Sublime Sound

If there was such a thing as an audio anthropologist, they would surely flag the year 1996 as a pivotal point in the evolution of home audio design.

This was the year that Danish audio manufacturer Bang & Olufsen, long admired for its avant-garde design aesthetic, released the revolutionary BeoSound 9000, a six-CD-based sound system that made the step from a purely functional device for the playback of music to a true objet dıart. It was an almost sculptural element designed to be mounted on a wall, and intended to first catch the visual attention of a consumer, before captivating them with its functionality and audio performance. 

The BeoSound 9000 measured nearly a metre in length, a glittering strip of aluminium and glass behind which sat six Compact Discs primed and proudly displaying their label artwork. The unit’s ‘CD clamper’ slid back and forth to whichever disc was selected; a swift, near-silent musical butler obeying commands from the stylish remote control. 

It endured remarkable longevity – selling from 1996 to 2011; an incredible run in an industry that has changed so dramatically over the last 30 or so years. It’s an ever-shifting landscape that has tested the resilience of the company started back in 1925 by a then-young Dane named Svend Olufsen and his former classmate, a gifted young engineer named Peter Bang. 

Their vision was to create quality media delivered via strikingly designed devices – something they well and truly achieved – yet it would be many years before significant profits would come, and setbacks would follow. The factory was blown up by Nazi sympathisers in 1945, and in the early 2000s, the rise of the iPod and iTunes threatened the relevance of sculptural, conversation-piece home entertainment units. Then, in 2008, the global financial crisis struck hard, forcing it to prune back product lines.

One pillar, though, helped the company weather this turbulent period: its commercial partnership with Audi. 

It was around 2005, with the flagship Audi A8, that B&O made the move to developer and supplier of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) car audio equipment. Senior Audi management saw an obvious synergy with the Danish company, both sharing a core focus on design and performance, hewn from an almost fanatical embrace of cutting-edge materials and technology. The A8 broke new ground in terms of the sublime sonic satisfaction on offer from its optional B&O sound system, and other manufacturers quickly clamoured for partnerships with other audio companies in the race to keep pace. 

What was clear was that Audi customers could appreciate the stunning levels of clarity and detail on offer from the B&O system. Variations on the A8’s system trickled down the model line, to the point where almost all models in the current range can be optioned with a version of the B&O system that can trace its lineage and key technical advances to that fitted to the D3-generation A8. 

To best understand how the B&O system currently achieves the remarkable level of fidelity, we’ll focus on the system at its most advanced, and in terms of vehicle accessibility and sales volume, its most prolific – in the second-generation Audi Q7.

The audio reproduction process is effectively a chain of command, so let’s start at the very beginning: the processing of the audio file presented to Q7’s head unit. B&O and Audi collaborated with German research institute Fraunhofer IIS, famed for its lead role in the development of the mp3 file format, to develop an improved digital signal processing (DSP)  algorithm termed  ‘Symphoria’ to give conventional stereo recordings a unprecedented level of spaciousness and dimension, a true ‘3D’ sound effect. The system takes the horizontal dimension of conventional surround sound (left, right, front, rear), and introduces the additional dimension of height, creating an audio source that is capable of delivering an almost holographic positioning of instruments and voices.

Naturally this signal then needs a vast reserve of clean power to amplify it to an analogue signal that can be reproduced by the speakers, just as a fast, powerful car relies on its engine. 

The ‘engine’ in the case of the B&O 3D Advanced sound system available for the Q7, is Bang & Olufsen’s 23-channel Class-D BeoCore amplifier that is mounted out of sight behind the third-row seat. In simple terms, this is a more advanced amplifier design that produces high power with far greater efficiency, converting as much of 90 percent of its energy intake into production of, well, reproduction.

There are no less than 23 individual speakers being driven by that one amplifier, the most attention grabbing of these are the front tweeters, which rise from their recesses in the dash like tiny soldiers set to deliver the ‘Reveille’. Their role is to deliver the crucial high frequencies, which play a key part in how the listeners’ ears perceive the ‘staging’ or sense of position and perspective of the instruments and voices. 

Traditional loudspeaker design dictates that the listener needs to be positioned within an acoustic ‘sweet spot’ in order to get the most from the listening experience. The B&O system overcomes this limitation with what is termed  ‘acoustic lens technology’ (ALT) which creates an enhanced sense of space and realism while maximising the area in front of the loudspeaker where the sweet spot exists. The tweeter itself is mounted to fire upward; the complex shape of the aluminium housing effectively ‘bends’ the sound to disperse it more accurately and effectively in the cabin, giving both the driver and passenger the same sense of spaciousness to the sound stage.

But just as impressive as the detail and staging of the B&O’s sound is the clarity of the vocals and the tight snap of the mid bass range. To achieve this, Audi and B&O had to fully rethink the use of the door and its role as a speaker housing.  

Says B&O’s Morten Lydolf: “The doors aren’t closed cavities and they have the potential to resonate and rattle when high power is fed to bass drivers. That’s why we use a proper sealed cabinet, just like a home loudspeaker system.” 

The speaker enclosures are injection moulded from lightweight polycarbonate, but lined inside with special acoustic damping material. The high-quality custom-built speaker drivers, constructed using only the highest quality aluminium for the ‘baskets’, and fabric and composites for the cones, are therefore able to function without the colouration or unwanted vibration of a door mounting. Covering the speakers themselves with brushed aluminium grilles, laser etched with the Bang & Olufsen name, and effectively acoustically ‘transparent’ thanks to the precise size and angle of the laser-cut perforations, is the visual crowning glory in the Q7’s equally stunning cabin.                                

Finally there’s the sub-bass. The B&O system in the Q7 delivers its bottom-end punch via a 250mm driver with an exceptionally large and robust magnet to handle the high power. It’s housed in a sealed enclosure specially designed to both protect the driver and maximise its output and musicality. 

I listened to literally dozens of recordings in the process of compiling this feature; everything from sultry jazz sounds of Sarah Vaughn, to classic rock from Pink Floyd. What remained consistent through all these listening sessions was the pinpoint placement of the sound stage. The spatial depth is remarkable, with hammering floor-tom drums seeming to emanate somewhere well beyond the bonnet line, shimmering high notes sprinkled like fairy dust in an arc stretching well beyond the A-pillars, and vocals so life-like and emotive, they can seem almost holographic. Then there’s the bass. The B&O system manages that chameleon trick of being nuanced and musical in quieter recordings, yet bursting with a tight, visceral slam when heavy rock and hefty volume levels collide.

It all comes together in an experience that sets the standard for factory-fitted audio, and for Audi customers who are true lovers of music, a system that’s not really ‘optional’ at all.