Washington Post: All Around, a Sound System
11-23-2003 | 12:22 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 498
Likes: 1
From: SF Bay Area
Washington Post: All Around, a Sound System
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Nov21.html
All Around, a Sound System
By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page G01
The 2004 Acura TL sedan has four wheels and an engine. It runs fast and handles well. It is a car. But it is so much more.
It is a motorized Carnegie Hall, a communications center and an office replete with secretary. It is a refuge.
I stopped thinking of the new TL as an automobile during my week behind its wheel. It became my place -- a destination in itself.
The Acura/ELS Premium Surround Sound System had much to do with that. Let me tell you about this thing.
It is a sound system beyond stereo, beyond the ordinary two-channel delivery of bases and trebles. The Acura/ELS system, with DVD-Audio, has six different audio channels. The sound is recording-studio quality. It comes at you from all sides through eight speakers, including a rear-mounted, eight-inch subwoofer. Instead of driving to the concert, you're driving with it.
And should you choose not to listen to one of your CD or DVD-Audio discs in the six-disc changer, or to a tape in the Dolby cassette, you're still in a good place. The new TL comes with XM Satellite Radio integrated into the AM/FM tuner.
XM gives you 100 music and news/talk channels, 36 of them commercial-free. But the primary benefit is satellite reception, which means you can begin listening to your favorite jazz or 1940s big-band station in Virginia and keep listening to it all the way to California.
You'll have little chance of getting lost on that trip if you choose one of the few options, the Acura Navigation system, offered in the TL. It is the best navigation system offered in any car, regardless of price.
Acura Navigation is intuitive. It thinks like you think. You want to get to a certain place? Call up the "destination" screen. After a few easy prompts, an on-screen keyboard appears. Type the destination address the same as you would on a computer keyboard. Hit "OK," and off you go.
Acura Navigation is accurate to within a few feet. Its on-screen graphics are clear, precise, helpful. Are you listening, BMW and Mercedes-Benz? I hope so. By comparison, your navigation systems are ridiculously complicated, inaccurate and substantially below the usefulness of a paper map. Why don't you ditch your systems and buy one from Acura? Most consumers won't care. They simply want a navigation system that navigates.
What else? Well, there's this Bluetooth-enabled cell-phone thing. Bluetooth is a radio-frequency technology that allows wireless communications between devices such as personal digital assistants, laptops and mobile phones. The TL uses the technology in its patented HandsFreeLink phone system that allows the Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to communicate wirelessly, securely -- and flawlessly with the car from a maximum distance of 30 feet.
That means you can receive a call on your cell and answer it without ever picking up the phone or putting on one of those silly little rock-star headsets or Secret Service ear pieces.
If the phone conversation doesn't end by the time you get to where you're going, there's no problem. Push a button on the steering wheel and transfer the call to your handheld cell.
You can dial calls by voice in this car. In fact, you can operate a variety of functions by voice in the new TL. And that includes the optional ability to operate the Acura Navigation system.
There's also visual information aplenty, thanks to the TL's standard Multi-Info Display (MID) screen and its push-button controls, located on the right side of the instrument cluster. The screen, a cleverly designed LED strip, tells you everything you want to know about the car and its functions. It even gives you the name of the tunes you're listening to on XM (which carries a subscription fee of about $10 a month).
It's amazing. Getting into the TL at the end of the day, an experience enhanced by supple leathers and tasteful aluminum accents, was like getting home miles before actually getting there. Well done, Acura. Well done.
All Around, a Sound System
By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page G01
The 2004 Acura TL sedan has four wheels and an engine. It runs fast and handles well. It is a car. But it is so much more.
It is a motorized Carnegie Hall, a communications center and an office replete with secretary. It is a refuge.
I stopped thinking of the new TL as an automobile during my week behind its wheel. It became my place -- a destination in itself.
The Acura/ELS Premium Surround Sound System had much to do with that. Let me tell you about this thing.
It is a sound system beyond stereo, beyond the ordinary two-channel delivery of bases and trebles. The Acura/ELS system, with DVD-Audio, has six different audio channels. The sound is recording-studio quality. It comes at you from all sides through eight speakers, including a rear-mounted, eight-inch subwoofer. Instead of driving to the concert, you're driving with it.
And should you choose not to listen to one of your CD or DVD-Audio discs in the six-disc changer, or to a tape in the Dolby cassette, you're still in a good place. The new TL comes with XM Satellite Radio integrated into the AM/FM tuner.
XM gives you 100 music and news/talk channels, 36 of them commercial-free. But the primary benefit is satellite reception, which means you can begin listening to your favorite jazz or 1940s big-band station in Virginia and keep listening to it all the way to California.
You'll have little chance of getting lost on that trip if you choose one of the few options, the Acura Navigation system, offered in the TL. It is the best navigation system offered in any car, regardless of price.
Acura Navigation is intuitive. It thinks like you think. You want to get to a certain place? Call up the "destination" screen. After a few easy prompts, an on-screen keyboard appears. Type the destination address the same as you would on a computer keyboard. Hit "OK," and off you go.
Acura Navigation is accurate to within a few feet. Its on-screen graphics are clear, precise, helpful. Are you listening, BMW and Mercedes-Benz? I hope so. By comparison, your navigation systems are ridiculously complicated, inaccurate and substantially below the usefulness of a paper map. Why don't you ditch your systems and buy one from Acura? Most consumers won't care. They simply want a navigation system that navigates.
What else? Well, there's this Bluetooth-enabled cell-phone thing. Bluetooth is a radio-frequency technology that allows wireless communications between devices such as personal digital assistants, laptops and mobile phones. The TL uses the technology in its patented HandsFreeLink phone system that allows the Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to communicate wirelessly, securely -- and flawlessly with the car from a maximum distance of 30 feet.
That means you can receive a call on your cell and answer it without ever picking up the phone or putting on one of those silly little rock-star headsets or Secret Service ear pieces.
If the phone conversation doesn't end by the time you get to where you're going, there's no problem. Push a button on the steering wheel and transfer the call to your handheld cell.
You can dial calls by voice in this car. In fact, you can operate a variety of functions by voice in the new TL. And that includes the optional ability to operate the Acura Navigation system.
There's also visual information aplenty, thanks to the TL's standard Multi-Info Display (MID) screen and its push-button controls, located on the right side of the instrument cluster. The screen, a cleverly designed LED strip, tells you everything you want to know about the car and its functions. It even gives you the name of the tunes you're listening to on XM (which carries a subscription fee of about $10 a month).
It's amazing. Getting into the TL at the end of the day, an experience enhanced by supple leathers and tasteful aluminum accents, was like getting home miles before actually getting there. Well done, Acura. Well done.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
rockyboy
2G RDX (2013-2018)
171
08-04-2024 10:35 AM
mada51589
3G TL Problems & Fixes
79
05-03-2022 08:54 PM
Yumcha
Automotive News
4
09-15-2015 06:44 PM