Our family recently purchased a very lightly used '14 RLX with the Krell Package, and I thought I'd give a general run-down on the car and keep updating it as ownership continues.

Value: Thanks to fact that this isn't a very popular car, the value on used an new models is great. Our local dealer is selling new RLX's for 5-10K off MSRP, and our used 1 year old RLX Krell with 7K miles on it was ours for just 38K. This is important to consider as this makes the RLX comparable to cars like the C-Class and 3 series even though it technically is slot above those offerings, and is something many magazines and journalists don't take into consideration.

Interior: This would be the main selling point of this vehicle. Every surface is top notch, and the Milano leather is supple and rich feeling. I'd rank it above a similar 5 series or E-Class in terms of material quality. The infotainment system is tricky and intimidating at first like most modern units but is ok once one gets used to it, though the lower touch-screen is disappointingly low-res, like it would belong on lesser Honda product. Seats are comfortable with full adjustability and the rear cabin is nothing short of cavernous thanks to the FWD layout and large wheelbase.

Krell Audio Review: I consider myself a bit of an audiophile, so I was psyched when the RLX we found was equipped with this package. However, my excitement has waned over the last few months we've owned the car. It's certainly the most detailed and revealing system I've heard, and has a nice, airy feel to it. But music can come across very bright and almost shrill, and the bass is surprisingly weak. "Burn-in", the idea that speakers get better as they are used more, is hotly debated among audiophiles, but I'm desperately hoping it proves true with RLX's system.

Ride: This is where the RLX falls flat on its face. The suspension seems very underdamped (bouncy) and badly tuned. You can have a stiff suspension that's well tuned, like my Mini or CT200h, and you can have the opposite (Avalon, Lexus GS etc.) but the RLX's isn't a case of too stiff, it's just not dialed in well. The initial impact absorption is fine, if a tiny bit stiff, but the suspenders can't handle the rebound and send the body careening into the air, making for a very bouncy and nauseating ride. It's by far the biggest fault in the RLX, and completely inexcusable given Honda's/Acura's reputation for making such well balanced cars.

Handling: This is a surprising plus for the RLX. From the outside it looks like a Japanese Buick, but Acura insists the RLX has at least some sporting bones underneath and isn't completely wrong. It's no BMW, but roll is well controlled and the steering is fairly precise and well weighted. I personally like P-AWS. At low speeds you can feel the rear end doing a sort of subtle "drift" as the rear wheels counter the fronts, and at higher speeds the steering sharpens up and the car turns in very quickly to inputs as the rear wheels point in the same direction as the ones getting steered. It's no sports sedan, but it can play a convincing impression of one up until 7/10ths or so with Sport mode enabled (heavier steering, sportier throttle & transmission calibration).

Quirks: Our RLX has the apparently typical low speed clunking noise from underneath the body. It will be going in for service soon and I'll update the thread when it happens. Other than that the only other real issue is a transmission that shifts into reverse a little hard.

Our family tends to keep cars for about 6-10 years, so I will update the thread periodically over time.

 

Thanks for your excellent review.

I am not an audiophile but my Sport Hybrid Advance came with Krell. Since I often need hearing aids I thought the Krell might help my music appreciation. It is hard for me to tell if that is really true, so would love to hear you opinion.

There has been some discussion about the relatively poor quality of the music available via XM, iPhone etc. due to the compressed nature of the music files. What music source do you mostly use and do you think it is partly the source of your criticism?

 

Music quality plays a huge roll in how sound comes through speakers. Things like satellite radio are pretty awful as far as music quality is concerned and are un-listenable for me . CD's are usually best, but one would be hard pressed to notice a difference between a CD and a good MP3 (320kb per second) routed through an aux cable. Not that there isn't a difference, there definitely is, but generally unless you're doing some critical listening you won't notice. I usually use high quality MP3's through an AUX cable, though the RLX's Bluetooth streaming is good enough where I may use that as well (Note that Bluetooth streaming quality varies, and is usually not preferable). And no, I don't think my source is the issue for this sound system's deficiencies. In ultra-high end systems source matters a lot, as they can be very unforgiving to low quality music and bad sound processing . And while this is a relatively high end system for a car, my source isn't that bad. If however the system IS indeed that picky (I doubt it), it was dumb on Krell's part to assume the average consumer would have nothing but FLAC files or high-quality CD's.

Also for what it's worth, iPhone's actually have high quality sound processing. Hope that helps.

 

.

I've been saying this for almost two years now...only to usually be dismissed as being "subjective"...

I just got a call from one of my local dealers on a 2016 Sport-Hybrid (Advance) they have coming in about two weeks from Richmond, CA. Im going to test out a 2016 PAWS at the same time to see how they've improved the suspension issues.

 

It was probably field tested by a half dozen owners of EG Si's, with Koni and Ground Control.

Seemed just fine to them.

:-)

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

Just an update. Car went in for 15K mile service. I alerted them to the AC whine and persistent rear suspension clunk (even though they already performed the TSB). But lo and behold, during the ride-along with the service supervisor the AC and suspension were the quietest they've ever been :/ That means all the car was in for was an oil change/rotation.

Despite that the supervisor insisted I take a loaner for a day, which happened to be an updated ILX. I gotta say the 8 speed DCT and 2.4 make for a great combo in that car, with lightning quick shifts and good power. They also allow for better manual control in Sport. You can lug the engine at 1,000 rpm in Sport where as the RLX doesn't go below 2K RPM, which makes Sport useless in day to day driving.

 

There is on fix from Acura for the AC whine. While there is a TSB out for it, it doesn't address/fix it properly.

The only way to resolve this is to manually fix it via the methods we've determined here on the AZ forum. See this thread for more details.


https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...-931367/page2/

Good luck.

 

"If however the system IS indeed that picky (I doubt it), it was dumb on Krell's part to assume the average consumer would have nothing but FLAC files or high-quality CD's."

I actually talked with Krell about the stereo in the car. They only designed the sound stage and had nothing to do with the choice of the head unit or compression options to the hard drive.

 

I agree with ChaiLatte's comments about handling. Even though I've owned my RLX-PAWS for a year, there really has not been a trip where I threw it into curves on a country road. Today I did just that and really enjoyed how well it handled the challenge. My seat of pants impression was it handled curves faster than my 2006 RL. For a large car, it did well and, probably because my memory was a bit faulty about remembering all of the turns from years ago, I entered one curve way too fast. My mind said there goes the right rear fender on the bridge and, instead, the car just continued through as if it were on rails. The PAWS system is pretty darn good. Maybe not as good as the RLX Hybrid Super Handling All Wheel Drive, but pretty darn good compared to other similarly sized cars.

 

I've always had nothing but good things to say about the PAWS system and is another one of those things they got right with the RLX.

It works exceptionally well in the TLX as well.

 

I have passed the two year mark with the '14 PAWS. I hated the car the first year. I had mixed feelings for six months after that. Now, I like the car.

It has been behaving well lately. Maybe the big problems have been identified and fixed. 10 months to go. Would I be crazy enough to buy it a lease-end ? Stay tuned.

 

I was re-reading this thread because of an update, and ran across this again.

So I'll stick my big nose into it. :-)

FM HD Radio is really quite good. It's very possibly higher quality than almost anything else you're likely to encounter, provided you have a good signal.

The problem is that FM HD Radio is commercial. It's very annoying. You also have to keep switching stations as you travel, so that's also annoying.

iPhone and iPod: I was surprised you referred to this as low quality and if somebody experiences bad listening on an iPhone, it's because the audio was recorded incorrectly. Full bit rate iPod and iPhone music that is played through the USB connection is very, very good and it is able to manage extreme ranges and handle a depth of sound that fully utilizes the Krell components.

Bluetooth: Bluetooth is quite good, when you are able to use an application that enables high bit rates.

Pandora and Aha sound better over the iPod USB connection than they do over Bluetooth. But if the iPod connector isn't available, then the Bluetooth is pretty darned good! To get the same depth with Bluetooth, you will have to use a little more volume than you would use with the iPhone using the iPod connection.

XM Satellite: Yeah, it's not great. The only good thing I can say about it is that it sounds better over Krell than it sounded over my 4G TL with ELS. I thought that I read somewhere that Krell attempts to decompress audio that comes to it over XM, but since I thought I read that I haven't been able to find it by searching.

I keep my XM subscription to everything because it's easy to get something on the air in a hurry, and I like to catch NPR, BBC, CNN and others when stories are breaking. It's also good for a quick taste of formats of music that you wouldn't normally purchase for your iPhone, or subscribe to via your Pandora or Aha applications.

 

I agree with George that the HD FM sounds the best of the music sources. The ying and yang of it is that while it sounds great, I find that the signal strength of the local HD stations isn't good. There are at least three HD FM public radio stations near me but while the non HD signals seem to have a wide range the HD signal is more limited. A local public radio station is all jazz but when I am listening to the additional HD bands they fade in and out as the HD signal is lost.

 

Our local HD radio reception is pretty good. Then again, Cleveland is pretty flat, with the suburbs only about 200-400 feet at the most above downtown, gradually rising, and the transmitters are on the "higher" land. (This change is why my Sport Hybrid's mileage is better as I'm driving downtown than away, but that's another thread).

 

How do you select HD Radio? I thought the RLX's were equipped with it, but perhaps the Canadian versions didn't get it (I believe the CRTC (our regulatory group here) just recently passed it in Canada). Could you please let me know how you do that, and I will see if my 2014 has it as well.

Thanks!

 

You don't select HD radio. It's a form of FM radio and when you select an FM station with HD signal, the radio will automatically add a HD logo next to the radio station. You will then be allowed to select the HD substations. Look at page 241 of your 2014 owner's manual for more info.

 

FYI - HD FM is better quality than XM - in fact way better in most cases. However, FM stations have a choice on the quality they provide. so some HD FM are better than others

 

Ok, it doesn't show up....I wonder if the Canadian RLX's didn't have that until the CRTC passed regulation? I will try when I'm in the city tomorrow to see if that makes a difference or not. I saw your Youtube video about how it works so appreciate you posting that! There is an all news station in Toronto (680 News) that broadcasts in HD Radio so would love to hear that for traffic reports and general news updates.

 

News in HD?
Kind of a waste unless you like the female reporter's voice

 

AM quality sucks....was hoping to hear it better on HD Radio.

 

My wife's car does not even get AM, but I think quality of AM for News is fine

 

I've lost track of things. Did the United States ever finally approve an HD Radio format for AM?

I thought we moved on and decided that nobody even wanted that.

 

My problem is that I travel too much.

I recognize and agree that HD Radio is very high quality audio.

But the quality degrades as you travel, and then you have to search for another HD station of a similar format.

And even if you can manage that...it's far, far too commercial.

So I'm almost always on XM or Pandora. Sometimes iPod function of my iPhone, but usually XM or Pandora. :-)

The heuristic algorithms for the Pandora station you design are pretty good, and you'll almost never get a performance in which you're not interested. That assumes you've spent a little time formatting the station, of course.

 

I find the FM HD has the best sound quality but it takes a very strong signal. My local Public Radio stations both broadcast in HD but the signal degrades quickly as I drive around. When that happens, I can still get a clear signal but I lose the HD format. Like George, I tend to use the XM radio or a plugged in iPhone playing Amazon Music more because the signal is more consistent.

 

XM sounds really bad thru Krell
I didn't notice it that much before with my RL

 

CNBC or a baseball game sound just fine.

 

Good point

 

XM sounds bad on any system as it uses highly compressed signals. HD radio is not high definition and uses less compressed signals, but is similar to FM. Pandora sounds good if the high quality streaming is checked in preferences. CDs have the best quality.

From wikipedia:
"(XM) channel quality was in one of two flavors, stereo music channels at 39 kbit/s and mono talk channels at 16 kbit/s using proprietary compression. Many subscribers have complained about the low quality of satellite radio sound. But providers have stuck with the plan for more channels instead of better quality. HD terrestrial digital radio, a competitor has always used this difference as a selling point."

From hdradio:
" There are two FM modes available to use when multicasting:
MP1 Mode has a usable bandwidth of 96 kbps and is referred to as the Hybrid mode.
MP3 Mode has a usable bandwidth of 120 kbps and is referred to as the Extended Hybrid mode. "

From howtogeek:
"Pandora uses AAC+ (which offers much better sound reproduction compared to MP3 files at the same kpbs bit-rate). 192 kbps isn't exactly 320 kpbs or lossless audio (like listening to a CD), but it's still quite high quality."

From wikipedia:
" The audio bit rate for a Red Book audio CD is 1,411,200 bits per second or 176,400 bytes per second; 2 channels × 44,100 samples per second per channel × 16 bits per sample. "

 

regular FM is somewhere close to XM music, maybe even less

 

Quoting myself...lol! No difference in downtown Toronto, and from what I read on the TLX forums, it does appear the Canadian models do not have HD Radio. Perhaps the 2016's or later may, but the 2014's definitely do not! Oh, and we don't get Pandora either...boo!!!