Excellent sound systems for cars: is it worth the money?

As luxury vehicle manufacturers are learning more and more about new technologies and features to shift their vehicles, we have seen an increase in high-end sound systems. A few of them you probably know: Mark Levinson and Lexus, Meridian and Land Rover, Naim and Bentley, Burmester with Mercedes and Porsche, and now, with the announcement of the very attractive 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee last week we saw McIntosh start a car partnership again.

Prior to his partnership with Jeep, McIntosh worked directly with Harley-Davidson, Subaru and Ford on sound systems; the latter is exclusive to the Ford GT 2005-2006. It has also been offering very expensive after-sound systems to after-cars for some time, and has been in existence as a business since 1949.

The system in the Jeep Grand Cherokee is called the MX950, because of its 950 watt output of 17 channels. It uses 19 McIntosh-designed speakers in 12 locations throughout the cabin. Considering Woodstock and McIntosh’s Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound amplifiers, the company certainly knows how to offer a captivating experience.

When a business designs audio components intended for home use, things like size, weight, and cost are generally less concerned with actual performance, accuracy, and aesthetics. In a luxury home audio setup, you can have amplifiers that weigh £ 100 per channel and speakers that weigh three times as much. In a vehicle where weight affects everything, from overall performance to fuel consumption, it will not fly, so the audio companies need to get creative.

For McIntosh, it involves the use of a few patents it has for camera systems in home theater equipment, which digitally compensates for the design of a room (or a vehicle cabin) and its LD / HP (low distortion, high power) speakers . These technologies are linked to the company’s Class A / B amplifier designs to create a system that looks and sounds like the iconic blue glass-level glowing equipment that made McIntosh famous.

Other brands, such as the British firm Naim, followed their design processes similarly, but with some changes. The Naim systems for Bentley cars are undergoing a multistage design process. First, Naim takes the measurement of the cabin from Bentley and performs it using its own algorithm to get a starting point for speaker placement and system design. Then he works with his sister company, the French speaker manufacturer Focal, to specify the ideal drivers for each application – a convertible, for example, has other needs than an SUV.

Naim then adjusts things in his amplifiers – Class D in his vehicle systems and in his Mu-So wireless speaker, which we have previously reviewed – to measure as accurately as possible for deformation properties. From there, Naim engineers work back from the designs until they come up with something that not only sounds pleasing to the ear, but also displays the features of a Naim system – turning some of the main characters into total harmonic distortion (THD). to sacrifice for something pleasant.

The story is similar to Burmester, a German firm that started in 2005 in the automotive systems by designing the stereo in the Bugatti Veyron. It was a partnership with Porsche in 2009 and Mercedes-Benz in 2013. Its engineers work with Porsche and Mercedes from the very early stages of designing a vehicle – years before its public debut – to things like speaker placement and integration with optimize its electrical system. This was the case with the new S-Class, where Burmester worked to integrate windshield wipers into the vehicle’s front seats. These units provide physical feedback to the listener and add another layer to the experience – something Mercedes-Benz calls a 4D setup.

Here, experience is also the key word. To get someone to pay as much as $ 10,000 above and beyond the asking price of an expensive vehicle, a sound business needs to deliver something more than pleasing sound. The Fender sound system in a Volkswagen sounds good, but it offers you no unique experience. These first-class sound systems try to immerse you in your music and speak from experience – as a home hi-fi nerd – it largely succeeds.

“We understand that customers do not just want good sound,” said Charlie Randall, president of McIntosh Laboratory, in a statement. “They want a full sensory experience. And that’s why it was so important that we left no stone unturned to deliver a true McIntosh entertainment system for the Jeep Grand Cherokee L. We are delighted to bring our brand to a to bring a whole new group of people that McIntosh may have never experienced before. ‘

The last part of bringing in customers is also an interesting aspect of the sound trend. Getting someone who may not have been involved in home audio before with a dealer to sit and listen to systems and spend all sorts of money is understandably a big lift. But it makes more sense to get someone interested in your brand’s home audio offering if they’ve already experienced it in their cars. It’s a conversion rate that the businesses can not really quantify, but it seems like they’re all a real thing.

Just like the audio industry in general, the world of branded audio can be surprisingly complex and subtle. Sometimes it is difficult to justify in terms of price. $ 300,000 is a lot for a well-purchased Bentley Continental GT, but Naim’s flagship amplifier for home use – the Statement – costs $ 100,000, and it does not include speakers, sources, cables and so on.

Some people will probably enter the new Jeep Grand Cherokee L Summit, fire up the McIntosh MX950 and never think of it as anything more than a way to listen to the radio. Others will find excuses to go on long trips to nowhere and elevate their favorite music to ear blossoms, simply to delight them in the wealth. Who are you?