Will you only hear music with no bass? Or should you hear plenty of bass?
Mark Levinson 21-speaker audio sounds terrible on the GX 550 Luxury +
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You should hear plenty of bass since the sub woofer is located there, especially if you play the bass test track. Someone else found out their sub wasn’t working.
MP3’s have notoriously terrible sound quality so that’s a weird take.
Wireless Carplay passes high bitrate AAC to the head unit, even atmos surround audio if the head unit allows. Pretty sure android auto does this as well. CarPlay will even pass lossless streaming Apple Music to the head unit if you connect with a cable. Streaming music and even wireless connections have progressed a lot since 2005 haha.
It doesn’t matter if I’m passing lossless Apple Music to the head unit with a cable. The low end is a bit flat and a valid criticism.
I have a bunch of hi fi home stereo equipment and I find the ML system to sound pretty good. Mine definitely has bass.
I was packing up from camping this Sunday, listening to the Browns - Steelers game on ESPN satellite and I heard plenty of bass coming from the sub in my base stereo Overtrail while near the open rear tailgate. You can hear it vibrating.
I just got back from having dynamat added to both front doors and it made a massive difference stopping my door rattle and improving my mid-bass/bass response. The sound was thin to me and now it's so much fuller around the voice and Mids. Granted my settings on eq are up for Mids so this just help round it out. Pics while they were installing but not the final here they also dynamated around my woofers too. I highly recommend you do this if you think the ML sound is thin. I've done it on previous cars (cayenne with Burmester system, range rover with Harmon kardon) and it always helps quiet the cabin, reduce vibration noise, and improves mid-bass tightness.
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I'd like to have dynamat applied all over - doors, floor, and wheel wells/side panels in front & rear. Do you think a stereo place is the best place to get that done?
I am waiting to get my hands on a non-ML system. I have the ML and notice that it sounds better the louder I turn it up. I listen to various genre on music and know not to expect my system to ply the sub-bass content very well. However, I have found that I like the authority it does have in the bass/mid-bass arena. If you don't play the music past 15, ML upgrade may not be for you. I live in the 45-50 zone and occasionally in the 55 zone if I am having one of those days.
I totally agree will all who want better adjustment controls. There are some mid-range notes in different songs that drive me crazy. I know what they are, so I try to avoid those tracks.
In the end it is personal preference. Enjoy the tunes on the back trails.
I totally agree will all who want better adjustment controls. There are some mid-range notes in different songs that drive me crazy. I know what they are, so I try to avoid those tracks.
In the end it is personal preference. Enjoy the tunes on the back trails.
I have a 24 LX600 FSport and 24 GX Lux+. LX same stereo system and sounds a lot better. GX is shockingly disappointing. I’m going to test the sub in back as suggested to see if working at all. I’m thinking of putting Jensen Triaxles from 1983 in instead.
I got squealing brakes on GX, had wind noise with roof rack, took off, back heater for seats weak, stereo blah. Had to buy and install mud guards I couldn’t get when bought, and I have 400 miles on the car. And I’ve never heard of breaking in speakers. If they can’t fix them the car will be gone. Not the luxury I expected from Lexus. My F150 Platinum was more luxurious and came with every option. It doesn’t help when the Technology Specialist keeps saying “the technology sucks, I can’t figure it out” Embarrassing.
I got squealing brakes on GX, had wind noise with roof rack, took off, back heater for seats weak, stereo blah. Had to buy and install mud guards I couldn’t get when bought, and I have 400 miles on the car. And I’ve never heard of breaking in speakers. If they can’t fix them the car will be gone. Not the luxury I expected from Lexus. My F150 Platinum was more luxurious and came with every option. It doesn’t help when the Technology Specialist keeps saying “the technology sucks, I can’t figure it out” Embarrassing.
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What does that cost to do? What would it cost to do more than just the doors?
Not that I am aware of. Typically, the doors are pretty sparse on insulation minus the fabric pad attached to the door panel.
For my two front doors, if cost me ~$450.
That's where I've gone in the past and have a guy I've used here in DFW for my past vehicles.
Wot? What I meant was an audio file, whatever its called now. AAC or whatever, the audio file you get when buy a song and it gets downloaded onto your HDD. There is a huge difference playing that over my TV Audio system vs playing it over youtube.
There is a clear difference in quality over a wired Ipod playing a song from the hard drive vs same audio file over a Bluetooth, that's not even factoring in a streaming. Regardless of the progress, there is a huge degradation from streaming and then from bluetooth vs a wired HD audio file. I bet most people complain that their XM doesn't sound good.
My point is, normal radio sounds the same in base or premium audio systems, there is not much difference. The criticism to me are way over proportion unless early production models had some lemons. For one what are people comparing this against? Two, if its weak in some areas its not a big deal, its still better than base. And i honestly can't say its worse than old ML, B&O, H&K or Burmeister i've had experience with. Our 4Runner JBL has stronger sub, but the ML sound is way more crisper and clearer. But in now way its terrible
Lastly I've read on GX FB groups that this ML needs to break in and after certain amount of time, it sounds way better. Remains to be seen
Why did you purchase the GX in the first place? I don't understand what more luxury do you expect from a Toyota Land Cruiser twin. This is first year production model some of the gimmicky stuff not performing as the old GX is expected. Luxury trim being the most gimmicky. Its just make up on a pig, OT is the flagship trim and what the GX is designed to do. Squealing brakes are pretty normal, more of an inconvenience. G-wagons have squealing brakes and wind noise. Who cares if the rear seats are not as hot, no one ever uses them.
For my wife. There’s a reason I didn’t buy a G-Wagon as I didn’t want the maintenance aspect of the Mercedes. Been there. The break thing is an issue and some have had it fixed. I haven’t taken it in yet for mine. I expect pops and buzzes on new design, but things are more than new design. Not hard to test stereo quality and apparently I’m not the only one. Why would customers have to look around for speakers w a flashlight.
So I just rode in the rear seat of my OT+ and I seriously couldn’t hear any sound from any speakers other than up front. Even if I stuck my head down near the speaker in the door I couldn’t hear it. WTF Lexus/Toyota? This is something that’s obviously an issue in the GX. Without taking the truck to a stereo shop I wonder if Lexus will be able to resolve this issue. Very disappointing
You should definitely at least be hearing the midrange and tweeters in the door, there are no woofers in the rear doors. Try moving your fader all the way to the rear. I remember a few years ago, the ML systems had some bad amplifiers that would cause speaker outages. I wonder if this issue is coming back again?
Edit: The 2nd/3rd gen Lexus IS were the ones that had multiple ML speaker and amplifier issues
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They will do nothing about it. They will tell you that’s how it’s supposed to sound. I did check the rear amp in the rear door and it’s definitely on and I can hear some bass but you’re right anything outside of the front two seats is kinda unacceptable.
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