Dolby Atmos in Mercedes cars builds on a mind-bogglingly powerful audio system - Hindustan Times
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Dolby Atmos in Mercedes cars builds on a mind-bogglingly powerful audio system

Oct 28, 2021 07:44 PM IST

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it is now one of the few carmakers in the world to have been able to integrate Dolby Atmos audio into the in-car audio experience for a range of its cars

The latest cars out there are quickly imbibing the tech that’s there in your smartphone. One automaker is going even further. Its cars could soon give you the home theatre experience. Sounds good, isn’t it?

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it is now one of the few carmakers in the world to have been able to integrate Dolby Atmos audio into the in-car audio experience for a range of its cars. (By arrangement)
Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it is now one of the few carmakers in the world to have been able to integrate Dolby Atmos audio into the in-car audio experience for a range of its cars. (By arrangement)

German automaker Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it is now one of the few carmakers in the world to have been able to integrate Dolby Atmos audio into the in-car audio experience for a range of its cars.

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Dolby Atmos is a surround sound audio standard developed by US audio company Dolby. The audio upgrades start rolling out for Mercedes cars globally next year.

It makes Mercedes the second carmaker to integrate this audio tech in their cars after Lucid Motors confirmed a similar upgrade for its range of luxury electric vehicles (EVs) in March.

The pursuit for finer details

The specifics of the Mercedes audio systems that will add on the Dolby Atmos upgrade make for interesting reading. It will be available with the German audio giant Burmester’s high-end 4D and 3D sound system, which is optional in some models in the line-up.

These systems have 31 speakers in total, including six speakers tuned for 3D sound that are placed higher than the passengers. There are four speakers, called near-ear, the front seats, and a total of eight transducers, which are placed as two-per-seat. This system has two amplifiers and an 18.5-litre subwoofer, with the rated power of 1750-watts.

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There is little doubt that an audio system as powerful as this will be primed to deliver the finest of details in the music you listen to, particularly with the high-resolution audio files.

The addition of the Dolby Atmos layer adds a width to the sound that gives the listener a more vivid sense of the direction the sound, or a particular element in a track, is coming from.

Unlike traditional surround sound systems that further tweak the left and right audio channel streams, Dolby Atmos ready music can by default include a lot more streams of data for a system’s algorithms to process.

Mercedes and Dolby confirmed that the Maybach and the S-Class vehicles that already have this system will get the update first, followed by other cars in their portfolio.

“With Dolby Atmos and the Burmester sound system, we offer our customers an exciting music experience in the vehicle that is almost like a live concert,” says Britta Seeger, member of the board of management at Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG.

“The integration of Dolby Atmos into the S-Class and the Mercedes-Maybach will offer an additional superior feature to customers, whether they are in the driving seat or a passenger,” says John Couling, senior vice-president for commercial partnerships at Dolby Laboratories. Mercedes confirmed that other models that have the new MBUX infotainment system will get the Dolby Atmos upgrade as well.

A format that is catching on

Even though we have had surround sound formats for years, Dolby Atmos, which was first introduced in 2012, builds on the sound envelope experience with speakers placed at a higher point - near the ceilings in a room and near the roof in a case of a car.

This may not always be possible at home, which is why we have seen Dolby Atmos implemented in home theatre hardware such as soundbars and speaker systems, which tweaked the placement of the audio drivers to a more upward-facing alignment.

Dolby Atmos making further inroads into the mobility space comes at a time when the audio standard is becoming commonly available with music streaming platforms.

Apple Music rolled out the Dolby Atmos spatial audio support along with lossless audio formats for all users earlier this year, including in India. Hungama Music also offers music streaming with Dolby Atmos enabled,

Globally, Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal have also integrated this audio format as part of the music streaming and subscription plans.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Vishal Mathur is Technology Editor for Hindustan Times. When not making sense of technology, he often searches for an elusive analog space in a digital world.

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