Hi all - I just bought my first Lexus which I picked up last week. It's a new 2016 GS350 F Sport. One thing about the car that is really annoying and I was hoping you guys could help. When you are listening to music you can barely hear the navigation directions. Is there an option where it would auto-mute or auto-lower the music volume level when the navigation speaks? I have searched the menus high and low and can’t find a setting to mute or lower music volume when navigation speaks. The only setting I found is to increase the navigation volume, but this doesn’t really help because the music still stays loud and the nav is still kinda hard to hear, and when you're not listening to music the nav is now too loud.

BTW...I'm listening to music saved to a USB stick and plugged into the USB port in the armrest, if that matters.

 

Pics. are required of your new F-Sport! I don't have the answer but, someone will chime in soon. What options and color combo did ya get?

 

It is not automatic but you can press and hold the left steering wheel spoke
button "Mode" and it will mute the stereo. If you missed the Navigation direction
you can then just press the "Map" button on the console to repeat it. Press the
Mode button long again to resume entertainment.

 

Menu > Setup > Voice > Voice Volume (Off - 7)

Select 'Save' (after change)

 

I haven't taken any pics yet. The car is Liquid Platinum with red interior. As far as options go, it has F Sport package, heated steering wheel, park assist, pre-collision, and power trunk. It is a new 2016 and the dealer was eager to sell. The car business must be pretty soft right now.

 

As far as I could find there isn't a soft-mute interrupt like some apps on phones do when an instruction is being spoken. I have my voice volume up (6/7) and it defeats music pretty well. It all should up on the HUD and display so I see it too. You could always just forego the GS' maps and go with Waze via your bluetooth. Waze is more accurate for cops anywaze...

 

^^^ Correct, there is no way to automatically mute the music for the navigation voice.

 

Yeah I was searching for this too with no luck. Seems like something the Lexus guys overlooked. If I turn up the navigation volume to compensate for the music, it's way too loud when the stereo is turned off. My previous three cars all automatically lowered the music when navigation instructions were being supplied.

While we are on this subject, is there a feature that makes the music/stereo louder at highway speeds? My 2005 Acura (and every other car) had this feature and I didn't realize how beneficial it was until I owned the Lexus without it! I know, I know it's somewhat trivial but Lexus has so many other great features and attention to detail in other areas. It's surprising to me that they overlooked the above mentioned navigation scenario AND some type of Automatic Volume Control. Heck my buddy's 2005 Ford F150 has it!

 

Yes. I can't remember where the setting is, but I recall it's called ASL, for Auto Sound Leveling.

 

Somebody PLEASE tell me how to activate that feature. I have searched the manual (both owner's and navigation) plus spent time in the settings menus.

 

Okay, found it! Unfortunately it was already turned on for each source. Maybe it's time for new tires (it's the road noise I am trying to overcome).

 

I went with Pirelli P7's and the road noise is gone......

 

I called the Lexus dealer to ask about the auto-muting for music when the navigation speaks and they told me this doesn't work on the USB input and that I need to be listening to radio, CD or satellite radio before it will auto-mute. I just tested what they said and like i figured, the Lexus dealer is wrong. Auto mute for music doesn't work when the nav speaks for any music input source. Interestingly enough, auto-mute for music DOES WORK when you go into the nav menu and adjust the volume for nav. So when you change the nav volume setting in the nav sound menu, it will auto-mute the music as it gives you a test volume for each setting. So the auto-mute function is available, but apparently some dumb Lexus engineer overlooked it or he doesn't think it is a useful feature. Lexus, if you're reading this, please fix this feature.

 

Lower right corner of each Source has a button "Sound"
First screen up is standard Treble/Mid/Bass/Fade/Balance
Tap the "DSP" Digital Signal Processing tap and turn on/off
the "ASL" Auto Sound Level" and/or the Surround Sound.
Each source can be set differently except for the Fade/Balance

 

Are you saying this will enable auto-mute for music when the navigation speaks? Or is this something else?