I was wondering what is the best way to play your own music collection (MP3s, WAVs, any other ones?) through the sound system. Apart from XM, FM and the CD player, the choices are (unless I forgot something):

1. [*]
2. [*]
3. [*]
4. [*]

Please rate these according to Best Sound Quality, Convenience (easiest to play your music collection) and Features (shows album art, song and album titles). What do you all think gives you the best overall experience? I definitely lean towards better sound quality, but convenience and features are important to me as well. What are your thoughts, Hobson?

 

I don't own a TLX (hope to soon, V6 SH-AWD :P) but from my experience with audio in general it would be:

Sound Quality: 4, 2, 3, 5, 1
Convenience: 1, 5, 2, 3 (4 is either at the front or the back, depending on whether you assume you have already copied the tracks to the drive)
Features: As far as I know 1, 2, 3, 4 are equal. The AUX doesn't show anything, so it's last.

 

Thanks. So, phone thru USB is better than flash drive thru USB, or are they about the same? Thanks.

 

I'll bite with a theoretical evaluation.

Best Sound Quality:
1. HDD
2. Flash drive thru USB port (if ripped in high quality)
3. Phone thru USB
4. Bluetooth phone
5. Stereo input jack

Convenience: all similar except Stereo input jack as the device must be used to control selection

1. Bluetooth phone
2. Phone thru USB port
3. Flash drive thru USB port
4. HDD (from copied CDs)
5. Stereo input jack

Features: all similar except Stereo input jack as song information not available.

Pandora and aha have not been included.

 

I've got an iPod classic (160 gig) that I leave in the car connected to the USB - sounds awesome.

 

I use my phone - Bluetooth and it sounds amazing! Super convenient - especially since I use my phone for GPS when needed. Integration is seamless and sounds great.

 

I should add that the nice thing about using your phone or ipod is that you can download an EQ app for the device which allows you to tailor the EQ before it hits the ELS system. Why they put this premium sound system in a car then only give it a generic bass and treble slider for EQ is beyond me. It's all software driven - why not include a nice 7 band EQ with the car?

 

Bluetooth iphone sounds great / pandora also. Best quality is iPod, and it charges my iPod and turns it off when the car turns off, in my honda the iPod would stay on and drain the iPod dead. I'm usually not a big fan of xm sound quality - but it's decent enough I'm thinking of keeping the subscription.

 

Good to know - i haven't tried XM yet.

I wonder if your Honda had a faulty USB port - my 13 Accord worked the same as the TLX does - charged the iPod when running and shuts off power when you turn the car off.

Have you tried the HD FM yet? I haven't tried that either!

 

The best sound is from DTS CDs. It's not convenient but once you hear the difference, it's amazing in the ELS.

USB flash drives/iPod are my first choice in connectable source. I use FM and XM a lot. Bluetooth can be problematic at times... unless it's from music saved on the phone.. internet/streaming sources are great until you lose signal bars.

My

 

My accord was 2010 and unlike with the acura, the ipod wouldn't show the acura logo on it - showing its in the car mode.

 

Same here!

 

I'm going to go ahead and say they're around the same in sound quality.

The difference is how you load more music on. Would you rather bring the USB into the house when loading music and leave it in the car any other time? Or load music from anywhere (say at work) onto your phone which you always have with you, the tradeoff being that you always have to plug in and unplug the phone?

Also worth mentioning is that your music library would be the same in your car as for personal listening when using your phone, while with the USB you'd have to remember to add new songs to both your player and USB.

Hope that made sense. :P

 

With how cumbersome the built in touch-screen is, I wonder if the #1 best convenience choice will remain simply holding a USB-connected ipod directly in your hand and controlling from there. I know I can get to the song I want in a matter of seconds on an iPod, but trying to use the primitive voice control or scrolling through the car's menu could potentially be a lot harder.

 

I don't believe you have access to the iPod controls via the device while it's connected via USB.

Really though - you can do an alphabet search for songs/artists fairly easily using the giant knob.

 

I primarily use USB, MP3's 320 kbps from a lossless source.

I have a few DVD-A and DTS-CD's too.

 

Ya, maybe I can get used to that. To use the phone itself, I suppose bluetooth would be fine. The main reason I don't want to do that is just that it will drain my battery, so I'll need to end up plugging it in and unplugging it each and every time I get in the car.

 

So I'm considering buying a TLX, almost came real close today, then I took my USB drive out of my Ford and tried it on the TLX, and I wasn't pleased. Is there a way to load playlists? We couldn't find it, and the navigation through my list of songs was painful. I have 2500 songs organized by artist, and I want to listen to the playlists I have.

The car I was in was loaded, so if there's a way to do it that one should have been able to do it. Do the playlists need to be in a specific location? Should the paths for the songs be structured a certain way? Does it take a while for the stereo to scan the USB drive? I know my Ford is a little bit picky about how the playlists work, and takes a minute or so to update when I add new songs. But I was having no luck with the TLX finding a good way to navigate it.

 

I cant say to playlists, but I keep all my music for my USB stick sorted by Artist Folder, then by Album, and as soon as I plugged it in I did the scan.

Once that was done, I chose Music for the top screen, and was able to see that file structure quite clearly. From the touchscreen its definitely not easy to navigate. I figure find where you want to generally be with the top, and then make minor changes (skip song, next album) from the touchscreen.

 

So far I haven't found any evidence that playlists work on usb media, and m3u files are about the simplest files in the world to read. Crazy. Seems as though Acura has teamed up with Apple, the only other company in the world that doesn't handle m3u files.

My preference for listening to music is to put a few thousand songs on a device along with a few playlists, load a playlist, and let it go from there. I don't want to constantly navigate the system to load songs by album or artist or anything like that, and considering how clunky the UI is in the TLX I know I would never get very far down the list before getting fed up and only end up listening to artists that begin with 'A'. I'm a software developer and bad design like this makes me very angry.

So now I have to decide, can I live with having to use Apple devices to enjoy music in this car, or get something else? Seems odd to have it come to something as simple as this, but I just can't see downgrading in this manner. I have a Ford Focus that handle this so much better. And I would hate to buy a car that will piss me off every time I drive it.

To be fair there are a couple other things that annoy me about the car. I want ventilated seats and I think that auto dimming outside mirrors should go along with an auto dimming rear-view mirror, but I can't justify paying an additional $3k for those two options when the rest of the Advanced package doesn't appeal to me that much.

 

The saying is "your are on the horns of a dilemma". Life is a compromise just like select the "best" car for you. Acura has a some sort partnership with Apple (e.g., Apple Siri Eyes Free), and may inherit some of their weaknesses.

If the annoyance factor is too high and music is critical then another brand may be best for you. There is also a thread on what the next version of the TLX should have. Playlists would be a good addition.

 

Yeah, you understand my quandry Quandry.

I think I'll go with it. I had an '06 TL, and it was the most reliable car I've ever owned, and it got great mileage. I don't think there's anything else similar to the TLX that gets similar mileage, especially with a 290HP engine in it. In sport mode it's a lot of fun to drive too. I've got my eye on a Black Copper/Espresso FWD Tech package that just arrived at the dealer a few days ago, wasn't even detailed as of yesterday. Minor quibbles aside it's an all around great car.

 

Confirmed that playlist on a USB are not recognized. One workaround to simulate a playlist is to create a folder and place all the songs you want in it. For a different playlist just create another folder, etc. I do not know the limit on the number of tracks.

The alternative is to pick up an iPod Shuffle (2GB) for about $50, or a Nano (16GB) for about $150. They both have playlist capabilities managed via iTunes.

 

That I how I use my USB sticks in my Honda.. separate folders for different genres

 

My '08 135i could handle USB media, but it was very slow at scanning it. So to make up for that I bought a 16GB Nano on ebay for real cheap. It's control wheel is broken, but other than that it works fine. So I'll go with that. Not as flexible as I'd like, but it'll do. Otherwise I will do as you suggest with my USB media.

 

Best Sound Quality:
1. Flash drive thru USB port (if ripped in high quality)
2. CD
3. HDD
4. Bluetooth phone
5. Stereo input jack

Convenience: all similar except Stereo input jack as the device must be used to control selection

1. Flash drive thru USB port
2. Phone through Bluetooth
3. HDD
4. CD
5. Stereo input jack

 

I had a TSX Tech and when I found DVD-Audio discs, the sound from the ELS was unmatched by any car stereo I have heard. I have test driven the TLX and will get one soon...but haven't asked if it still has DVD-Audio capacity.

 

Unfortunately, it does not, but it will play DTS-CD's.

 

I took a handful of the dts-cds I made to the dealership last Friday. They let me sit in their tech demo a while to play around with the audio a while... the stock ELS system sounds fantastic and can hear the channel separations clearly. These cds aren't the most convenient means of ,us tending to music in the TLX but sounds the best... imo

 

does anyone else have an issue with the bluetooth sounding significantly lower compared to using a cable connection? also when on a phone call does your music play through your iPhone instead of the car speakers?

 

I have seen no issues as you mentioned, but I am using an Android.

 

Forgive me or asking, but can you buy blank DTS-CD's, copy music to them, and then transfer to the car? I'm coming from an Accord that had an Alpine system installed which was of great quality. Going back to a car with stock audio, albeit in a TLX Tech, I want the best bang from my music system. Especially on the commute in the Bay Area.

 

DTC-CD is a format stored on regular CD's not the type of media. This format allows multi channel rather 2 channel of regular CD. So "converting" standard CD's to DTS-CD will not enhance the quality. To get the benefits of DTS-CD you must produce it from a multi channel source like DVD-A or Bluray.