Volkswagen is the second car company to dump Dynaudio as a premium-audio partner. The other being Dyn's fellow Scandinavians Volvo. But whereas Volvo's replacement was a lackluster no-name sound system that debuted in the S60, VW is launching its all-new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle by hooking up with guitar icon Fender.
I got a chance to listen to the new 9-speaker, 400-watt Fender setup in a 2012 Beetle on the VW stand at the New York Auto Show. While it wasn't the ideal environment -- with pesky photographers opening and closing doors and a suspiciously familiar camera crew ruining the background of my pic above, the quick listen did give an indication of what we can expect the system to sound like in the production version.
First a disclaimer: I've heard several sound systems that had been tuned for a show and sounded stellar on the stand but less so in the real world. And I know that the folks at Panasonic, the company that supplies the hardware for the Fender setup as well as for Acura's ELS systems, tweaked this one to perfection. I was also not able to use my own test tunes, but rather ones that they already had loaded into the hard drive -- another tip off that the system was a ringer.
But a very impressive one. On Stevie Ray Vaughn's smokin' version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," the guitar was sharp and strong, without the ear-searing quality that some systems have. And the drums were realistic, with palpable impact. Similarly, on a version of Bill Wither's "Use Me" by Chicago blues great Junior Wells, the drums and bass were tight and lifelike, and the low-end from the beat-up looking sub in the hatch was solid. The soundstage spanned wide across the dash and then some, but the vocal image on Sting's "Englishman in New York" was noticeably side-biased.
At first blush, the VW-Fender mashup makes beautiful music. I can't wait to take on the road, where the two brands have built their respective reputations.
bankerdanny says:
12:16 PM, 04/22/11
I have no idea what it actually sounds like, but the Fender logo on the door speaker looks awesome.
magbarn says:
02:02 PM, 04/26/11
Please Edmunds/Insideline: Bring back the audiophile reviews that used to be present with every comparo and full test drive! I used to look forward to those reviews.