Yes I’m still writing up bits I saw at the Stuff/What Hifi show and this deserves a paragraph.

You may be familiar with Dynaudio from their HiFi speaker background. They’ve recently teamed up with a number of car manufacturers to offer premium stereo upgrades on new models.

They were at the show demonstrating what they’ve managed to do with the new VW Passat and it was very impressive indeed. If you get the chance to sit in their demonstrator at any shows you visit, do so! (And if you’re in the market for a new passat, do yourself a favour and spend the extra money on the upgrade)

Dynaudio ripped out the standard speakers and replaced them with 4 woofers, 2 midrange drivers and 4 tweeters placed strategically around the cabin. They then designed a 600 watt RMS amplifier to drive the beasts and directed 3/4 of that power into the woofers and midrange.

They also put some fancy equalisation and time aligning electronics in the loop to ensure that the sound is precicely tailored to the cabin of the car.

Interestingly there’s no subwoofer in the design but you wouldn’t know that to listen to it. To say it sounds better than the standard stereo is something of an understatement. It is the best standard fit car stereo I’ve ever heard, and it’s completely stealthy. No huge speakers sitting on the parcel shelf, no massive subwoofer taking up your boot space - to the casual observer the stereo is no different to the normal model.

It costs something like £750 for the upgrade when you buy the car, which in quality car stereo land is really not that much (visit one of the specialist shows on that subject if you don’t believe me!) and you save the hassle of having to get 3rd party components fitted.

The official line is here
http://www.dynaudio.de/eng/auto/passat.php?sid=437a30562a72a