In the 5 minutes I was in the car after the update, I didn't notice a difference in the sound. But I was only listening to sports talk radio. 🤪

Can't wait to wring it out with some USB FLAC files.

 

One thing I've noticed is that if you put the car into park and you have the auto parking brake engaged it will engage when you put the car into park instead of after you exit and close the door to the vehicle like before.

 

I did the option to install the update after the car was turned off. I just went out to get something out of the car, and it was locked, which we never do, it's in the garage. So I got my keys, then checked to see if the updated completed ok. It did. I shut it down, and got out of the car, and as I was walking away, it locked. Apparently the update enabled the walkaway lock feature?

 

Mine always put the brake on when put in Park, but there was always a few second’s delay.

 

I did the update and have yet to notice anything different. I did notice the audio system didn't seem to sound as well as it use to but that could be me looking for some improvement or something.
I haven't tried Android Auto yet.
On second thought I did try to share a address from my phone to the Nav system and it didn't work, but that has happened before and I only tried once so too little data to confirm this is actually a change.

 

When I updated, I notice that the secondary screen will not show the in system nav like it would use to when Apple CarPlay is connected.

 

After installing the update earlier this week, I drove around for a few hours yesterday, making many stops, restarting the car numerous times...Plugged in my phone for Android Auto every time I got back in the car. There was nothing obvious to report. I guess this is good, the infotainment system should NOT make one notice issues, or slowness or whatever. It now works as it should. No long starburst, no black screens, no AA disconnects, no flashing screens, no error messages...
In short, it did not attract my attention. Everything worked as it should. It did seem faster to load. (I didn't specifically listen for improved sound quality)
Good job Acura! I COULD say "Better late than never" but I won't. It was actually pretty good before the latest update.

Now back to trying to get vaccines for myself and my 89 year old mom.

 

Same here, Actually, not true...I don't ever put mine in Park, I just push the Start/Stop button, the engine stops (unless it was already off, which it is frequently when I am parking the car), the parking brake engages, and I get out of the car. This avoids the engine shutting off (from Auto Idle Stop), then restarting when putting it in Park, then shutting it off again.

Been doing this for two years of ownership.

 

I found the new update boots up far more quickly. USB music boots up and starts playing before I’ve latched my seat belt.
The “initializing” spinning wheel has vanished.
I’ve found no difference in the sound quality.

However...

There may be a problem with update. With USB music, in my 2020 RDX Platinum Elite, selection of the next song, whether by touch pad or steering wheel, skips to a random song in the same album. If you use the touch pad to select a song it works properly but skipping to the next song throws the order out of sequence.

 

I have not seen this effect (I have 1.5.1 running on my vehicle), all buttons operate as expected. I run USB music 98% of the time. I have a 2019 RDX Advance. Have you tried the three finger reboot to see if that clears the brains?

 

Good idea. If in doubt reboot.

 

I have always found the sequence to be hosed sometimes. set it up on an artist, then forward through, turn off the car, turn back on, and it will react differently, for example.

 

thanks Mark, I will try that as well.

 

Maybe there is sound quality increase ....but I could swear that I'm hearing more sub bass and better overall dynamics. There just seems to be a bit more impact in the mids and sub. Possibly a frequency range extension was applied or something...maybe crossovers adjust a tiny bit.

No idea....maybe it is placebo. But I'm an audiophile of sorts (my main IEIM are the Campfire Andromedas) and have mixed music in the past - I do feel like there's been some minor change in audio quality. I use Android Auto and Tidal Masters tracks. Sounds great with the ELS system and slightly better now with this update. Maybe it's a routing thing or Android Auto source quality got alittle better.

Anyways...if it's placebo....then no harm no foul.

 

I agree with you. Today I drove the car and listened to some familar songs, and there has to be more mid/bass. My phone did receive a new security update before my RDX was updated to 1.5.1, but I doubt there would be sound quality from Android side. I also have not read anything sound quality change from Spotify. Anyway, the sound has always been good enough, so placebo effect or not does not really matter IMHO.

 

When starting the car with the radio on, the controller has to grab the tuner from an indeterminant frequency and then move it to the station last played. Early firmware variants would lock up completely during this process. Then it improved enough that the retuning got done consistently but the mute was deasserted for a second or two when the tuner was in lala land. This produced a nasty FM between stations hiss for a second or two. Unfortunately this problem remains with 1.5.1.

 

Not withstanding the comments with continuing quirks, I installed the OTA this AM. Approximately 20 minutes, download, install and update. Very smooth no hiccups.

 

One more comment about the sound quality. By chance, I found the difference has something to do with AA. I experienced today that I left the phone connected to the infotainment, and turned off engine to do errands, then come back and found after AA auto-resumed, the sound all of sudden has more bass.

I then compared the same song playing from bluetooth and from AA, and found BT sounds generally like what the system used to be, and AA version is the more dynamic, deeper-bass one we have been discussing here. So my guess is that the AA stack in the head unit has been using BT to play music prior to 1.5.1. And the AA stack in 1.5.1 still would occasionally fallback to BT for some reasons.

 

You might be on to something here. I took a look at some settings, while connected to my RDX. First in my Android 11 developer settings, I found that bluetooth was no longer giving me the option to select different things. It was all all grayed out, which is different from what I can recall. Next, I check what Android Auto was doing in the background and I found that it now tells me it's connected via USB. I do not recall seeing this in the past. Maybe in previous Android builds for the RDX, it was switching between high quality via cable and normal quality via bluetooth? Just guessing.

From what I've read in the past, when connected with a USB cable for AA, all audio is passed through the cable and is considered to be of lossless quality, while phonecalls and Google Assistant are done through bluetooth. But maybe that was never fully the case.

There were a lot of fixes done. Our 2020 and 2019 RDX models basically received two updates in one and caught us up to the 2021 model. Maybe during some of those fixes, audio routing issues were resolved.

To my ears, it really just sounds of higher quality, wider stereo, and more impact. It's almost as if the source audio coming into the system is of higher quality. Almost like the source EQ is now flat coming in, rather than being slightly rounded off at the lows. Maybe the RDX has AptX Bluetooth capabilities (which sounds nice but not as good as a cable) and our newer phones passed audio that way in some cases due to certain codecs or restrictions at time (maybe??) And now all audio is routed via cable.

Either way, the system didn't necessarily improve, but the way AA maybe handles passing audio signal has now improved.

 

Same here, I have iPhone 12 pro and before the update it was working fine, then Boom! had to reset my infotainment system every time to get my Carplay to get to connect.

 

Drove again today! (Why is this so remarkable? LOL) The system with 1.5.1 is definitely quicker to boot and respond in all areas I have tried. Sorry iPhone users, no issues with Android Auto here. I don't want to jinx myself, as I had many issues with AA connectivity with 1.x.x before getting a new phone.

 

What iOS version is your phone on?

 

I agree only I have IOS (iPhone SE(2020) and I've been out twice testing all the normal features, and the interface with apple; no problem on every level I tried. The sound quality was excellent. Ronstadt and Jones never sounded so good! The download was like 10 minutes. I was surprised it was so quick to update.

 

Tonight when I got out of the car, Android Auto was running on my phone. I notice AA has some Bluetooth settings I never noticed before. I rarely use AA in the car because I can't be bothered to plug the phone in every time I get in the car.

I get the impression that AA is intended to work wirelessly over Bluetooth but it just doesn't in the RDX. Do I have that right?.

 

It seems after the update the engine auto stop has stopped working. I was having this issue before and the dealer did 3 things (including what looks like fuel injection software update) that corrected the problem. I'm wondering if the system update has affected this? 2021 Platinum Elite.

 

No issues with Apple Car play after upgrade.
iphone max-s.

 

Yes, elsewhere in the settings, AA acknowledges that operation over Bluetooth is only possible with some 2021 vehicles. Begs the question, can the feature be added to the RDX by software update?

Does Apple CarPlay work wirelessly over Bluetooth?

 

I believe ACP works over WiFi. The RDX does have WiFi. I expect if it were possible and prioritized however, it would have already happened.

 

Actually, the wireless AA communicates through Wi-Fi, same as CarPlay. From what I understand The infotainment unit has the HW to do wireless AA (certified 5GHz Wi-Fi Direct), so theoretically a SW update could bring wireless AA in the future.
(Insider please correct me if I am wrong!)

 

Well, I'm inside my house, does that count? LOL.

My understanding is that the bandwidth needed for wireless AA or CP is too much for Bluetooth, so how else but WiFi?

 

So, how would I make that work? Do I have to set up my phone as a wifi hot spot?

 

No, just means currently RDX/TLX does not support wireless AA/CP and we cross our fingers hoping Acura will bring the feature in the future.

 

A nice change I noticed for the secondary display (in addition to the touchpad being more responsive for cycling through the options): if you are using CarPlay and start navigation and playing audio, set the secondary panel to “now playing”. Now if you press the right touch pad in, it will change CarPlay to the audio app and change the right panel to nav. Press right panel button again and CarPlay will go back to nav and the secondary display will go back to “now playing”. Super easy now to toggle between the two. I had asked for this probably 1.5 years ago, looks like they listened :-). Now if only they would improve other parts of the secondary display or let it go full screen CarPlay.

 

The more I listen...the more I think that there may have been a possible phasing issue between some of the speakers. More impact in sound is usually related to an in-phase array of speakers. Frequency range is not so much extended, it just that it's no longer being canceled out. Previously the system sounded good, but was more thin sounding compared to how it sounds now.

Maybe some of our RDX models had a phasing issue we didn't know about. Usually hard to detect if you don't know what you're listening for.

 

could be. Or they just tweaked the dsp to get that 3-4k annoying treble out of there. Being out of phase could certainly have caused that also. Still trying to get more time on he the new release. Smoothing out the treble could expose a nicer low end blend also.

 

I got one drive mode unavailable glitch over the weekend on my 2019. So maybe the meter TSB is still needed after all.

 

Maybe it's just me but I think this update isn't so great. I used to rarely have AA connection issues but now if I even slowly go over a speed bump my phone disconnects. Sometimes just briefly and then it reconnects automatically but other times it needs to be unplugged then plugged back in. Basically any little movement of the phone while driving is enough to trigger this which was never a problem before. Same phone and cable as before the RDX SW upgrade. Anyone else encountering the same issue?

 

I still have the MOST connectors issue. i.e., crackling and audio dropouts when I go over bumps and rough roads. I had them do the TSB once and it has gotten better but it's not ALL better. Next service visit.

 

I hope you can reproduce it for them, otherwise they will say that there is nothing wrong.

 

Yeah, AA feels a little more unstable in establishing the connection here as well. I don't have the issue you mentioned, but had a few occasions that AA is not set up correctly even though the phone is connected. I have since disabled CP in my system once again (it got auto-enabled after 1.5.1) and will see if that changes anything.