Please share anything here that you think may improve the listening experience with the ELS (sorry Basic Trim owners).
My first experience with the ELS was in my 2005 TL. Loved it although I did not fully take advantage of it by using high (or higher) fidelity music. Although the 2014 MDX ELS does not support DVD-Audio, it still blows away my 2005. The quietness of the cabin and high quality surround is a great experience (especially when I am alone without conversation :-)
I am not a true audiophile but I do care a great deal about the quality of the music I listen too. Over the last few weeks, I have researched and learned a lot about the different formats and the many factors that drive quality. Without going into tech talk, I thought I would share some observations.
-Sweet spot where the music sounds the best: 2nd row middle (3rd row completely down. Yeah I was disappointed since I'm the driver :-(
-DTS neural surround. I like it on. It fills the cabin and really balances out the music. I tried off/on with several songs and liked it on better for each song.
-HD Radio. Not amazing but better than FM and not even DTS neural can improve the pitiful quality of SiriusXM (and I was loyal customer for years untll last month). I will miss XM news and of course the coast to coast coverage.
-iOS app StreamS. Similar quality to HD Radio but still highly compressed. That could be an advantage for users with restricted data plans. Plus lots of stations.
-Bluetooth Streaming vs. Aux or USB connection. Since Bluetooth compresses music I prefer a wire connection. Since the USB will charge my iPhone and send lossless music, that is my preference. There is an issue where you select the iPod audio source and it automatically starts the default iPhone music app. I researched but the problem did not seem to have a solution. Maybe iOS 7 will have a setting to fix that issue.
-HDD....meh
-USB....I haven't messed with that option...yet. Not sure what file formats are supported. The manual does indicate to use a flash drive (thumb drive) with a dongle. Tried my iPhone with the USB choice but it did not recognize it.
-DTS 5.1 CD - not a big selection out there and the format has very limited support. Can be found on eBay and some for some ridiculous prices. I purchased a CD from a guy online and he threw in a CD the he had upmixed to DTS 5.1. That CD included the Steely Dan tack "Josie", which my friends and I agree sounded like we were at a symphony! It is amazing!
-But...as I noted...I am not a true audiophile and need large selection of music so still rely on compressed digital. I checked out a few sites online that offer studio quality uncompressed lossless downloads but that would be quite an investment. If anyone is considering that option, then ALAC would be the format to choose that your iPhone can play with the native app.
-Spotify iOS app. My paid music service choice. I won't go into all the reasons it is my favorite but focus on quality. Paid service allows for CD quality (320 kb/s) streaming and downloading (Extreme option in settings). Right now I have a large playlist that I have synced (downloaded to my phone) so not always streaming. I compared an HD radio song against the same song I looked up in Spotify and as expected the Spotify play was much much better.
Those are my initial observations. Sorry for the length...just a favorite subject of mine. I look forward to others observations/comments.
My first experience with the ELS was in my 2005 TL. Loved it although I did not fully take advantage of it by using high (or higher) fidelity music. Although the 2014 MDX ELS does not support DVD-Audio, it still blows away my 2005. The quietness of the cabin and high quality surround is a great experience (especially when I am alone without conversation :-)
I am not a true audiophile but I do care a great deal about the quality of the music I listen too. Over the last few weeks, I have researched and learned a lot about the different formats and the many factors that drive quality. Without going into tech talk, I thought I would share some observations.
-Sweet spot where the music sounds the best: 2nd row middle (3rd row completely down. Yeah I was disappointed since I'm the driver :-(
-DTS neural surround. I like it on. It fills the cabin and really balances out the music. I tried off/on with several songs and liked it on better for each song.
-HD Radio. Not amazing but better than FM and not even DTS neural can improve the pitiful quality of SiriusXM (and I was loyal customer for years untll last month). I will miss XM news and of course the coast to coast coverage.
-iOS app StreamS. Similar quality to HD Radio but still highly compressed. That could be an advantage for users with restricted data plans. Plus lots of stations.
-Bluetooth Streaming vs. Aux or USB connection. Since Bluetooth compresses music I prefer a wire connection. Since the USB will charge my iPhone and send lossless music, that is my preference. There is an issue where you select the iPod audio source and it automatically starts the default iPhone music app. I researched but the problem did not seem to have a solution. Maybe iOS 7 will have a setting to fix that issue.
-HDD....meh
-USB....I haven't messed with that option...yet. Not sure what file formats are supported. The manual does indicate to use a flash drive (thumb drive) with a dongle. Tried my iPhone with the USB choice but it did not recognize it.
-DTS 5.1 CD - not a big selection out there and the format has very limited support. Can be found on eBay and some for some ridiculous prices. I purchased a CD from a guy online and he threw in a CD the he had upmixed to DTS 5.1. That CD included the Steely Dan tack "Josie", which my friends and I agree sounded like we were at a symphony! It is amazing!
-But...as I noted...I am not a true audiophile and need large selection of music so still rely on compressed digital. I checked out a few sites online that offer studio quality uncompressed lossless downloads but that would be quite an investment. If anyone is considering that option, then ALAC would be the format to choose that your iPhone can play with the native app.
-Spotify iOS app. My paid music service choice. I won't go into all the reasons it is my favorite but focus on quality. Paid service allows for CD quality (320 kb/s) streaming and downloading (Extreme option in settings). Right now I have a large playlist that I have synced (downloaded to my phone) so not always streaming. I compared an HD radio song against the same song I looked up in Spotify and as expected the Spotify play was much much better.
Those are my initial observations. Sorry for the length...just a favorite subject of mine. I look forward to others observations/comments.