Okay, I just got back from the local unveiling and it was bittersweet. I think the new RDX is beautifully done. It looks very sharp in person. However, I could not get 5.1 out of the new ELS system. They had all four trims and I tried the system in the Tech, A-Spec, and Advance hoping that one of them would work with the files I brought but no luck. The Tech had the sticker on the window so it was definitely a production car.
First off, an NTFS formatted USB stick could not be read which isn't unusual. I was hoping since it's a newer system that it would have the capability. The FAT32 formatted 64GB Samsung Fit drive was read just fine though.
I brought a bunch of files that were provided by various members, plus some official sample files that I found on the net and a few stereo FLACs from my collection. The good news is I thought the 16/44.1 stereo Eagles - Hotel California files sounded fantastic. The system displayed embedded album art and the screen is nice. I also played 24/96 New Order - Music Complete files. That is a 2015 album and is pretty compressed and didn't sound as good but the system played them fine.
I could not get any of the multichannel FLAC files to play (I had files from five different sources). I would get a "The selected file cannot be played on this system" error message and the system would move on to the next track. HomerJAU provided a very nice set of FLAC test files in various resolutions and number of channels. None of them would play except, get this, the Quad 4.0 files in 16/44.1 and 24/96. I didn't try the other resolutions (it was pretty chaotic with a lot of people getting in and out of the cars and pushing various buttons). So, those files played fine but not in surround... it was just summed stereo. His files alternate between the various channels and say what channel is playing. So, the Front Left and Back Left announcements came out of the Front Left (and presumably the Rear Left) speakers. Almost all of my multichannel test files were FLACs but luckily a member gave me a couple of multichannel WAV files to test with as well. The multichannel WAV files in 16/44.1 and 24/96 resolutions played but same deal as the Quad 4.0 files... just summed stereo. Those were the only two multichannel WAV files I had so I suppose there's a possibility that those were formatted in a way that the system couldn't decode. I will try to test drive the A-Spec this week and will convert the rest of my multichannel FLAC files to WAVs and will retest.
I was hoping maybe something was set in the audio options that was preventing it from decoding the surround but DTS Neural was switched off and I couldn't see any other setting that should have made a difference. I figured DTS Neural switched on would create pseudo surround so I left it off but maybe I'll try both positions for my test drive.
I also found a 16/44.1 DTS surround test track on the web with similar call outs of the channels but that just played static so it doesn't seem to recognize DTS encoded material. It plays fine in my Sony BDP.
Hopefully, I was just unlucky with the two multichannel WAV files I had and others will play properly. If not, I suppose they could enable the feature with an OTA update but Acura doesn't seem to do those much, do they? I can understand how it would be a support nightmare if they advertise this feature since there isn't much multichannel material out there for the average consumer but it would be nice if they could enable it as an "unsupported" bonus.
Other gripes...
- I thought you could skip tracks by clicking the thumb wheels on the steering wheel left or right but they didn't do anything. The track skip buttons by the volume control did work though.
- The system didn't seem to honor track numbers either in the file name or tag and just alphabetized the tracks in the folders. Seemed pretty dumb if you want to play an album in it's usual order. I didn't have any playlist files though so I'll try to test that out on my test drive.
- The new touchpad wasn't as easy to use as I was hoping but it might just be a matter of getting used to it.
Thanks to everyone who provided suggestions and files!!