2009 Acura TL Technology Review

The highlight of the overall technology package offered on the 2009 Acura TL is definitely the ELS Surround sound system, which was designed and personally tuned by Grammy-winning music producer and engineer Elliot Scheiner.

With 440 watts of power, there's plenty of output and, with 10 speakers, prepare for a true wall of sound. I listened to everything from Emma Shapplin and the Eagles to The Roots and Sigur Ros, as well as my usual demo tracks like "Boxekiller," covering every genre, format and file type. The 5.1 is amazing. Some people may want a little more bass for certain songs (and more controls to tweak the sound), but overall, this is a very well-balanced audio system that offers an immersive listening experience with enough musical detail to satisfy even some audiophiles.

Although at its best with DVD-Audio, the ELS (ELS is Scheiner's nickname) Surround system is more than capable of delivering terrific sound from files on your iPod (that is, as long as you have songs converted at a decent bit rate). I connected my iPhone with a connector cable to the USB interface in the center console and was able to zip through my music on the 8-inch monitor, much as I would on the iPhone itself. Plus it charged the unit. If you have another music player that you can't connect via USB, you can use the stereo mini jack input, also located in the compartment.

With XM Satellite (free for 90 days) and the internal 12.7-gig hard drive for storing your favorite tracks, you have one of the best OE entertainment systems anywhere.

Too bad the system's voice recognition feature didn't work as well as it should. I sometimes had to repeat instructions in an effort to get what I wanted. I should note, however, that I've yet to experience voice recognition in any factory or aftermarket system with anything approaching a flawless success rate. When the Acura system works well, it's a nice luxury that lets you keep your hands on the steering wheel while controlling audio, climate and navigation functions by speaking your commands (there are 600).

Whereas the voice recognition has some issues, the navigation system is truly advanced. The large monitor is positioned well and displays a nav menu that is intuitive and simple to access. All the buttons and dials on the center stack may be intimidating at first, but once you start trying the functions, you'll likely find it user-friendly.

The highlights of the navigation system are the extensive traffic information, the Zagat ratings for restaurants and, something essential for long journeys, weather reports for any place in the country. Depending on traffic conditions, the system will offer rerouting if it calculates that the alternative is more than a couple of minutes faster. The delay in getting timely traffic info (as is the case in other systems) can make this a marginally beneficial feature, but that potential problem is ameliorated by the fact that in the TL, information is updated every 90 seconds.

Pairing my iPhone to the Bluetooth system was also quick and hassle-free, but loading my contact list of about 250 people or so took over a minute. Once it had my address book, though, it was a breeze accessing the information and making calls. The only real problem was the quality of the audio. I could certainly hear and be heard, but there was significant static that interfered with easy communication. -- Ben Oh, Inside Line Contributor

IL Tech Ratings (10 is best): 2009 Acura TL
Audio: 9
iPod: 9
Navigation: 9
Ergonomics: 8
Bluetooth: 7