A wheel pleasure
Car audio was once the poor stepchild of home stereo systems. While your sofa could masquerade as a sixth-row-centre orchestra seat, your vehicle offered a utilitarian, staticky AM radio which vied with engine rumble, traffic noise and battered road surfaces. But lately, cars have gained theatre-worthy audio features of their own, driven by advances in noise cancellation, signal processing and a push to install more speakers in the cabin. At the high end of the market, car manufacturers have been positively cramming in those speakers: Audi offers a Bang & Olufsen 3D sound system that puts out 1,920 watts of sound through 23 speakers; Ranger Rover rocks a 28-speaker, 1,700-watt Meridian system; the Mercedes Maybach S 580 contains a Burmester 4D surround-sound system with 30 speakers and two resonators in each seat, intended to make you feel as if you’re sitting
