luxurynick

Is it just me are do they just sound bland? I think I'm going to go with the Infinity reference as replacements. What do you guys think?

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Everyone has different ears and perception of good sound. Pesonally, I don't have the ML system in my car and I thought the base system was adequate. Nothing special. but definately not junk. Good luck with the upgrade. Let us know what you think after you get it done.

DigMyM35x

I definitely noticed the same thing. I was VERY underwhelmed with my wife's 05 RX330 base sound system. Since I don't drive it much and she was fine it was not necessary to go with the ML.

Now, I'm not sure if anything has changed on the 350 but I feel that the sound is much better on the base system. It could just be the extra tunability options with the Nav (i.e. seat position, etc.) but the 350's system does sound better to me. Maybe their identical and I'm just imagining it

Cheers!

Jay

Edison_Chen

I dont have the ML, but from a person who doens't quite care about sound, it doens't sound that bad

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

The base system also had listening position as well. You had to push the right **** and scroll through the options like driver position, front passanger and such.

DigMyM35x

So out of curiosity - does anyone know for a fact whether any changes have been made to the audio system or speakers? Just curious. I'm actually quite happy with the sound now in the 350. I wonder if I had tweaked more in the 330 if it would have been better. (Note: I am definitely not saying the sound was horrible in the 330 - just not the best to my ears - always subjective ).

Jay

470

Totally agree. the RX330 ML system is just crap.

Just sold the wife's Mazda 6 that had the Bose setup and it crapped all over the 330 setup.

over here in australia the 330 sells for $91k on road(rrp). the mazda 6 sells for $46k on road(rrp).

Foster 525

I just got my 07 RX350 yesterday, (NO Mark Levinson) and it does have POS (sound positioning feature) which has bias towards the driver, front, rear and all occupants. There is NO cassette player. Beats the sound on my 03 BMW 525i factory stock sound system, for sure.

darksparkz

iTrader: (1)

The RX330 has 6x9s in the front, while 6.5s are in the rear door panels. I would think that many Lexus owner's perfer high sounds over the bass produced by 6x9s. Maybe it would've been a better idea to have 6.5s in the front and 6x9s in the rear.

akkidy

My '07 RX350 has a cassette player. Is it a dealer option? I don't remember the dealer charging me for it. As far as I know, you can get either the ML version or just the base version for the sound system, but both have cassette players. I would be interested to see how your center console looks like without the cassette player, would it be possible for you or somebody who doesn't have the cassette player to post a picture? A friend of mine told me that the RX is old school with the cassette player, but I prefer to have it so that I don't need to install any after market ipod interface or use the fm modulator crap for the ipod. I'm also happy with the base sound system. I think it is decent enough to listen to, but definitely can use more bass without sound distortion.

Foster 525

I will try to post pics later on, but where the cassette is supposed to be it just says "Lexus" on it. I kid you not there is no cassette in it.

barry_s

The RX350 with navigation has cassette. No navigation = no cassette. ??????

Foster 525

That's right NO NAV = NO cassette. Would be nice if the 07 brochure and website said that, but they don't . The only consolation is that it is now says MP3 and WMA compatible on the radio. So long cassette. I guess they said, lets give them 47 more hp over the RX 330, make it a RX 350 and remove the cassette. Decontenting at its finest.

Edison_Chen

I'm glad they can play mp3's in the RX350....

tfischer

I don't think that is exactly right.

If you get the NAV and the Mark Levinson, you do get a cassette player, at least according to earlier posts here and according to the photos in the 07 RX brochure, which I just looked at again to be sure.

(In the RX330, all systems came with a cassette deck -- NAV or ML made no difference.)

Thus, in the RX350, all ML systems have a cassette deck, whether you have NAV or not. If you get the standard audio system, then adding the NAV system means you do not get a cassette deck.