Lexicon Sound System Review 2012 V8 Genesis

[TimC]

My closing thoughts on this.

By discovering how well DVD-A sounds, I have effectively lost all interest in the XM Radio subscription I just paid for.
I just can't listen to anything on XM except Radio Classics because it cannot do justice to the masterful sound this system is capable of producing.
It truly is an awesome sound system.

Not to say everything worked out as expected.
During my journey of learning about this system, I think I discovered part of the reason why the Surround Sound turns off sometimes, at least when working with DVD-A disks encoded in 5.1
If the system tries to up-convert a 5.1 source to its version of 7.1, sometimes it fails to do so properly and in some cases, it completely ruins the sound.

For example with the Doobie Brothers 'Black Water' track on "The Captain and Me" disc, with a 5.1 DVD-A disc and the Surround "Button" turned on, it completely loses the rear harmonizing.
This leaves the sound with an obvious ''hole'' in the air and lacking in depth.
Turn off the Surround 7.1 and everything sounds perfect in 5.1 as originally intended. (This DVD-A is amazing in the Lexicon turned way up)
So for now I just leave Surround off all the time and all is well.

Learning how to work with and convert SACD, DVD-V, Blu Ray media and 5.1 FLAC/AC3/DTS/M2TS/DTS/MLP and other filetypes was quite a chore, but well worth the rewards.
I can only hope that DVD-A catches some momentum and more releases are done as SACD is not the answer.

My experience with converting my SACD disc library to DVD-A format has left me wanting because they just don't sound as smooth as the "True" DVD-A's I have.

Maybe there is still hope for DVD-A...or maybe the future is Blu-Ray.
If it ends up being Blu Ray, that wouldn't be so bad.
Down converting DTS-HD from a Blu Ray sounds much better than any of the 5.1 SACD's I tried.

There are some really good tools available for all of this, most freeware, some out of production commercial and somewhat hard to find.

 

[nadel]

hmmmm. i have genesis r-spec and i clicked "surround sound" one time and it stays in surround sound. never have to reclick it.. maybe u got some kind of glitch?

 

[briando]

Making my living in my car for outside sales, i have to say a top notch sound system was worth every penny. granted i also wrote part of it off to the gov like i do my car, but hey, i've got over 80k miles on my Genesis in only three years, i need some help from someone

 

[elshagon]

My closing thoughts on this.

By discovering how well DVD-A sounds, I have effectively lost all interest in the XM Radio subscription I just paid for.
I just can't listen to anything on XM except Radio Classics because it cannot do justice to the masterful sound this system is capable of producing.
It truly is an awesome sound system.

Not to say everything worked out as expected.
During my journey of learning about this system, I think I discovered part of the reason why the Surround Sound turns off sometimes, at least when working with DVD-A disks encoded in 5.1
If the system tries to up-convert a 5.1 source to its version of 7.1, sometimes it fails to do so properly and in some cases, it completely ruins the sound.

For example with the Doobie Brothers 'Black Water' track on "The Captain and Me" disc, with a 5.1 DVD-A disc and the Surround "Button" turned on, it completely loses the rear harmonizing.
This leaves the sound with an obvious ''hole'' in the air and lacking in depth.
Turn off the Surround 7.1 and everything sounds perfect in 5.1 as originally intended. (This DVD-A is amazing in the Lexicon turned way up)
So for now I just leave Surround off all the time and all is well.

Learning how to work with and convert SACD, DVD-V, Blu Ray media and 5.1 FLAC/AC3/DTS/M2TS/DTS/MLP and other filetypes was quite a chore, but well worth the rewards.
I can only hope that DVD-A catches some momentum and more releases are done as SACD is not the answer.

My experience with converting my SACD disc library to DVD-A format has left me wanting because they just don't sound as smooth as the "True" DVD-A's I have.

Maybe there is still hope for DVD-A...or maybe the future is Blu-Ray.
If it ends up being Blu Ray, that wouldn't be so bad.
Down converting DTS-HD from a Blu Ray sounds much better than any of the 5.1 SACD's I tried.

There are some really good tools available for all of this, most freeware, some out of production commercial and somewhat hard to find.

I noticed the same thing with the "surround" enabled when playing dvd-audio discs. On some it sounds good, but on others it seems to move the center channel and rear vocals to the sides and loses the original mixing with a negative result. I've come to the conclusion to leave the "surround" unchecked when playing dvd-audio. I haven't played the Doobie Brothers disc yet so will have to try it out. I've been working hard to convert my dvd-audio, sacd and bluray to .mlp so I can have more to choose from when making homemade dvd-audio discs. It's very time consuming, but ultimately will be worth it!

 

[TimC]

hmmmm. i have genesis r-spec and i clicked "surround sound" one time and it stays in surround sound. never have to reclick it.. maybe u got some kind of glitch?

Have you tried playing a true DVDA 5.1 source disc yet?
I can duplicate this in both my co-worker's 2012 R-Spec and mine.

I tune in to an XM Channel, like say Classic Vinyl
Turn on Surround Sound.
Put in a true DVDA, such as Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet Planet (a most excellent DVDA)
Play a track
Tune back to XM/Classic Vinyl......Surround Sound is off.

This does not bother me in the least as I don't listen to XM anymore except Radio Classics, which sounds better without Surround anyways.

 

[Ruissimo]

Hmm... my DVD-A's always say "surround off" but sound like 7.1 to me...

When I switch to a CD, the "surround is on". Those are the settings I want, I think, and they sound great that way. I believe XM also stayed with "surround on", but I could be mistaken.

I haven't figured out a way to turn "surround on" with my MP3 player though - I can't seem to be able to pull up a settings menu when the MP3 is plugged in. Any ideas?

 

[homeofstone]

Hmm... my DVD-A's always say "surround off" but sound like 7.1 to me...

When I switch to a CD, the "surround is on". Those are the settings I want, I think, and they sound great that way. I believe XM also stayed with "surround on", but I could be mistaken.

I haven't figured out a way to turn "surround on" with my MP3 player though - I can't seem to be able to pull up a settings menu when the MP3 is plugged in. Any ideas?

If you are using a USB drive for your mp3 music then when its on - jog the control knob to left then scroll down to settings then jog the knob to right and scroll to surround sound.

 

[Ruissimo]

If you are using a USB drive for your mp3 music then when its on - jog the control knob to left then scroll down to settings then jog the knob to right and scroll to surround sound.

Right... that's what I would EXPECT, except that it isn't what I see. I have a Sansa plugged in via USB - that might be why I'm not seeing the settings?

 

[homeofstone]

Right... that's what I would EXPECT, except that it isn't what I see. I have a Sansa plugged in via USB - that might be why I'm not seeing the settings?

I have about 2500 songs all at 320kps on a usb drive. It works great.

 

[Ruissimo]

320kbps actually DOES sound great! I ripped a couple of my cd's at 320 last night, then listened to them on my Hyundai USB drive - not as good as DVD-A, not even close, but after I adjusted the settings, it was waaaaaay better than what I was listening to in my last car.

Very happy with this system. Need more DVD-A's though.

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[stuofsci02]

Will the stereo play any lossless formats like FLAC or Applelossless?

 

[PMCErnie]

Will the stereo play any lossless formats like FLAC or Applelossless?

Negatory.

 

[bradyb]

What computer software are you using to create the DVD audio discs? I just have all mine jammed onto a 64gb flash drive. Works fine, even with the random, but I might enjoy the DVD-audio discs where I can subdivide songs onto discs by type (folk, rock, jazz, pop, country etc.). Now they are all mixed together and I have to remember to take out the USB fllash drive when shutting down the Genny and have to plug it back in when I start up next time (manual says the drive may get damaged if I don't unplug before shutdown/startup). It would be nice to listen to a DVD on radon for just one type of music depending on my mood.

Bobshine---->

You can also use a solid state hard drive of any size!! Just format it FAT32!

 

[simplicityinsound]

hey sorry to butt in here

i am currently building a 2012 Genesis V8 for MECA and IASCA SQ competition...pretty big project.


Since the customer isnt very familiar with some of the details, i figured i would ask you on here

1. is there a way through the the software to compeletely turn off and on the center channel? I didnt find anything through a quick menu search but i didnt dive into it too deep.

2. do you know if there is a highpass filter on the front door WOOFER signal? or does it run all the way down?

 

[RSPEC429]

I'm subscribing to this one!

 

[12genesis]

Has anyone put the extracted DVD-A files onto a USB stick to see if they play?

 

[Ruissimo]

Has anyone put the extracted DVD-A files onto a USB stick to see if they play?

I haven't tried it myself, but I doubt it will work.

 

[elshagon]

Has anyone put the extracted DVD-A files onto a USB stick to see if they play?

I tried every format I could think of and the only thing that played from a USB stick was mp3.

 

[elshagon]

BTW there was a new dvd-audio disc released recently only available at Walmart as far as I know. It is Lynyrd Skynyrd Southern Surroundings.
Lynyrd Skynyrd

The disc goes in and out of stock online, but you may still be able to find one in stores.

 

[RSPEC429]

Has anyone heard a slight rattle emanating from the rear deck. I put on some Lil Wayne and it got really bad with certain frequencies. With my less extremely bass heavy music, the rattle was no where as bad but it could still be heard. Putting in some dampener would certainly do the trick but does anyone know exactly what the vibration is coming from?