westden

I am new to this site and about to make a decision on the F sport vehicle.

Is the ML radio worth the extra dollars over the premium? I am audio enthusiast and wonder if the system is a significant enhancement.

corradoMR2

Hmm, that is very subjective. I have the F-Sport with ML and really enjoy the sound. I would not consider myself an audiophile, but I have noticed a difference at the mid to higher volumes in terms of clarity and richness (bass) without distortion compared to the Premium 12-speaker (although that is no slouch). Is it worth the extra $ ? That is something only you can answer and your best bet is show up at the dealer with your favorite CD or MP3 and compare.

Exerpt from Lexus on the ML:

This 15-speaker 330-watt at less than 0.1% THD, 20-20,000 Hz[*] Mark Levinson Premium Surround Sound Audio System[*] has 7.1-channel architecture and is designed to rival the finest concert halls.

BertL

Welcome to the forum. I too like my music and am critical in what my car or truck can reproduce. Unlike some people you'll find expressing opinions here, I do not expect my vehicle to be able to reproduce what say high end earphones at home or in a studio could with all the extraneous sounds that occur on the road -- no matter how good a Lexus may be with a relatively quiet interior. As an example, when I shop for a vehicle, I create a CD with 3-4 passages of different audio that I know what it "could" sound like very, very well. I listen to it at home before going to a dealership, so its fresh in my mind. The CD then comes with me and is tried at some point in the test drive process. I did that, for example in both an RX with and without ML when I was looking at 2012/13's.

I don't believe the ML in the current 3gen RX is as much of an upgrade as it was in the 2nd gen... I still believe the ML does not reproduce bass as well as it could ...but, you'll find other threads here with people that agree with me that the standard system is only "so-so" in its ability to reproduce sound the way it perhaps could be. You'll also find people that could care less and accept the basic system as OK. Do some more searches for those opinions -- you'll find several here over the past year. Anyway, the net is, I special ordered my 2013 RX450h and it included the ML option. Like my previous RX400h that also had ML, I absolutely wanted a vehicle with it. Is it as good as what I think it could be? No. Is it far superior for someone like me that cares about the sound quality? Absolutely, yes. The side benefit is Lexus dropped the price of the ML option on the 2013 RX's by nearly 50% from what other people with prior MY paid, so your decision isn't financially as difficult as it would have been a year ago.

For perspective, I have more than 700 CDs in my library and have been to live performances of many of my favorite artists and countless live performances in different genre. I've found value and always had the sound system upgrades in my Lexus, BMW and MBZ vehicles, way back to my original 1995 SC300 (when I didn't know enough to focus on the difference, but the car had the Nakamichi option, so I paid the $2K and ate TV dinners for weeks -- ah ha.). My 1999 RX300 also had Nakamichi -- before Lexus switched over to ML in later years. I truly believe I can tell a difference, even though my hearing is perhaps not quite as good as it was back in '95 on some of the more subtle points. Some would say I'm nuts spending the money and generally having to special order my vehicle, and wait to get the options I want. I just consider the sound in my vehicles needs to be the best it can be from the mfgr, and I'm willing to wait until I can afford my car purchase to make that happen. I just got back this morning on the return leg of a 6-hour one-way drive using Sirius XM and my iPod (hardwired at 256kbs) 100% of the time at 70mph for the most part, and I have little complaint with my decision to have spent not even 2% extra on the purchase price of my RX450h to include the ML option.

Good luck with your decision.

kitlz

ML is decent. Bass could be better like BertL mentioned. But the price I paid pales to what I spent in the past to improve the stereo on the 330. I didn't want to do that again so I added ML to my special order. Unfortunately Lexus dropped the 6-CD changer, hence the lower price. I still say it's worth it.