They are some of the best audio systems in the world equipped with amplifiers that push hundreds of watts of power, speakers in custom-designed enclosures and multi-channel surround sound audio technology fit for a movie theater. But they are not in a movie theater, in a concert hall or even in high-end home theaters. These audio systems are in cars.

In the hyper-competitive auto industry, automakers ranging from Acura to Volvo increasingly are using audio systems as points of distinction in their vehicles, and are turning to the CE industry for help.

The result: Factory-installed premium audio systems in automobiles are attaining new levels of sonic sophistication. Cars have become rolling showcases for custom-crafted sound systems from leading audio brands, including Bang & Olufsen, Bose, Boston Acoustics, Harman/Kardon, Mark Levinson, Panasonic and Sony. They also have become proving grounds for the latest technology and design standards from audio industry trend-setters such as Dolby, DTS, Lexicon Logic 7 and THX.

But rather than relying solely on outside help to build the best-sounding vehicles, the automakers also have assembled their own staffs of audio experts, who lead the effort long before a brand-name audio system supplier has been selected. And some automakers go even further than others toward building in-house expertise and leading the development of new autosound technologies.

While the collaborative process between the parties generally is the same, differences remain in how some automakers and audio companies work together, stemming from their different philosophical approaches to sound system development.

LONG-TERM PARTNERS
Of course, brand-name premium audio systems in vehicles are not a new development. The trend dates back 24 years, to when Bose, Delco and Delco's parent, General Motors, introduced the "Delco/Bose Stereo System" in the model-year 1983 Cadillac Seville, Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado. It was the first factory-installed "premium audio system," with an AM/FM stereo radio and cassette player and Dolby noise-reduction technology. Before this system, no factory-installed car audio system bore a brand name (although the radio alone may have). 

Another noteworthy collaboration, between Dolby and Volvo, began in 1994 at the behest of Volvo. It culminated in the first vehicle in the world to feature Dolby ProLogic matrix surround sound technology - the 1997 Volvo C70 convertible - and launched a tight relationship between the two companies that continues today.

Ford Motor Company's Lincoln Division was first to team up with THX in 2001, when the two companies started work on a prototype car audio system that would be sonically equal to THX-certified home theater systems. In 2003, the first THX-certified car audio system debuted in the Lincoln LS.

In the last three years, automakers have been driven to more quickly offer what consumers have or want to have at home, said Phil Muzio, director of acoustic systems for North America and the Far East at Harman/Becker Automotive Systems in Martinsville, Ind., the maker of Becker, Harman/Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson car audio systems. They have been spurred by consumers' expectations of higher quality car audio systems, and aided by shorter vehicle development times, Muzio said.

"Now they understand that the further upstream (in the card design process) we're integrated, the better the final result is going to be." -- Martin D’Luzansky, Bose Corp.
According to CEA data, 31 percent of U.S. households now have multi-channel surround sound home theater systems. And as a result, "audio intelligence" is up among consumers, explained Kristina Busenitz, Harman/Becker's principal methodologist for acoustic systems, an expert in statistics who measures consumers' satisfaction with car audio systems made by the company and its competitors. Busenitz defines audio intelligence as consumers' ability to distinguish among different audio technologies and their ability to identify these technologies by their proper names.

At the same time, automakers also have a clearer understanding of what makes a great car audio system, said Martin D'Luzansky, manager of North America marketing at Bose Corp.'s automotive systems division in Stow, Mass. "When we first started out," D'Luzansky said, automakers did not understand why Bose wanted to place audio components in certain locations within a vehicle, and they weren't accustomed to integrating something as large as a speaker in a door or rear parcel shelf. "Now they understand that the further upstream (in the car design process) we're integrated, the better the final result is going to be," he said.

STARTING FROM GO
Generally, the first step to the collaboration is taken by the automaker, which defines the basic requirements for a new vehicle's audio system based on the demographics of the target customer, on the audio systems featured in competitive vehicles, and on feedback from customers about the sound system in the previous generation of the vehicle.

"If you aim for having the best car in its class, you have to also have the best sound system in its class," said Peter Haeussermann, director for electrical/electronics telematics at the Mercedes-Benz Car Group of Daimler Chrysler in Sindelfingen, Germany.

The basic requirements typically include the power of the audio system's amplifier or amplifiers, the number of speakers in the vehicle, whether the system will offer stereo, discrete (5.1-channel) surround sound or a matrix (simulated) surround sound technologies such as Harman/Becker's Logic7, Bose Centerpoint or ProLogic II. Additionally, at this stage the automaker usually determines the types of discs the sound system will play-for example, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video or just CDs.

"We don't dictate all the requirements. I like to think we work very well as a team (with the audio company), that we're open-minded," said Jim Witalec, manager for entertainment system development for the Chrysler Group at DaimlerChrysler's Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Next is the "request for quotations" or RFQ, in which the automaker takes the basic requirements to a number of audio system suppliers. According to Haeussermann, it is normal for five suppliers to be approached, and they usually are selected with an eye toward brand equity.

"We definitely need a branded system in our cars, for marketing reasons, for customer expectations," said Haeussermann. "The customer wants a branded system and it should be a well-known branded system."

Partnering with a brand that already has acceptance in the home market could bring something to both parties, said Christine Becker, acoustic engineer at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich. In 1998, Ford tapped Sony-already a long-time supplier of non-branded audio systems to the automaker-to develop a co-branded limited edition 1999 Ford Focus. The car was aimed at the youth market, in which the Sony brand ranked high, noted Don Courvisier, global vice president of Sony Electronics Inc.'s automotive group in Farmington Hills, Mich.

"We take great care in choosing who supplies our components to foster a long-term relationship that is mutually beneficial." -- Hans Lahti, Volvo
The Sony-branded sound system in the Focus featured Sony components and parametric equalization based on the Sony Dynamic Digital Sound tuning used in movie theaters, Courvisier noted. The limited run of 7,000 vehicles was sold out in 30 days, he said, and the success helped Sony start a wide-ranging partnership with Ford in Europe in late 1999. Also, since last year, a Sony Premium Audio System has been an option in three versions of the Focus-the ZX3, ZX4 and ZX5-in the U.S.

Witalec added that the Chrysler Group went through a phase, between the 2001 and 2003 model years, when it removed brand names from its vehicles' audio systems, but got "push back" from consumers. So, Chrysler Group, which markets Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, resumed using branded premium audio systems in the 2004 model year. So far, 'though, not every vehicle has been switched back; the Jeep Grand Cherokee still features an unbranded Boston Acoustics sound system, though the company hopes to have it branded in the near future, Witalec said.

"The audio system is really critical-so much of the driving experience has to do with the audio that you're hearing," declared Scott Crail, manager of Acura product planning at American Honda in Torrance, Calif. "These are not just commodities, these...cars and trucks. They have to enhance aspects of (customers') lives."

DIFFERENCES EMERGE
Following the RFQ is when differences emerge among the contenders. Each audio company goes through its own process of developing alternative sound systems for the vehicle and presents them to the automaker in demonstration vehicles-usually a previous generation of the same model.

The automaker then evaluates each of the offerings with objective sonic measurements and subjective listening tests, to determine whether it meets the acoustic performance requirements laid out in the RFQ.

Inevitably, a winning system is chosen-typically with the help of the company's marketing group, said Rich Close, lead engineer for audio systems, North America, at General Motors in Warren, Mich.-and the "integration" in the new vehicle's design is begun.

From this point forward, audio experts and engineers at both the automaker and the audio company work hand-in-hand to refine the specifications and the "packaging" of the new vehicle's audio system. This step includes determining the best locations for the amplifier, the speakers and other components.

"Nowadays everybody is fighting for space in the vehicle as more and more features get added," Becker said. "We still have to make compromises with other systems,  but we're able to get in up front on the branded systems as we did with The THX-11 Certified Audio System, and work with the packaging engineers to get the locations we want."

Further development, fine-tuning and sound checks follow through various stages in the vehicle's design. Using vehicle prototypes, the audio company refines the system and how it sounds, and the automaker checks this progress. Refinements may continue up to the point at which the vehicle hits the assembly line.

From start to finish, a new vehicle-including the audio system-may take between two and five years to bring to market, with all-new vehicles taking longer to develop than a mid-life refresh to an existing vehicle.

After production has begun, a random vehicle may be pulled by the audio company from a dealer's lot and tested to confirm that the sound system is performing up to the design specifications.

ROLE REVERSAL
Sometimes it's the audio company that approaches the automaker first.

In 2001, Panasonic was promoting the DVD-Audio format to Honda and at the same time was working with Grammy award-winning music producer and engineer Eliot Scheiner, in a joint promotion with record companies, to introduce DVD-A in the CE market. Scheiner spoke with Panasonic about his passion to bring 5.1-channel surround-sound audio to the car environment, recalled Tom Dunn, senior marketing manager at Panasonic Automotive Systems Co. of America in Detroit.

Panasonic introduced the concept to Honda, and by 2003 the all-new Acura TL was the first vehicle to offer DVD-A playback capability with a standard Panasonic ELS audio system developed jointly with Scheiner. The next Acura to feature an ELS DVD-A audio system will be the RDX sport-utility vehicle, which will be at dealerships this summer.

In 2003, three years after deciding to enter the automotive space, Bang & Olufsen approached Audi and other automakers with a prototype audio system it built inside an off-the-lot Audi A8. Coincidentally, "Audi was the first car manufacturer to realize we had a proposal that made sense," said Bjarne Soerensen, senior program manager for automotive at B&O in Struer, Denmark. B&O's first production automotive sound system debuted in the U.S. in January at the Los Angeles Auto Show in the 2007 Audi S8. It will be available as a $6,300 option in the 2007 A8 and in the S8 beginning in November.

PHILOSOPHICAL NUANCES
It is not just their audio system specifications that distinguish the various audio companies and automakers. The different players also embrace different audio engineering philosophies and practices.

For example, both Harman/Becker and B&O are known for taking a statistical approach to subjective evaluations and competitive benchmarking of their own and other companies' vehicle sound systems. But the two companies use differing methodologies for collecting their data, Busenitz noted.

Harman/Becker uses trained listeners who give a "fidelity rating" to a vehicle's sound system, based on their perceptions of how a given soundtrack sounded in the vehicle compared to how it sounded when played in a "globally standardized reference room," Busenitz explained. They describe their perceptions using a common set of terms. This "structured reference method" minimizes the impact of the listener's preferences or other biases, she added.

By comparison, B&O uses trained listeners who comment on "perceptual attributes" that describe how they perceive what they hear, said Geoff Martin, tonmeister (master of sound). Nearly all of their listening is done in the vehicle, and then Martin uses a listening room to tune the vehicle's sound system based on the listening team's perceptions, he explained. "We can determine how the brain maps sensory inputs," he said.

In this way, B&O correlates actual changes in the equalization of the sound system to perceptual changes among the listeners and determines what to pay attention to in the tuning process, Martin said. It is a technique used by the wine industry to correlate a person's perception of how a wine tastes to the content of the wine-and thus determine how to make a wine that tastes consistently the same from year to year, he said.

Harman/Becker uses trained listeners who give a "fidelity rating" to a vehicle's sound system, based on their perceptions of how a given soundtrack sounded in the vehicle compared to how it sounded when played in a "globally standardized reference room."
Meanwhile, Bose considers a live performance its sonic target, and uses both special listening rooms and vehicles to "try and replicate the feel of actually being in the room where the music is being performed," said John Pelliccio, manager of technical product marketing at Bose.

There are philosophical and practical differences among automakers, too. For example, Volvo "voices" or tunes the audio system in each of its vehicles, said Hans Lahti, technical specialist for audio at Volvo Cars in Gothenburg, Sweden. "That is quite unique among car makers," Lahti said. "All the other car makers let the suppliers do that." In addition, he said, Volvo writes all of a vehicle's system control software-the basis of the user interface-in-house, and chooses to use different components from different suppliers rather than taking all of the components in a system from one supplier.

Still, "we take great care in choosing who supplies our components to foster a long-term relationship" that is mutually beneficial, Lahti said. Volvo has long used Dynaudio speakers as well as Alpine headunits and, in the new C70 hardtop convertible launched this spring, ICEpower class-D digital amplifiers.

BMW, too, develops unique audio technologies for its vehicles, noted Edgar Kirk, manager of audio systems development at BMW AG in Munich, Germany. He points, for instance, to BMW's patented "centerbase" concept, used in most of the company's vehicles to deliver bass to both the front- and rear-seat occupants by installing a woofer in a special sill under each front seat; there is no subwoofer.
But BMW also works closely with its audio company partners, Kirk said. He noted that there are Harman/Becker engineers at BMW headquarters-and others from additional audio partners Philips and Lear-who sit at BMW's computer-aided design (CAD) machines and implement their components directly into a new vehicle's electronics system.

Recently BMW added another partner to its stable: THX. In April, BMW announced that it is the second company after Ford to receive THX certification for a sound system-the premium sound system offered with the new Z4 Roadster and Coupe, which are at dealerships now. BMW also is the first European automaker to receive THX certification, Kirk noted.

UNIQUE RESULTS
Out of all of these collaborations between automakers and audio companies have come some ground-breaking innovations.

Besides the debuts of Dolby ProLogic in the Volvo C70 and of DVD-A in the Acura TL years ago, for example, there was the development of the first fully digital car audio system by Harman/Becker and Mercedes-Benz. It debuted in January in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Moreover, B&O's premium sound system for Audi is the first car audio system to use the same "acoustic lens" technology found in B&O's BeoLab 5 home speakers. Licensed from Sausalito Audio Works of Novato, Calif., the technology is used in tweeters that rise up from the top of the dashboard to keep the sound imaging at eye-level for the front-seat listeners, Martin said.

An optional THX II-certified sound system in the 2006 Lincoln Zephyr - which THX helped Ford to design - features an innovative speaker array in the dashboard, above the center console, explained Laurie Fincham, chief scientist at THX and head of the THX certified car audio program. The speaker array contains three speakers and three amplifier channels and works to raise the sound stage, Fincham said.

THE ROAD AHEAD
Of course, what is leading edge in audio today will be passe five years from now. So audio companies like Harman/Becker maintain road maps that predict technology developments and consumer preferences that far out, and revise those roadmaps every two or three years, Muzio said. The goal is to keep the audio systems in vehicles at the forefront of technology.

From start to finish, a new vehicle-including the audio system-may take between two and five years to bring to market, with all-new vehicles taking longer to develop than a mid-life refresh to an existing vehicle.

Automakers get similar guidance from audio technology standard bearers such as Dolby, notes Martin Lindsay, director of technical marketing for automotive at Dolby Automotive in San Francisco.

And automakers themselves send executives to the International CES, to glimpse the future of home audio and relate it to the vehicles they are planning.

"The state of the art in automotive sound systems continues to evolve. Materials, signal processing and tuning techniques keep getting better and better," Pelliccio said. "But we still have work to do. Until I can sit in a car, close my eyes, and be convinced that I'm sitting in the eleventh row at Carnegie Hall, we aren't done." V

By Robert E. Calem
July/August 2006