14 DAY TRIAL // Lexus is a synonym to luxury and quality manufacturing and is by far a very respected name in the automotive industry, as Mark Levinson is in the pro audio industry as well. Now, this teaming is not at its first as it goes from 2001; the most important fact is that this time, associating Lexus LS460 and Mark Levinson has produced a different, more luxurious, more efficient and more pleasing car sound-loading so far.
First of all, the Levinson gear will not be available on any other brand's cars - it is a Lexus exclusive, pretty much as Bang&Olufsen and Bowers&Wilkins went for Audi and Jaguar. And since Lexus is by no chance your everyday car, the audio system inside is isn't at all either common or something to be discussed upon.
Thirty years of Mark Levinson experience sedimented in a 19-speaker array inside the 2007 Lexus as following: six titanium cone speakers arranged across the dash, a woofer located in each front door, three speakers in each rear door, four satellite speakers in the rear roof pillars, a woofer in the rear package shelf.
The in-dash disc player handles 6 discs assisted by a DSP unit and the ubiquitous iPod docking place for your portable music. Nevertheless, if you feel like bringing more music to your car you can easily do this and load up the 30GB hard drive also provided. The sound processing unit will deliver smooth sound in 5.1 and 7.1 configurations just perfect for DVD playback for the rear passengers who by the way have a different set of controls by their own.
And if this isn't enough (and it's never enough, is it?) you can always opt in for a XM satellite radio receiver granting you access to some 300 digital radio stations! The Mark Levinson sound processing will offer you two modes of listening, stereo and surround: needless to say that the surround in the new Lexus LS 460 has been developed especially for the car environment and thus it became the MLS (Mark Levinson Surroud) for which you'll most likely go most of the time.
Lexus will offer Mark Levinson premium audio in each of the LS460's and I guess that as you prepare on spending some $70,000 on the "wheels" then you're also willing to have the best sound around so you won't be scared by the prices...
