2007 Ls460 Sound System

[shobewan]

1. My (non-Mark Levinson) CD player in my LS460 does not display the artist or song name for my CD's, whether commercial or burned. I was totally floored to be told by the dealer and tech support that only the more expensive Mark Levinson system displayed this information! Is it not logical to expect to be able to read and select your particular favorite song without scanning the six loaded CD's (potentially 84 songs)? Anyone else have this issue?

2. The rear sub-woofer also appears not to be operating properly. When using the rear seat zonal "DSP" icon, the front speakers are played louder than the rear and the sub-woofer does not appear to be receiving any signal. When using the front and rear icons, the sub-woofer plays. After three hours at the dealership today they indicated they have no solution but gave me the tech support telephone number. Has anyone else receive resolution of this issue?

Getting very frustrated!

[gordonw]

Please read page 203 in your owners manual or do a search for cd text in this forum.

[shobewan]

1. My (non-Mark Levinson) CD player in my LS460 does not display the artist or song name for my CD's, whether commercial or burned. I was totally floored to be told by the dealer and tech support that only the more expensive Mark Levinson system displayed this information! Is it not logical to expect to be able to read and select your particular favorite song without scanning the six loaded CD's (potentially 84 songs)? Anyone else have this issue?

2. The rear sub-woofer also appears not to be operating properly. When using the rear seat zonal "DSP" icon, the front speakers are played louder than the rear and the sub-woofer does not appear to be receiving any signal. When using the front and rear icons, the sub-woofer plays. After three hours at the dealership today they indicated they have no solution but gave me the tech support telephone number. Has anyone else receive resolution of this issue?

Getting very frustrated!

Thanks, aware of that information but manual page 203 of no help! The CD's titles and artists are not being displayed. Reading track number but no other information is displayed. Additionally, the manual doesn't specify that only the Mark Levison system has that capability.

[gordonw]

Disregard the retail cds for now as not all of them have cd text. Lets start with your burned audio cds. When you burned your audio cds, did you enable/include cd text under your options/preferences? Generally cd text is not checked unless you select it.

[shobewan]

Disregard the retail cds for now as not all of them have cd text. Lets start with your burned audio cds. When you burned your audio cds, did you enable/include cd text under your options/preferences? Generally cd text is not checked unless you select it.

Thanks, will try that.

[louis12]

I have an expensive Mark Levinson radio system in my ls460L. Reception on AM is weak. Levinson says to talk to Lexus who says the reception is poor, listen to FM or sat. anybody have a similar problem?

[Scotsman2]

I have an expensive Mark Levinson radio system in my ls460L. Reception on AM is weak. Levinson says to talk to Lexus who says the reception is poor, listen to FM or sat. anybody have a similar problem?

I am a real newby. 1st Lexus just on Monday. It's a 2008 LS460 without the Mark Levinson sound system. The CD player is 1990's in my opinion. It does not 'read' CD info. I also find the SAT radio drops the signal pretty often. FM reception is excellent.

Shame the 'standard' audio is relatively poor for such a flagship car. I am a Mercedes S class convert & even the standard Bose they fit is really good.

[Archie]

I have an expensive Mark Levinson radio system in my ls460L. Reception on AM is weak. Levinson says to talk to Lexus who says the reception is poor, listen to FM or sat. anybody have a similar problem?

I am a real newby. 1st Lexus just on Monday. It's a 2008 LS460 without the Mark Levinson sound system. The CD player is 1990's in my opinion. It does not 'read' CD info. I also find the SAT radio drops the signal pretty often. FM reception is excellent.

Shame the 'standard' audio is relatively poor for such a flagship car. I am a Mercedes S class convert & even the standard Bose they fit is really good.

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I totally agree. The AM in out LS400 never did work from day one. Complaint went no where. Non Levinson LS460 audio is just so so. AM does work a bit. The stock radio in our Highlander sounds just as good if not better. I didn't find the very expensive Levinson worth the money however.

Japan must be sound deaf or trying to force an upgrade. You can't retrofit a new unit either. On trips for us the passenger uses a Boise Noise Cancellation system with an ipod anyway so who cares. I have never been in a car that had good sound, its a very poor environment for good audio. If you have not tried the Boise NC you have no idea what you are missing in a car. Even in a Lexus the background noise at speed is to much for my music ears.

I just don't get it? A car that costs this much still using CD's? MP3 would have been much more up to date me thinks.

[RFeldes]

I have the M/L with mp3 plug-in and blue tooth..when you get to this level why are you skimping on M/L unless your not an audiophile. Even the XM which we all know has lower quality sound becomes alive with M/L. In all honesty, when you skimp on the Lexus there are shortcomings. AM.... isn't that mourning?

[topsales]

^

I test drove a base '08, which stock audio sounded horrible. I could not live with the sound and I am not an audiophile. Even the base LS430 sounded better. I had to upgrade to the M/L.

[Archie]

I have the M/L with mp3 plug-in and blue tooth..when you get to this level why are you skimping on M/L unless your not an audiophile. Even the XM which we all know has lower quality sound becomes alive with M/L. In all honesty, when you skimp on the Lexus there are shortcomings. AM.... isn't that mourning?

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Different ideas on whats required for different folks I guess. Getting all the top end accessories is a bit of a loss when the car is sold and I draw the line somewhere. Never finance, pay cash and plan for resale are all good advice. Chrome wheels, wax , nitrogen in the tires etc were all tossed at me. One thing,for sure, I didn't want is the Nav system. Bought a portable Garmin for 1/10 the price that can be used in all our cars as needed. Never have to worry about failure or updates and it can be programmed on the fly or in a Motel room when traveling. Can you imagine a 10-15 year old Nav system? Baddd.

One of these upcoming years I will have to get a hearing aid as the years catch up. I would surmise that the new generation of HA's will someday have Blue Tooth with MP3 and car radios will be totally out. That would be totally cool. It's illegal for the driver to use head phones for safety reasons but a HA could pick up outside sounds as well as music at the same time.

The Lexus is so sound isolated that it is hard to hear a siren etc with the radio turned up. It would be nice to have a sound pickup that would recognize a siren or horn and sound a loud alarm in the car.

I still think Toyota sucks with their philosophy on Radios. Do you know of any other car that has the radio built in so you cannot swap out the unit ? Being an engineer I considered pulling out the radio and rebuilding the internals. Not at all hard but just not important to me at this time. I wonder who makes this beast and if schematics are available. Would be great fun to look at it.

[BaddBoi70]

I have the M/L with mp3 plug-in and blue tooth..when you get to this level why are you skimping on M/L unless your not an audiophile. Even the XM which we all know has lower quality sound becomes alive with M/L. In all honesty, when you skimp on the Lexus there are shortcomings. AM.... isn't that mourning?

=========================================================

Different ideas on whats required for different folks I guess. Getting all the top end accessories is a bit of a loss when the car is sold and I draw the line somewhere. Never finance, pay cash and plan for resale are all good advice. Chrome wheels, wax , nitrogen in the tires etc were all tossed at me. One thing,for sure, I didn't want is the Nav system. Bought a portable Garmin for 1/10 the price that can be used in all our cars as needed. Never have to worry about failure or updates and it can be programmed on the fly or in a Motel room when traveling. Can you imagine a 10-15 year old Nav system? Baddd.

One of these upcoming years I will have to get a hearing aid as the years catch up. I would surmise that the new generation of HA's will someday have Blue Tooth with MP3 and car radios will be totally out. That would be totally cool. It's illegal for the driver to use head phones for safety reasons but a HA could pick up outside sounds as well as music at the same time.

The Lexus is so sound isolated that it is hard to hear a siren etc with the radio turned up. It would be nice to have a sound pickup that would recognize a siren or horn and sound a loud alarm in the car.

I still think Toyota sucks with their philosophy on Radios. Do you know of any other car that has the radio built in so you cannot swap out the unit ? Being an engineer I considered pulling out the radio and rebuilding the internals. Not at all hard but just not important to me at this time. I wonder who makes this beast and if schematics are available. Would be great fun to look at it.

Don't quote me on this, I think it is Pioneer :cries: I own an ES and IS and had to have the CD player replaced in both vehicles. When I inquired with service they stated that the head units are made by Pioneer! I am no audiophile; however, Pioneer is NOT what I would refer to as a high end car audio company :cries: