Bowers & Wilkins has long been well-known in the car audio industry, and the B&W logo has become a symbol of the musical prowess of many luxury brands. As a car brand that has always been known for safety, is the combination of Volvo and Bowers & Wilkins a "match made in heaven" or a "chaotic mandarin duck"?
In order to verify this problem, in this test, we found a Volvo XC60 with a guide price of more than 600,000 to find the answer! This test model is T8 Zhiya luxury version, and the car machine version is 2.14.4, let's take a look at the overall performance first:
As the top-of-the-line model in the range, the Volvo XC60 we tested is equipped with a total of 15 speakers, including a special FAS woofer, located on the left side of the trunk, with a maximum power of 1100 watts.
The Volvo XC60 speakers aren't hard to find, but there are only 14 more visible sound covers in the whole car, which is due to the fact that it is equipped with a FAS (Fresh Air Subwoofer) speaker in the trunk.
These speakers do not require cut-outs and do not take up too much space in the car. By maintaining circulation with the outside air, the external environment can become the resonance box of the vehicle, and a better low-frequency effect can be achieved.
Woofers: Regular woofers on the underside of the four doors and FAS speakers on the left side of the trunk, a total of 5
Midrange speakers: four doors on the upper side and two sides on the upper side of the C-pillar, plus one center, for a total of 7
Tweeters: 2 upper doors, plus 1 center, 3 in total
In terms of DSP, the Volvo XC60 has a power of 1100W, and the measured decoding capability can achieve 7.1. According to the test, when the fixed sampling in the car is 70 decibels, the multimedia volume on the car side needs to be adjusted to about 55%.
In the decoding test, the top three test files were used, including an easter egg file with a hidden encoding format, a 7.1.4 file that exceeded the decoding specification, and a master tape with an ultra-high sampling rate.
In fact, the Volvo XC60 was able to read the list of files, but could not play them, and finally disappeared. Since this is only a stress test, it does not have a broad meaning, so it does not count as a result.
In terms of design, the overall design of the Volvo XC60 is more traditional, but the texture is excellent, with the "Nautilus" style tweeter and the looming front row sound hood design, which looks very textured.
During the test, we repeatedly sampled the vehicle's main driver's seat and the "boss seat" on the right side of the second row.
The ambient sound at the test site is 34.0db, insert the test music USB flash drive, play the powder noise source, sample in front of the steering wheel, adjust the volume to increase the sampling volume to 70db, and use it as the test volume. (*This volume is the sample volume of the speaker, which can give better play to the performance of the speaker, but do not use it while driving, it may affect hearing and driving safety for a long time) At the same time, we also recorded the test volume in the exterior mirror, and the ambient sound was 63bd. (Not currently available as test data)
During the test, we also encountered a small episode, that is, the Volvo models currently on sale generally do not support reading USB flash drives, and the 2024 Volvo XC60 tested this time is no exception.
We try to download the "Baidu Netdisk" through the application market, put the test file into the NetDisk and then play it through the car machine. However, due to the large test file, there were many times of playback lag during the test, and only part of the test could be performed. Therefore, the final decision was made to use Bluetooth Music (AAC on) to complete all tests, and the final score may be affected by Bluetooth transmission loss, which is hereby explained.
Let's take a look at the frequency response curve of the main driver's seat:
It can be seen that the audio performance of this set from Bowers & Wilkins is extremely linear, except for the ultra-low frequency and ultra-high frequency two bands with obvious fluctuations, the rest of the data performance is very beneficial, and the overall sound control is also particularly accurate, reflecting the strength of the old brand. Especially in the low-frequency section, thanks to the FAS speakers, the overall bass response is excellent, but in the treble section, perhaps due to the lack of the number of tweeters, the timbre does not appear so rich.
Let's take a look at the positioning performance of the sound field:
We set the soundstage to full car mode, with the default surround settings.
It can be seen that in terms of sound field performance, although there is no advantage in the number of speakers, each speaker of Bowers & Wilkins is very hard, and the overall sense of wrapping is very strong, but in the sound field positioning, it is a bit of a "rain and dew" taste, and the overall feeling is a bit of the middle.
Finally, let's take a look at the data sampled by the "boss seat" and compare it with the main driver's seat:
As you can see in the comparison chart, the rear row is obviously closer to the FAS speakers, which makes the bass performance more, and the mid-low frequency part has a lot of attenuation, and the midrange part maintains a high level as always, but the treble part also has a 17kHz cliff-like drop, which is likely to be caused by Bluetooth transmission.
The main driving soundstage
Boss soundstage
From the perspective of sound field positioning, the difference between the two is very good, but the overall feeling is in the middle, from this point of view, Bowers & Wilkins wants to build the car into a concert hall, and listeners in different positions will have different listening senses.
Next, let's take a look at the music ecology in the car:
In terms of music ecology, the default listening app of Volvo XC60 is "Tencent Aiqu Listening", and there is currently a "Kugou Music" available for download and use in HUAWEI AppGallery.
Among them, "Kugou Music" can support Hi-Res sound quality up to a certain extent, which can be regarded as making up for the regret of not being able to listen to private collections with a USB flash drive.
In terms of equalizer tuning, there are two main presets, namely "Concert Hall" and "Jazz Club", and after selecting the mode, the equalizer can also be fine-tuned, which is very British. In terms of surrounding, you can adjust the intensity and range of surrounding, and the interface is also very clear and easy to use.
Judging from the monetization of the equalizer, there is not much difference, only slight differences, so it seems that Bowers & Wilkins is more confident in its own tuning
Wrap around and open wide
Wrap around the whole level
After testing, it was found that although the setting interface was very clear, the difference in the surrounding settings was not as big as expected, and the overall strategy was still a stable strategy.
After listening to a number of tracks in the car, Volvo XC60's Bowers & Wilkins audio has a very solid skill, although the number of speakers is different from the Volvo XC90, which is higher in the family, but the listening experience in the car can still be described as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Especially when listening to the singer Jacky Cheung's "She Came to Listen to My Concert", it really gave me an urge to go to the concert!