balazsbb

I recently purchased a 2019 LS 500 with the 12 speaker Pioneer system. While the car is wonderful in many ways the audio seems to have a serious lack of bass. Specifically the rear sub is doing nothing, the front speakers are great. If you move the audio all the way to the back, turn the bass up, turn the treble + mid down the sub is doing nothing. You can put you head up against the grill on the rear deck and you hear nothing. You put your hand on it and you feel nothing. Yet if you crawl into the trunk there is some bass there and you can see the sub moving, its clearly not disconnected despite sounding as if it is LOL. I have taken it to one dealer and they are telling me this is how it is with this model and the current ES (this sounds crazy to me). The dealer I bought it from wants to check on it because their service manager doesn't believe this car should have basically a non-functional sub. I have an appointment to take it in to that dealer but I haven't taken it there yet. So that brings me here... has anyone else experienced this with their LS 500 with the Pioneer system?

As a bit of a background I also own an 2017 RX with also the 12 speaker Pioneer system and its perfectly fine. I am not by any means expecting Mark Levinson quality, but surely a sub in the back should make at least some noise.

LexRuger

I have the Mark Levinson in mine but I did notice after a few months it seemed like the speakers loosened up and the bass improved a bit. Which is maybe why your RX sounds better to you.

If I were you I'd just add a sub. You can buy one with the amp, box, and sub all built together to make it removing it easier if you're leasing.

LexRuger

Also, don't use sat. radio or bluetooth. The sound is compressed and you won't get quality sound. FM is actually better than XM but a hardwired connection is best as long as the music is a high bitrate.

balazsbb

I know what you mean about it getting better overtime but the RX was good out of the factory. The music is linked with a cable (car play) or I use FM. Sat radio is awful quality and yea bluetooth is not great.. lol. A replacement sub is likely going to be the way to go, its just a bit weird and disappointing when literally you sub makes zero sound in the cabin, not sure how they could manage that. Probably should have just paid the extra $$$$$ for the packages with the Mark Levinson... next time...

DerrickM

Definitely have it checked out. What you're describing could just be a defective sub (or amp) from the factory. Use an SPL meter to verify if the dealer won't do it for you. (You'll also need a cd or mp3's of various sound frequencies, which are not hard to find). (Test with a CD or high bitrate MP3). Also, if you have a favorite CD with good bass, provide it to the dealer so they can hear it in another new LS for comparison.

balazsbb

Agreed, that is what I am planning to do. I was just curious if anyone else that has the 12 speaker Pioneer system was experiencing the same thing.

vantage78

Sounds like you are dealing with what the ES folks are going through with their standard systems.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...r-problem.html

sadly, it may require waiting for Lexus to come up with a fix.

Also surprised to hear people say the Bluetooth quality isn’t so good. While I prefer hardwired with Tidal Masters, ITunes streaming via Bluetooth still sounds pretty good to me.

LexRuger

I notice a very slight difference with BT. Could be dependant on the device as well.

balazsbb

Yea that's the weird part is seems to be the same issue. Its just so crazy to think they installed a sub and that sub does nothing at all (as if it was unplugged). This isn't even a matter of good sound or bad.... that's all opinion... this is a matter of zero sound LOL. Oye...

BJOSE

I have the base Pioneer system. and hated the factory speakers as well. I added a powered subwoofer in the trunk and that took care of the lower frequency needs. I didn't care of sound in the back as only my kids ever get in the back and they have their headphones going as soon as they enter the car(they hate the music I listen to :/ ... ) .

May be that is one of the solutions for your problem. I did the same with my previous lexuses as well.

DerrickM

One of the things they have to test for in speaker factories is polarity. You know how speakers have the + and - markers on the inputs? If a speaker is backwards relative to its peers, it tends to cancel the frequencies of that driver. Simply because that speaker is slightly out of phase with the other speakers. It's a simple thing, but not easy to test for. My money's on you just have a bad sub.

DerrickM

(PS - I meant to say cancels the frequencies of that driver that overlap the frequencies of the other drivers, as in the crossover frequencies).

balazsbb

Ok so the verdict is in, all LS 500s with the 12 speaker Pioneer system basically have a design defect. The service manager at my dealer listened to another one they had in stock and that one sounded awful too. Basically the front speakers are pretty good, the sub in the back is good but it seems that when they setup the amp they didn't give the sub enough juice. In order to get good bass out of it you need to crank the volume to an insane level (but then its there). The dealer will file a complaint with Lexus, hopefully a fix will come. In the mean time I will just get a 3rd party shop to put an amp in to make the existing woofer actually move. If that does the trick without having to replace the actual sub I'll let you guys know as that is a fairly cheap and easy fix. For now lesson learned, get the one with the Mark Levinson as they paid attention when engineering that system...

mnahnsen

I added a subwoofer to my system and it is the fix it needed. Here is my writeup.

Adding an Aftermarket Amplifier and Subwoofer to Lexus LS 500 Base with Pioneer - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion

Thanks,

Mark