LC500 Mark Levinson

[Laceman54]

I have heard nothing from Lexus regarding update on ML system. I’m more enthused about the sound coming from the rear end in sport + while using paddle shifters than this ML surround?? system. Some sound formats sound better than others but overall quality, tone and dispersion is a dud! To each is own but disappointed in lack of response from Lexus!

 

[fodalo]

Enjoy Laceman!

 

[LexsCTJill]

I have experienced many car audio systems but expressed my dissatisfaction withML audio system in my LC500.Spoke with Lexus and dealer as I feel the system front loads all the music regardless of source.Surround is a joke with this system . There should be a fullness of sound with more from rear speakers . Thought my amplifier might be defective but not the case. Dealership acknowledged and hope they can produce an update fix for this.
Would like to hear other comments regarding M levinson in LC500

Maybe it’s just the size and way the cabin was designed. Very small interior inside, maybe that has a play in it all.

 

[Malcolm Hodgson]

I have experienced many car audio systems but expressed my dissatisfaction withML audio system in my LC500.Spoke with Lexus and dealer as I feel the system front loads all the music regardless of source.Surround is a joke with this system . There should be a fullness of sound with more from rear speakers . Thought my amplifier might be defective but not the case. Dealership acknowledged and hope they can produce an update fix for this.
Would like to hear other comments regarding M levinson in LC500

I took my LC back to the dealers yesterday 1 week after I bought it. Convinced the ML sound system had a fault. Could not fade the sound towards the rear. All that happens is the volume decreases at the front until it goes off with hardly any volume from the rear. To all intents and purposes the sound remains forward of the driver near the middle of the dashboard. Hardly earth shattering premium surround sound! Just about the worst performing stereo I have ever had. I have owned Porsche, Merc, Toyota, Jaguar, Ford, Rover, Vauxhall, Renault and this is so disappointing by comparison with any other.
Dealer confirmed this is working correctly.
What a let down it has turned out to be.
Lexus have dropped the ball on this one and ML needs to get a new hearing aid!

 

[Laceman54]

Just adding insult to injury and furthering my displeasure with the ML sound system in my LC ........ I was loaned a new NX 300 (40+k automobile). Whatever Soundsystem was in that loaner still exceeded sound quality in most all ways to the Mark Levinson in my LC 500. No fix in sight. Just the way it was designed and unfortunately will have to live with it!

 

[fodalo]

it is what it is, the car is still a treat and an attention getter, many pluses as u know.

 

[bitkahuna]

Yes laceman54, the ML in my LC500 is the same as yours and not all that great. But as we know, the car itself sounds awesome and the ML could be worse... but I agree it's too front loaded and changing the fader settings yields less than optimal results.

 

[dr mojo]

Hi All, New owner of LC500 2017 model and was staggered at poor quality of ML. I thought it had a fault as just sounded tinny with no improvement from using fader. I am no audiophile but have had ML in other cars as well as HK, Bose and B&W. Other than standard BMW speakers this is probably the worst I have heard in last 20 years of car ownership. Such a disappointment. Reading these posts make me think this is a design issue so no point in taking it to a dealer to see if there is a fault.

 

[SteveInNC]

Thank goodness it's not just me. I just got a 2022 LC500 convertible. The ML system is really disappointing. I've tried almost all reasonable combinations of neutral tone, boost/cut across combinations of treble/mid/bass, fader front/back, surround on/off, auto adapt on/off, etc. and can't find even a passable blend. It also seems to vary depending on the source material - some of it sounds OK, but much of it sounds very tinny, with minimal mid-range, and biased to the center dash speaker.

I've owned a large number of cars (I'm old), some with aftermarket radios, some with default OEM, and some with "premium" OEM radios. My 2019 RDX with the ELS Studio premium OEM sounds infinitely better than this with minimal adjustment from defaults. My old 2009 Honda Fit (!) sounded better than this.

I haven't been back to the dealership yet, but I do intend to complain when I do go. Maybe if Lexus gets enough continued blowback, they'll try to do something about it. Given how some members here seem to have a better sound experience with their cars, I have to wonder if there are defective amps or head units in the field that some of us are burdened with. Of all the YouTube reviews of the car that I saw, I don't recall anyone complaining about the audio - they usually just praised the exhaust note and whined about the trackpad - maybe they never turned the radio on...

I did see where someone in a UK Lexus group had changed out the default amp with an aftermarket unit with adjustable DSP so he at least has a chance of balancing the audio. He had a source there that built a custom harness adaptor, so no wire-cutting/tapping involved.

I intend to feed some white and pink noise through the unit to see what it looks like with a spectrum analyzer. I don't expect a very flat response curve.

 

[M B Ward]

I have experienced many car audio systems but expressed my dissatisfaction withML audio system in my LC500.Spoke with Lexus and dealer as I feel the system front loads all the music regardless of source.Surround is a joke with this system . There should be a fullness of sound with more from rear speakers . Thought my amplifier might be defective but not the case. Dealership acknowledged and hope they can produce an update fix for this.
Would like to hear other comments regarding M levinson in LC500

 

[M B Ward]

We bought a 2023 LC 500 convertible two weeks ago! My wife has been driving it. This past weekend my son, who is a sound i engineer, wanted to test drive the LC He said something must be wrong with the sound system! He went into some detail, but it was mainly Tinnry with weak subwoofer! He works with mainly pro equipment so he told me he was not an expert on sound systems in cars, but this was obviously bad, He compared it with other cars we have and I could obviously tell it was not right! My wife took it back to Lexus today to get a couple of warranty things done! And they told her (and gave us a video )that the system is working correctly! If that’s the case, why put it in a LC 500 and charge extra for it!

 

[Gt3hopeful]

I have a 2022 convertible with standard pioneer system which sounds fine to me?
Not the most important part of the car!

 

[mathjak107]

take the surround sound off .

when surround sound is on the rears are pretty much just spatial sounds …when it’s off you will hear full range audio in the back

 

[CRSKTN]

take the surround sound off .

when surround sound is on the rears are pretty much just spatial sounds …when it’s off you will hear full range audio in the back

Don't bother. Nearly this entire thread is 70 year olds telling you about their hearing and how the Mazda they owned 20 years ago sounded better (hint: maybe its not the speakers that arent working as well)

The LC system needs volume to be appreciated, and you need to turn off some of the spatial gimmicks. Beyond that it's fine.

 

[M B Ward]

I bought two 2023 vehicles a GV 80 Genesis and LC 500 convertible Lexus. The LC 500 ML does not sound near as good as the GV 80. My son, who is a sound engineer, has the new Cadillac CT5 V and the Mark Levinson doesn't sound near as good. This has nothing to do with age. I have five cars and the only one that may sounds worse than the LC is my classic C2 Corvette with its basic AM/FM stereo radio? ( A tossup with my Jeep)! I do wonder if this is a convertible issue?

 

[dr mojo]

I bought two 2023 vehicles a GV 80 Genesis and LC 500 convertible Lexus. The LC 500 ML does not sound near as good as the GV 80. My son, who is a sound engineer, has the new Cadillac CT5 V and the Mark Levinson doesn't sound near as good. This has nothing to do with age. I have five cars and the only one that may sounds worse than the LC is my classic C2 Corvette with its basic AM/FM stereo radio? ( A tossup with my Jeep)! I do wonder if this is a convertible issue?

Mine is a coupe and same issue. switching off surround and turning up the volume made marginal difference. Biggest gain is by using non compressed files.

 

[Lexusen]

I like to listen to music and have always had a good sound system home too...
Had a LS400 from 1995 that sounded good and also the GS450H with ML sound system.
Get my new LC500 2023 with ML and I have heard that many was disappointed about the sound.
And yes it´s really bad... very strange?
Ok smal inside but it isn´t only the bass that are bad... the bass are a bit week but the real bad thing is that the sound is distorted and unbalanced in treble and mid.
I send the sound with the fader more back in the car and also turn almost half the treble down and turn the mid a bit up and the bass also and it is better that way.
Very strange? Lexus has had a sound that we people that could be a bit "audiofiles types" always liked?
Not high bass and trebles but a good sound without to use treble, bass, Eq or faders.
I think that the speakers in the doors and dash must be very week or bad? They are smal but there is speakers in that size that sound good! Ampliers today should be ok to deliver sound to these speakers without problem so I guess it´s the speakers.
Hope that you have found any solutions with this problem?

LC is a fantastic car and I can´t understand that they make a sound system (the more expensive one also) that sounded so bad and also don´t seems to be balanced between front/side/rear/bass/treble and mid?
It there have been a EQ maybe its a bit easier to make it better?
Now you almost must change between every song

 

[Razor]

As I've noted, all of the newer Lexus/ML systems I've heard concentrate on the front seats. With everything set to default, soundstaging and instrument placement in my LS500 are top-notch, and I'm completely positive Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are standing on my hood. But if you pan it to the rear everything collapses, something that didn't happen in my 2015. I'm not clear on if this is Lexus' fault or if it's fallout from Mark Levinson (and the rest of Harman) now being owned by Samsung.

Don't forget Neil (RIP).

 

[CRSKTN]

From elsewhere online:

- Sound Levelizer
- Surround Sound
- Treble
- Mid
- Bass
- L R & Fade (Front and Back).

1. The problem with the default settings is that they are quite different from any other cars I've been into. The universal levels and effects from other cars don't apply here at all. At factory settings, the rear speakers have almost no voluem at all. The treble, mid & bass at 0, are all set to the equiavalent of negative values on other vehicles. So unlike other vehicles where you gradually increase the each levels to your liking, the right thing to do here is that you crank all up to 100% (Treble, Mid & Bass), and tune down to your liking.
2. The second issue is that you have almost no sound coming out from the rear speakers, which means most of the sound is coming from the front top and bottom. Almost nothing from the back. And this sounds really weird. And with this setup, the most volume I can tolerate is approx 40. Any more than that, I can hear the sounds crack as if the front speakers aren't getting enough power (which is likely).
3. With the stock settings, the Surround function is enabled by default. I don't think this 'Surround' function is working, or I have no idea what it's for. All it does is kill the sound in the back, and mute signifcant amount of range in the front speakers. Makes the sound get washed out. I've even tried to play some netflix on my phone, and wasn't convinced that the surround function really did anything here.

So the first thing I did, was to turn off surround. And I was able to immediately hear the overall 'punchines' of sound came back, including the level of bass + it's tightness. I then went to the trebel, mid & bass and cranked them up to 100%. I used the following songs to 'ear-tune' the stereo:

-UB 40 (Red Red Wine) - Great bass & other sound engineering. Allows me to test mid & treble limits + the level of punchiness of bass I want
- Guns & Roses (Paradise City): Allows me to hear the sound staging in a live arena environment
- Georghe Zamfir (The Lonely Shepherd) (Theme from Kill Bill): Mostly treble. Allows me to understand the treble limits until the sound tears.
- Kendrick Lamar (King Kunta): Oveall clarity of mid to bass ranges.
- Chris Botti in Boston (I've Got You Under My Skin): Treble, Mid, drums + live concert sound stage.

I know it's a diverse set of music, but I listening almost eveyrthing... Using these songs for every setting change (it was tedious..), I think I finally have the most optimal for car & sound system setup (mine s a convertible, yours may vary).

1. Go directly to the fade settings, and change the fade to Rear by 1 or 2 notch from neutral. For for me, just 1 notch was perfect. That would be -1.
What this does is, it increase the rear volume just a bit more, while not sacrificing the front too much. It actually improves it since this redues the tear at high volumes, and the bass is more natural since you can now hear the rear speakers more. You will find that the sound staging much better, and the high volume tearing is gone up to 55 - 60 volume level. So I believe this is a must.

2. Disable surround. You will immediately hear the speakers come back to life
3. Crank up the treble, mid & the base all the way up. I know this is counter-intutive. But just give it a try with the aforementioned settings set.

When testing this sitting still, be sure to turn off the level levelizer just to get a reference volume level idea. After you're done with the setup, you can turn this back on, and the sound quaity won't change. With these settings, volume level of 45 - 55 is ideal. Before this, 45 was all I can handle. anything above it, I can hear the tearing.

Now you may have the 'ideal' settings (which should've been the factory default settings), From here, you can turn down the treble, mid bass to your liking. As for me, with all 3 cranked up the max, it gives me a simlar sound as I have on my other cars. They are:

Treble: 90%
Mid: 70%
Bass: +1

Yes, that's where I am getting at. In order to achieve these 'typical' sound settings, I had to crank everything up on the LC.

Play Red Red Wine with these settings, and you'll see / hear what I mean. It sounds amazing. The clarity, and the increase punchiness of the bass. From there play your favorite songs to tune in / out other adjustments. But the key is this: You must fade it back towards the rear 1 or 2 notches. This greatly improves bass at louder volumes and eliminates the audio tear in the front. With these settings, I have found that the ideal range is 45 - 60. Depending on the song, I hover aorund 50-55. Now everything sounds great! Of course, it's not at the level of custom systems, or any of the other reference systems mentioned above, but this darn good to me, and I am very happy with the results.

I know this was a long post, but I wanted to share my experiences and findings. So to summarize. Surround off, fade 1 or 2 notches towards the back, crank up the treble, mid & bass. Finally play your music at the volume of 50 to start. From there, fine tune the treble, mid & bass from there.