Seattle, WA--The Acura TL may technically be categorized as a "near-luxury" vehicle, but the reality is that it's a luxury car with a sound system that declares its implicit status loud and clear. The only thing that isn't "luxury" is the price. Acura designers and engineers have put together a ride with plenty of power (270 horsepower) and wonderful handling while their counterparts at Panasonic created the first factory surround sound system for the car (which is standard with the TL). There's no doubt that mobile 5.1 is the future of car audio -- this is simply confirmation of that future.
Driving the new TL in itself is no small pleasure, but hitting the gas while blasting Queen's A Night at the Opera or listening to The Beach Boys' rock classic Pet Sounds in 5.1 made for the perfect Sunday drive -- at a pleasant 95 miles an hour. I exaggerate the speed, of course, but the combined experience is not to be minimized. The Acura/ELS Premium Surround Sound System is equipped with DVD-Audio, DTS and CD, six-disc changer, AM/FM Tuner and Dolby Cassette delivered through a total of eight speakers. This DVD-Audio system, developed with Grammy-winning music producer Elliot Scheiner (see interview), does for the car what, for most people, home theater in a box does for home entertainment. But the idea isn't to abandon the old for the new. I still love listening to stereo recordings and I would not replace my old CDs with DVD-Audio; they represent different levels of musical enjoyment. Why not listen to both? The Acura/Panasonic system plays standard CDs, DVD-A discs, and DTS-enabled CDs and, if that's not enough, you can turn on XM Satellite Radio.
Mention should also be made of the Bluetooth-based hands-free phone system (also standard equipment) and the Acura navigation system. HandsFreeLink allows for calls to be made and received using the TL's voice recognition and audio interfaces. The controls are steering wheel-mounted; your voice does the rest. The system can be programmed to accept up to six different phones and up to 50 numbers may be stored in the system's phone book. The nav system, which is optional on the TL, also has voice recognition capability. It features a menu of 293 voice commands, an 8-inch touch screen display, a destination guide with more than 7 million points of interest spanning the continental United States, 3-D graphics for freeway on and off ramps, and turn-by-turn voice guidance. On our drive from the hotel in downtown Seattle to Salish Lodge the system worked flawlessly. However the same could not be said of the HandsFreeLink; some calls just didn't go through while others got dropped. This may be attributable though to the spotty cell phone service in the relatively remote area where we were driving.
The total package is not for everyone; there's definitely a specific demographic that the TL appeals to and the surround system is balanced if a bit tame; but the features and functionality the car has to offer can be seen as a fine model for creative car audio enthusiasts to follow and re-create, individualizing and refining according to their tastes.
An Interview with Producer/Engineer Elliot Scheiner
CA&E: How did you get involved with Acura? ES: Acura was through Panasonic. This has long been a dream of mine, to have 5.1 audio in a car. That's all I've been thinking about for years, since I started doing surround sound. I knew that the only way that this was going to happen was if it got in a car. Every format change that the music industry has had since vinyl went away has been governed by the automobile, whether it was the 8-track cartridge, cassette, or CD. That's going to happen now with DVD-Audio -- it's going to be ruled by the car. I knew Panasonic was a big player in automotive audio so I contacted the company. Through Panasonic I got involved in the Acura project.
CA&E: You worked with Mark Ziemba on that? How did your duties parcel out? ES: Mark is the actual designer of the system. I make music for a living, I know what music should sound like. Getting into an automobile, putting one of my pieces of music in there, I know if it sounds right. My major duties were in the implementation of the system, how to make it sound right, what kind of equalization needed to be implemented, level checks, what the response should be from the surround speakers to the driver's seat and front seat -- it was a good deal of tuning time.
CA&E: The driver doesn't sit dead center. How do you compensate for that when you're tuning the system? ES: Basically through levels. It's a little bit off-axis but you can compensate through levels to make it absolutely perfect.
CA&E: With DVD-A you don't necessarily have to have vocals or whatever in dead center. ES: It's up to the guy who's mixing it and the artist as to how much they want to put in the center. The center speaker is a hold over from the film industry. We're trying to accommodate them, they're trying to accommodate us. To be honest, most of the mixers feel it's almost unnecessary, but because it's there for the film industry we've been using it. I personally use it to stress certain things, like a lead vocal or a snare drum. If I've got the snare drum or vocals phantom centered between the left and right, I'm going to put some on the center speaker because I want it to stand out a little more.
CA&E: How did you get started with 5.1? ES: Initially I was called by DTS. I produced the Eagles' reunion record, Hell Freezes Over, and DTS called me saying it wanted a 5.1 surround mix of the album. I had no idea what DTS was talking about. A demo was set up for me and I got to see what it was all about. The first time I heard anything in 5.1 it was like I had fallen in love. I knew that this was going to be the new format. I did the Eagles record but I was very timid at first, and not sure how to address all the issues. If you listen to that DVD, you can hear from start to finish -- I did it in sequence -- how timidly I start off, but by the time you get to the end there's stuff all over the place.
CA&E: How do you approach remixing an album in surround? ES: I try to go in there with no preconceived notions. I'm starting on Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard next week and I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a look at the track breakdown and see what's available and basically just experiment. The one thing that I seldom stray from is putting the bass drums on the front side, and wrapping them around a little bit into the rear. But really there are no rules yet, and I don't think there ever will be. I recently got a call to redo a Van Morrison record that I mixed in 1969, Moon Dance. When I pulled up one of the tracks, "Crazy Love," it jogged a memory of myself walking from the control room into the studio to talk with Van about an issue. As I walked in they were still running down the song. I turned to Van and the drums were behind me along with the girl singers. On that one cut I ended up doing that, putting the drums in the rear. There's no rule -- there's no one who says I can't do this except for Van. After he heard it he called and said, "Gee, I love what you did with 'Crazy Love,' you should have done the whole record that way!"
CA&E: So when you're approaching a classic album you're not so much worried about sticking to the original? ES: Oh no, I am. I'm totally worried about it, sonically anyway. I don't want the sonic structure to change. I don't want the levels -- in terms of instruments -- to change. If the drums are [at a certain level], they should be just so loud in the surround. Because it's spread out across five similar speakers, you tend to hear things a little better. Even when the levels are matched you tend to hear things you've never heard before. I did Toto IV and when I took it back to play it for the band, the keyboard player Steve Lukather heard this part he played on "Africa" and said, "I remember playing that part but I haven't heard it since the day I played it." Because with stereo there's so much that you have to compress and get into two channels, once you open it up into five channels you just hear it better -- aside from all the great definition and clarity that DVD-Audio has to offer.
CA&E: What other advantages does 5.1 offer? ES: I've always wanted people to be able to hear music the way I hear it. The combination of DVD-Audio and cars now allows listeners to hear things just about the way I'm mixing them. Especially in this Acura system. It's really quite phenomenal. I pop in a DVD and I can't believe it. It's so close to what I'm used to hearing.
CA&E: Do you see this as being the foot in the door, and now it's going to spread? ES: I sure hope so. That was the intent, to get somebody to buy into this, and Acura, when the company heard it for the first time, it totally understood it and thought that its buyers would love it. It [comes] standard [on the TL]; it's not an option. Once the other manufacturers hear it in the Acura it'll probably turn their heads around.