My ML audio sounds great, but I find that I have to adjust the balance back to almost the very rear to hear a balanced sound in the front. Has anyone else experienced this?

I placed my ear to each speaker cover to be certain sound was emanating, but I know several of the covers mask two speakers so I suppose it is possible some are not functioning, but I doubt that is the case.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

 

I experience the same thing. I don't know why the system is set up like this. I read that its sounds best in the rear seat area but we never sit there.

 

My 2002 LS430UL doesn't do this. At most I bring the balance 1 step towards the back.

 

For the first two months, I put the horizontal crosshair in line with the front seat occupant's ear. However, when I fooled around with it, I found that the sub-woofer, which enriches the experience tenfold, really hits its stride when the crosshair is set for the back seat occupant. Just speculating here, but it may be that a flatter equalizer curve is attained when it is up front.

 

I also have mine set towards the rear. It sounds much better. I think mine is only one notch towards the rear...

Craig

 

i also noticed the same thing when i was playing with the audio. when it's at the "balanced" middle point, all i heard was the front speakers. putting it to the rear sounded more balanced. so weird

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to be going by my dealer today so I'm going to stop in and see what they say. I may even ask to hear any other ML's they have in 460's on the lot. I'll let you know.

 

please definitely report back. seeing this thread alone it seems like that's the case for quite a few people

 

OK, back from the dealer. I had the CS Rep, a salesman and two service techs listen to the system. They all agreed that when the balance was centered, that the sound clearly was coming from the dash area. The idiot salesman tried to say the I had to adjust the treble and mid-range. I told him that wouldn't have anything to do with it. Of course he had to try it for himself to see that it didn't affect where the sound came from.

None of them said thay had ever heard of this situation. I then asked to try another car with an ML system. We went to both a SWB (my car is SWB) and a LWB and they were both the same as my car. So, I guess this is just the way the audio is set up.

It just seems to me that such an expensive and fined tuned system would be a lot better balanced. It's really not a big deal to me because we rarely have rear seat passengers so I can leave it set to the rear, but it just doesn't seem right.

BTW, when we were in the LWB my wife sat in the back seat. She was just in awe of all the extra legroom and all the extra controls for the rear passengers (it had the Comfort Plus Pkg.). She wanted to know why I didn't get that model!

 

Actually, that is the way you want to hear it. The system is doing it's job by placing the sound up front, center stage. I have mine set right in the middle, and it sounds pretty damn good! I have been involved in car audio for 20 years, and it is the best stock sound system I have ever heard.

Obviously, everyone has their own sound preferences, so that is why there is an adjustment. Make no mistake about it though, it is not a problem with the system. Rear fill can ruin the imaging of a sound system, so that is why the sound is so much louder in the front.

 

well, i have to be honest and say i have heard the system from both front and rear, and i agree that when you are in the rear, you hear a more "balanced" sound and it sounds better than when i was in the front. nothing wrong though when being in the front

 

Nospin, I also have a SWB. And I am an audio recording engineer too. My ML sound system in my LS sounds normal. Please keep in mind that not all CDs are recorded equal. When testing your ML system in the car, make sure you are playing a CD that was recorded and mastered by big-name studios. Same goes for 5.1 DVD tracks.

If you adjust all to its center position (Left-Right and Front-Back) you should be hearing a perfect balanced sound when sitting on the driver's seat, with closed windows.

Assuming you don't have any hearing issues, and you're listening to a well recorded CD (not XM or compressed music from the HD) the only thing I can think of that would cause the imbalance is phase cancelation. That can be caused either by polarity inversion on one or more speakers and/or some glitch inside one of the ML amps - both very unlikely situations.

Keep us posted if you find the solution. The ML in my car sounds perfect, no issues whatsoever.

 

Well, Rocman and Luxo make a lot of sense. I spent some time with the system yesterday and you guys are right on all counts. You really do want to hear the music from the front as you would at a live performance. Also I used some high quality CD's in the player and they did sound better than some other inputs. I got a better appreciation of the system and now I like the setting just one click to the rear of the center position.

Thanks for the education guys!

 

Enjoy the 19-speaker audio guys!! Some of us have to make do with the 11-speakers on the LS 430.