Can anyone give me their impressions of the premium level stereo/nav in the 2011 G37? Comparisons to other brands, ease of use, integration and use with both iPod and iPhone 4, bluetooth streaming ease, bluetooth call quality?

Any information for a potential owner newbie would be great. IMHO, I believe the stereo in the current Acura TL is the best out there with the BMW Harmon Kardon being second.

 

A lot of people hate on it, but I have to say its not THAT bad. Anything that can vibrate all my mirrors in stock form is halfway decent. I know, I know..."no highs, no lows, it must be Bose".

My best success has come from streaming audio over BlueTooth, and using the DSP Manager app on my Android phone. You can set equalizing, bass boost, etc over the bluetooth device, and it really does make a difference. Its actually pretty surprising what the stock system can do with some good equalization coming from the audio source.

I havent heard the Acura ELS system yet......and Im sure its good (and most likely better than whats in the G), but the system in the G is no slouch IMHO.

 

Nav is better than Acura, but stereo is worse. ELS rocks. Acura Nav took me on a few scenic tours this week on my Texas road trip...

 

That would make sense since ELS is surround, not stereo. Personally, i prefer the stereo separation and accuracy of the G than the surround on the ELS.

 

I pretty much only listen to classic rock cranked up. Any thoughts? Good speakers? Do they blow easily?

 

Compare the G37 Bose audio to:

2006 RSX-S Bose
2006 MB E350 HK
2003 BMW standard sound system

The Infiniti sounds a little more accurate on the highs than the RSX. Both systems suffer random booming from the sub, especially on talk radio where THERE IS NO BASS.

The Infiniti high is not as good as the BMW or MB. In brass instruments, it's hard to make out each source of the sounds from treble instruments. The mids are also not as sharp or accurate. The bass boom hides these pretty well by rounding out the sound.

The truth is, I think a decent component set like the JL Audio matched with a good mid level amp like an Alpine PDX or JL Audio, some good quality large rear speakers plus a 10 inch sub would have produced much better and accurate sounds for cost that is probably just a few hundred dollars more and less complex than the 10 speaker Bose set we have in the car.

As for the ease of use, it's not any better or worse than the last 4 cars I have owned.

 

ELS is the branding, so it would apply to all the modes. In either case, I was using stereo in the generic, layman's way to refer to the sound system.

I do like both the Bose and the ELS systems. I just like the ELS a little better.

 

How much better I guess is my question.

 

I have '11 stock head unit without nav. I don't see any option for audio streaming to my android phone. Could someone here confirm if the stock car stereo without nav has the a2dp and/or acrvp (spell?) thanks. -soops

 

Bluetooth streaming is only available with NAV

 

Actually, the official term is ELS Surround^®, otherwise branded as the ELS Surround^® Premium Audio System. It uses six discrete channels to provide that surround sound experience. It works particularly well with DVD-A's, but i found it lacking with regular sources such as CD's, MP3's, Radio or Satellite.

But i understand what you're saying on the rest.

 

That's good to know. In both cases, the main issue that I have found was road noise has the biggest negative impact on the experience. I found that the satellite experience on both wasn't comparable to the iPod, so the subscription went out the door. However, to be able to tell the difference between the input streams does speak a bit to the quality of the systems.

I would say that classic rock would sound fine on both systems.

I am driven crazy by the Nav on the Acura, while the Infiniti treats me a bit better.

I wouldn't be picking one car over the other based only on these systems.

 

Idk when I played the matrix through the DVD player the display read 5.1. Why would it tell me 5.1 if it's just a "stereo"? It sounded like surround sound.