DVD surround sound sounds wonderful but how come when you listen to a regular cd (or the xm radio) it sounds like there is no sound at all out of the back speakers.
I doesn't seem to me like the previous cars I had had such a front oriented sound in them. Is there anyway to get a more "complete" sound when not listening to dvd audio music?

Thanks,
Derek

 

You can adjust the the front/rear fader to get more sound from the rear speakers. On the Nav model, just press the 'Sound' icon and the next display should be self-explanatory.

 

Yes I was aware that you can fade the sound to the back speakers but it does not keep the same power to the front speakers which stinks. It would be nice if you could have the same power (sound quality) from the front and the back at the same time.

I guess I was just wondering with my initial post if anyone else thought that the system was extremely front oriented unless you are using a DVD music.

Thanks,
Derek

 

I believe this is by design. For proper stereo imaging, many in the industry feel the proper way to listen to stereo in a vehicle is to have the emphasis in the front area so that the performance is "above the dashboard" with the rears used as fill in only. That is my best guess as to why our system is setup that way. I have not seen any writeups on this, but having been a self proclaimed audiophile for a long time, read countless articles on the subject of car audio, and heard the trends in such.

 

For dvd audio some dvds sound like crap in rear seat. all I can haer is music and drum not the vocal

 

Very true. As good as the sound is for the front seat passengers it may be quite another thing for the rear seat folks. For many DVD-As they will only get "echo" or "ambiance" and plenty of sub woofer. Perhaps the occasional "effect" will jump out to them. It is something to keep in mind if you have folks in the back. They may be less than impressed by the audio system and folks in the front will think they are nuts because it is a totally, totally different experience.

Even for two channel stuff the sound is a bit thin of mid-range in the back. But after all, it's my car and I care most about the sound where my ears are when I'm driving. And it sounds pretty damn good right there!

 

All true. Electronic stuff is cheap. Acura should provide (1) a way to convert DVD-A surround to two-channel when there are passengers in back, and (2) a way to synthesize 5.1 channels from two-channel sources when there is no one in back. And make it retroactive to my '05.

 

Well, quite a few DVD-A titles include a MLP stereo choice on them as well as the 5.1 group. Just a matter of choosing that group, which is usually the 2nd group.

 

I found the car also isnt very fun to drive from the back seat :P

 

Even cheaper is that this could be done in the firmware decoder with no change to the actual hardware.

I like it being discrete 5.1 for the driver and front passenger and I don't bother listening to such material with passengers in the back. As far as deriving a 5.1-like signal from stereo content, Dolby ProLogic II does a respectable job of this. I doubt we have this in the TL or the logo would probably be silk-screened on the faceplate. I haven't done any tests to see what's happening in the TL, but a couple of times I suspected it was doing something more than just mirroring the front stereo pair in the rear. However, some stereo material contains phase cues that trick our ears into hearing sounds outside the stereo field or even behind us, though they're not really there.

Regarding the OP, I do hear sound from the rear speakers with stereo sources, but it is significantly quieter than the fronts. The image is definitely front-heavy, but not exclusively in the front speakers.

 

I think Eliott Schnier admitted that team had to focus on front passenger experience. I just bought my 5th DVD-A : Winelight - Jr Washington. It sounds good in every seat. Shania Twain - UP is horrible in the back. I have to fade about +3 to front to compensate rear passengers

 

Excellent, excellent point. It is something some of us probably knew somewhere in the "backs of our minds" but simply could not recall it.
Remember, hold SCAN + RPT is the command to change groups.

I've noticed that too with some discs. They may sound OK in your house when played in a large room but the confines of the car sometimes make the rear channel effects too noticeable. I even notice that the front passenger seat isn't as balanced as the driver's seat. Not sure exactly why since the speakers don't seem to have any aiming that would account for that. I have had other cars that "bounce" the front speakers off the windshield differently to balance the sound for the driver. TL doesn't seem to do that so it must be in the electronics. If it's true, Elliot Scheiner was probably right to concentrate on the driver. After all, driver, captain or pilot...that's the person that gets what they want!

 

This is so true. I haven't figured out what it is. Music sounds different when I sit in front passenger seat. At first I thought steering is blocking sound coming from door or something.

I would assume if the car system is not tuned, I would always hear louder music in my left ear. I couldn't find such difference between rear left and rear right seat.

Last but not least. I think we might need louder center speaker in next TL. Center gets buried too easily especially when volume is 30+. I can never hear navi when music is loud either