bnmintx

Norcal Hybrid,

It's good to know someone else is experiencing this problem. I did mention it to my salesman shortly after purchase, but, he didn't understand.

I will raise the issue to Lexus as well. It is a lot of money for something that does't perform as it should.

Mike

Mike,

I purchased an '07 RX 400h two wks ago. I posted a topic today in the Hybrid forum "Mark Levinson DVD-Audio & Issue w/ Rear Channels". I searched the other forums and saw your topic. Guess you & I are the only ones that critically listen to DVD-Audio discs in their cars. I'm somewhat surprised considering the cost of the Nav/ML pkg....

I don't have the Steely Dan Gaucho DVD-Audio disc. The problem I noticed are the rear channels are missing (I don't know if all the source mat'l is missing or just vocals?). Is this the phenomenum you observed? Your description seems to correlate as you described the background vocals are missing. The issue I observed is very evident on Marvin Gaye's "The Marvin Gaye Collection" (Motown B0001109-19, DVD-Audio), Track 3 "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". Tammi Terrell's vocals are located in the rear channels in the duet w/ very little of her vocals in the front (for echo/reverb). Marvin is in the front channels. With the ML DVD-Audio system, you can barely hear her as the front channels have her voice attenuated to expand the surroud presence. It is also evident on Richard Thompson's "Rumor and Sigh" (Capitol 72434-77932-9-5, DVD-Audio). I gather most discs primarily use the front channels and assign the rears for surround/presence. Discs that have "aggressive" use of the rear channels should highlight the problem.

Did you contact Lexus or Mark Levinson? I did today and I was told I was the only one in the U.S. who has communicated this problem. If others notice the same issue, it will help if people contact Lexus (http://www.lexus.com/contact) to make them aware of the problem so it can be fixed. I'm fairly certain it is not unique to a particular vehicle as I went to the dealer this weekend. I heard the same issue on another '07 RX 400h and an '07 LS 460. The fix could be a FW upgrade if the DSP is incorrectly processing the channels. It's disappointing that ML did not sufficiently validate their design before it went into production. I thought ML was a audiophile electronics company. Doesn't appear they listen to their own designs....

Cheers,

Norcal Hybrid

I have a 2007 RX-350 with the ML sound system. When I play some DVD-Audio discs, there appears to be a channel missing. An example is on Steely Dan's Gaucho, the song "Hey Nineteen" has background vocals missing.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Mike

I have a 2007 RX-350 with the ML sound system. When I play some DVD-Audio discs, there appears to be a channel missing. An example is on Steely Dan's Gaucho, the song "Hey Nineteen" has background vocals missing.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Mike