bobsobi

Appreciate you looking into this. You should be able to select which layer you want to play -- in this case, it's the 5.1 (or 3/2.1) PCM, LPCM, MLP, 96/24 or however it might appear on the screen.

bobsobi

In my experience with the service and tech people at two dealers, they simply know very little about the ML. One dealer finally brought in a factory rep who was also unable to address my concerns, and they then punted and said I would have to contact corporate.

Mike728

I had to put the car in park and engage the parking brake, just to get to the DVD menu. However, those options were not available. Probably means what I originally suspected, that it is not able to play the high res PCM layer. Still, it sounds better than CD to me. Might just be the enhanced dynamic range, though.

Robdog1515

I got a reply from Harman! wow. Never thought that would happen since they don't actually have a direct service dept for customers, we are supposed to go through our dealers. However our dealers seem to be complacent in the effort to get this resolved.

so the Harman group asked for my VIN# and dealership. I am to assume they will contact the dealer’s ship to discuss my case to gather more info. I am gathering this is rare, and my(our) claim that the distortion is still present even after the so called "fixed" amp swap is a big surprise to them. Now they are in the hot seat.

I am grateful that Harman is doing something about this ASAP since it is their name on the system.

no word on how long it will be till there is a fix, just thought I would pass on the info that it appears Harman has started their own investigation ahead of Lexus's mandate for a resolution.

Again, I highly recommend all of you have your amps replaced, have your dealer call Lexus of riverside if they don't believe you. Lexus of Riverside, specifically Frank the service guy is very nice and can answer your dealers questions regarding what to do about the distortion. True the new amp won't fix it, however you can't complete a corporate complaint until your car has had all the recommended repairs. The info can be found on a previous page.

bobsobi

Yeh, the screen lockout is yet another ill-advised "feature" we could do without.

What options are available? Can you see 2.0 and 5.1 options whether they are DD or DTS?

I've found that CDs generally sound inferior on the system but they improve when you turn on the ML's surround processing.

Mike728

I got a red circle with a line through it when I selected audio options.

bobsobi

So you can't even tell which format is playing?? Yikes!

Can you turn off autoplay to force a top menu to come up upon disc insertion?

Depending on your DVD-A collection, you may be able to find one with fewer options and narrow down what will play. Otherwise, the only way to know for sure is to burn a couple test discs yourself.

Pretty sure you can play both DD and DTS, though. If you pop in any video DVD with a soundtrack in both formats, you'll probably be able to select either from the DVD's menu.

Still, dropping LPCM compatibility is a lousy cost-cutting measure. So much for the pursuit of perfection!

Robdog1515

Took the car back to the dealer. Tech noted the distortion. He said that since Harman (mark levinson) has an office in torrance CA (45 miles west of my service dealership) that harman may send out a few engineers to evaluate the distortion issue and recommend a solution. That is promising. It appears they may have another fix coming out soon. Hopefully it's a new sub that can handle to power.

ICnothing

That is great Harman got back to you, I have been waiting for Harman to get back to me for 3weeks now. Thanks Robdog for keeping us updated.

nsaldanh

I went through something similar on the LS. I originally had a 2008 LS that had a really good ML sound system. I replaced it with a 2012 LWB LS that stickers at close to $85K. The bass is totally missing on the 2012 ML and Lexus in true fashion refuses to do anything about it as they checked all the other 2012 LS cars that they had and determined that all of them had the same sound -- therefore my car is performing as designed.

Lexus legendary customer service has gone AWOL. The 2013 LS is no better. It sounds just as bad.

ICnothing

Well one thing that I have noticed on a lot of threads Customer Service for Lexus is not as good as advertised. I am still waiting for a direct response from Lexus and Harman and nothing maybe that is why these two company work together crap customer service.

bobsobi

I can attest to the hoops through which you must jump for anything out of the ordinary from Lexus Customer Satisfaction. You can read my odyssey here.

As long as you're very persistent and reasonable, you should get something for your trouble. But don't expect them to re-engineer the ML system, especially when they run for cover with that "operating characteristic" crap.

ICnothing

Hey bobsobi, thanks for the link ....Wow I'm a little worried now... Has anyone had any luck with the ML system with a resolution?

nsaldanh

I spent several months trying to get them to do something about it - to no avail. I even went so far as to prove to one of their field engineers with a test tone CD that the 2008 sounded much richer. The bass had much more punch. He agreed with me, asked for a copy of that CD to discuss with Lexus Japan, but nothing came of it. Lexus decided to hide behind "it works as designed" but no one could offer up what their thought process was to take a really good system and then cripple it. They even asked me what I thought of the sound system in the 2013 LS. It's as crappy as the 2012.

ICnothing

I am amazed how Lexus can have one Mark Levinson system in one vehicle that sounds great , then Lexus screws it up on another. My 2008 Gs 450h Mark Levinson system sounded amazing compared to the one on my 2013 300h. Why change it for different vehicles I know costs, but then charge a little more and be consistent on quality, and not get people like us pissed off. For a luxury company and rated so high for customer service I am not impressed.