![]() The system was set to 3D-Sound, but there was also an option for Pure, which, as the name implies, sounded far more natural. I knew something was not neutral about this setup and poked around to find a series of “Personal Sound Profile” presets. Once the system was on, the music was immediately pumping, but it also had an exaggerated, out-of-phase quality reminiscent of an Eighties boombox. To my shame, he got things sorted in seconds. After getting completely lost and momentarily blasting the Sirius MSNBC channel at about one billion decibels, shocking everyone’s ears, Road & Track contributing editor (and They Might Be Giants longtime manager and my driver for this experiment) Jamie Kitman took command of the controls and zeroed in on the task at hand. Trying to set up the Bluetooth, I fumbled with the screen, cascading from the hieroglyphs of a graphical interface to proper words for a couple of minutes. Like virtually all of today’s high-end systems, the Burmester’s interface is incorporated into a centrally mounted touchscreen. The Burmester sports a whopping 30 speakers, including five subwoofers, two amplifiers, and a total of 1750 watts of power. ![]() The system is a $6730 option on the less opulent non-Maybach S-class. This bedazzled sedan comes standard with the Burmester High-End 4D Surround Sound system, and well it should since the car’s base price nears $200,000. I connected my iPhone to each vehicle via Bluetooth.įirst up was the 2022 Mercedes-Maybach S580. Not exactly FLAC-format lossless files, but quite respectable sounds. The test audio files were downloaded from Spotify in the highest-quality setting. I listened to all songs while on the road. I used a fixed playlist to audition in each car and set all the systems to neutral EQ, which is to say, no treble or bass boosting, as best I could control. In comparing these systems, my goal was to be consistent and systematic. One could assume the cars’ manufacturers are not cutting corners in their quest to achieve stellar audio for their customers. It’s in this rarefied segment of the vehicle market that the battle for audio supremacy is fiercest, with manufacturers stuffing their cars with dozens of speakers, bewildering digital-manipulation programming, and the most elite audio brand names available. All have extraordinary appointments and the smoothest of rides with the quietest of engines. For our consideration, we have three luxury vehicles: a Mercedes-Maybach, a Range Rover, and a Rolls-Royce. Yet despite these nagging truths, the popularity of windows in cars endures. Glass is about the most unkind material for sonic quality, reflecting rather than absorbing sound, so designers typically minimize its use in acoustic spaces. It’s not the size of the interior or the relatively small speakers, but, according to these hi-fi know-it-alls, it’s the windows. These vehicles all price out well above my paygrade, so I was not shopping! But for the readers always curious about an honest shootout or for those who have the means to become the custodians of these singular whips, this is for you.Īudio engineers report that cars are among the worst places to achieve quality sound reproduction. So I am here to do some close listening and guide you through a highly subjective aural taste test of three audio-tuned new cars. We now typically play theaters, and we travel in a big old tour bus, each of us wearing earbuds, cocooned from one another, listening to our own podcasts, audiobooks, and Spotify accounts. ![]() We are still making albums (even vinyl records!), and we’re still crisscrossing America. This story originally appeared in Volume 15 of Road & Track.įast-forward 35 years, and I’m still in the same band, now eight musicians strong. We spent a lot of time driving and listening, even though our entertainment options were confined to our slapdash mixtapes, trucker-song compilations, and, of course, the radio. countless times from the mid-Eighties to the early Nineties, working the microcircuit of nightclubs friendly to the “college rock” sound. My musical partner John Linnell and I played as a duo in New York for a few years, but things got hectic when a few of our no-budget videos sneaked into heavy rotation alongside peak Whitney Houston and the inevitable Rick Astley on MTV. As a young adult in the mid-Eighties, I made the lateral move from Walkman-addicted subway commuter to full-time long-distance hauler touring with They Might Be Giants. When it comes to listening to music in moving vehicles, I know of what I speak. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |