I've searched the forums and haven't found a lot of info on this.

I have the Delphi Sky-Fi radio and have used it in several cars, including my former SC430 w/ Mark Levinson and my QX4 w/ Bose. It runs through the cassette player and the sound is great. However, in my GS300 w/ Mark Levinson there is lots of distortion. Has anyone else noticed the same thing?

I'm looking at having an FM modulator installed with the hope that it will improve the sound. Any feedback from personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

DSeag2

 

You should get an improvement in sound with the FM modulator, but don't expect too much. First off, when you're using the cassette adapter, you incur native problems with the cassette head electromagnetics in terms of freq response, bandwidth, head biasing, linearity, noise, etc. Using FM, the tuner will not respond beyond 15kHz, but that is not much of a problem, in relative terms. It will sound like 'clean' FM, without the transmission noise and multipath and weak signals that we''ve all become used to, since it is direct.
I don't personally have the ML system, but I thought I got wind of the ML not having a standard antenna jack. You may need an adapter, but hopefully someone who's actually done it with that system will chime in here. Using the FM modulator allows you to make use of the standard volume and tone controls of your headunit, but you may want to check out whether you can use a direct RCA input into the system - it would be the next step up in sound quality.

 

Thanks a lot for the input. What's weird is that the Mark Levinson system in the SC still sounded pretty good using the cassette adapter and with the Bose in the Infiniti I don't hear any distortion at all (although that's probably because there isn't as much clarity). I'll look into all the options. Even "clean FM" is a worthwhile tradeoff for XM radio!

 

XM and Sirius are the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I can do without the sliced bread.

 

I haven't seen one of these adapters to know how it fits, but I assume it's just like the old portable CD adapter you'd put into the cassette deck (shaped like a cassette and it just plays like one)?

Have you tried playing a regular audio cassette in the tape deck? Just to confirm there isn't an issue with the deck itself? How about trying the same adapter in a different car to make sure something hasn't gone wrong with it?

Just trying to eliminate the possible sources of the problem.

 

I believe you said you are using the Delphi unit with the cassette adaptor, I have the same setup so try this, tune the type of music you listen to and set a moderate volume, push the menu button, rotate the dial to your line level setting, push the round button in the center of the dial, then rotate the dial counterclockwise until the distortion clears up. I usually can only run two or three blocks before the distortion comes back, hope this helps.

 

You may or may not have an issue with adding an FM modulator. I did alot of research on my LS430 when looking to add XM to it. Most of what I discovered I shared on this forum and is probably the source of the "non-standard antenna information". However, my information pertained to the LS430 only. What I can tell you about the LS430 is that the non-standard antenna jack is *not* a Mark Levinson thing. It doesn't matter whether you have the ML amp or the standard amp, you still have the antenna issue because the "tuner box", a separate component in the LS, is the same in all LS430s. I have no experience with any other model so you would have to do some research on your model. But I think it's safe to conclude, however, that because the antenna issue has nothing to do with the ML system in the LS, having the ML system in another model isn't going to determine whether you have a non-standard antenna jack or not. You simply will have to check the antenna connector on your particular tuner to see if it's the standard "Motorola" style connector or the non-standard one like the LS has.

 

Thanks, Dave. It is a cassette adapter that looks and plays just like a cassette. Regular cassettes sound fine in the car, and this is the same adapter I had in my SC430 before I traded it, so it must be something with the GS. It sounded fine in the SC. Appreciate the suggestion though.

For anyone else who is interested, I checked with Sound Advice today and they confirmed that the GS also has the non-standard antenna jack that LS430inTX was referring to. That means an FM modulator doesn't work. They checked with the company that provides the adaptors for the GS and were told they have discontinued all products for Lexus automobiles. There is hope, though. They said a wireless system is being introduced in late December that should work. The way they put it, I should just be able to hit the "CD" button twice to go to XM radio. I'll keep you posted.