You do understand that the ELS system in the TL is different then the TSX? The ELS, while not the absolute best car stereo is very good in the TL for a noisy car environment. I find it very enjoyable for the type of music I listen to.

 

What makes you think the TL ELS is better than the TSX ELS?? Apart from cabin acoustics, please enlighten me....


If Dollars & cents makes for a better ELS system. Take a guess at which car has the better unit. I'll give you a hint below.


TL » 2012 » 4DR TECH » KA6AT
39186-TK4-A12 AMPLIFIER ASSY., AUDIO (ELS) 001 2012 TL $434.50
39176-TK4-A32ZA TUNER UNI*NH716L* 001 2012 TL $4347.33
TL » 2012 » 4DR TECH (SHAWD) » KA6MT
39186-TK4-A12 AMPLIFIER ASSY., AUDIO (ELS) 001 2012 TL $434.50
39176-TK4-A32ZA TUNER UNI*NH716L* 001 2012 TL $4347.33


TSX » 2012 » 4DR TECHV6 » KA5AT
39186-TP1-A71 AMPLIFIER ASSY., AUDIO (ELS) 001 2012 TSX $1059.58
39012-TP1-A52 TUNER ASSY. (ALPINE) 001 2012 TSX $8919.55

 

I'm a total music freak and play bass in rock bands as my main hobby, but my listening habits are the opposite, i.e., my most intense listening is usually in the car. At home, critical listening is rare, and usually through headphones.

As a result, I've always regretted getting the base TSX instead of the Tech package with ELS audio. (I could have gotten it with 6MT in 2010, which I believe was the last year this combo was possible.) The base system isn't terrible, but it lacks the warmth of the HK system I had in a 2001 Saab, and starts to sound somewhat harsh as the volume climbs. It does seem accurate though, and hasn't been that bad for testing mixes of my band's recordings. For example, if the bass is too boomy, that comes through on this system.

So, if I get a TLX, no question I'm going with the best audio system available. It would be worth the cost over the long haul.

 

http://www.edmunds.com/car-technolog...sound-off.html getting a bit old, but will be interesting to hear the ELS in the "vault like" (sic) quietness of the TLX.

 

Where are all those DVD-As? For what types of music? Outside of a Steely Dan DVD-A I bought for $20 as a demo (since I have a Steely Dan CD that has one of the songs on the DVD-A) I've seen very few rock music DVD-As, and most of those had ridiculously high prices.

 

My favorite band Rush has I think 5 DVD-A's out. Moving Pictures spends more time in my ELS than any other disc. The Acura demo disc is great to let people here what the ELS can do.
Just bought The Yes Album on DVD-A...sounds great. I also have a few Porcupine Tree DVD-A's which are amazing. I probably have 40 DVD-A's total.
I can also download regular FLAC and 5.1 FLAC files and convert them to DVD-A. Pink Floyd's DSOTM converted from SACD to DVD-A sounds really good.
DTS CD's also sound good, not as good as DVD-A but pretty close. There's a best of DTS from The Police I really enjoy listening to.
Lots of stuff out there that once you get used to it you can't go back to CD or MP3.

 

I love the fact that Acura still supports DTS and DVD-A. Too bad their system won't play SACD. I just hope they offer a real center channel speaker in the TLX this time around instead of the cheesy 3" wizzer cone wonder in my 07 TL Type S. I also wish they would bring a mid/tweeter on the front doors closer together instead of throwing the mid driver on the floor and the tweeter in the dash. Just a ridiculous compromise and no integration at all. Also the so called 8" subwoofer in the 3G TL is a joke. Still for OEM it's at least a listenable system.

 

It is very decent and gets more out of media that are usually quite bad, like satellite. Satellite sounds better on the RLX Krell than on anything else I've ever heard...but that's still not saying it's very good, of course. :-)

You can beat Krell or ELS by spending moderate amounts of money aftermarket, but so far it seems to me that Krell is better than anything else that's ever come standard in an automobile.

Yup. But there's no point in shaking the back glass out of its mounts, anyway.

In the rollup to production they made a big deal out of the composition of the Krell speakers...and their covers, for some reason. They're supposedly made of some kinds of materials that resist shaking and allow for the intended sound to get through unmolested. For whatever that's worth, and I confess that I do not really know what that's worth.

To a great extent what we hear depends on the medium.

We're never going to get but so much out of satellite, and it's too bad because it's the most accessible thing out there.

On those rare occasions that I can sort my thoughts and get my act together completely before I start a trip, my iPhone sounds a hell of a lot better on the Krell than anything I've ever heard with an iPhone before.

Someone told me that the main reason Acura retained the media slot was because of a "lossless" format that audiophiles are going to want, no matter how much they've improved everything else.

And although I do not listen to broadcast radio very much, I have to say that the HD signal over the Krell has impressed me on those occasions I have found broadcast that could hold my attention for a while. This is my first experience with a car that would receive HD, however, so I don't really have anything to compare it with.

I am such an audio nincompoop that I didn't even know that an HD station had three different channels until my RLX.

 

Do I gather there's been no mention of Krell in any of the TLX material so far, not even in the Advance package?

 

??? lol. I wonder if anyone has actually spent the money to ever replace that? You could get a WHOLE TSX for the same money.

 

Krell name is mostly there for marketing.

Check this out:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/2014-acura-rlx-krell

 

Damn...I think I'm going to part out my car instead of selling.

 

I have a 2006 TL, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but a DVD-A disc is needed to truly take advantage of ELS. Right?

Otherwise, if you're listening via satellite radio, FM radio, iPhone, etc - you're not really getting all of the benefits of ELS, correct?

If so, why the hell is Acura still building this into their new flagship 2015 product?

1) DVD and CD media is quickly becoming obsolete. I can't remember the last time I carried a CD into my car.

2) DVD A discs are very hard to find, obscure, and have an extremely limited selection.


I just don't understand Acura's thinking. They claim to be highly technologically advanced, yet they still built cassette tape players into my generation of TL, and are building obscure DVD-A systems into the TLX. ??????

 

DVD-A is stil being made today. I have a collection of them and love listenign to them.

Yes, it's not a huge thing in today's thumbdrive-streaming media society. Audio quality is not as important to most people as it once was. Clipped audio files are fine, it seems.

As I understand it, you get your wish and DVD-A is no longer supported

 

I'm confused - so in the new 2015 TLX, is there a CD/DVD-A slot? If I put a DVD-A in there, will the ELS system take advantage of it?


I get your point that many folks are not as concerned with fidelity anymore. But if Acura is going to include a nice hi-fidelity feature in its audio system, why not do HD radio? It's far more mass market, and the examples that I've heard sound very nice.

 

ELS is the name of the company, like Bose and other names that specialize in audio. ELS will take a stereo input (CD, MP3, FM) and run it through a program to give the sound a fuller ambience through the extra speakers.

As far as I know and have read, Acura dropped DVD-A for the MDX, RDX and RLX, so I assumed that would be the case for the TLX as well. I wish they still used it because, like you said, why have such a nice system (5.1?) and not take advantage of 5.1 surround like DVD-A and DTS surround.

I think the CD slot is for CDs only...

I hope to verify soon.. I'll take my CD case with both DVD-A's and DTS discs with me on the test drive

 

I had ELS on my 2010 TL, and I have Krell Audio on my 2014 RLX.

The ELS will go to full rate with your iPhone or iPod. However it's recorded is how it'll be played back, up to and including the maximum iPhone rate.

But it's not zero loss as with some rare DVD...which you're not really going to own, anyway. :-)

Krell Audio does better with satellite because it employs some kind of routine that decompresses it. ELS does not do that. Perhaps it's mostly the speakers that I'm hearing, but satellite on Krell Audio is definitely better than ELS.

 

Some details about the TLX implementation of the ELS:

2015 ELS Studio/TLX System highlights:

Two Hybrid Titanium Dome Tweeters designed to deliver transparency, stunning vocal reproduction, dedicated amplifier channel for each tweeter

Three 8-centimeter Super Dynamic Range (SDR) speakers with double-press polypropylene cone, providing low distortion and extended bass

Four 17-centimeter Super Dynamic Range (SDR) speakers in the front and rear door featuring extremely lightweight designs

20 centimeter Super Low Distortion Driver (SLDD) Subwoofer with extended bass response to 20Hz keep

DSP Multi-Channel Power Amplifier with 490 watts of system power

Reference: http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwgeek...8#.U-jTF4BdVSI

 

I've owned both a 2004 TL and a 2009 TL and loved the sound system. I now own several hundred DVD-As and DTS-CDs, and I upgraded my home system so I could listen to them at home.

Since Acura is responsible for me getting into this in the first place, it would be nice if they had continued to support the DVD-A format. Especially since they still support physical discs! How hard would it have been to keep the software that reads the DVD-A format? This makes me hesitate to look into the 2015 TLX when there are still other vehicles that support DVD-A.

By the way, there is a still a steady stream of DVD-As coming out, especially if you are a classic rock fan. They are currently putting out classics by Yes, ELP, XTC, King Crimson and others on DVD-A and many of them sound great.

 

^ it appears you are not alone on this one. My pricey collection of DVD-As will probably end up on ebay if I trade in my 09... sadly.

 

Some of them are pretty rare and in great demand, you could get a decent return on some of them. But on the whole I just wish Acura would maintain support for the format, since they are the ones that got me into it in the first place! I'm hoping that maybe they will get some complaints and add it back in - 2016 model?

 

I highly doubt it. Physical discs are going out of cars and fast. We are probably lucky Acura included a CD player at all. Source: http://gizmodo.com/5828117/ford-is-p...rom-their-cars

 

I verified that the TLX does not play DVD-A's. BUT! BUT!! it does play DTS Audio discs. I took both a DVD-A and a DTS (Toy Matinee). When I put in the DVD-A, I got the 'CHECK DISC" error.. when I put in the DTS.. WOOT! ELS sounds superb !

 

Thanks for the update - I think it plays DTS CDs, but not DTS DVDs. of which there are also quite a number. At least it's something! And I do like that Toy Matinee disc.

 

ELS is average with standard media. How many times can you play the demo dvd-A? Where can you get other Dvd-a artists. Not much to choose from that I can see.

 

There are hundreds of DVD-As out there. You just have to look at Amazon and eBay.

Some artists are still making them. Rush has been re-issuing their catalog in a bonus remastered Cd and DVD-A set. Some artists, like Porcupine Tree (one of my very favorite bands) has most of their releases on DVD-A still in print.

DTS-CDs are also available and will play in the TLX

 

Hundreds? That's not much in the overall volumes of hundreds of thousands ( Millions?)of songs that exist now. I haven't seen much I'd be interested in buying even at the high prices they sell for. As it stands, ELS needs to handle the MP3s and Cirrus input far better than it does.

 

I understand.. sadly DVD-A didn't take off because people are willing to settle for lossy audio (MP3) and sat radio for convenience over quality.

For a system to do much with MP3, it has to assume a lot.

 

Stew, you are right! It's about being able to carry all your sounds, not whether they sound any good!

And I'll stop beating this dead horse - I agree that for someone new to the TL(X), starting to invest in DVD-As at this point may not be worth doing if you hadn't already done so. But you'd think there must be thousands if not 10s of thousands of Acura owners that now have them. If they went to the bother of putting in a disc system in the TLX, how hard can it be to have it play one more format?

 

what's the point of high end audio without 5.1 surround music in it

i love DVD-A in both my TSX and MDX

 

I have not tried it but the manual suggests that it will playback DTS encoded CD's, and these can be 5.1 formatted. So if you have DVD-A media it may be time to research how to convert and burn CD's encoded with DTS.

This may not be idea, but do not shoot the messenger!

 

I have over 100 DVD-A/DTS CDs that could easily fit on a USB harddrive. It's too bad the USB port can't read these files.

 

The TLX does play the DTS CDs.. at least

 

Does the TLX have the same folder and number of files limit that the 4th Gen TL does?

I guess I should phrase this a bit better and ask if it is still dependent on the FAT32 File System and can still only see 700 folders and 15000 files?

 

The els system REALLY lacks bass/base however it's spelled... I don't need it booming but it sounds cheap, and the more I drive the more it bothers me. I have tried every kind of setting, max sub, max base, low treble, my next move is an audio shop. This is pretty much my only negative on my I-4 tech so far.....

 

I've owned Magneplaners for 40 years, and agree with your description. They do seek quality over quantity.
The latest , however, do offer a lot of "quantity", as well. Have the 3.7's currently, and have heard the 20.7's. No shortage of "quantity" in these ones!!..))

 

And I like the sound of the ELS system ...The listening environment itself places sever restrictions on what an audio system can accomplish, unless loud , thump base is the goal.
It sounds quite clear, and doesn't break up when the volume gets pushed. Not bad for a car!