Makers's mark

The Lexus LS 460 comes factory-correct with a Mark Levinson system.

So what if the car can park itself? You already paid that bald dude to teach you
how in Driver’s Ed., but try surviving an L.A.-style traffic jam with a sub-par system, that’s
a problem. Lexus knew that to get the LS 460 into their discriminate buyer’s driveway they needed to create a system more suited to Kanye’s home studio than the standard
audio upgrade. Available only through Lexus, the Mark Levinson Reference 5.1 surround system will add $2,430-$6,345 onto the sticker price. Known for their premium home audio over the past 30 years, Mark Levinson partnered with Lexus in ’02 to bring their signature innovation to the whip game. Their most recent sonic success is a result of 4,000 hours of research, design and testing, making it “the best OEM audio system available”, according to Trevor Neumann at Mark Levinson. “Because the audio team was involved in every step in the design of the 460, we were able to optimize the components and their placement,” Neumann says. “It would be virtually impossible to recreate the system and its sound quality after-market.”

Rights to the title “reference surround” means the system must master timbral
accuracy and timbral matching, removing time alignment problems, lowering distortion and fully integrating the sound. Engineers perfected dynamics by creating a surround sound speaker architecture to discretely place 19 speakers throughout the interior and power it with 450 watts from the new ML3-16 amp. Custom tuning and unbeatable components ensure every audible note from 20-20,000Hz is perfectly clear. This creates supreme and seamless sound, making the entire cabin the audio sweet spot. Being the equivalent of a $200,000 home system, this upgrade might have you watching DVD’s in your garage.

by Meaghan Dorman

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