I just purchased my first Lexus - an Atomic Silver IS350 Fsport. Love the car but the speakers sound extremely muffled. My car didn’t come with the upgraded Levison system unfortunately… we have tried playing around with all the settings but it still sounds muffled. My husband’s 2009 Pilot has clearer audio.

I was planning on asking the dealership when I take it in for its first service but wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue?

 

Congrats on the new whip!

Have you tried turning the Surround Sound and Sound Equalization on and off? Sometimes those can cause the sound to be a bit odd, in my opinion. I typically like Surround, but there are cases where it isn't as good.

 

I was in the same boat. I ended up replacing the 3 front speakers on the dash and that alone makes a significant difference. After the change, I thought Google Maps got a new voice but no, the speakers were just much clearer.

 

What brand speakers did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?

 

I went with Infinity Reference REF-4032CFX

 

Unfortunately, the IS speakers are not great. ML to me just sound clearer and louder but I'm not sure I would pay the price to get that, the stock speakers are fine for me

 

Yeahhh. They're not that great. I got a subwoofer which helped a little but I still feel like the system is lacking clarity. I'm researching speaker replacement options...

 

Congrats on the purchase, it looks beautiful. Love atomic silver. I also agree since i have the non-ML system and the system sounds good to me but it lacks a lot of bass. I am currently working on a project to replace the oem subwoofer with a pioneer 8" and bought a used sub and hacked away at it to make a custom install for the new sub. Check out my thread if you'd like.

 

Not sure if this thread is too old to update, but I actually bought the Infinity REF-4032CFX as mentioned in an above comment and they would not install cleanly without some serious grinding on the plastic in the dashboard. In addition since the magnet and mounting depth is so much larger than the stock speakers, I had to space them upwards a bit to prevent the speaker from hitting the AC duct underneath. But the improvement is very noticeable and I'd 100% recommend replacing the dash speakers as a quick fix for crappy clarity from the base sound system. Though if you want the easiest solution I'd probably just recommend upgrading with a 3.5" speaker for a plug and play upgrade. 4-inch brought a ton of headache. a 4-inch with a small magnet might do, but in that case might as well just do 3.5" imo.

 

how do you remove the dash grill to install the speakers, I want to change my speakers on my 23" IS as well

 

There are two clips in the front of each grille (closer to you) and two latches in the back (towards the windshield). I used a flat metal tool, if you have plastic that could work too, to stick in the front gap and pry the grill up. After it is up enough I slid a plastic shim and slid it to the left/right to undo the clips. Very easy stuff once you do it once and get over the fear of breaking something

 

Thanks, do you think if I go with the 3.5" speaker would be easier to install? And is it worth for just the dash speakers upgrade? Would I need to get the doors speakers as well?

 

I haven't tried the 3.5" but from what it looks like yes. The 4 inch required a lot of plastic grinding and filing. The 3.5s look like they might be drop-in replacements. Honestly I think upgrading the dash speakers will make a larger difference than the door speakers especially for clarity, the door speakers get a lowpass filter from the amp so they just play low-frequencies.
That being said I did this replacement on a 2023 year, so not sure how the speaker holes look for other years before '21.

 

Don't forget about the door speakers...8" One Audio midbass is a huge improvement over stock.

 

Did you replace the stock 8" door speaker? And where do you find that speaker size? Thanks