Volvo has partnered with Bowers & Wilkins to provide the in-car audio for the S90 sedan.
The Bowers & Wilkins Audio System is tuned to the S90’s interior audio signature, and features a number of Bowers & Wilkins technologies including the tweeter-on-top design. Physically separating a tweeter from the confines of a speaker cabinet delivers clearer treble, which becomes most noticeable in vocals. All the tweeters are derived from Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus speakers – spiraling diffusion channels on the rear of the speakers soak up reflected sound to reduce resonance.
“With tweeter-on-top technology, more of the signal reaches the listener directly from the tweeter. So the S90 system sounds incredibly tangible and lifelike,” said Stuart Nevill, Bowers & Wilkins’ head of engineering.
The speakers include Bowers & Wilkins’ yellow Kevlar 100mm midrange drivers, visible but protected by a grille designed for acoustic openness. The S90 features a total of 19 speakers driven by a Class D amplifier for a total of 1,400 Watts of power. Each speaker is placed and tuned to match the interior acoustics of the car.
Specifications:
- 12-channel Class D amplifier
- Quantum Logic DSP with signal extraction, reverb extraction and spatial filtering
- 7.1 playback from mono, stereo and/or multichannel input
19 loudspeakers:
- 4 x 25mm Nautilus tweeters (front & rear doors)
- 2 x 100mm Kevlar cone midranges (front doors)
- 2 x 80mm Kevlar cone midranges (rear doors)
- 4 x 170mm long throw woofers (front & rear doors)
- 1 x two-way 100mm midrange/ 25mm tweeter units (dashboard)
- 2 x two-way 80mm midrange/ 25mm tweeter units (rear roof panel)
