Bentley and Naim partner for 'world's best in-car sound system'

The Bentley Brooklands gets an 11-speaker Naim audio system.

(Credit: Bentley Motors)

We have Lincoln and THX, Acura and ELS, Lexus and Mark Levinson, and now, Bentley and Naim. Even automakers in the stratosphere of luxury brands feel the need to partner with an established audio company. Naim, a name you probably haven't heard if you aren't a hard-core audiophile, is a British manufacturer of very high-end handmade stereo equipment. Bentley's press release claims this system is the "world's best", but we would like to be the judge of that. All we need is for Bentley to send us a car.

To design the systems, Naim ran acoustic tests of each Bentley model, coming up with unique speaker configurations for each. The Bentley Continental models get 15 speakers, while the Arnage, Azure, and Brooklands get 11 speakers each. That falls short of the 19 speakers in the Lexus LS 600h, if you want to compare numbers. The Naim speakers include 25mm tweeters, 80mm and 130mm mids, and 200mm twin subwoofers.

The Naim amplifier pumps out 1,100 watts.

(Credit: Bentley Motors)

Although Lexus might use more speakers, Bentley gets honors for the most powerful amp built into a production car. The 1,100-watt Naim amp uses a six layer double-sided circuit board to allow for a compact design, necessary for any in-car components. Naim also claims a next-generation digital signal processor (DSP), whatever next generation might mean in this context. But some of its specifications are very interesting. The DSP adjusts the equalizer levels for each 1 kilometer per hour change in speed. And on the convertibles, it adjusts the equalizer depending on whether the top is down or up. Finally, you can choose from eight DSP modes, from the default "Audiophile" setting to one specifically designed for digital media, such as MP3s.

[Zmeister22]

You should also check out the Lexicon system in Rolls Royce. It has been their exclusive system for years... until now. You can find a 17 speaker surround sound Lexicon system in the new 2009 Hyundai Genesis V-8 Premium sedan.

[Bonerfleximus]

The systems being released factory with many cars has improved over the last few years yet still fall far short from aftermarket installed systems. For a mere $500 you can leave in your factory head unit and install an aftermarket amplifyer and a full set of 6 (2 component sets and 2 3-ways in the rear deck) to get sound quality far surpassing even that of these "1100 watt 17 speaker sound systems". <br /><br />The systems that come factory with any car are typically made from paper and rely on giving relatively low amounts of power to a higher number of lesser quality speakers to produce their sound.<br /><br />I'd rather buy a car with a stock stereo and pay $500 to upgrade to sound that is better than pay an extra $1000 for a "premium factory sound system" that will wear out faster and provide lesser quality sound.

[peter.mortensen]

If car companies really spent the effort on tweaking the acoustics of a cars speaker system they could reach much higher performance levels. Car cabins are usually very far from the ideal acoustical environment so achieving good audio isn't that trivial.<br />When I bought my car I got it with a premium Bose system and it provides a fairly transparent sound, loud maximum volume and quite reasonably flat frequency response incl. low bass performance. I can also do a sine wave sweep at high volume from 40Hz and up without hearing all the panels going through their resonance frequencies. <br />One of the best performing audio systems in cars are those in the high end cars from Audio: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.bang-olufsen.com/audi/" target="_newWindow">http://www.bang-olufsen.com/audi/</a><br />A lot of engineering is behind the audio quality in those cars.<br />The difference between just "throwing some standard radio and speaker parts" into a car versus truly tweaking all the important parameters is huge. Anybody can buy some powerful standard subwoofer and make the car shake and vibrate like crazy but that has nothing to do with good audio quality.

[make_or_break]

Ugh...so now Naim is at it as well. What's next, iPod-centric components? <br /><br />I was fairly disgusted when Harmon first started tossing about the Mark Levinson brand for Lexus; swore I'd never touch my old Levinson amps again, and actually I didn't until I finally sold them. Now this. Well, at least Naim is keeping it in-country, even if Bentley does have a hint of Teutonic flavoring courtesy of VW. And I admit that frankly I don't think I can swear off my old, still sweet-sounding Naim cd player as easily as I discarded my Levinsons (the real reason why I 'parked' the Levinsons was my ever blossoming love affair with tubes...but because of the coincidental timing I like to blame Toyota/Lexus instead).

[andrewcharleshuff]

before this product was launched I bought a car <a href="http://www.minispeakers.co.uk/shop/detail-cardockcharger-00106-.html">ipod dock</a> to use in my car. a colleague of mine was saying. that this naim audio system is good enough.

[bgts]

Has anyone heard the Naim system on a Bentley GT? There is no bass when the trunk is closed. Once you open up the trunk the system comes alive? Bentley states that's how it is suppose to work. Anyone facing the same issue?