Jaguar C-XF audio technology
It’s one thing to master the art of delivering an impeccable sound experience at home. It’s another to transfer that mastery to a moving, vibrating, compact shell with next to no room for drive units, let alone cabinets. But Bowers & Wilkins loves a challenge. Our pursuit of one challenge in particular has driven all our technological advances and design solutions. After 45 years, we are closer than anyone to creating the perfect loudspeaker; one that neither adds nor takes away from the original performance. Today, the world-leading innovations and expertise we’ve developed can be applied to a no-compromise in-car audio system. So, whatever’s going on outside, inside you can enjoy the crystalline clarity and driving power of the very best Bowers & Wilkins speaker systems. Sound that will make you feel at home, wherever you are.
Micro Matrix
A good example of an original Bowers & Wilkins technology or principle that has been adapted for in-car use is Micro Matrix™. In our conventional speaker systems, a set of interlocking ribs and beams brace the cabinet from the inside. By reducing the internal space to a series of independent, shock-absorbing cells, they add strength to the outer shell, reducing vibration which, in a speaker, can seriously affect performance. Micro Matrix™ does the equivalent job. The patented system comprises dashboard and rear deck panels made up of thousands of twinkling, honeycomb-like cells into which the tweeters and midrange drive units are set. Lightweight but remarkably stiff, the aluminium structure makes a dramatic difference to the damping characteristics of the panel, soaking up vibration like a sponge.
Bass Beam subwoofer
One of the biggest challenges of rethinking in-car audio is the issue of bass – how to make it big enough without resorting to cabinets that take over the car interior or block the view of the traffic behind. We think we’ve found the answer. Located along the bottom edge of each of the front doors is a discreet new development in bass reproduction: Bowers & Wilkins’s Bass Beam low-frequency drive units. By utilizing the long, shallow geometry of the door, the Bass Beam design is able to efficiently move a large volume of air. This helps to deliver the kind of up-front bass that characterizes only the best automotive entertainment systems. Your eyes won’t notice it; your ears certainly will.
Nautilus diamond dome tweeters
Diamond is the hardest natural material known to man. It can slice through stone and metal, and grind glass. And it gets closest to the properties of the hypothetical ideal material for a tweeter dome, which are infinite stiffness and zero mass. When we ran computer simulations of the performance of aluminium and diamond domes, the latter’s perfect piston-like behaviour continued far further up the frequency scale. All we had to do was make one. For that, we went to the world’s leading industrial diamond producer, whose chemical vapour deposition technique involves crystallising a ‘carbon frost’ into the shape of the dome at temperatures approaching those of the sun’s surface. When we heard it, it matched all our predictions, following the ideal response profile well beyond human hearing.
Wide dispersion driver
Traditionally, the driver has had the best seat for sound in cars. Passengers have had to make do with second and even third best. Those days are over. Bowers & Wilkins’s solution is a distribution of sound that gives everyone a fair hearing. Passengers in back of the Jaguar C-XF will notice a trio of small speakers above their heads. This array, controlled by digital signal processing, can be set to ‘steer’ the sound toward the rear occupants, producing extraordinary image clarity and height. This unique arrangement delivers optimum staging and sound directionality without distracting the those in front. Don’t let the small size fool you; these speakers are full-range. To complete the surround sound system, the wide dispersion drivers integrated into the rear deck speaker panel are designed to produce uniform off-axis response, overcoming the problems that are usually part-and-parcel of direct-radiating speakers placed behind listeners’ heads.
More to explore
Jaguar XJ
"The most extraordinary audio system ever to be integrated into the interior of a production car."
Jaguar XJ
Jaguar XF
XF drivers can experience staggeringly rich, dynamic sound quality, thanks to the Bowers & Wilkins audio system.
Jaguar XF
Jaguar XK
Bowers & Wilkins audio performance in a stunning automobile - a breathtaking combination.
Jaguar XK
Jaguar C-X75
The C-X75 concept is both a celebration of 75 years of iconic Jaguar design and a look into the future of automotive technology.
Jaguar C-X75 Concept Car