The Lexus Mark Levinson is probably the best stock sound system I have ever heard. Its DSP gives a very pleasurable listening experience.. The comments about lack of bass at loud volumes is not present in my LS 430. You may want to check where your ASL and BASS levels are set.. This system does not distort even a max volume.. It is amazing.. But it could still be louder..

I have installed the Ultimate Lockpick which allows me to have an alternate input.. Such as DVD, MP3, etc.. I am using a player that plays multiple formats. I am splitting the output of this player into the stock Mark Levinson system as well into a Hifonics Olympus amplifier that separates the sub output signal down to any frequency I want.. 80 - 250 hz.. I run it at around 120Hz... this amp then drives two 10 inch Hifonic subs in an isobaric enclosure that can be removed when necessary.. When I want to bump..and show the system off, I use my alternate signal source which plays everything.. SAT, DVD, MP3, FM and TV broadcast..

 

to answer GATO's question.. Yes it is extremely tuned... It is designed to play without distortion.. We all have sound systems in our home.. They all have a volume of 10..(scale 1 to 10) but they do not sound good a 10 because the amplifiers distortion level (THD) is off the scale at 10. You should never turn your volume past 1 or 2 oclock on the dial.. (rule of thumb).

I would estimate that a full volume on the head unit we are running a 70% of the amplifiers full power.. and I am sure if you opened the amplifier up you would see some controls that you could turn up for more volume..

Keep in mind in is not always power that blows speakers but distortion.. If you have a 20 watt amplifier hooked up to a 300 watt speaker and if that amp was running full volume, I will guarantee you that speaker will be blown in no time..

In summary.. I would not mess with the Mark levinson stock system.. If you need more decibles.. do what everyone is saying and go after market.. If you just need more bass.. there are other options as my previous post..

Also I have one question for your installer of your sub.. He says that you have weak bass because the cabin is so air tight..does that mean if you open a window your bass increases? I would question his logic on that one...

 

well, I think he meant that is so tight....its hard for the bass to come in from the trunk....there is no port, I have the coller box and he said after pulling all the liners down there is a alot of electronics in between.

so, can I just remove the oem sub for port?

 

I would first fold down the armrest and open the access port to see if that achieves the desired level of bass that you want. If it does not then removing the sub woofer to vent the trunk will probably not be enough either.

I don't have a cooler box in my LS, Just the access port so I don't know if you can do what I suggested..

PS.. SUB BASS in non directional so you will not need to build a custom box to point upwards through the removed subwoofer port.. It will just come through..

 

yeah, I cant do that with the cooler box...


but thanks on the sub bass tip

 

I'm thinking about taking the cooler box out now and putting plexi glass and neons in there making that an extension of the box for the 12 where the original 8 used to be

 

i want the cooler box for my car hehe.. i was thinking about making a custom back dash holding a square 8 inch woffer with a sealed box underneath

 

thanks motohide for the info but I wanted to know if its possible to run a aftermarket amp and sub to the stock headunit and still have the stock sub working at the same time. But I also had a question if it is possible to run an aftermarket amp to the stock headunit to power my mids and highs?

 

Blowing mids and woofers by underpowering it is a myth.

You CAN blow a tweeter by underpowering because clipped signals generate high frequency harmonics. If those harmonics get sent to the tweeter by the crossover network, your tweeter can blow.

 

my hi to low converter keeps blowing up when i turn up the volume, its connected to the rear oem sub on my ml ls430. where else can i connect it?

 

Yes it is. The easiest way is to get a Mark Levinson version amplifier which drives two stock subwoofers (at speaker output level) and use one of the outputs to drive a subwoofer amplifier via speaker level adapter. From here, you can tune one external amplifier to drive your original OEM one that got disconnected and use RCA multiplier from the second amp for any additional amps or subs.

 

For all the guys with the non UL 430 the best way to get bass in the car is to remove the factory subwoofer and build a box ported and tuned through the rear deck...keyword hear is tuned,here's my 430 it slams no rattles done.

 

ill be PMing you shortly for more details lol

 

Shlomy i got you!!

 

Has anyone with a UL tried removing the factory sub and placing a box in the trunk? I know that the cooler is kind of in the way, but I spoke with an audio guy over the weekend and he said that would be my best bet. We had the trunk open and could feel air coming throught the rear deck into the cab.