Stereophile's Ultimate AV mag reviews the ELS system
10-06-2004, 01:29 AM
#1
Stereophile's Ultimate AV mag reviews the ELS system
The November 2004 Issue has a review of the ELS audio system in the TL. Hopefully someone can scan it? I'll throw out some paragraphs. What I've typed below is about 90-95% of the article. There's a small inset where the guy compares the driving experience, but I decided not to include that since he was doing a contrast and compare with his... Ford Focus... lol) :
"Stereophile Ultimate AV is not a car-audio magazine. I've never been to one of those nutty face-offs where everyone stands clear while unoccupied cars are clocked at 130dB in 5.3 seconds. Those who have tell me you can't focus your eyes on the cars; they're shaking too much.
While we have no plans for ongoing coverage of car sound, or for adding that category to "Recommended Components", the Acura's ELS sound system fit the Ultimate AV criteria: both revealing and forgiving, it was dynamic yet refined, with clean, tight bass, open, easy highs, and a surprisingly uncolored midrange. It played as loud as any san motorist coudl want, without audible distortion and without frying the eardrums.
If you think you can get this sort of car sound only with a big investment in aftermarket parts and installation know-how, the Acura system will come as a surprise. For one thing, it's stock. For another, from head unit to speakers, it's made by Panasonic. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when people think of great, original-equipment car stereo systems, they usually think of JBL, Bose, Infinity, and Mark Levinson. What you may not know is that Panasonic supplies car-audio systems to virtually all auto manufacturers, including Nissan, Toyota, GM, Ford, and Diamler-Chrysler."
"The ELS system was designed by Panasonic engineer Mark Ziemba and tuned and refined by Elliot Shiner, a recording engineer and producer with 20 Grammy nominations and five wins to his credit. Shiner is also recognized as a leader in the production of multichannel mixes. His nickname in the industry, "ELS", is thus the name of the system.
The changer in the head unit can hold up to six CD or DVD-Audio discs at a time. The system will not play MP3's. That omission was made in deference to the higher-quality source material the ELS was designed for, and it didn't trouble me, though it might discourage some potential buyers.
"The speakers consist of 6.5-inch drivers mounted in teh lower door panels for the front left and right channels, supplemented by left and right upward-firing tweeters in the dash. The center channel makes do - effectively - with a small, 3.25-inch polycone, neodymium-mmagnet driver that responds down to 150Hz.
The left and right surrounds include the same 6.5-inch drivers used for the front left and right, but without tweeters. According to Panasonic, the surrounds are equalized to extend out to 15kHz at the driver's seat - an interesting feat for a drive-unit of that size, and off-axis no less. But whatever they've done, it worked - I heard nothing from the rears that suggested limited frequency response, or distortion from excessive high-frequency boost.
The subwoofer is only 8 inches in diameter - surprising, considering the quality of bass it produced. Its back is open to the trunk. The bass balance is intentionally designed to be 10-12dB higher in level than the main channels - a necessity for car audio, to cut through low-frequency road noise. The crosover to the sub is said to be in the 80-100Hz range, but the crossover technique is unconventional enough that Panasonic declined to discuss it in detail.
More surprising still is the ELS system's power rating: the main left and right speakers, the two surrounds, and the subwoofer each get only 40W. The power output rating is at 2 ohms - the impedence of each of those speakers - and at 10% total harmonic distortion. While this may sound high to an audiophile accustomed to distortion figures with at least one zero after the decimal point, it's the distortion level at which the power output of most car audio gear is rated. According to Panasonic, however, the THD does remain below 0.5% up to 30Wpc. The center-channel amp is rated at 25W into its 4 ohm load.
Sound anemic? It wasn't at all. In four days of listening I never heard the ELS system overload or even sound distorted. I didn't listen at the head-banging levels, and if I'd driven down a quiet residential street with the windows down, I probably wouldn't have been arrested. But I'd have gotten complaints.
If the ELS speakers used high-sensitivity drivers, that might account for the comfortable overload margin, but Panasonic claims nothing more than average sensitivity for them. The more obvious explanation for the robust sound is the tiny space - a fraction of the size of even a small home listening room - in which the a car stereo system must work. Vendors who claim to need many hundreds of watts to drive their upscale, aftermarket car stereo systems for anything other than those empty-cabin, empty-headed, high-decibel bakeoffs have some explaining to do.
One advantage that designers of stock car audio systems have over those who concentrate on aftermarket products (or home systems) is that the environment is at least partially known. (Of course, the size and number of the occupants must be estimated.) Acura also uses a special glass for the windshield. All windshield glass is laminated, but this lamination is said to have unusual acoustic properties - though apart from sound isolation from outside noise, I don't know what these might be. When I questioned Panasonic about this, and suggested that obsessive audiophiles might want to find out more about this glass for their home audio rooms, all I could hear over the phone were the sounds of eyebrows rising."
Some other comments :
"Both CD and DVD-Audio sounded superb on the Acura ELS System. As always, the recordings themselves wer key components, but I have to say that playback of the best CD recordings by the ELS (which uses a matrix format to spread the 2-channel source to all the speakers) sounded every bit as good, on the road, as discrete DVD-A. When I parked in the driveway, however, the best DVD-A recording I used, the modestly titled [I]Dr. Chesky's Magnificent, Fabulous, Absurd & Insane Musical 5.1 Surround Show, presented a remarkable degree of subtle detail and surround ambience.
But when I listened while driving, the unavoidable road noise, even in the relatively quiet Acura, obscured not only subtle spatial cues, but the sorts of subtleties that audiophiles look for in such hi-rez sources as DVD-A and SACD..."
"But most of the time, on average, DVD-Audio sounded about as good as good CD..."
"I was also surprised by how good XM satellite radio sounded. While CD and DVD-A easily trumped it in qualities audiophiles look for, I nevertheless found XM far more listenable than any FM I've ever heard in a moving car..."
"Still, everything considered, the Acura TL is a great car, with a sound system that alone puts it among the other select automotive entries on my 'Must buy after winning the Lotto' list".
"Altogether, it was a fun weekend with a great car. And while $35,000 will buy you a better sound system, it won't get you around town with as much speed, style, and good sound."
"Stereophile Ultimate AV is not a car-audio magazine. I've never been to one of those nutty face-offs where everyone stands clear while unoccupied cars are clocked at 130dB in 5.3 seconds. Those who have tell me you can't focus your eyes on the cars; they're shaking too much.
While we have no plans for ongoing coverage of car sound, or for adding that category to "Recommended Components", the Acura's ELS sound system fit the Ultimate AV criteria: both revealing and forgiving, it was dynamic yet refined, with clean, tight bass, open, easy highs, and a surprisingly uncolored midrange. It played as loud as any san motorist coudl want, without audible distortion and without frying the eardrums.
If you think you can get this sort of car sound only with a big investment in aftermarket parts and installation know-how, the Acura system will come as a surprise. For one thing, it's stock. For another, from head unit to speakers, it's made by Panasonic. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when people think of great, original-equipment car stereo systems, they usually think of JBL, Bose, Infinity, and Mark Levinson. What you may not know is that Panasonic supplies car-audio systems to virtually all auto manufacturers, including Nissan, Toyota, GM, Ford, and Diamler-Chrysler."
"The ELS system was designed by Panasonic engineer Mark Ziemba and tuned and refined by Elliot Shiner, a recording engineer and producer with 20 Grammy nominations and five wins to his credit. Shiner is also recognized as a leader in the production of multichannel mixes. His nickname in the industry, "ELS", is thus the name of the system.
The changer in the head unit can hold up to six CD or DVD-Audio discs at a time. The system will not play MP3's. That omission was made in deference to the higher-quality source material the ELS was designed for, and it didn't trouble me, though it might discourage some potential buyers.
"The speakers consist of 6.5-inch drivers mounted in teh lower door panels for the front left and right channels, supplemented by left and right upward-firing tweeters in the dash. The center channel makes do - effectively - with a small, 3.25-inch polycone, neodymium-mmagnet driver that responds down to 150Hz.
The left and right surrounds include the same 6.5-inch drivers used for the front left and right, but without tweeters. According to Panasonic, the surrounds are equalized to extend out to 15kHz at the driver's seat - an interesting feat for a drive-unit of that size, and off-axis no less. But whatever they've done, it worked - I heard nothing from the rears that suggested limited frequency response, or distortion from excessive high-frequency boost.
The subwoofer is only 8 inches in diameter - surprising, considering the quality of bass it produced. Its back is open to the trunk. The bass balance is intentionally designed to be 10-12dB higher in level than the main channels - a necessity for car audio, to cut through low-frequency road noise. The crosover to the sub is said to be in the 80-100Hz range, but the crossover technique is unconventional enough that Panasonic declined to discuss it in detail.
More surprising still is the ELS system's power rating: the main left and right speakers, the two surrounds, and the subwoofer each get only 40W. The power output rating is at 2 ohms - the impedence of each of those speakers - and at 10% total harmonic distortion. While this may sound high to an audiophile accustomed to distortion figures with at least one zero after the decimal point, it's the distortion level at which the power output of most car audio gear is rated. According to Panasonic, however, the THD does remain below 0.5% up to 30Wpc. The center-channel amp is rated at 25W into its 4 ohm load.
Sound anemic? It wasn't at all. In four days of listening I never heard the ELS system overload or even sound distorted. I didn't listen at the head-banging levels, and if I'd driven down a quiet residential street with the windows down, I probably wouldn't have been arrested. But I'd have gotten complaints.
If the ELS speakers used high-sensitivity drivers, that might account for the comfortable overload margin, but Panasonic claims nothing more than average sensitivity for them. The more obvious explanation for the robust sound is the tiny space - a fraction of the size of even a small home listening room - in which the a car stereo system must work. Vendors who claim to need many hundreds of watts to drive their upscale, aftermarket car stereo systems for anything other than those empty-cabin, empty-headed, high-decibel bakeoffs have some explaining to do.
One advantage that designers of stock car audio systems have over those who concentrate on aftermarket products (or home systems) is that the environment is at least partially known. (Of course, the size and number of the occupants must be estimated.) Acura also uses a special glass for the windshield. All windshield glass is laminated, but this lamination is said to have unusual acoustic properties - though apart from sound isolation from outside noise, I don't know what these might be. When I questioned Panasonic about this, and suggested that obsessive audiophiles might want to find out more about this glass for their home audio rooms, all I could hear over the phone were the sounds of eyebrows rising."
Some other comments :
"Both CD and DVD-Audio sounded superb on the Acura ELS System. As always, the recordings themselves wer key components, but I have to say that playback of the best CD recordings by the ELS (which uses a matrix format to spread the 2-channel source to all the speakers) sounded every bit as good, on the road, as discrete DVD-A. When I parked in the driveway, however, the best DVD-A recording I used, the modestly titled [I]Dr. Chesky's Magnificent, Fabulous, Absurd & Insane Musical 5.1 Surround Show, presented a remarkable degree of subtle detail and surround ambience.
But when I listened while driving, the unavoidable road noise, even in the relatively quiet Acura, obscured not only subtle spatial cues, but the sorts of subtleties that audiophiles look for in such hi-rez sources as DVD-A and SACD..."
"But most of the time, on average, DVD-Audio sounded about as good as good CD..."
"I was also surprised by how good XM satellite radio sounded. While CD and DVD-A easily trumped it in qualities audiophiles look for, I nevertheless found XM far more listenable than any FM I've ever heard in a moving car..."
"Still, everything considered, the Acura TL is a great car, with a sound system that alone puts it among the other select automotive entries on my 'Must buy after winning the Lotto' list".
"Altogether, it was a fun weekend with a great car. And while $35,000 will buy you a better sound system, it won't get you around town with as much speed, style, and good sound."
10-06-2004, 01:31 AM
#2
Oh, and please forgive any typos... it's late and that was a lot. Now I'm just waiting for someone like rets to come in and say "it was already posted in these 17 threads". : 
10-06-2004, 01:34 PM
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Hey that was a great review which I never have seen before. To receive kudos from a well respected magazine as Stereophile on the TL sound system is awesome. Thanks for sharing.
10-06-2004, 01:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Rocketsfan
Oh, and please forgive any typos... it's late and that was a lot. Now I'm just waiting for someone like rets to come in and say "it was already posted in these 17 threads". :
Actually, thanks for taking the time to type that up. I had not read this review before...
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