With Mark Levinson Sound System, I played the same music files using USB and via Blutooth from my Samsung S10. The Blutooth came out several times better than the USB version. Anyone has the similiar experience? Why the difference with exact the same copy of music?

 

What year and car do you have. I have both a 2012 IS and and 2010 HS, each with ML and they both give different sounds from the same source. I find I have to adjust sound levels depending what is the source. It also makes a difference how you compressed the files on to the USB or the phone. I find ML is very good at providing clean sound but it's making rich, full sounds. Always seems like I am hearing good highs and lows but rarely like a concert hall or full sound stage.

 

Thanks for replying. I have 2022 ES300h. Yes, I tried again and found varying sound quality or signal strength from each source. USB has the lowest strength, then Android Auto. Bluetooth has the most strong signal. My logical thinking is the reverse as USB and Android Auto are both wired input, and USB being the most direct input should have the most strong signal.

 

I have the 2022 NX350 FSport w/Mark Levinson. I'm currently using Apple CarPlay & am disappointed at the audio quality. After reading so many good things about the ML system I did some research & some people are saying BT works better for audio quality as well. I am going to try hard wired CarPlay & BT to see which sounds better because as it's set up now it sounds worse than my 2016 IS200t w/o ML.

 

I am not able to play USB/BT while using Android Auto. But the sound came from Cell Phone muisc files are great, Another approach is to play BT from another Cell Phone. The sound is also great.

 

I take back what I posted earlier. I forgot that new speakers need to "break in" to reach their full potential & I'm glad to say after a few weeks the ML system now sounds fantastic

 

I bought a 2022 RX450hL Luxury with ML a week ago. It now has 300 miles. I have found that any source played through iPhone USB is about half the volume of OTA SiriusXM. This is disappointing. USB should be a higher quality sound. I have a 2021 Ford 150 King Ranch with Bang and Olfsen Unleashed -- iPhone USB for any source (OTA stream or CD burned to iTunes, then synced to phone) sounds fantastic and much better than OTA SiriusXM. Seems that Lexus has not been keeping up with basic audio technology and functionality. I am surprised there are not more concerns raised by Lexus owners...........