RL06tech

My dealer is far from our home so my initial drive was a long highway cruise. Lets get the only bad thing out of the way. Not having any way to directly tune the radio sucks. Plan to take some time to put all your radio stations in the presets while parked, after that the rest is ok with the audio system. As I said previously the audio is good not excellent be prepared to fool around with the audio settings for best sounds. The fidelity is good enough to show how mediocre satellite radio sound is. HD radio sounds pretty darned good as expected. Il have to use a DVD audio to test it thoroughly. Before you start informing me that it doesn't do dvda just remember all you have to do is pop it in the DVD rather than the cd player, for those that are wondering why no more DVDa, the issue is non compatibility with a hard drive system.
The drive probably ranks as the most comfortable ever for a Honda product, its definitely Lexus quiet in there particularly at speed, NVH is non existent. The seats are extraordinarily comfortable. Put the butt vent/warmers on auto and its all good all the time. Auto cruise works great just keep it on the shortest distance so its more transparent. LKAS is more of a "look ma no hands" and turn it off, I dislike its "disconnected" steering feel. The engine is powerful and smooth as silk. Beware you'll be driving at triple speeds and not know it in no time. Driving at 65 is torture because its feels so darned slow.

RL06tech

Continued.......
It was a wet wet day in our corner of the woods yesterday and there are leaves everywhere, on the way to the dealer our ody was spinning its tires with anything over slight throttle application. It served as a nice contrast to my drive back in the MDX. The MDX was unfazed by the sloppy driving conditions at any speed, going straight or in the twisties. I had forgotten how darned good SHAWD is when road conditions go south. Though I hate to admit it I was surprised at how "German" the MDX feels and drives. It feels nonplused straight or in the twisties at any speed without harshness of any kind. It reminds me of the first time I drove an S class decades ago, just that the MDX handles much better. On fast curves there is no lean but it stays smooth the entire time, though I havent pushed it all the way (hey its still breaking in) at no time did it understeer in fairly quick corners. I have read a few reviews that mention mushy brakes, I guess I got one of the good ones, the brakes were strong, linear and showed excellent modulation.
My biggest welcomed surprise (since I hadnt read about it anywhere) was the "dynamic" seat belts. If you take a curve enthusiastically the seatbelts tighten progressively, the more G's the more they "pull". Its absolutely comfortable and it keeps your body perfectly in place during the turn, in addition to the well bolstered seat it enhances the feeling of utter control and safety when driving enthusiatically. Pretty darned neat indeed. Against my best judgement I bought the Zurich windshield shield, to my surprise it works really well. Think of freshly applied rainX that happens to be permanent and (supposedly) adds significant impact protection to the glass. It includes widshield replacement for 5 years and I was feeling the usual fool buyers "flushness" so I said why not. Having used cryzal lenses for years I can attest that glass nanocoatings deliver on their claims. In summary, really enjoyed my first real drive, acura has really outdone themselves this time, they took a great vehicle and improved essentially every part of it, most obviously in comfort and refinement without sacrificing any of the sport personality of the previous car. Given that, the obtuse radio is really small potatoes. THe new MDX is definitely "DA SHIZZLE"

RL06tech

Finally, forgot to talk about one thing, the headlights. They are indeed amazing but a little unusual. The low beams have amazing intensity and an excellent pattern. Unlike HIDS there is no annoying cutoff anywhere. The high beams are amazingly bright and seem to shine an endless distance, however they form an almost circular beam in the center of the area illuminated by the low beams, thus the area illuminated with the high beams appears oddly "center weighted". My guess the purpose of the pattern is to avoid scorching the retinas of oncoming traffic. The fogs are typical Honda, a very bright, wide pattern just below the low beams

blackman

Looks like you are enjoying yours. Same here. Have had it for about 3 months now. I must confess the mdx really spoils. Just travelled for 2 days for work and rented a new Dodge Charger. Had the touch screen but nowwhere near the functionality of the mdx. On the highway and on cruise control, I really did miss the LKAS and the ACC of the mdx. It was refreshing coming back to the mdx and driving home from the airport.

RL06tech

After a little more time behind the controls and reading the manual I'm finally adept with the radio/navi and voice sytems. The voice controls are actually quite good and its very easy to use voice to enter navigation addresses, work the phone, etc. As Ive pointed out previously the issue is not how hard the system is, the issue is the inumerable things you can do with everything which leads to inevitable complexity. Maybe in some instances less is more! Im also starting to appreciate the ELS system, I finally popped a DVDA in the DVD, yep the audio is really excellent when fed good material, well balanced, clear, deep clean bass with excellent surround wherever you sit in the cabin. The pair of speakers on the sides of the screen ensure that passengers are not left out of the expirience. BTW the wide screen is noticeably better than the dim mediocre one in our Elite odyssey, maybe the new ody has a better one too. I havent reached the prequisite 500-600 miles yet so I havent pushed the engine, brakes nor suspension to "enthusiast" levels, however, I can attest that it cruises at 100mph just as well and as quietly as at 65.
One thing that befuddled me was how to adjust the brigtness, contrast etc of the 2 screens individualy. Well, there is a way to do that too, hidden in the smorgasboard of menus. One particular issue I had was turning off the map while leaving the audio screen on "simple" go to the info menu where you get to decide what the info button displays; stars, nothing or "metal" in the same menu you can choose what clock you want digital large ,small or analog................ TADAAAA now I press the info button and after a quick menu of what it can do for you if fades to stars with the time! Of course, if you wished it could display whatever photo you wanted to upload to it instead, like an x rated pic of your GF, Justin Bieber or your favorite cellphone "selfie" (we know what Tony Weiner will have there)!

Soooooooo If you feel a little befuddled by the system dont take for granted that something is broken. A little practice and a lot of RTFM will get you to set everything up precisely how you want it to. Luckily, it remembers everything for each driver, plus, if you ever have to do it again (dead battery or other unfortunate circumstance) you should be well versed on the system so it should be much shorter work.

Edward'TLS

Acura has dropped the DVD-A technology from it's latest sedan/SUV, and the 2014 MDX shouldn't be able to play DVD-A disc.

RL06tech

As I explained previously most DVDas include a Dolby 5.1 track in the disk. That portion plays perfectly in any DVD player. The Dolby track is at DVD sampling rate identical to DVDa. Of the 20 or so DVDa's I purchased only one, a Mc Intosh sampler is DVDA only. That is another reason why DVDA died. There were essentially no DVDA players aside from acuras an a few esoteric disc players.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

Nice review!

Edward'TLS

I'm confused. You are talking about home DVD player or the 2014 MDX DVD player ?

Are you saying that the 2014 MDX will be able to play DVD-A disc, even though not the inside DVD-A contents ?

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

^^i think he may have an MDX with tech AND entertainment pkg. hence he would have a DVD player in the car.

RL06tech

Correct
All the advances include a DVD player.

Edward'TLS

I have some "5.1-channel Surround" DVD-A discs that can only be played in my 4G TL that supports DVD-A, but won't play in my 2014 MDX-Tech (= AWD+Navi+Tech in the US) that has NO DVD-A support.

My MDX DVD audio system will just say "Check Disc" whenever "96kHz 24-bit 5.1-channel Surround" DVD-A discs are inserted.

However, my MDX DVD audio system will play "96kHz 24-bit 2-channel Stereo" DVD discs. But then these are only 2 channels stereo, not 5.1 channels surround.

So I'm kind of confused why your MDX can play 5.1-channel DVD materials, when Acura has stop supporting DVD-A format in it's latest sedan and SUV ?

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

Edward-do you have the rear entertainment system in your MDX? the OP is using THAT DVD player (the one for movies) to play the DVDa discs NOT the "CD" player. Your TL will not be able to play the DVDa discs since it is not supported and RES was never an option.

RL06tech

DVDA only discs will not work on the RES DVD player
Those that have a dolby digital track will. On some discs the track will be picked up on its own when you put it in the player, on others go to the rear and use the video menu to select the correct track. Again, very few DVDA's are only DVDA check the jewel case it will tell you what formats are included on the disc.

Granted, this is far from DVDA support but at least it gives you a chance to check the system in surround music outside of a movie setting. Finally Bluray audio is starting to pop up, cant wait to hook it up with the rear HDMI to see what the ultimate audio resoultion of the system is. If there is one thing that I'm not happy about is the fact that there are no bluray OEM systems anywhere, yet.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

^^that's a better explaination

that's too complicated...plug in ipod and go.

RL06tech

Agreed, still more reasons why DVDA never caught on and died......

But Ipod.......... I cant stand it! And I tried it.... The music you get from the I store tends to be some of the worst MP3 files you can get, they are either compressed and dead, "equalized" to sound better with ear buds, thus horribly over boosted bass, plus their recording levels vary widely thus you have to fiddle with the volume on a constant basis. Amazon does a much better job, most of their MP3's are at highest quality recording levels (some are crappy too) however the ratio of junk to good tends to be the inverse of the I store. In fact most amazon MP3's streamed by bluetooth sound better than I store material through USB thats a staggering difference in fidelity. Come on TLgirl time to cut the apple "cord" BTW I owned a previous Gen manual tranny TL, the one that had Brembo brakes. I've always been sad I swapped it for an RL (much better in the snow). It was dark blue with a "burnt tan" leather that has never been available since or in any other Honda, it was real eye candy, plus it was FAST!

Edward'TLS

OK, let me first clear this up.

My 3G MDX has the 9" screen DVD rear entertainment system.

My 4G TL has the "Acura/ELS Surround Sound System", which Acura describes as "The system can play 5.1 surround sound DVD-A discs, the highest-fidelity sound medium available."

http://www.acura.com/Features.aspx?m...d_sound_system

The 4G TL is the last production Acura model that supports DVD-A format. 2014 RLX and 2014 MDX no longer offer the DVD-A technology.


Agree with the drawback for the Dolby 5.1-channel Surround on DVD-video disc, when compared with DVD-A disc, is the much inferior audio quality.

The 5.1-channel audio on DVD-video discs is lossily compressed, and doesn't enjoy the same crystal clear and high definition sound as the audio on DVD-A discs.

However, I guess having 5.1 Surround is better than none at all.

As for BluRay compatibility, at least Acura has provision for a HDMI input port for future video technology upgrade.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

ok...got it now...