Alan,

There was another thread about this in the forum, somebody who had tried the Chesky DVD-A disk and found that the surround channels were either silent or a matrixed version of the front channels. If true, very disappointing. What I meant to say earlier is that the ML is able to play DVD-A disks that only have hi-res multichannel tracks (in addition to those that have a hi-res stereo track and a hi-res multichannel one). I haven't yet found a DVD-A disk that won't play at all.

I can't say definitively yet that I have heard multichannel DVD-A being decoded as intended, I'm going to try that this weekend. I too have a multichannel setup at home to compare to (Denon DVD-5900 universal player)

 

Yeah, that other thread was me.

Very cool that you have a home surround setup. I look forward to your findings. I'd really like to get to the bottom of this, because maybe, just maybe, it's only may car and I can fix it. OR, maybe Lexus will fix it in the future in a way I can retrofit. Either way, having full discrete DVD-A surround in the car would be quite an experience.

 

Well, after three months I finally tested this. I originally had a test disc from AIX records that has DVD-A, DTS, and DD surround tracks but the channel ID tracks are only in DTS and DD. The ML handles those just fine (so you can hear surround in your movies. But you can't see them if you're driving, just as well I suppose).

I ordered the Chesky test disk that has channel ID tracks for DD and for DVD-A and tried again. Tested it out in my home theater, and it worked fine. Then I tried it in the LS. The ML correctly decodes the hi-res DVD-A tracks, identifies them as multichannel, but does not correctly send the channel info to any but the front right and front left channel. I tried fiddling with the various settings that we have available on the ML to see if any changed this (toggling "surround" on and off for example) to no avail.

So my conclusions are the same as Alan's: We have multichannel, and we have DVD-A but we do not have true multichannel DVD-A. A curioius design compromise since there are obviously hi-res decoders and separate amps for the surround channels. Any audio techies out there care to guess why ML didn't go all the way to true DVD-A surround?

P.S in the spirit of the title of this thread, the answer is yes! I really like the ML.

 

heh heh, my answer is yet too for the ML. Lexus has ML on every car in the line up but some of the ML are just junk (RX) and not worth the money. LS on the the other hand seems to have the top of the line ML and it sound really good. I especially like their DVD feature since I have a lot of concert DVD that I can play in the LS. And the abilility to make is surround sound is a good feature as well...

 

I wonder how many people even have to ask/worry/muse about this. I'm pretty sure anyone with an L is excluded since I did not find any L's w/out the ML... When it comes down to it I'd pay a few K for the ML but not much more. I'm just glad that it ended up not being an issue since it was part of all of the cars that I ended up considering. In the future I think Lexus should just offer one setup - ML or even better on all of its TOP SHIP CAR's.

 

I recently purchased a LS460 without the Mark Levinson sound system, however now I am regretting the fact that I didn't get the car with that option! Is there any way that I can pay to have it installed? If so, a rough estimate on the cost? Thanks for any help!

 

nope.. unless its factory there is no option for adding it later.

You can upgrade the system in there now, however with a DSP unit to take the head unit signals, add in some good speakers, sub and amps and you can have even better if you want to drop 2-3k on it. I did exactly that, and bought mine w/o the ML so I could upgrade it.

 

I picked up my LS a few days ago with the ML system and was amazed at how good it sounds. I test drove one without it and them another with and the difference was amazing. The one I tested with the ML sounded good but it lacked some of the lower notes and I asked in the forum if there was any way to ad another sub to the system. I got a couple of replies but the deal with the ML equipped one fell thru. The one I picked up sounded even better then the other one with the ML I tested. Come to find out, the sub in the previous one was blown, so the one I received sounded better. I have to tell you, I will not be adding anything to this audio anytime in the near future. All I can say is go with the ML

 

2011 Lexus LS

The Lexus LS was one of the first vehicles to truly advance the art of car stereos back in the '90s. Today, it continues to impress with a 7.1-channel surround-sound Mark Levinson Reference audio system. At 450 watts, it's far from the most powerful setup on the market, but it boasts less than 0.1 percent total harmonic distortion, 19 bespoke, metal-coned speakers and a range of 20 to 20,000 hertz.