Volvo Cars teams up with Bowers & Wilkins for the all new 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 joined forces 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.

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 XC90 uses our tweeter-on-top technology, which has a number of advantages in the automotive environment. Fundamentally it increases the ratio of direct to reflected sound, as more of the signal reaches the listener directly from the tweeter, rather than reflecting off the windscreen first. All of this means that the Bowers & Wilkins audio system in the XC90 sounds incredibly tangible and lifelike," said Stuart Nevill, Head of Engineering, Bowers & Wilkins.

The system comprises of a 12-channel HARMAN 1,400W Class D amplifier serving a total of 19 Bowers & Wilkins speakers - seven Nautilus tweeters (25mm) with the latest treble technology, seven midrange speakers (5x100mm and 2x80mm) with the characteristic yellow Bowers & Wilkins Kevlar cone clearly visible behind the cover, four cone woofers (200/165 mm) and the new, groundbreaking air-ventilated subwoofer (250mm).

Volvo Cars decided that Bowers & Wilkins was its ideal partner. The U.K. firm was established in 1966 by two friends who shared an obsession to build the perfect loud speaker. This heritage has created a globally respected high-end audio company, renowned for its technological innovations, many of which have been incorporated into the new XC90.