It's hard to decide when everyone has a different opinion. I do realize that some people like distortion and distroted bass, etc. I am not one of them. I own and operate a music / video studio. I paid a lot of money for the audio equipment. To me, I want to hear what was recorded. When you hear music through a very good system, it definately helps you realize that there are major differences in recordings.
That being said, I personally love the ML system in my GS. I find that it is very close to the sound that I get in my studio. I listen to many types of music and they all sound great. I keep the EQ setting to FLAT (zero).
I never heard a car stereo that sounded better. Even aftermarket. I heard many that had distroted bass and crazy loudness. But that doesn't impress me at all. This system rocks my world. Hopefully you will agree. I'm not into the unrealistic, distorted bass though. I do understand that many people are.
I would just take your 2-3 best sounding CD's with you and try them both out. I have been buying DVD-Audio disks and am very impressed with the even better sound from them in my ML system.
Also do some research on ML system. There are many experts out there that were equilly impressed with the sytem.
Good luck everyone.
RanKZero
06 GS300 AWD ML