Honda Car Forum

The all-new 2004 Acura TL features one of the
biggest improvements in car audio systems in a decade, a
standard
DVD-Audio system with resolution 500 times better than
CD.

The Acura/ELS® Premium 8-speaker Surround Sound
System with
DVD-Audio, DTS™ and CD 6-disc Changer, AM/FM Tuner and
Dolby®
Cassette was developed in collaboration with Panasonic
Automotive
Systems Company of America and Grammy Award-winning
record
producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner. It will carry the "ELS" brand, to
signify Scheiner's participation in the system's development

Scheiner, a five-time Grammy winner, is widely recognized
as a
leader in surround sound recording/mixing, and has
produced/engineered a variety of DVD-Audio recordings
including,
Queen - A Night at the Opera, Eagles- Hotel California, REM -
Automatic for the People, Faith Hill - Cry, Sting - Brand New Day,
Van Morrison - Moondance, Doobie Brothers - The Captain
& Me,
Steely Dan - multi-Grammy winning Two Against Nature,
America -
Homecoming, and Grover Washington, Jr. - Winelight.

"The more I became involved in DVD-Audio and surround
sound, I
realized that since we spend so much time in our cars, a factory
installed system would be one of the best ways to let everyone
enjoy
a multi-channel audio experience," said Scheiner. "And in the
car, a
premium DVD-Audio system is achievable since you're dealing
with a
defined listening space with controllable, pre-existing
conditions."

With six discrete channels of music, the DVD-Audio format
allows
system engineers to create true "multi-channel" audio systems.
This
is a dramatic advancement over current "stereo" systems that
only
offer two channels of music. For the first time, an automotive
audio
system offers separate dedicated channels for center, left front,
right front, left surround, right surround and subwoofer channels.
These are the same six, individual, discrete channels recording
engineers use to create multi-channel mixes in the studio.

Acura and Scheiner had three main objectives in designing
the
unique surround sound system featuring DVD-Audio. They
looked to
develop a system that would:

1). Reproduce music with extreme clarity and detail.

2). Deliver six distinct channels of sound with discrete
imaging

3). Accurately reproduce the source material, to achieve a
listening experience as close as possible to the original studio
mix.

To accomplish these goals, the TL's audio system matches
the
world's first in-dash, six-disc DVD-Audio/CD changer radio with
8-speakers and a powerful 6-channel, 225 watt amplifier.

This new system takes full advantage of the vast amounts of
data
available from DVD-Audio discs and plays the six discrete
channels of
DVD-Audio in high resolution, 24bit/96kHz or DVD-Audio
two-channel
recordings in 24bit/192kHz. The system will also play
multi-channel
DTS™ CD's in surround sound as well as traditional
two-channel
compact discs in stereo.

The Acura/ELS Surround Sound System's 1.0-inch extended
range
tweeters, located on the top corners of the instrument panel,
feature
an elliptical balanced dome design that reproduces musical
highs with
incredible accuracy.

The four identical wide-range speakers, located in the front
door
and on the rear package shelf, were developed to reproduce the
extended frequency response and dynamic range of DVD-Audio
discs with
detail and balance.

The center speaker, with its high-flux neodymium magnet, is
located in the top center of the dash panel. It enhances the
imaging
of stereo source material while reproducing the dedicated center
channel available from DVD-Audio and DTS CD sources.

"By using the same light weight cone material as the four
wide-range speakers, the system achieves a balance similar to
that
which exists in the recording studio where we use five identical
speakers to develop a surround sound mix," said Scheiner.

DVD-Audio also provides a dedicated subwoofer channel.
To take
advantage of the lower frequencies provided by this channel, the
subwoofer design uses Kevlar in the construction of the cone,
microcellular urethane foam edge material and a high linearity
damper
to achieve the best possible bass response.

"The new Acura/ELS Surround Sound System is really going
to change
the way people think about listening to music in their cars," said
Scheiner. "It really has been amazing to see the reaction of
people
when they hear DVD-Audio in the car for the first time. It really
opens up a whole new experience for them."