swaangin

don't tell them anything about the cd player, just let them do the work, also, in the medical field-- you can go to your primary care doctor and ask for a hearing test or a local supermarket too if you think that's the case

LeX2K

A signal process has the same limitation it can't actually make the output of the head unit better. Yes it can make it sound much better by compensating as much as possible for the source. Most people are happy with this I'm not one of them, see this thread.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...omponents.html

whoismiked

Replacing the headunit in a 3IS isn't really an option for us as it's integrated with too many other systems in the car, and the signal from our HU is not as bad as you may think. Would it be better with a unit with a high quality 24 bit DAC, absolutely, but it is no where near as bad as most other OEM stereo's.

MX73

True, but with everything so tightly integrated into the HU, we don't have much aftermarket HU choices. For an audio enthusiast, this may be good enough but for an audiophile, it may not be enough.

andy350

Wow…that was fast delivery

Now got to find a good stereo shop from Atlanta to install this.

swaangin

does anyone know if this helps with the stock speakers? or should you have aftermarket only

LeX2K

I'm reasonably happy with the DACs in stock Lexus units (the ones I've heard) I would rate them well above average. They are far, far better than the absolute junk in modern aftermarket head units. Maybe there are good ones out there but if so I have not found them. The only exception I know of is the Dynavin N7-6205.

It drives me crazy to feed expensive, excellent amps and speakers a sub par signal. This is technological regression.

It will help with any speaker. Take a look at the speakers Tesla uses they look downright generic, but using signal processing they tune exactly to the cabin space/speakers and the system sounds amazing.

swaangin

has anyone had this installed with the stock system? i'm interested. what does it do exactly? make the sound more clear / loud?

LeX2K

I should have been more clear, I was talking about using a signal processor (and aftermarket amplifier) along with the above box, this explains what it does (a single processor might have the functionality of this box have not looked at them lately).


But even if you were to use only the LC7i along with an amp you will improve your sound of the stock speakers. How much is subjective, I personally would also look to upgrade the speakers but you don't have to upgrade everything at once.

RADCRFTD

Using an aux cable will provide better sound quality over bluetooth. Also make sure you have the streaming quality set to the highest level possible. Of the streaming services I have accounts for / access to, I find that I get the best sound quality in this order: SoundCloud GO+, Spotify Premium and lastly Apple Music.

Here’s an article with comparison, pros and cons but lacks any review on SoundCloud or it’s GO+ which is lossless and hasn’t been updated to show Apple Music now includes lossless sound. Though high quality / lossless tracks are only available when provided by the artist/label.
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best...aming-services

swaangin

This will always be true but I believe it's also heavily dependent on the Bluetooth system. I would consider myself a decent audiophile, when I used to load MP3 songs on my iPod/iPhone previously, I would always make sure it was 320kbps since you could hear the difference. I had a aux -> bluetooth adapter ($15) in my older car and you could hear that the sound would be quieter and bass wouldn't hit that much.

In the IS, I haven't noticed that significant of a difference between bluetooth and aux.

InveredMP

The quality of sound from bluetooth versus aux cable, is negligible at best. Most phones through the headphone or charging jack, have limitations that prevent lossless sound transfer.

I am new to Lexus but I do find the stock system lacking for a semi luxury car. I just installed a JL 12w6 and JL 750 watt amp which is more bass than I want for the system but I love JL. Highs are worse than mids in my IS200t non ML system, but I find that this system does not play the full range properly like other setups I have had in the past.

andy350

I went to two different high end stereo shops in my Atlanta area and both told me that I don’t need the LC7i Audio Control Unit so i returned it and got full refund.

Both shops were extremely busy and told me the same thing…

they told me to bring my car back at a later date and they will tweak and adjust the settings to perfection.

they both said I don’t need the LC7i since I already have the 6 channel alpine amp and JL audio fix86.

387

The LC7i and Fix86 do the same thing as they both sum three amplified channels off the output signals off the OEM amp and remove any factory processing so you have a usable signal going into your aftermarket amp.

What new six speakers do you have now? A two way component set with the mid in the door, tweeter in the dash and a coaxial in the rear doors? If this is the case and you are unhappy with the front stage and the factory set up sounded better or the same, it could be due to the factory door midbass playing up to 300hz to 700Hz (I can't remember what the factory midbasses play to, someone posted it somewhere and the dash mounted speakers covering the mids and highs. With your typical two way component set I suspect you have now, the doors are playing up to 3kHz ish before it before the tweeter takes over and with your current setup, the midrange is getting lost in the door.

​​​​​​With current amp, you are probably running two channels to the front mid and tweeter thru the passive crossover network, two channels to the rear doors and bridging the last two channels for the subwoofer.

Keepig what you have now, I would look into getting new set of speakers for the dash that covers the range the OEM speakers covered originally using a 4" coaxial speaker from Morel or even Focal that has a 4" midrange woofer and tweeter, use the 6.5" in your door as a dedicated midbass driver like the factory system did and keep the existing new rear door coaxials. You would need six channels of amplification for this and another processor to properly cross everything over since the passive crossovers won't be used. The tweeters are useless now too. Or you can just remove the two way component set up front altogether and get pair of 6.5" or even larger midbass drivers for the doors to go with the new dash speakers. Instead of a 4" coaxial you can even use a extended bandwidth 2.5" speakers from Audiofrog.

You'll need a JL TWK88 to get this all running and another amp for the sub. The TWK88 is a crossover/equalizer/time alignment

If you have a car with non ML and non Navigation, you can use idatalink Maestro Rockford DSR-1 with the vehicle specific harness to replace instead of the Fix86 and TWK88 combo since you can replace the OEM amplifier altogether and not have to connect after the factory amp for a cleaner signal. The nice thing about removing the OEM amp is that you might be able to put on amp where the OEM amp used to be and there is room on the other side of the trunk for your subwoofer amp and the DSR-1 can be stashed and hidden too.

If the shops you recently reached out to are willing to help you get to where you want the car, perhaps run this by them.

I hope some of this helps you get out of this rabbit hole.

All this assuming the original shop did a decent install and it just comes down to lack of tuning and poor speaker selection for the fronts.


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andy350

I got all 6 new speakers
Alpine R-series

2 tweeeters in dash on top
4 coaxials front and back

I had 2 component speakers in the front but couldn’t barely hear any sound coming from them so told them to put 2 coaxials in the front also.

all speakers sound better than factory but after spending $2400…just expected much more

i don’t have the Mark Levinson
next car, I will definitely get Mark Levinson
it’s worth paying extra for ML.

my last 2 Lexus I had mark Levinson and it sounded great…just added subs

this current Lexus car I bought without turning on the stereo
i was too excited that I finally found a white Lexus with red rioja seats…so I bought it without trying or testing anything.

anyways…

it just needs a little tweaking and adjusting and I should be good

overall happy with the car

thanks for the help.