Editorial March 2025

March 2025

I am not sure what happened to February but that just disappeared. An Audi also happened as promised and that’s covered under a separate post. To say clinical and utterly ruthless as a description of the car is an understatement if anything. Think of really good heaphones – just not on your head but delivering a sound stage and presenting a measure of depth to music that is very much more in your face than a traditional room based system. Sitting with your speakers really close up also doesn’t quite fully describe it but the way that system deciphers music is quite unlike much that I have heard before. It’s DSP at a level that is unsettling and although I’m not sure I enjoyed the experience it just goes to show how much is still to be learned in this fascinating hobby.

I cannot wait to listen to more cars critically. Whilst ‘standard’ systems such as the McIntosh in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee or the Naim in the Bentley Continental evoke impressions of delivering far above expectations amongst the best in ‘as fitted’ OEM capacity they are all constrained to a far higher degree, for obvious reasons. Boot space, wiring, panel deadening being just a few. It also goes to show the distances that can be undertaken to deliver music in ways most unexpected.

And with news just in on this topic I see that the new Volvo ES-90 ups the ante with a 25 speaker B&W system fitted. Hmmmm….

More on the car front will unfold as it unfolds. In the meantime keep in listening, and don’t forget that music, despite the recording is there to be enjoyed. So do so!

William Kelly

Publisher