When I compare other luxury brands and what they have to offer whether it be Bose or whatever, my cars ELS stereo really offers a LOT as far as what it offers its occupants while on a drive. The DVA-A, DTS, as well as my 08's Dolby II really offers a lot to giving the driver a 5.1 experience from a stereo CD or XM feed. Now all radio's have their shortfalls so i'm not asking for those really.

 

I simulate DVD-A only for the dvd's capacity.
i can hold a lot of songs.

but because the songs i download are crappy quality, it just sounds like music to me.
maybe after i get my performance stuff done, i'll go for audio

 

True DVD-A is amazing. If they were still making them I would have installed a couple amps and speakers and called it a day. IMO, even the Logic 7 with the MS8 does not compare to true 5.1. When mine was stock I was always amazed at how the average stock system would come alive with one of those disks. It sounds better than a lot of mid level aftermarket systems. On regular CDs though, it sounds pretty average.

 

Yah. I'm annoyed the market went the other way with low resolution audio rather than high res multi-track. I have the dark side of the moon dvd-a mix and it's amazing.

 

Would you mind sharing a bit of information as to how you do that? I've searched since buying my car and am not having much luck. It'd be nice to get some personal experience input from you.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-audio-bluetooth-electronics-navigation-94/dvd-complete-process-pc-windows-832705/

 

i think the sound system in my ua7 sucks. ive heard better in different cars.

 

I would expect nothing less from you.

 

our stock system sucks how impressed can you be?

 

Ever play a real DVD-A in it?

 

The new Pink Floyd remasters due out this fall are to include DVD-A versions in the more expensive boxed-set versions.

 

if you came from a honda civic, integra, a kia, or something else in that same category yeah the audio system would be impressive but as far as luxury car audio systems go the one in the TL is pretty much bottom of the barrel.

 

The biggest mistake they made with the TL was the lack of power. The system with just an amp added sounds great or as I said with a DVD-A. When I bought the TL new in Dec of '05, the stock system was pretty close to my friend's new IS350. Maybe a small step down but close. With a DVD-A in there, it blew the Lexus away.

 

I agree with IHC, play a DVD Audio disc in the TL and it sounds awesome. It is a shame the industry and the general public didn't embrace the format. We are a society of convenience-get as many of those MP3's squished into a single CD. Little do most people realize that an MP3 is compressed 7.5 times the normal audio file. Sure, there may be better sound systems now, but face it guys, the TL is pretty damn good. I even like the way that the head unit separates regular CDs too.

 

I fully agree. I even hate how poor the quality is on most CDs now too. I wish we had the choice between a "hot" recording and a dynamic recording.

 

Yeah, loudness wars. I swear many records are mastered by inebriated chimpanzees.

 

The Acura ELS system is fairly decent for a car in this price range. Is it the greatest thing in the world, not close to it. Is it good enough to listen to all the time, yes. Is it good enough to play everything you throw at it wonderfully, no.

The ELS system really lacks any sort of midbass that the sub's cant go high enough to reach and the speakers can't go down to reach. As well ELS decided to make the tweeters quite a bit more prominent than the rest of the speakers so it sounds clear at lower volumes but sounds horrid at higher volumes.

IMO, I think the best factory system has been one with a properly tuned Logic 7 system (Lexicon, L7, Harman Kardon, etc.)

 

I've heard the Logic 7 (whatever it's called) in my boss's 7 series and it beats many aftermarket systems I've heard. That's one thing about today's premium systems, the typical aftermarket upgrade speakers will take more power but they don't necessarily sound better until you hit the $500 and higher range.

 

The Acura ELS system is good enough factory wise, with the I-simple gateway and my I-pod connected to it. It sounds pretty damn awesome . Maybe it's the presets from my I-pod but on vol. 10 it sounds good enough, shouldn't have to be any louder than that.

 

Clean source material makes ALL the difference in the world. A million years ago when I sold stereo, I had a great set of CDs that made a mouse sound like a lion. We could sell 5 Kenwood tower systems a day with "Tyranny" by the Stabilizers. I suspect thats why DVD-A sound so great.....

 

I agree. That's why it sucks to spend $5k on stereo upgrades only to be limited to a crappy source. I can't even remember the last time I listened to FM.

 

Thanks! I'll read in depth this weekend when I have some free time.

 

Brother, listen to this FM station this weekend from 10am-3pm Central....it's 101 The Fox (www.101TheFox.net). It's classic rock!

You'll hear a friend of yours on the air during that time.....

 

That's really cool. I'll definitely do that.

 

Steven Bell, I have yet to listen to your show.

 

Justin, you may do so this weekend.


I forgot....on the air, I am Steve Garrett. Just so you know.....

 

Nice! I'll listen on the net!

 

On now, until 3pm Central....www.101TheFox.net

 

I moved my ELS to -2 Treble and +2 SW and noticed I can play pretty clean at 37-40 all day with clean signal. I use a Zune HD with the aux adapter and today I noticed that a Chris Cornell track and AC/DC "if you want blood" totally rocked. It's still too quiet but I agree that power is the main culprit with the stock setup.

 

I'm looking for an aux adapter for my Zune HD. Which one are you using?

Thanks.

 

I'm actually using the ZUNE adapter. It came in a bundle from Wallyworld online. I left my old 30GB in a seat pocket on a plane and bought the HD to replace it. I didnt expect to use the adapter, but it sounds 100% better than running a mini-cable only. Its like it taps the preout on the player.

 

i never tried a DVD-A is it that good?

 

It's good.

 

It's good stuff! Burning one right now actually

You can split things into groups so you're not scrolling for half an hour if you're on 50 and you want to go to song 2. You can make 5 groups of 20 or whatever. Up to 99 songs in a group (cant remember how many groups but it's like 6-9 total). Plus you can play things in WAV format

 

A TRUE store bought 5.1 DVD-A is amazing. It makes the stock system sound like a very good aftermarket system. If these discs were still available I would never had gotten a processor, I would have just done amps and speakers.

The TL came with a DVD-A demo disc with a bunch of different songs. I ended up with two of them but can't find them. If I had known these would become extinct I would have collected them when they were new.

Every once in a while I find a Super audio CD which will play on my current system but I can't play DVD-As in true 5.1 surround anymore. That's one reason I won't get rid of the stock amp just in case this format ever catches on again, the amp would probably be required.

 

Im personally happy with my system, will be upgrading to aftermarket subs but besides that I believe it sounds pretty good. I will be trying to find a real dvd-a now though to see how that sounds, I'm a bit curious. It's from a few years ago so I'm sure the systems have been upgraded a pretty good amount but I will say the ELS system had to have done something right to be voted top at this Detroit auto show.

http://www.audioworld.com/news/0403/...hallenge.shtml

 

Oh yea, it's that good. These discs sound really good in the TL.

 

I replaced my stock speakers with Infinity Reference speakers, replaced the sub with a JL Audio sub and deadened the rear deck. It made a significant difference in overall sound quality IMO. Completely subjective.

The source makes a HUGE difference. FM is bad, XM is slightly better (mostly sports though for me) CD's sound good as does most of the stuff I put through AUX.

I have not tried a DVD A, but will pick something up in this format. Dark Side of the Moon sounds like a great place to start.

I seriously considered ripping out the OEM amp and getting an after market amp and signal processor. I figured I would do the speaker upgrades first, that way, if I still wanted to go the amp/processor route, the speakers would already be in place. To date, I'm pretty satisfied where I'm at.

I used the forums alot before doing all this and learned a ton just reading differnet threads and getting ideas. It was a big help.

My TL is an 07 with Nav.

 

I'm doing Infinity Refference to replace all drivers in the car including the center channel with dynamat on everything including the stock sub. The 07-08 have a big advantage with the stock set-up with the aux jack as well as mp3/wma discs. The big upgrade is the abilityu to switch from Dolby II to 2- channel stereo. The volume is so much louder as if you gain 50 more watts of power.

 

I have owned a Lexus IS250, RX350 and a MD C300. The stereo in my 08 TL is better than all of those. And yes a DVD-A is "that" much better than a normal cd. I wish it was still around!