>> it is an easy. >> welcome to bloomberg pursuits, where you find information that helps you follow your inspiration. in this addition, utility meet luxury in three new suvs. immediate power, immediate response. >> it totally cool to pick up

the bull and a drink from it. find out how one master craftsman turns wood and stone into state-of-the-art sound. this is a very difficult, time-consuming process. >> nikki eckstein has the guide of making the most of london. >> london is one of the most dynamic cities in the world. for all of its on -- for all of its sites, it is also a major attraction. with grexit looming, it is on the verge of total reinvention. i will show you how to make the most of london. london's 37 million visitors each year, a whopping 9 million come here on business, making it one of the biggest

business travel markets in the world. that means busy airports. flying intoowds by london city, a small under the radar of in the middle of town. landing here means short immigration lines and shorter traffic, shrinking travel time by an hour or more. until recently, this is travelers had a tough choice, booking a bland hotel in the financial district, or staying further away in the heart of the action. not anymore. the city, london's financial hub, is cool with two glamorous places to stay. the first is a net, a hotel and private members club designed by the soho house group. insiders say it cost $200 million to convert this bank. walk to the front doors and it hits you. 252 rooms, nine restaurants, this is the place to see and be

seen, to impress and be in press. if you want to escape the hustle, head to the rooftop. this view of st. paul's cathedral is in strict graham gold for work hard, play hard set and is only accessible to hotel guests and work partners. if the lifestyle is too much, the antidote is a one mile away. trinity isr seasons the economy of an urban oasis. afternoonhere means tea in the 1920's rotunda. or and afterward massage in the spot. even hanging out in your room feels like a treat. you can order your favorite type of hello from the ipad or soak in a gorgeous bathtub.

londoners are punctual, so getting on their time zone is key. lucky for you, great coffee shops are everywhere in london. these days they are more ubiquitous than a proper english breakfast. workshop, which roasts its own beans, is my personal favorite. order their silver coffee. it is like a pour over with a built-in refill, and you can feel free to bring your laptop. head over to the east end for a work lunch. -- at lyle's. it is worth the short walk. no mushy peas here, these are fresh from the farm in a garden salad with fresh cheese. order it with a mutton broth, a clear delicate version of a heavy classic. here is a little psa. don't be afraid to order a glass of wine during the workday. abstaining is seen as an overly conservative move. ♪ nikki: with so much entertaining, you will want to squeeze in a workout. in london it's hard to find good

boutique gyms that allow membership free drop-in's, but one rebel is one exception. everything from the music to the lighting to the mood will make you feel like a total rockstar. ♪ nikki: take that high to your most important meeting, the deal closing dinner. this russian inspired spot in soho is an ode to decadence. watching this juicy beef wellington get carved table side? it is the best kind of dinner theater. whenever you are ready to toast your success, there is a champagne button built into every booth. >> cheers. nikki: by now, you have earned a day off. this is redchurch street, in the heart of shoreditch. stop by modern society for indie jewelry and clothing, or monologue for great hardware and

that home where's -- homewares and death because areas. -- desk accessories. go around the corner for giftable travel sets, all in custom patterns. when it comes to british food, i can't leave without trying the real national dish, curry. fabulous. at madame d's, the menu focuses on the himalayas. the talented indian chef is making excellent risks on these mimosas, and amazing lamb noodles spiced with powerful thai red chilies, dishes you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. it is all proof that in this fast-paced city, things are always in a state of evolution. >> from this great destination we shift our focus to the journey. up next, hannah elliott takes a drive in three of the best suvs money can buy. one of them sure to be right for you.

this is "bloomberg pursuits." ♪

♪ >> ramen, the japanese staple, has gone global, with dedicated joint opening in cities around the world. so, it is a good time for a short course on the rules of ramen. >> hi, this is my shop. we are going to talk about the best ways to eat a bowl of ramen. the most important thing is to eat the ramen while it is hot. any good ramen shop will serve you it while it is smoking hot and you need to eat it right away because the noodles are overcooking. it's a lot like pizza. if you are a real new yorker you know that you do not wait for the pizza to cool down, you eat

it while it is hot and you risk burning your mouth. ramen is absolutely the same. [slurping] >> you need to slurp. don't fight the noodles. take a little less than you think you want to eat. pull them out from the pile because otherwise you will never be able to slurp. easy on the toppings if you are a first timer. so when you order your first bowl of ramen ever, get it simple. taste it, see if you really like ramen, then you can jump on the toppings and specials of the day. don't forget to hydrate. i have been to ramen shops in tokyo where later my whole face is swollen with salt. it is the nature of the beast, so drink up. ramen comes with a terrible spoon, chinese in origin. in japan, it is great to be able to dip it into the bowl, but is totally ok to pick up the bowl and drink from it. remember there are no real rules at the end of the day. you are letting your hair down. you want to have fun.

get splashy, get noisy, get messy, but most importantly, enjoy yourself. >> choosing the best suv is a complex task. you have to consider size, power, and of course, value. hannah elliott weighs all of the elements in this review of three suvs. hannah: with suvs growing in popularity, it only made sense to get some on this show. so in this review, we are going to compare three of the best rated luxury suvs on the market. ♪ this isn't going to be easy. we've got our hands on an audi q5, a porsche cayenne gts, and a bmw x5. i decided to spend a day in the hamptons with each of them to get an in-depth look. this is the q5. it is audi's midsize suv and starts at about $41,000, which is way more affordable than the other two cars we are looking at. this is kind of like the iphone

of luxury suvs. it is designed well, but also affordable within the segment. this is a four-cylinder, all-wheel-drive, seven seat automatic with paddle shifters, 252 horsepower, and there is no lag. immediate power, immediate response. the minute you step on the gas, you are there. ♪ q5 has by far the most futuristic interior of the three cars. it is minimal. it is clean. the sunroof spans the entire width of the ceiling. it is really cool. there is plenty of room for five adults, lots of headroom. but this is the smallest car of the ones we are testing. the trunk is 29 cubic feet, in the middle of our range. a family on a trip might have trouble fitting everything in. there are other cars that are more powerful that look more distinct, but it is also really affordable, and audi is the sweet spot.

so how did it add up? the immediate response made me really feel in control. the horsepower was a little weaker at 252, and the 22 miles per gallon means this is in the middle of the road. looks-wise, it was a bit conservative. it is the smallest of the three, but with a sleek interior. and the pricing is the best at $41,000. ♪ now this is the bmw x5 hybrid. that means it gets 56 miles per gallon combined between the electric motor and conventional engine. this car starts at $62,000, right in the middle of our group. the electric motor and the engine switch off depending on what drive mode, how fast you are going, all of that. what you won't find out from the stats on the website is how big this car feels when you sit in it and how small it drives. it is a nice balance. the interior is not as futuristic, it is not as clean and modern feeling, but it is

also a little less full of buttons and levers and gauges. this does feel like it is the roomiest of the three. i think a lot of it has to do with the natural light. the most visibility for sure. and with the seat in use, the trunk still comes up with nearly 36 cubic feet, which is massive. ♪ to recap, the handling was exceptional. 308 horsepower is in the middle of the range. and in an amazing the d6 miles -- an amazing 56 miles per gallon with the combined electric motor, -- with an amazing 56 miles per gallon with the combined electric motor, it was sporty without being overaggressive. the roomiest, but with a toned down interior. at $62,000 it is midrange for our selection. ♪ now the third car in our group is the porsche cayenne gts. this is a higher tune version of -- tuned version of porsche's

cayenne, and it starts at $97,000. that is by far the most expensive of any car in our group. it is also the most powerful. porsche was among the first luxury carmakers to introduce an suv. it really sets the standard for a lot of things. the engine is a 3.6 liter v6 twin turbocharged engine, 440 horsepower. almost double the horsepower of the audi. 443 with a torque, and you definitely feel it when you push the gas pedal. the thing that you notice are the buttons and levers and knobs and vents. if you are someone that likes cockpit stuff to play with, you will love this car. this trunk was the smallest at 24 cubic feet, but after you put the seats down, you will get by. it drives fast, it feels really luxurious inside, it is really striking to look at. just costs a lot of money. okay, this car was the most powerful. 440 horsepower, 434 pounds of torque. unfortunately only 19 miles per

gallon combined. this is a true sports car in suv form. it has decent space, and the interior loaded with gadgets. but the downside i would say is price. $97,000 means this car will dig deep into your wallet. the luxury suv segment is a competitive field. there are a lot of really competent players, and these three are all excellent vehicles. however, after three days of driving, i felt the bmw checked the most boxes in terms of performance, agility, style, and value. was it the fastest and most powerful? no, but it was the most versatile while moderately priced. with the largest interior, the most visibility, and the fact that is a hybrid with a 56 miles per gallon rating, that pushes it over the edge. this car has a great value and anyone would be happy to have it. >> coming up, the best in high-end audio equipment. headphones that feel as gorgeous as they sound. >> the cup pads are incredibly squishy and marshmallowy.

they feel really great on the side of your head. >> and speakers crafted from ancient materials for the ultimate in modern audio quality. >> none of this stuff is convenient, small, or cheap, but it does represent the best sound that has ever been made. >> this is "bloomberg pursuits." ♪

♪ >> picking the right pair of headphones for you can be tough. you have to think about what they cost, what they look like, how they fit on your head. and obviously, you care about the sound. plus, there are tons of brands that make them. a pair of wireless headphones that check the most boxes for me are the sennheiser hd 1 over ear. the sound quality is wonderful. bass beats feel full and satisfyingly funky.

middle notes are clean and bright, and scratchy sounds or whispers have a very satisfying texture. the materials are excellent. all of the soft parts are sheathed in this creamy dark leather. the cup pads are squishy and marshmallowy. they feel great on the side of your head and they don't have that super firm grip that some headphones have. the bluetooth is totally seamless and totally easy. it takes one touch to link it with your phone. once you're listening to music, the volume button is also the pause button and the the skip ahead button. you can feel it easily without looking. it remains charged for up to 22 hours. the bluetooth range is remarkable. i actually tested it out, and i walked an entire city block away from my phone, and i had no disruption in any of the noise. it will skip a little bit, that is how you know you are at the end of your range. but a whole city block's worth of bluetooth range is pretty good. fair warning -- all of this quality comes at a price. if you're looking for a good pair of wireless headphones it will run you between $120 and $500.

the hd 1's are right at the tippy top of the range at $499. but for the build quality, the easy technology, the great sound, and i think the overall handsomeness, these are worth the investment. >> to close out "bloomberg pursuits," a regular series we call "made." because to truly appreciate an object of luxury, you need to go back to the beginning and see how it came to be. ♪ >> my name is jonathan weiss. i'm the founder and ceo of oswalds mill audio, known as oma, and we are in our dumbo, brooklyn showroom surrounded by all of our products. ♪ we are really an outlier in the high-end audio world.

we make everything from the signal source in terms of analog -- that is record players, which we make out of solid slate. we make our own line of tube amplifiers. and we are the only company that makes conical four moded loudspeakers for home use. we make everything so that we have total control over the sound. one of the first phases to our products is coring the slate. and this is a very special slate because it is actually very soft, which from an acoustic standpoint, is really desirable. it dissipate vibrations and resonances extremely well, much better than harder slate. so when they are quarrying the slate, they will literally use hand tools to cleave off sheets

which break off, which then are placed on a truck or taken with a gondola into the main fabrication part of the quarry, where a huge diamond saw with water is used to cut, cleave off irregular pieces of slate. the last stage is honing and putting a very fine edge, or bevel, so that it doesn't chip. we use cast metal in a lot of different products. old foundries, they have a furnace. the metal is put into this vat in a solid form and it becomes molten, just like out of the movie "terminator." it is poured into a sand mold, it goes in, hardens. the sand is blasted away and you have a rough casting, which then goes to the various finishing processes. ♪

then it has to be welded, edge treatment. after that, that is accomplished. then it goes to be powder coated. where it literally is baked and cured into this superhard durable finish, much better than paint. all of our loudspeakers have steel stands or infrastructure, and all of those elements are powder coated. ♪ the mill is essentially our laboratory. it is our reference. listening space. it's where we can put elements, new and old, together, listen to them, evaluate them, and decide what direction we want to take with new products, new technologies. there are things that were never surpassed in terms of sound quality. the industry moved in ways that are not about ultimate sound quality, but about size, convenience, and cost.

none of this stuff is convenient, small, or cheap, but it does represent the best sound that has really ever been made. ♪ all of our loudspeakers are made out of pennsylvania hardwoods. and these are all woods which martin guitar -- the world's best acoustic guitar company, right across the valley -- they use the same wood that we do. i know they are totally great woods. at that point it comes into our woodworking shop, where it gets cut down further into boards of varying thickness and width, which will be joined together to create loud speaker enclosures, amplifier enclosures, horns, all using meticulous, hand done joinery which allows the wood to expand and contract in your home.

it's like a living thing. this is a very difficult time consuming, expensive process. we are the only company in the world that does this. nobody else makes loudspeakers using solid wood joinery construction, not today. not that i know, ever. ♪ >> at a certain point, the parts come from the wood shop, metalworking shop, powder coater. they come to our central facility, where we do the final assembly. most of our recruitment is very -- most of our equipment is very big, and it is very big because it has to be. soundwaves can't be miniaturized. it's physics.

it's very old-school, not mass production. and the components that we use are simply of the highest grade possible. aerospace level stuff. the last phase is really our installation of the equipment in our client's homes or wherever they are going. if you have an amazing system, and you put elvis on, it is frightening. it's like he is right there. what the system is doing is, it's taking the energy that came out of elvis, literally. soundwaves are energy -- so it is taking the energy and it is reproducing it so perfectly that you have this uncanny feeling that somebody is there that has been dead a long time. that's what amazing sound quality is. ♪ >> you can find more films from our "made" series as well as many more pursuits stories and videos at bloomberg.com/pursuits. ♪ >> thanks for watching "pursuits." this is bloomberg. ♪

david: you are now both former presidents. mr. clinton: nobody plays a song when you walk into a room anymore. [laughter] mr. bush: i did not bring the coffee. david: what do you say to each other? mr. bush: generally, when does this program start and when is it going to end? [laughter] mr. clinton: he'll say to me give shorter answers. david: what was the biggest surprise the first day you are in the oval office? mr. clinton: it really surprised me how easily i could be turned into a two-dimensional cartoon. mr. bush: in walks my dad, i said, "welcome, mr. president." and he said, "thank you, mr. president." >> would you fix your tie, please? david: people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed. i will leave it this way. alright.