Mercedes-Benz and Apple Unite For An Immersive Sound Experience
Mercedes-Benz Teams Up With Apple
It’s something you have to hear to believe. Deriving from a new collaboration with Apple Music and Universal Music Group, announced last month (October 2022), Mercedes-Benz is confident that they have the best sound experience of any vehicle on the market.
First, the new standard hardware on the luxury brand’s Maybach S-Class and available S-Class is an incredibly unique touch to these models. The 4D advancement from the company’s current Burmester Premium 3D sound system consists of 31 speakers and two transducers in each seat (totaling 8), which will invigorate occupants as the music radiates through their bodies. It also comes with two amplifiers, a large 18.5-liter subwoofer, and a flaunting 1,750 watts of power. There are six 3D speakers floating music from above and two speakers near the headrests of each front seat.
One reviewer from Motor Authority said that in a demo, piano notes “danced inside the cabin” and twirled around the corners of the vehicle. There were even finger snaps on the song “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.” Overall, it seemed like an incredibly immersive experience.
“This doesn’t capture its true capability, but a demo of “Boom” in Mercedes’s new Burmester 4D sound with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos suspends the listener in sound waves. It’s next level.” According to one of Duffer’s Twitter posts.
This immersive music experience sets “a new bar for how music should be heard in the car,” said Kevin Yeaman, President, and CEO of Dolby Laboratories.
Based on the latest survey by the automaker (1,750 people in five countries), the car is made almost like an old-school Walkman. More than 70 percent of regular music listeners say they primarily listen to their favorite tunes in the car, and realistic sound quality is highly important to over 76 percent of respondents.
This realistic spatial sound is made possible by infusing Apple’s Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. As Dolby explained, this system uses a three-dimensional sound field to tack on extra space, clarity, and depth to the sound. It also does well in delivering music to the ears of the listener as it would when the artist initially cut the track. Rather than shifting sound left or right as in conventional stereo, Atmos allows for an infinite range of moving sound.
“Spatial Audio is revolutionizing the way artists create and fans listen to music, and it’s an experience that is impossible to explain in words; you have to hear it for yourself to appreciate it,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats.
The collaboration with Apple signifies the first time that the essence of sound is made available in a device not owned by Apple. Owners of Mercedes-Benz who are already subscribed to Apple Music will also have access to the extensive portfolio of music available in Spatial Audio with Dolby.
Universal’s involvement in the alliance comes from the musical source. “UMG are enabling their recording artists to base their song approval process on how the final mix sounds in a Mercedes-Benz and introduce the seal ‘Approved in a Mercedes-Benz’ as a gold standard of sound,” Mercedes said.
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