Las Vegas - Jan 9, 2013 A unique three-way industry cooperation between Bang & Olufsen, Audi and Fraunhofer IIS has produced a concept car that redefines expectations from car audio. An Audi Q7 with new 3D audio technology was unveiled at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System is already available as an optional feature in the Audi Q7. The Concept Car at the CES demonstrates how the next generation of the Advanced Sound System redefines what buyers can expect from an in-car audio system.

Denis Credé, head of sound system development at Audi, said, "We believe that the introduction of 3D movies has helped to define the next major step forward for in-car sound systems: the reproduction of music in the third dimension. The 3D acoustic dimension of music recordings is reproduced more naturally and more inspirationally than ever through 3D sound. This produces an airiness and openness of the acoustics that corresponds to human hearing."

With the push of a button on the Audi Multi Media Interface, the user can adjust the settings and produce an individual level of 3D intensity. The concept car has 23 active loudspeakers and more than 1500W of amplifier power, driven by a new 23-channel DSP Most amplifier. The speaker locations:
■ Two loudspeakers in the dashboard center (tweeter and broadband)
■ Two tweeters in the dashboard (left/right) with acoustic lens technology
■ One mid-high loudspeaker in each A pillar
■ One tweeter in each A (front) pillar
■ Two loudspeakers in each front door with a woofer and a midrange
■ Three loudspeakers in each rear door with a woofer, midrange and a tweeter
■ Two surround loudspeakers in each D (rear) pillar, consisting of a tweeter and broadband

All loudspeakers are covered by high-grade aluminum grilles. In addition, the two dashboard speakers use Bang & Olufsen's patented acoustic lens technology for accurate sound reproduction.