rlivingston

I had (have) a similar issue with my SC430. I purchased the car new two years ago and would hear the same kind of distortion/rattling on certain songs, primarily with deep base. The dealer removed the door panels and added more insulation and dampening seals and the problem whet away for the most part. I still hear it today at times, but it's always caused by: 1. Items in the door storage pockets (CD cases, sunglasses...) rattling. 2. Leather on leather contact! This one was strange and took a while to figure it out. A little leather conditioner fixed this one quickly. 3. Seat belt snaps bouncing and causing rattles. Several reviews are in circulation about the ML sounds system. One of them (I think it was Car Audio magazine) stated that this system is the best manufacture installed sound system available in any make in the world. I'm somewhat an audiophile and would agree that IMO this is a true statement. It could use a bit more power with the top down (we can never have TOO much power!), but for most folks it's more than enough to produce awesome sound.

I'm in the process of installing a Delphi SkyFi unit in my '02 SC430. Mounting the antenna under any metallic object won't work. The signal won't penetrate through metal and the antenna is directional - aims up, not down. After some experimenting on a road trip today, I found the following: 1. It works great when mounted on the small roof section above the rear view mirrors. I antenna wire is so small that the top will close with no problem. I routed the wire behind the weather seal and down under the dash. - Reception was perfect, but the small magnetic mount antenna causes a fair amount of wind noise above 70mph. It looks pretty good, but the whistling makes this mounting location a non-starter. 2. Moved the antenna to the dashboard. I wedged it between the windshield and dash, directly under the nav system in-windshield antenna. It worked pretty well in that location, but I found that reception will vary based on the direction the antenna faces. The best results were found when it was positioned with the wire (rear) side pointing toward the either side instead of to the front or back of the car. In that position, I had no drop outs whatsoever. Obviously results will vary based on the terrain. I live in the Atlanta, GA area which is a fairly hilly area. If you're in a flat area, this position will work just fine and isn't visible from the outside. I'm still looking for some good options for mounting the unit inside, but so far nothing look good. It's a damn shame that Lexus/Mark Levinson hasn't produced a clean interface method into the head unit. FM modulators can't match the dynamic range and signal response of a hardwired audio interface. The tape adaptors are a little better, but have create a real eye sore...