Recently just started happening. I play my music relatively loud (Bad, I know.), I just want to know how this can be fixed so I know to avoid doing it in the future.

Songs with heavy bass are distorted in the front speakers. Any ideas?

 

If you have the factory Mark Levinson system, it's likely that your speaker cones are starting to separate. It's extremely common on all ML speakers, including the sub. It's a relatively cheap and simply fix, both as a DIY or having a speaker repair shop do the work. I popped my door panels off and removed the affected speakers and brought them to a local speaker repair place... $30/each to recone. As I also mentioned, there are DIY kits to recone them yourself and I believe they are even less expensive. I'm sure someone can link you to one of these kits, or a quick google search, or search on this forum would probably turn one up for you.

 

What about the dash speakers underneath the windshield? Admittedly, it's hard to tell whether the distortion/tinniness is coming from it and not just the door speakers, but is there any chance on getting work done for those?

 

Those are just tweeters, and shouldn't distort with bass. You can isolate which speaker(s) are causing the problem by parking the car and fading front to rear and balancing side to side while playing music, and put your ear up to each speaker. I've found that this works best if you open one door at a time and put your ear up to the speaker while standing outside the car, that way you're greatly limiting the amount of sound your ears are picking up from the rest of the speakers.

I'm willing to bet it's the door speakers that are causing the issue, because I've not heard a whole lot about those tweeters in the dash going out (unless you're cranking up the treble in you EQ, which is definitely not advised). Most of the mid-range door speakers (maybe all, can't remember) were blown in my '01 with Mark Levinson as well as the sub, but all the tweeters were fine (dashboard and rear door). I hope it's not your tweeters in the dash, since I've read that they are an absolute b*tch to get to. You have to take the entire dash out to access them. This thread talks about the front tweeters, and a contributor suggests that if the front tweeters are actually blow, you're better off disconnecting them at the amp and wiring up new tweeters that you'd mount in your front door panels like the in LS400. Someone in that thread says that it takes 3 hours to take the dashboard out, and 2 hours to put it back together... way more time than I'd be willing to put into replacing tweeters. Plus, taking apart the dashboard might result in rattles and squeaks after you put it back together.

 

Thank you for the information, I'll see what I can do about this problem.

 

I'll put money on a blown sub. Luckily it's fairly easy $20 fix. I posted a DIY on how to replace it along with widening your speaker hole so you don't have to remove/replace your rear seat. I don't have a link right off hand but if you search you'll find it.

 

Since receiving this car from family I have noticed there is a rattling noise coming from the sub, but I haven't been able to do anything about it this far.

 

You don't even have to remove the rear seat. I've gained access to remove my subwoofer within about 5 minutes. All that's involved is removing about 3 bolts and 2 nuts, then pulling the back of the rear seat toward the front of the car while lifting up on the cardboard rear deck cover. I've done this almost 5 times now lol (don't ask)

 

That sounds intriguing. Do you happen to have screenshots?

 

No, but I think I found this method by watching a Youtube video. I'll try to find it real quick. If I can't find it, I'll go outside and take pictures since my car is still half taken apart as I'm trying to diagnose my subwoofer issue.

 

Take a good utility knife and cut the cardboard around the sub an inch or so on each side and you can pull the sub out pretty easy.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...t-removal.html

 

That's seriously way more work that my method of removal. I also much prefer the non-destructive method vs a destructive method every time. I'll document my way of accessing the sub and post it here shortly.

 

I posted the link so the OP would have an option on how to fix his sub. I'm not trying to battle that this method is the only or best method to get your sub out. The only other option that has been posted or talked about is the complete removal/replace of the rear seats and panels with an estimate for 4 hours to do so. If you have another method, by all means please do a write up and post the steps on how to do it so that we can have another option for sub removal. As far as destructive, well that's all in the eye of the beholder. I don't view trimming the cardboard panel a little wider then you'll never see it unless the speaker cover is off as destructive but I'm sure there are some that view it as so. In general I'm 100% with you trying to not alter the car but there are times when doing things like that are way more conducive to my time and sanity to get the job done. Widening the deck panel is understandably not going to be for everyone but neither is a complete removal of the rear seat and panels.

 

Result of playing music too loud? Your speakers need help.

 

Have you been able to find that video?