Volvo Teams Up With Bowers & Wilkins To Create An Exceptional Audio System For The All-New Volvo XC90

The all-new Volvo XC90, which will be revealed later this year, will offer drivers one of the top audio systems available in the automotive world after engineers at the Swedish car company collaborated with their counterparts at the renowned British audio equipment company Bowers & Wilkins. The Bowers & Wilkins system for the XC90 uses bespoke acoustic technology developed over its five decades of pioneering research into loudspeaker design. The XC90 system is derived directly from acoustic technology developed for reference speakers used in some of the world’s most demanding acoustic environments, including London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios.

OneShift Editorial Team

09 Jun 2014

The result of the collaboration uses a combination of high-performance, low-distortion speaker designs, including extended range aluminium tweeters and Kevlar midrange units, reflecting components found in Bowers & Wilkins award-winning premium loudspeakers. It also features a centre speaker with Bowers & Wilkins tweeter-on-top technology for the first time in a car, providing a more open, spacious sound.

The system is comprised of a 12-channel HARMAN 1,400 watts Class D amplifier serving a total of 19 Bowers & Wilkins speakers – 7 Nautilus tweeters (25 mm) with the latest treble technology, 7 midrange speakers (5x100 mm and 2x80 mm) with the characteristic yellow Bowers & Wilkins Kevlar cone clearly visible behind the cover, 4 cone woofers (200/165 mm) and the new, ground-breaking air-ventilated subwoofer (250 mm).

The audio innovations in the new XC90 include one of the first automotive applications of an air-ventilated subwoofer integrated into the body of the car rather than being a freestanding box that is simply bolted to it.

The XC90’s new audio system also uses the latest and most advanced sound processing software from the specialist Swedish audio company Dirac Research, which manages the timing of the sound and co-operation between the speakers to optimize the sound for a specific or all seating positions and can also create individual acoustics from certain music venues or concert halls.

The top-of-the-line Premium Sound is available for the all-new XC90. The audio range also includes the High Performance system with a 224W amplifier, 12 speakers and the possibility to add the fresh air subwoofer.

“Great music and sound are among the most important factors for a truly enjoyable drive. This makes the choice of audio systems a vital part of our designed-around-you philosophy. We are very happy to be able to offer the music aficionados among the XC90 buyers one of the most desirable audio systems on the market,” said Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President, Research and Development of Volvo Car Group.

Credits: Oneshift News Team