What does the indicator look like? When I go into settings, the DTS Neural Settings says On or Off for simulating a surround sound experience. I don't think it give me the option
2019+ Acura RDX: ELS 3D Studio 5.1 Surround Audio System
- Thread starter JonUrban
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Cygnus_X1
Active Member
Just to add more info to this thread, I recently purchased a CPO 2022 MDX Advance to add to my 2013 TL Advance.
After much testing, I have determined that my 256G Samsung Fit Plus USB stick can be formatted FAT32 or exFAT, either way it works fine. I've got that baby packed with tons of 5.1 FLAC, stereo FLAC, WAV, and MP3 files, and they all work fine. For people who ask where they can get 5.1 test files, this page has the files from the old Acura DVD-A's. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/155gEwxEWzrEccXoovC4UEFixpXzxqXbl
I have all my albums in directories which are seen by the ELS system and listed alphabetically. You can organize directories in sub directories as long as you don't go over the file name limit. The ELS will read the metadata (except on the WAV files of course), and it sees the album artwork, the artist, and the song name, but it will not see the track numbers not matter what I do.
I had to go back and spend many hours prepending a 01, 02, etc to the beginning of each song title in the metadata using MP3Tag for the songs to be listed and played in the correct order. Otherwise it lists and plays them alphabetically. What a pain.
To be upfront, there's no way I'm ripping all my DVD-A and DTS CD's to FLAC, I don't have the time or an optical drive to do it. Just about everything I want is on Usenet so I signed up for Newshosting to download everything. I try to find 5.1 FLAC versions of my music, and if not available, I try to get DTS 5.1 versions. I use VLC Media Player to convert the DTS files to 5.1 FLAC because it's very easy and fast. An entire album takes a couple of minutes to convert. I only use MP3's as a last resort, and I'm going to get rid of any WAV files since they can't have metadata and they're huge.
Obviously 5.1 FLAC files sound the best on the ELS compared to any of the stereo versions. To be honest though, playing DVD-A in my 2013 TL sounds a lot better than anything I throw at the MDX, even with 6 less speakers. I think it's the smaller cabin size, since even an RDX sounds better than my MDX. The TL can hit you with a visceral punch from every direction with no distortion, while the MDX is front biased and starts to distort at about 50% volume. I'm definitely going to look into replacing some of the rear speakers to compensate.
And for those wondering, I tested 2025 MDX's with the B&O systems (an A-Spec and a Type-S) and they both failed my 5.1 tests. They're stereo only which is a disappointment, although the systems do sound good. One weird thing is they absolutely will not read a USB-A stick using any type of USB-C converter, I had to buy a USB-C stick to get them to work properly. For us ELS lovers, I think this is the end of the road once they convert all the other models to B&O, although listening to the newer ELS systems, I don't think Elliot Scheiner is really involved anymore since the quality has gone down. Just my opinion.
After much testing, I have determined that my 256G Samsung Fit Plus USB stick can be formatted FAT32 or exFAT, either way it works fine. I've got that baby packed with tons of 5.1 FLAC, stereo FLAC, WAV, and MP3 files, and they all work fine. For people who ask where they can get 5.1 test files, this page has the files from the old Acura DVD-A's. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/155gEwxEWzrEccXoovC4UEFixpXzxqXbl
I have all my albums in directories which are seen by the ELS system and listed alphabetically. You can organize directories in sub directories as long as you don't go over the file name limit. The ELS will read the metadata (except on the WAV files of course), and it sees the album artwork, the artist, and the song name, but it will not see the track numbers not matter what I do.
I had to go back and spend many hours prepending a 01, 02, etc to the beginning of each song title in the metadata using MP3Tag for the songs to be listed and played in the correct order. Otherwise it lists and plays them alphabetically. What a pain.
To be upfront, there's no way I'm ripping all my DVD-A and DTS CD's to FLAC, I don't have the time or an optical drive to do it. Just about everything I want is on Usenet so I signed up for Newshosting to download everything. I try to find 5.1 FLAC versions of my music, and if not available, I try to get DTS 5.1 versions. I use VLC Media Player to convert the DTS files to 5.1 FLAC because it's very easy and fast. An entire album takes a couple of minutes to convert. I only use MP3's as a last resort, and I'm going to get rid of any WAV files since they can't have metadata and they're huge.
Obviously 5.1 FLAC files sound the best on the ELS compared to any of the stereo versions. To be honest though, playing DVD-A in my 2013 TL sounds a lot better than anything I throw at the MDX, even with 6 less speakers. I think it's the smaller cabin size, since even an RDX sounds better than my MDX. The TL can hit you with a visceral punch from every direction with no distortion, while the MDX is front biased and starts to distort at about 50% volume. I'm definitely going to look into replacing some of the rear speakers to compensate.
And for those wondering, I tested 2025 MDX's with the B&O systems (an A-Spec and a Type-S) and they both failed my 5.1 tests. They're stereo only which is a disappointment, although the systems do sound good. One weird thing is they absolutely will not read a USB-A stick using any type of USB-C converter, I had to buy a USB-C stick to get them to work properly. For us ELS lovers, I think this is the end of the road once they convert all the other models to B&O, although listening to the newer ELS systems, I don't think Elliot Scheiner is really involved anymore since the quality has gone down. Just my opinion.
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I have had a 2025 MDX since July and it does in fact support discrete 5.1 playback and it also does indeed work with a USB-A to USB-C adapter.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ip-with-bang-olufsen.34563/page-2#post-793897
Cygnus_X1
Active Member
That's very interesting, I could not get them to work. Even Charlie from DM Sound on YT couldn't get 5.1 to work properly.
The B&O would play the 5.1 FLAC files, but it was obviously down-mixing them to stereo.
I checked your link and it sure sounds like 5.1 is working properly.
I was even using the Acura demo files from the link I included above, and also the more recent demo files Acura created for the RDX.
I appreciate the info.
I bought a 2024 Acura RDX with the ELS system. Using a 2 TB SS hard drive for my 5.1 FLAC files and they all play perfectly. Does anyone here known how to create playlists without having more than one copy of the songs on the drive.
Unlike iTunes, etc. where you can create a playlist on your computer that you can playback that basically points the software on your phone, etc. to playback those songs that are already on the drive in other folders, and those songs don't need to be duplicated on your phone, or computer, etc.
So far, the ELS system i've found will let you play back by artist, or album or song, or even playlist, though there is no way to create that playlist in the software within the ELS system in the car, nor outside in a computer. All music that is on the SS drive is in folders, either if you create the folder as an artist, or as an album, or even as a playlist, but they are still only folders. If you want to playback a folder that is a "playlist" that you're created from multiple songs or artists within it, it will, but if the files are already on the drive within an album or artist folder that you've created to playback that individual album (or artist), you have to have a second copy of all of those songs within the playlist folder. I have not found a way to get the ELS system to playback songs that are already in other folders by just creating a playlist of those songs without that second copy of those songs just for the playlist. If there is a way to avoid having multiple copies of songs on an external drive, just to play them back in a playlist different from the artist or album that originally added them to the drive. Anyone here know how, or is there a way to make folders on an external drive that might have software that can be downloaded to a SS drive that can be read by the ELS system that would allow for that type of playback, like creating playlists on iTunes?
Unlike iTunes, etc. where you can create a playlist on your computer that you can playback that basically points the software on your phone, etc. to playback those songs that are already on the drive in other folders, and those songs don't need to be duplicated on your phone, or computer, etc.
So far, the ELS system i've found will let you play back by artist, or album or song, or even playlist, though there is no way to create that playlist in the software within the ELS system in the car, nor outside in a computer. All music that is on the SS drive is in folders, either if you create the folder as an artist, or as an album, or even as a playlist, but they are still only folders. If you want to playback a folder that is a "playlist" that you're created from multiple songs or artists within it, it will, but if the files are already on the drive within an album or artist folder that you've created to playback that individual album (or artist), you have to have a second copy of all of those songs within the playlist folder. I have not found a way to get the ELS system to playback songs that are already in other folders by just creating a playlist of those songs without that second copy of those songs just for the playlist. If there is a way to avoid having multiple copies of songs on an external drive, just to play them back in a playlist different from the artist or album that originally added them to the drive. Anyone here know how, or is there a way to make folders on an external drive that might have software that can be downloaded to a SS drive that can be read by the ELS system that would allow for that type of playback, like creating playlists on iTunes?
Armidge
New member
I have recently purchased a used 2021 Acura RDX with the ELS 3D audio. It’s absolutely stunning but definitely can be a finicky system. There were a number of test files that didn’t work on the 2021 that did work on a 2024 or 2025 MDX that I was checking out, but here’s what works for me:
-Flacs are 24bit 48khz, with NO compression (level 0)
-Quad files are remapped to 5.1
-7.1 files are remixed to 5.1
-drive is ExFAT? (I believe I also tested a FAT USB and had luck but I didn’t have that option when formatting my SanDisk 1TB SSD)
I’m using MakeMKV or sometimes DVD Audio Extractor to rip (or EAC for DTS-CDs), and AudioMuxer for any conversions/extraction from .mkv. Every one of those runs into trouble here and there, but mostly they work well.
I will say that on the newer model Acura I tested, it seemed able to play 96khz and Flacs with compression just fine.
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