DavidZ

I'm restarting this discussion with a more appropriate subject line.

My preferences are: Treble -1, Mids 0, Bass 0, Fader -1 towards the rear,

I leave it on. The manual says it "adjusts to the optimum volume and tone quality according to vehicle speed to compensate for increased vehicle noise." I like that it adjusts the volume for road noise. I don't know what they mean by adjusting the "tone quality," but I haven't noticed anything unpleasant.

Agreed!

These tracks are now some of the best sounding audio tracks in my collection. I have some great sounding CDs with music I prefer, but none of them sound more clear and detailed than these HDtracks. And for $5, you can't go wrong. I recommend that people buy this download if nothing else to (1) hear what your ML system is really capable of, and (2) to show off your ML system for your friends.

I noticed that the folder is 2.5 GB. That's about 10 times the size of one of my typical CDs converted to FLAC. I'm not complaining, just making an observation.

I agree. Great selections!

Here are some of my favorite CDs with great music and very high quality sound.

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
The Legendary Bobby Darin
Flim & the BBs - Vintage BBs
Vinx - Rooms in My Fatha's House
Mozart - Eine Kliene Nachtmusik - Telarc - Sir Charles Mackerras, Prague Chamber Orchestra
Beethoven's 9th - Deutsche Grammophon - Herbert Von Karajan, Berliner Phillarmoniker

kalel2127

1. Treble +3, Mid +3, Bass -1
2. Off but a great feature that should be turned on for those individuals that complain about wind noise.
3. On, I spent a few hours comparing both. IMO both sound great but with surround off, the left side seems to be more pronounced as if there isn't any time alignment active.
While on, the rear speakers come to life, the highs get brighter and I need that since I have 2 12" subs in my trunk.
4&5. Listen to what you love.

BobES2019

DavidZ, thanks for the post. I followed your directions. IMO, HD Tracks is substantially better than mp3. The high tones are sharp and crisp and I do not have any mp3 tracks that comes close to the the bass. I have never heard that kind of bass out of my Lexus ML system. I put a bunch of CDs on the little USB drive. Very convenient, but I am going to return to the CDs.

I spent my first 30 years with vinyl and a high end "stereo". Then the next 30 years (give or take) with CDs and a high end 5.1 surround system. I think that most people today rely on earbuds. Although the modern ear buds do a good job, people do not know what they are missing.

My only problem is I can no longer feel the LTA system vibrate the steering wheel when the volume is set in the 50 range.
Staying in the lane is boring. I will take the high fidelity.

Barryabko

Hi DavidZ,

Thanks for starting this dedicated thread about achieving the highest performance from the 2019 ES Mark Levinson audio system. I was also going to start a dedicated thread about this but you beat me to it! :-)

Also, thanks for showing my recommendation about the HDTracks download of the Audiogon sampler.

DavidZ

You're welcome, BobES2019. Cudos to Barryabko for posting the HDtracks link.

I totally agree! Most systems produce little or no clean deep bass and most people don't seem to miss it.

I, too, am having a lot of fun with my new car and its amazing audio.

Be careful! It's easy to get lost in the great tunes while driving, particularly when operating the infotainment controls.

Barryabko

Hi All,

I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of using the highest quality recordings as well as the the highest quality format when evaluating the ML system (or any audio system for that matter) and adjusting it for optimum performance. The ML system is very revealing and will not only show the exceptional performance capability that it has under the best conditions but will also show the sonic limitations of the recording, format and adjustment when they are not up to snuff.

Generally speaking, using Bluetooth, MP3s, SiriusXM or any other compressed format will not allow the ML to sound it's best. High quality lossless recordings played through USB will really let you hear how fantastic your Mark Levinson system can perform.

BobES2019

Well said and yes, thank you for the hdtracks.com link. Sirius XM is a big fidelity disappointment for me.

DavidZ, how about I connect the battery charger to the car and play the ML in the driveway. After all a big reason for selling my 2004 LS and getting the 2019 was the Lexus 2.0 safety system.

DavidZ

You might want to check out Tidal music streaming. It's a high quality music streaming service. There's a 60 day free trial. After that it's $20/month. Lots of folks have raved about the sound quality. One of these days I'm going to do the free trial. I understand that you can download files to an iPhone if you don't want to use up your data. I presume that streaming HD audio is a major data hog.

Whatever floats your boat.

Barryabko

I have been doing some reading about about high quality audio streaming. I believe that Tidal only has up to CD red book (16/44.1) capability for the vast majority of it's catalog. Amazon has just announced HD Ultra audio streaming with up to 24/192 resolution at $14.99/month for new sign ups or $12.99/month for existing Prime members. They claim 50 million titles in their library. Unfortunately, early adopters have not found the APP to work very well it's not very clear (pun intended) whether full 192/24 resolution is actually being heard. It seems Amazon still has a few kinks to work out. When they do, I think it may be a very viable option.

Anyone on this forum using Amazon HD Ultra audio yet? What is your experience?

DavidZ

Thanks for the heads up on Amazon's service. I briefly researched it. Amazon has 2 quality levels, HD and Ultra HD. HD is CD quality. The website says "50 million+ songs in HD and millions of songs in Ultra HD." Note that's songs, not CDs. So the vast majority of Amazon's offerings are also CD quality.

Tidal has a comparable offering to Amazon's they call Tidal Masters. Their website claims over 170,000 tracks in Master quality.

The services seem comparable. The vast majority of offerings on both services are CD quality. Amazon is challenging Tidal by offering a 90 day free trial and $15/month after that compared to Tidal's 30 or 60 day trial (website says both) and $20/month after.

Don't get me wrong. I think CD quality is great. Way better than SXM or FM. My CD collection sounds great in my car. Good enough for my enjoyment. While I like to experience super high sound quality, the offerings are quite limited.

Barryabko

Thanks for the clarification. I took a look at the Tidal site and it says the Masters section has resolution up to 96 kHz/24 bit. Amazon HD Ultra says their resolution is up to 192 kHz/24 bit with millions of songs and as an Amazon Prime member the HD Ultra would only cost me $12.99 per month and with the 90 day free trial. I'll probably try it and see.

DavidZ

You could trial both services.

I spent some time on the Tidal website. One thing I liked was their playlists. In each genre, they have a few playlists selected by different music enthusiasts. They play about 20 seconds of each song and move to the next one. I liked what I heard.

kalel2127

I have been using Tidal for about 3 months now and really enjoy the sound much more than Spotify which I had used for a few years. That being said Tidal has a few wrinkles to iron. For example, while plugged into Carplay occasionally it will display an error message while attempting to load a playlist or track. Also, I have noticed it requires me to select shuffle every time I plug my phone in. Unlike, Spotify it would store those type of settings for each playlist. At first, I thought those issue might be caused by my phone but after purchasing a new phone last week all those issues persist.

The crossplay doesn't always work as intended either and if you have an echo device you won't be able to ask Alexa to play a playlist you have created.

I will give Amazon music a try in hopes that it's more convenient to use.

My ideal platform to use would be Spotify or maybe even Apple music but they have yet to enter the lossless field. I'm sure now that Amazon has become a player it's only a matter of time before the big boys come to bat.

Barryabko

I subscribed to the 90 day trial of the new Amazon Audio HD / HD Ultra service and installed the app on my iPhone 8. I had a quick listen in my 2019 ES 350 with the Mark Levinson system to about a dozen songs in the HD Ultra section of the app. All of the songs I heard sounded much better than SiriusXM (as I expected). The best sounding track so far was The Joker by Steve Miller. Much more listening to do but I'd like to optimize the streaming and playback quality as best as possible first.

I'm hoping to stream the raw FLAC files directly into the built-in DAC of the Mark Levinson system. According to the Amazon Music Unlimited HD FAQ page it seems to say that when using an external DAC "On iOS, disable the Alexa Wake Word feature in Settings to ensure playback through your DAC at the highest resolution." I've looked around in app's settings, my iPhone 8 settings as well as in the Google Home app but don't see where to disable the Alexa Wake Word feature. Anyone know how to do this?

kalel2127

Located within the Amazon music app, followed by settings: