I know this is not for car audio, but I thought you guys might find this interesting. I did!

A co-worker just bought a Acura RDX and it has a "ELS Surround Sound" system in it.

http://www.elssurround.com/system.asp

It only excepts CD (standard) and DVD-Audio. Does not accept SACD.

He was telling me about this and I have not heard it yet, but he loves it. He knows I am into HD Audio and was asking me where to purchase titles.

Anyway, just wanted to see what you guy thought of this. I think it is very interesting.

I am a car audio enthusiast, I have a 1200 watt Rockford Fosgate system in my '04 Bonneville and it ROCKS! But imagine that being multi-channel or surround sound..that would be "It ROCKS!" x 100.

Do you think this will grow? I would love to change my head unit to this, but I do not think it would work. Anybody else aware of other car audio component makers make such equipment out side this ELS system, which btw, is a Panasonic made HU.

Think about listening to that Alan Parson's DSotM disc in full glory in such a small space as the car, total, full emersion. :D

-Greg

Acura's offered DVD-Audio in their car lines for a few years now. It's a good sound system (I currently have it as standard in an Acura TL 2005). The factory head unit also support DTS Audio. The head unit supports both 5.1 and 2 channel (so if he wants to listen to the Hi-res 96Khz or 192Khz tracks where available) he can select the different groups on those track.

Everyone gave Ellott Schiener a hard time when he first started consulting for car sound systems. Ellott used to work with Phil Ramone -- as his assistant -- many years ago, and then became a superstar engineer in his own right. Sweet man. The ELS system is his initials...

It was because of the DVD-A system in my '04 TL that I discovered hi-rez surround music -- I was previously only vaguely familiar with DVD-A and SACD. Now I own more than 100 discs and, fortunately, was able to purchase most of the available "classic rock" before it went OOP. I also had to upgrade my entire home sound system to accommodate my new-found addiction. That car turned out to be a lot more expensive than it seemed at the time - LOL. Hopefully, Acura will still have the ELS system when I need a new car in a couple years.

Two years ago I bought an Infiniti M35X with DVD-Audio, DTS and of course a cd changer. The hirez surround is incredible; I ended up buying duplicate copies of some of my fave DVD-A's so as to keep a copy in the car. The car environment is pretty good for surround, frankly.

Sony has a SACD player for the car as well, the MEX-2000. It doesn't have DVD-Audio support, but you can listen to the DTS surround tracks on the discs.

Doug

I bought an Acura TL-S in October - most for DVD-A and DTS:D My only gripe is that it won't play DVD-V with DTS (I was hoping to get to listen to Nirvana Unplugged and Led Zeppelin)

The Acura ELS systems are great and show how good the car is for listening to surround music.

Even in the "old days", we used to cut holes in our back decks and install things like Jensen 6x9 coaxial speakers to boost our auto audio systems, so sound coming from the back is not something "unnatural". Having discrete sound back there is much better than having duplicate sound.

I agree in that it would be nice if the system played the audio of a DVD-V, but having DVD-A and DTS is well worth the price of admission. Plus, they're great cars! :D

I Have A Panasonic Cqdvr909u In My Car.it Plays Dvd-audio,dvd-video,dts Discs And Dcs.great Unit For Surround In The Car.it Even Has A 2 Inch Motorized Center Speaker On The Unit(which Can Be Disabled-i Put A Center Speaker In My Dash).originally They Sold For 2 Grand (!),but I Bought Mine From Ultimate Electronics When They Closed Them Out For 549.00. I See Them On Ebay Occasionally,and I Still See Them On The Internet,but Not Cheap!

All the current 2008 Acuras (except TSX) have DVD-A, that's the RL, TL, MDX, RDX. The revamped 2009 RL and 2009 TSX will have it too.
So Acura seems to be holding onto DVD-A. Hope the new 09 TL has it, not sure tho, as it is a total redesign.
THe 09 RL and 09 TSX will be out in the spring 2008, the all-new 2009 TL will be out in Fall 2008.

Do you think this will grow? I would love to change my head unit to this, but I do not think it would work. Anybody else aware of other car audio component makers make such equipment out side this ELS system, which btw, is a Panasonic made HU.

-Greg

My wife's 2008 Cadillac CTS has a surround system that plays DVD-A. It also has a hard drive that will store music. I have not found any way to play a surround encode from the hard drive however. I Tried WMA-Pro but it won't recognize the file. There are apparently two OEM manufacturers of the system, one also having integration with the navigation system.
It does sound great through the Bose speaker system.