Dan Neil loves the new Acura RL — particularly the Bose sound system — and starts off with this tragic tale to set the stage:
I was an audiophile in college. Incorrigible, really. I shouldn’t have been allowed within 100 yards of an audio.
My stereo system comprised a 400-watt McIntosh amp and preamp, four Klipsch speakers, an anvil-heavy Thorens turntable and a Tascam reel-to-reel four-track recording deck. I remember standing outside my burning apartment in worse-for-wear BVDs and hearing — as if they were Clarice’s bleating sheep — these components shriek and sizzle and puddle together with some 500 albums and tapes.
So much for that hobby.
…Unique to Acura is its Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) system. In principle, it works just like Bose’s noise-canceling headsets (which makes me wonder why Bose doesn’t market a system like it). ANC monitors low-frequency cabin noise (around 100 hertz or lower) and then reproduces the signal 180 degrees out of phase, which has the effect of muting the booming low-frequency sound in the cabin. Call it the sounds of silence.
ANC operates whether or not the audio system is turned on. As soon as you turn the ignition switch, the cabin fills with a cottony, comfortably numb quiet above which the richer and more pleasant sounds of the car and stereo can be heard.
He’s got me thinking test drive.