stop light