I was driving my wife's new 2008 Acura RDX

jeff bowman, good idea :)

I am asking for folks who experienced the same and maybe solved it without ripping out this fake high end system. If one looks at the website for ELS audio Acura, they rave like swooning teens about how great it is.

I'm no Bose fan but had one in a Maxima. This had the 4" drivers in front,6X9 in the rear. No tweeters, just full range drivers. Each speaker had its own amp that included an EQ circuit specifically designed for the car. I added a sub and it was quite nice considering what it was. Good mids and very coherent. I think this has to do with just a single driver. Nothing is more offensive to my ears than a driver down on the door on one "plane" and a tweeter up high on a different one.

ET

The tweeters on the A pillars are probably your problem.

My 2005 Accord has the tweeters in the dash corners pointed at the windshield, a terrible location that causes a horn effect between the windshield and the dash. A 15 minute ride at moderate volume would give me a headache.

My temporary solution was fast food napkins over them, a vast improvement. A thick hat worn over the ears is also effective. I do have a screwdriver gouge in the dash near one where I tried to pry one out in a fit of frustration.

Leaving the stereo on overnight a few times and turning the treble way down until they were broken in seems to have worked.

At present the treble and bass are at -2 and 0, and the sound is quite good for a factory stereo. Not in a detailed or accurate way, but fairly balanced and a slightly plump midbass to add some thump to my dance music. I also noticed that the audio system seems to be equalized differently for different sources, when listening to FM, there is an intolerable bass boost that sounds so unnatural that it is unpleasant. Perhaps you could check different sources and see if yours is similar.

I think you should stick some black felt over the tweeters for a while until they break in.

I only listen to talk radio so I don't even know what our cars systems sound like!! I run only 1 channel in the front cause its easier to hear a talking voice out of one channel opposed to 4 channels with the driver not balanced and getting the right ear hammered.

It probably drives my with nuts but she always leaves it on the one channel when she listens to her music. I sound like my old man now! Car factory systems are a disapointment anyways compared to the home.

trucker, my system is 5.1 system. No tweets. I had those kind of things on our old car, the Lexus RX 300 (1998 1/2), which had a boomy softer sound, but at least wasn't sharp sounding.