I’ve had a TLX for 2 years and gotten used to the limits of the ELS system—somewhat muddy sound, not much bass, lack of punch or presence. I was stunned when I heard the ELS in a friend’s 2014 RDX—the sound was clear, dynamic, with a great sense of attack. What surprised me the most was this greatly improved sound came from listening to Sirius XM channels, which have always sounded seriously compressed and thin on my TLX (a fault I always attributed to Sirius’s lack of bandwidth). And the RDX produced this far superior sound with 3 less speakers.
Anyone else had this experience? And can explain why the TLX turned out to be such a dud in terms of ELS-tuned audio?

 

ELS on the last gen is much better. Loved the ELS on my zdx so much that i got disappointed after hearing the system, both on my 2015 mdx and tlx.

 

That's what I have been saying..... I have a 3rd Gen TL and the difference was very obvious to me on the first drive of a 2015 TLX loaner they gave me while they worked on mine. I have driven the 2015 - 2017 and have not been impressed at all with the ELS system which is one of the reason I bought the TL. I was ready to buy a 2017 TLX but after an extended test drive over a 3 day weekend, I did not buy it, the sound system just was not good and such a step backwards from the TL. I even did a test listening to XM, CD, and iPod side by side with the 2017 TLX and my 3rd gen TL. I have not driven a 2018 yet but there seems to be some feedback on this forum the 2018 is not improved. I still want to take one for a test drive. Sound quality is such a subjective issue and only you can make the determination if it sounds good or bad. But I totally agree with your assessment on the ELS system that is in the 2015 - 2017 models. I am hoping the 2018 is improved, if so, may be ready to pull the trigger.

 

I don't have experience with previous gen TL, but I traded a 2015 TLX for a 2018 A Spec and believe there is an improvement. Oddly, had a 2016 MDX and that system was great.

 

I've read that turning on the Active Noise Cancellation feature can cause these issues; could it be ANC was on in the TLX but off in the RDX?

 

I have had a 2018 A-SPEC SH-AWD since Thursday as a loaner while Acura is working on my '05TL. I can tell you there MAY be some minor improvement in the 2018 version, very hard to tell but certainly not as good as the 3G ELS. I have the bass, and sub all the way up, and found that fading towards the rear instead of balanced allows me to turn it up a little more. It does seem the more you turn it up the fuller the sound becomes and the bass becomes more pronounced.

I have found some directions from another TLX forum that tells how to turn off the ANC using some of the sub-menus. I intend to try to do that on Sunday to see if I can do it and try to hear what the difference is. To me this would make sense the ANC would be interfering with the sound quality. How does it know the difference between "music" and "noise" to cancel out? Others who have tried this on the other forum reported it made a big difference while others could not tell. The bad thing it seems, it does not stay turned off after you restart the car.

 

I own a 2015 TLX and the audio system is alright. I love the bass but at times I would need to turn it down. I had a 2017 TLX as a loaner and the ELS audio system didn't have as much bass which I didn't like.