10 Weirdest Interior, Exterior Design Details
The EX30's audio setup would be pretty standard for a living room, but it’s rather unusual for a car. The base model comprises a soundbar with three speakers stashed where the windshield meets the dashboard, along with a subwoofer up front for added oomph. But that’s it — there are no rear drivers. For that, you’ll have to step up to a Harman/Kardon package that adds two more speakers to the front bar, one in each rear door and a rear sub to complement the one behind the dash.
Advertisement
I wish I could tell you how either arrangement sounded, but Volvo wasn’t conducting demos on site despite my begging. There’s a lot of sense to it, though. Modern spatial audio technology can do a lot without physically placing channels around the listener, and of course the benefit to tailoring a system like this for a car is that you always know exactly where your audience will be sitting. Plus, having the bulk of your speakers (or all of them, in the case of the base model) in one place cuts down on wiring and general complexity, further saving cost. It’s a promising idea, but we’ll have to wait until a chance to actually drive the EX30 to find out whether it meets the hype.
Source: Jalopnik
