ROLL CALL: Who has surround sound in their car(s)?

[jefe1]

Marpow is starting an Uber service. Need a ride anywhere? Minimum booking two hours.....

 

[GOS]

Marpow is starting an Uber service. Need a ride anywhere? Minimum booking two hours.....

MarPUBER

 

[Kenneth Kazia]

if you have a car with a factory installed surround system or one you installed yourself (DVD-Audio, SACD, DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, Q8 or something else), please respond to this thread and tell us:

What year, make and model of car:

Did you install it yourself (if not factory installed):

What surround formats can you play:

How would you rate the system, and would you recommend it to others:


If you have more than one car with a surround system, please respond twice (you can keep it in the same post or a second post).

If it's a system you installed yourself, let us know what you used for equipment and the details of the head end.

THANKS!

Acura ESL 3D Studio MDX

 

[cbmmm3]

Ha !!!!
Shame on me. My 2018 work vehicle ( Ford Edge Sport --now called ST ) has Surround and I just found this out---five years later. Thanks to this thread I read about Edge's with surround. After reading I 'wondered' long enough to go look. Sure enough --there it is - hidden in a sub menu. Its a Sony 12 speaker with sub.
It sounds good but not great - Ill prolly stick to "stereo' For giggles I tried a single layer surround SACD ---deck does not recognize the format. So the surround is strictly a DSP'er

 

[Owen Smith]

Did you try DVD-A or DVD-V? It might do DTS or DD 5.1.

 

[cbmmm3]

not yet. Ill try this evening --thanks

 

[Bender]

Well I had a 2005 TL, then a 2013 RDX, which I am keeping. Now a 2023 RDX A-Spec.
I am starting to convert everything to 24/48 WAV - which seems to work well in the car.
(I am using an old Mac that I installed vm fusion to turn it to pc, and dvd audio extractor to get the wavs).
any guess how to get my dts-cds converted? (this may mean I will have to somehow get a cheap pc just for this purpose)

 

[par4ken]

how to get my dts-cds converted?

You can use Foobar as long as you have the DTS decoder installed. You just click on covert and then select the format (wav) that you want to save as.

 

[ddahl44]

Well I had a 2005 TL, then a 2013 RDX, which I am keeping. Now a 2023 RDX A-Spec.
I am starting to convert everything to 24/48 WAV - which seems to work well in the car.
(I am using an old Mac that I installed vm fusion to turn it to pc, and dvd audio extractor to get the wavs).
any guess how to get my dts-cds converted? (this may mean I will have to somehow get a cheap pc just for this purpose

Converting to FLAC allows you to add album art work. But as you have found, WAV works just fine (without the art) if you don’t want added steps in the conversion process. Enjoy!

 

[CPR]

New 2023 Acura TLX/ASPEC/ELS system; same as my 2021; 17 speakers of BLISS; USB required; thanks John!
Great Lease; couldn't resist
My 9th Acura!

 

[ddahl44]

New 2023 Acura TLX/ASPEC/ELS system; same as my 2021; 17 speakers of BLISS; USB required; thanks John!
Great Lease; couldn't resist
My 9th Acura!

What engine did you go for?

 

[marpow]

I finally got my 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee this week after a 4 month wait. 3.6-V6. Not as powerful as my Hemi in the Challenger but good enough for my new daily.
I got the McIntosh 19 speaker sound system, very good.
Great news., it plays all my surround USB sticks, 4.0 and 5.1, that's important as it will keep me from re-formatting a lot of music.
The stereo is beyond good.
I am still doing some testing, as my Challenger absolutely plays surround as I built it.
I am leaning towards as good as the Jeep sounds it is just a down mix of my surround USB's.
I thought I would already have done it today but I was listening to stereo Marshall Tucker Band and I couldn't stop listening on my way to work.
I have a re-formatted 5.1 drive that has the album Gentle Giant-Free Hand, for a quick test of surround in cars this is good as the first song has the clicking fingers that go rear to front, plays that way for me on the home rig and the Challenger. So I don't think the McIntosh is advertised as a surround processor, but hey, wishful thinking on my part.
The surround setting in the audio choices is more like a bubble where all speakers kind of fire equally to the center position. If I have any kind of chance with playing actual surround from my thumb drive it will likely be with the surround function off.
I'll keep my fingers crossed when I do my testing.
Now, in the likely hood it will not play actual surround, I am not going to change anything, way to hard, took me almost 8 months with the Challenger to finally get it right.

 

[cbmmm3]

nice ride Markie. what is up with the US automakers ? I ordered my 2023 Ford Edge ST on Nov 17 2022. They are just building it this week at the factory !!
Ill see it in another 2 to 3 weeks. That will be damn near an 8 month wait

By the way - I get the top line audio system in the vehicle. Made by B&O Bang and Olufsen

 

[marpow]

Bang and Olufsen

Made in Denmark, my people.
8 month wait, wow, I think mine was shy of five months. I got a notice, "It Shipped" 3 weeks ago, what did they do push it here,

Well I did my experiment and Gentle Giant-Free hand in 5.1, fingers should snap rear to front.
My Jeep fingers snap right to left even though the source (USB) was 5.1.
No 5.1 or 4.0 surround for the McIntosh Jeep, I actually didn't expect it.

Good news, my stereo sounds absolutely fantastic, open, great mid range and bass, adjusts to all kinds of levels in stereo and surround settings.
The best news is it takes all the 2.0, 4.0 and 5.1's that I throw at it as long as the USB is either Fat32 or NTFS.
Better news, I have no desire to make it into surround, the Challenger in surround is fantastic enough.

 

[DuncanS]

nice ride Markie. what is up with the US automakers ? I ordered my 2023 Ford Edge ST on Nov 17 2022. They are just building it this week at the factory !!
Ill see it in another 2 to 3 weeks. That will be damn near an 8 month wait

By the way - I get the top line audio system in the vehicle. Made by B&O Bang and Olufsen

My Audi has the B&O system only plays of USB sticks/HDDs no disc option. I'll be curious to hear what the Menu is like, on my A5 it repeatedly plays the album you've selected and you have to go to the Top menu to select another by then bouncing down through folders, I have folders for Stereo & Surround, then per band. It seems to be aimed at playlists on phones and playing tracks not albums.

 

[ddahl44]

I am Turo-ing a Lexus GX 2022 for a total eclipse trip in the spring. It has a Mark Levinson system. Anybody know the formats it plays in 5.1?

 

[cbmmm3]

My Audi has the B&O system only plays of USB sticks/HDDs no disc option. I'll be curious to hear what the Menu is like, on my A5 it repeatedly plays the album you've selected and you have to go to the Top menu to select another by then bouncing down through folders, I have folders for Stereo & Surround, then per band. It seems to be aimed at playlists on phones and playing tracks not albums.

just got the vehicle about 10 days ago. Need to play around with it some more. I do know this - I use USB stick and can random play by song, artist etc and can scroll to any song within a file. I have the B & O playing in Surround. Its a lot cleaner and concise than my last car that had a Sony Surround system. So far , so good

 

[DuncanS]

just got the vehicle about 10 days ago. Need to play around with it some more. I do know this - I use USB stick and can random play by song, artist etc and can scroll to any song within a file. I have the B & O playing in Surround. Its a lot cleaner and concise than my last car that had a Sony Surround system. So far , so good

Just picked up my new A5 today in Blue this time! same B&O system, still has the same software, showed the Audi saleswoman the problem and that it was dangerous as you have to really look at the screen to bounce back to find another album, and she said I see what you mean - doubt anything will get changed!

 

[scottm18]

At six feet eight, I have two of the only cars on the road that actually fit me Not really joking there actually. Both of them just happen to have full factory surround-sound systems.

The 2011 Audi S5 (pictured) has a disc-based true Dolby Digital 5.1 B&O system.

My other car is an 2006 Infiniti M35 (only fitting year) which has the rare Studio Surround with speakers-in-the-seats sound system. It's also disc-based but plays *true* DVD-Audio discs at full resolution...and also sounds fantastic.

 

[DuncanS]

At six feet eight, I have two of the only cars on the road that actually fit me Not really joking there actually. Both of them just happen to have full factory surround-sound systems.

The 2011 Audi S5 (pictured) has a disc-based true Dolby Digital 5.1 B&O system.

My other car is an 2006 Infiniti M35 (only fitting year) which has the rare Studio Surround with speakers-in-the-seats sound system. It's also disc-based but plays *true* DVD-Audio discs at full resolution...and also sounds fantastic.

View attachment 94600

Only USB inputs on the new 2023 one and the 2021 model I had before so hang on to it!