Top-end & hi-fi alliance.

Mar 10, 2007 09:39 GMT  ·  By

There are great things on Earth but even greater things can come in when the first ones combine. Having two leading brands which already provide extreme class and quality products combined usually results in something which is easily transcending the usual "top gear".

Thus, putting together Jaguar and Bowers & Wilkins results in some pure British excellence display: personally, I am a huge fan of English cars, be them the old Rolls or the McLaren F1. As for B&W, you don't have to be an audiophile to understand the superior technology they deliver to the world. It's quite hard for me to decide where my appreciation should go first: the car or the sound...

Nevertheless, I have to write about the sound: Bowers & Wilkins are at their premiere in what production audio systems are concerned. If the Bowers & Wilkins experience had been so far reserved for studio and home users only, now, the Jaguar customers will be able to access it as well, in the XKR and CXF models.

For the mid-range, the B&W Kevlar speakers were by far the most obvious and expected choice yet the company has tested around 40 design prototypes until the final piece was found and everybody agreed with it. Even further extensive tests have been made at the B&W headquarters to ensure that the clarity of the sound and the lack of distorted output suffice the very high expectations.

Aluminum was chosen for tweeters as this is today's best technology when it comes to reproducing shimmering, crystal-clear high frequencies. Aluminum dome tweeters have been laser re-tested to make sure once more that they really complied with all the possible conditions. And they did!

In order for you to form a more complete idea on what sound design really means when it comes to Bowers & Wilkins, I'll tell you some things about how they solved the sound management problems. First of all, a car is completely different from the quiet, static home environment. Cars move and they move fast on various surfaces and this causes a lot of unwanted of perturbing effects, especially vibrations and noises. B&W took notice of that and besides the laboratory tests, they have developed extensive on-the-road testing sessions, at different speeds and on different surfaces.

Why? Just to find the most appropriate EQ for the diverse travel conditions imaginable, from low-speed cityscapes to hi-speed, open cockpit, highway runs. See now the difference between these (at least) two? Well, despite the difficulty of combining these 2 extremes, Bowers & Wilkins settled for three EQ settings which (they say) are the best anyone could ever want in a car.

Looks like the 18 months Jaguar and Bowers & Wilkins worked together were crowned with a truly rewarding result as both car manufacturer and the sound gear designer were equally satisfied; and believe me, if such two hi-end producers are content, this means the customers will be amazed!

Jaguars equipped with Bowers & Wilkins sound will become available in late July this year and the B&W is a standard in all XKR Portofolio Jags. And yeah, I salute the birth of the Bowers & Wilkins Automotive Group - I can't wait to see what's next...

Photo Gallery (10 Images)

The Jaguar logo
Jaguar B&W detailAt the back of the car
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