I think jstjohnz's solution would be much more flexible than tying in at the amp. If you tie in at a later stage, you lose all the processing of the Mark Levinson system and also use of your head unit controls while listening to external sources. Your iPod would lose out on a great deal of customization that the existing sound system does to match the car. The tapping in a relay and the other associated wiring would be fairly trivial for an experienced installer. A good electronics hobbyiest could also do it save but for knowing how to pull the trim panels to get at the wiring.

Pretty good. Now we have ways to feed good quallity sound into the Mark Levinson systems.

I am curious about something. On the SC430's system, the ML processor alters is audio processing (sounds like it changes equlalization and rear channel phasing) when one switches between sources. Rocky Linvingston pointed that out to me and I was surprised to find it actually had been implemented that way. The AM and FM sources share one set of audio settings while cassette and disc share another. Does the system do the same on the LS430. If so, the choice of tapping in on the head unit's feed vs the tuner's feed might change the resultant sound. This would be hard to know unless one tapped in both ways and switched between them for AB comparison. On the SC430, that is easy to do since a single tap intercepts all the audio sources.

 

what could i use to tap in could i use a pie aux unit or the ICELink v1.1 i would really like to tie in at the head unit evenif i had to replace the cd changer with the ipod

 

i think i am going to swap out my head unit for the new Pioneer AVIC-N1 this will solve all my problems what do you think

 

I think you're also going need to rip out the rest of the ML system for that to work. The replacement head unit won't be able to control the ML syst***s processor.

 

yeah but i have a after market amp so i could just run the pioneer head unit to my after market amp which is powering up my mb quart qsd's this is my set-up in my ls right now two rockford fosgate power bd1500 and power 800.4 four IDmax 12's alumpro 5 farad cap four MB Quart QSD 216 6.5 Components

 

Yes, in that case you may as well go completely after market. For all intents and purposes you aren't even using the Mark Levinson system anyway. With an aftermarket solution you are free to choose head units that have exisiting inputs and adapters. Certainly not stock.

BTW, are you able to time align the speakers to be in phase at the driver's position with your replacement system. That is perhaps the most striking feature of the ML system. It time aligns the channels so they arrive at the driver position in sync despite the left and right speakers being at different distances. That great improves imaging puttting center directly in front of the driver. On most systems you only have amplitude balance and lose time alignment. Is the system you are using able to do that?

 

right now i am still able to do that because i tapped in after the mark levingston amp with line converters for a input to my fosgate amp it sounds real good and clear but i am told that it would sound even better if i use a aftermarket head unit to connect directly to my aftermarket amp instead of using line converters