Jay M

Now that I own the car and have driven a few hundred miles I'll give some more initial thoughts.

I now agree that at a low volume the sound is muddy. There is too much messy mid bass. reducing the amount of bass on the eq doesn't help. I tried to raise the mid and treble... that didn't help either.

Then I played with the DSP. switching it to the two front seats setting seems to have made a big improvement. I think there are just too many speakers in such a small space.

Over the next week I will keep playing and post my thoughts about it.

THE XM tuner sounds a bit better than my XM commander did, so I'm happy about that! The reception with the antenna in the Lexus recommended place works very well. I have not had a dropout yet, but it's only been one day. I'll give a reception update later after I have driven through some trouble areas.

~Jay

jc957

We actually made a point to listen to both systems for a while before we ended up going with the stock system. I think the ML may have been slightly(and I mean very slightly) better when compared directly to the stock system but in my opinion, was definately not worth the extra money. The stock is definately the best out of any other car I have ever heard. My only complaint was the lack of crisp and full bass. That problem was fixed for just over $400 with a single sub woofer and amp installed in the trunk and amp control installed up front. Thats all I needed and it blows the ML out of the water. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in your music. I prefer the live performance sound and this does the job for me.

scforce

Percy....you finally are someone that makes some sense....thank you. I'm ditching my ML set-up in few weeks.... I've already added a McCauley (prosound) 15" running freeair through the ski pass through...I'll have to load up a picture sometime. I added an Audio Control LC6 to add the sub...oh yeah...it's being run my an old school ZAPCO Z300C2-SLX.....Before I start yapping...my challenge was to add a stereo and NOT drill a single hole into the IS.......did it...there are brackets and 6mm holes not being used all over the car........and even several factory grounds.

For most of you that haven't heard of MCCauley...I have most of my entire trunk left and it'll outperform most subs...oh yeah and it has impact...unlike most car subs. McCauley subs are mostly used in stadiums, clubs, etc....super efficient and sound amazing. They require a huge box like 10 cubic feet...or the size of a trunk!

I have three of the same Zapco amps....and searching under rocks for a 4th....one amp to each pair of Dyn separates up front...and 1 to the sub.....period. I'll change the LC6 to an LC8 and add an DQXS to smooth things out. (The rear door speakers are too close to my ears...cut them out too!) Ok, my thread is all over the place....the Center Channel in the ML system is ANNOYING as *^&%. seriously....when you kick off "surround mode" the system goes into not stereo but Treo....the center is too obnoxious (loud) and just plain gets in the way.....

Here's what I think the botom line is....ML is pretty good for playing movies.....not good at playing music.....I don't watch movies in the car and would much rather have a better stereo!

Oh, wanted to add one more thing......for those of you that are crazy enough......there's about 3" of foam in each footwell on top of the fire wall that's begging for a Dynaudio 12" and about a 1000 watts.....mmmm......do I go crazy?

Oh, btw...I have another car I used to compete with.....a Thunderbird SC....2 McCauley 18's, Dyn 3-way with 8's in the firewall on axis.....Zapco processing and Zapco 600s.... Dyn/McCauley.Zapco......really tough to beat what was the old Dynaudio ad? "Ever heard a sparrow fart?"....lol

tigmd99

Scforce...and how much did all of that equipment cost you?? Mark Levinson is an amazing system for what you paid for it. Sure, you can dump over $10K into your car to beat the crap out of ML, but that is not the point.

Jay M

my head is spinning! But speaking of heads, what are you using for a head unit? are you using the factory ML HU?? how are you bypassing all the DSP? So let me see if I am clear on you rsystem... it is just stereo front speakers and a sub?? .... no rear speakers?

BTW- that cool that you didn't have to cut it up.


thanks,
~Jay

scforce

Hey Jay...

I have NAV with ML...so I'm using the NAV headunit. To bypass the surround junky junk....the AudioControl LC8 has 8 channels of inputs.....front highs, front mids, front lows, and factory sub......the LC8 also has internal summing.....to join ALL of the frequencys together, smooth them out through whatever logrithms and then spits the signal to an AudioControl DQXS....crossover/1/3 octave EQ extraordinaire. Highs to one amp, Mids to the 2nd amp, Lows to another amp, and Sub to the 4th amp......solid...and about 900 watts to have fun with....

in a stereo......less is more......5 speakers minimum.....though I'll be running a 3-way up front to make it 7....14 speakers is too many...especially when the 2.5 inch center channel sounds the loudest.

t0e

iTrader: (1)

Great thread much to learn.

clubfoot

scforce where are you picking up the inputs? Are they directly from the head unit or after the ML amp? Alot of electronics modifying the signal, but you seem to prefer stereo sound to surround,...and that's cool.

Percy

The wierd Dynaudio ads still crack me up. They had Hugo the company bat, as well as a racoon that I can't remember it's name. Even had a great dane. Made most of the guys completely ignore their ads. They were looking for the ones with the scantily clad bikini girls. I think their first ad was just completely black and white, text only.

It'll only get better as Dyn is planning to release a car version of their ESOTAR 2 tweeter later this year, that's if it doesn't get pushed back anymore. Also coming out are some different midwoofers, but the specs and info haven't come out yet.

New esotar2 tweeter should be sweet. Same or smaller size than their MD130, but with better performance than their MD330D Esotar. And THAT is an incredible tweeter.

How far are you on your system?

Percy

lfangulo

This might be a stupid question but anyway am asking it.

I have the standard system with NAV, but I want a ML can I just have it installed at the dealership or can they sell it at the parts and I do it myself?

my freaking dealer told me that the ML was not worth the price, and that the standard system would be great, but he did not tell me about the DVD or the better surround sound.

any info would be great!

Jay M

MY guess is that it would be cheaper to trade your car in for one with ML.

~Jay

Jay M

Do you lose any functionality on the HU? And what happens to the DSP button on the screen?

I had a nice Stereo system in my Maxima- Diamond speakers(so so sound quality) JL IB sub in the rear deck, McIntosh amp for the front speakers, JL 250/1 for the sub, DQX EQ, "Denford" HU.

It sounded pretty awesome, but the lame installer couldn't get the alt whine out of it. It drove me insane at low volumes! In fact it drove me to wanting a new car. hence the new IS

~Jay

Percy

The parts alone would run MUCH MUCH MUCH more than the cost when buying the car with it. Amp is a few grand. HU is another grand or so. NAV system, additional. When I priced it for a GS back in '02, their cost for PARTS ALONE was something like nearly 10 grand. That's according to the parts manager at the dealership.

10 grand for a ML system vs 10 grand for an aftermarket system...there's absolutely NO CONTEST. You could stock up on the high end Alpine F#1 Status, full multichannel, full NAV, McIntosh amp and Dyn speakers for that price. And come out sounding better than 95% of the home systems, and 100 % better than any of the Lexus Mark Levinson systems.

ML isn't worth it when you have to pay several grand to outfit your Lexus with it. Especially the way it was designed, amp and DSP wise. As well as using the budget constricted speakers.

Percy

lfangulo

thanks for the reply
I have the standard system with nav, all I wanted was to be able to watch movies too. I guess I might have to go with a stand alone DVD player and one of those aftermarket connectors I wanted to keep it stock but I guess am out of luck!!

go blue 99

Glad I found this thread. I really wanted my fiance to get the ML..just found out it's not available in this region and was pretty disappointed (she doesn't want to wait 4 months).

But i'm happy to read the stock system is still excellent..I've never heard ML so I guess I won't know what I'm missing. Plus we mostly play burned MP3's and radio so I guess we don't need the ML as much.