SonnyQ

Just got a new ES300 with Mark Levinson. After 3 weeks of listening to it, here are my thoughts: The overall sound is smooth and powerful, but is lacking something. I think the sound system is filtering out too much of the high end. It doesn't really have that bite that it should. The Eq. that's included on the Nav System screen is a joke. You're only given control over three components of the sound: Bass, Treble, and Mid. I figured for this kind of money, they would give you a full Eq., with some kind of realtime feedback, like the Eq. in WinAmp works. As far as speaker placement goes, I'm mostly satisfied. However, there's one troublesome speaker in the car....on the driver's side, about seat level. When I drive, my left leg seems to get in the way of this speaker. It definitely blocks the sound. If I extend my leg (under the dashboard) it gets out of the way enough to let the speaker work correctly. All in all, I would have to say that the Levinson system is not at all worth the money. The stock stereo sounds just as good to me....almost better, since it's a lot less expensive. Save your bucks and use the money to upgrade later. -Sonny Q. Austin, TX

I just got a new 2002 ES300 w/ the Nav System. It's great, except for the really annoying power-on screen that you get everytime you start the car. The message is something like "Do you agree not to mess with the Nav controls while you're driving," then it waits for you to hit the "I Agree" button before proceeding to anything else. I can understand the need for having this when you first take possession the car, and I'm sure there's some lawyer at Lexus who's very proud of coming up with this... but having this window pop up every time you start the car is really annoying. I'm sure there must be some back door in the code to disable this. Anyone have a clue as to how to do this? Thanks. -Sonny Q.