Luxury brands have paired with high-end audio companies before -- Lexus with Mark Levinson, Lincoln with THX, Acura with ELS. Now Bentley's collaboration with Naim is proving that even automakers in the luxury stratosphere feel the need to partner with an established audio company.
Bentley Continental GTC convertible
Naim, a name you probably haven't heard if you aren't a hard-core audiophile, is a British manufacturer of very high-end hand made stereo equipment. According to Bentley this system is the "world's best", but we would like to be the judge of that.
In designing the systems, Naim ran acoustic tests of each Bentley model, coming up with unique speaker configurations for each. The Bentley Continental gets 15 speakers, while the Arnage, Azure, and Brooklands get 11 speakers each. That falls short of the 19 speakers in the Lexus LS600h, if you want to compare numbers. The Naim speakers include 25mm tweeters, 80mm and 130mm mids, and 200mm twin subwoofers.
Although Lexus might use more speakers, Bentley gets honours for the most powerful amp built into a production car. The 1,100-watt Naim amp uses a six layer double-sided circuit board to allow for a compact design, necessary for any in-car components. Naim also claims a next-generation digital signal processor (DSP), with the DSP adjusting the equaliser levels for each 1km/h change in speed. And on Bentley's convertibles, it adjusts the equaliser depending on whether the top is down or up. Finally, you can choose from eight DSP modes, from the default "audiophile" setting to one specifically designed for digital media, such as MP3s.
jarrodsplace
26/02/2008 06:03 PM
B&O are in Audi and soon to be in Aston Martin. The B&O will still be better than the Naim For the record the B&O system in the A8 has 1200w of amplifier power. With a seperate amp for each driver and each driver is enclosed in it's own sealed speaker box.
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terry
10/03/2008 02:11 AM
Just a point of note that the B&O amp is 1000W peak power the bentley delivers 1100W continuous power fed by a 90A power supply. I heard it at geneva and it is the best bar none (including B&O)
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