The 06 RL that I have says that it can play 5.1 surround sound and looking at the speaker lay out, I can believe that. The question I have is how do you find 5.1 music to play in this system? Is this something I can down load from iTunes and if that is true, how do I identify a 5.1 disc or song?

 

itunes offers compressed stereo. (your worst source)
CD offers 44.1 KHz with 2 separate channels (stereo)
DVD-A offers 5.1 separate channels (total of 6 channels) Left, Center, Right, Right Surround, Left Surround and sub-woofer. Typically 48KHz 16 or 20 or 24 bit data.
DTS surround DVD-A offers the same as DVD-A 5.1 but encoded and enhanced to offer all 6 channels with a 96KHz clock. (the best source)

Check online for DVD-A discs. Amazon, Best Buy etc.

DO NOT buy SACD they will not work in the RL.
DVD-A will not playback in most DVD players unless it specifically states that a DVD-A codec is present.

 

Your RL will also simulate 5.1 from CDs, but it's not that great. Sadly DVD-A discs are quite rare. DTS discs are a bit more common, but still quite rare. Both can sound great (some discs have better mixes than others). There are some bootleg discs, where people have mastered records at 96khz to DVD-A (DVD-A can be two channel lossless or 6 channel lightly compressed), or mixed their own 5.1 from a stereo source (which sounds better than the on the fly simulation in the head unit). Either way, it just never caught on. It's a shame. I wish there were 5.1 mixes on iTunes etc..., but no one really cares (if Apple and the labels thought there was an audience, they'd gladly sell it).

 

Yes, make sure you get DVD AUDIO discs. I have a couple and they sound great. Steely Dan makes one and the sound is incredible. The stereo seperation is REALLY impressive.

Here's a site that lists The Top Ten Must-Have DVD Audio discs:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6462_7-...content;rb_mtx

 

This site is from a company that produces very high quality DVD-A material. Whether you like the material or not is a different story. They are sort of like Chesky Records, high quality audiophile recordings, but not necessarily songs, styles, artists you recognize or like.

http://www.aixrecords.com/

They also produced the demo DVD-A that came with the car, which showcases the great detail and channel separation of the Bose 5.1 system in the car.

 

Great info - I really like one of the songs on the demo and could never find who performed it.

 

The demo disc didn't come with the car when we bought it so I haven't a clue as to what we are missing. I did a deep search for DVD-A discs last night and found quite a few out there, with a price to match for some of them. I found one for $95! Must be some sort of a rare disc? Anyway, the genre of music wasn't what I was looking for but I am still digging.
About 6 years ago I ran into an audiophile who had one heck of a sound system that could rattle the walls when he cranked it up, and he had what he called an "enhanced CD" The clarity was far superior to any CD of the same artist. Is this DVD-A what he could have been referring to?

 

If your morals are flexible, you can find torrents of DVD-A titles and DTS discs for download.

 

alfadoctor - the "enhanced CD" was probably a Super Audio Compact Disc aka SACD. There's quite a few of them out there and the sound quality is MUCH better than normal CDs. You will, however, need a SACD player and an amp/receiver that will take advantage of the encoding.