Audi S8: The imperial battle cruiser

We found a nice, audio heavy, review of the Audi S8 and its Bang&Olufsen sound system. A very interesting and enjoying read!

Today, I'm driving Audi's imperial battle cruiser, the S8 — an aluminum-bodied, laser-welded limousine powered by a direct-injection, 450-horsepower V10 reactor. To call it fully equipped is like calling Jessica Biel fully equipped — the damndest of faint praise.

My gateway drug? The S8's optional Bang & Olufsen sound system, a 14-speaker, 1,000-watt, twin-amplified mega-system that floods the cabin with crystalline sound and aural imaging that is, in fact, a little bit hallucinatory. Who knew you could get a whole chamber quartet in the back seat? The B&O system is astonishing in many ways — it is, for instance, astonishingly loud. At max sound levels, the Audi's sound gear can disorient dolphins in the bay or knock sparrows from their nests. And, as is traditional with B&O, there's a little bit of theater involved. When you start the car, small cylinder-shaped tweeters rise out of the dashboard. These speakers use something called Acoustic Lens Technology — I can't really explain it here, but I thought you might savor the name.

Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Audi S8

Source: LA Times via Fourtitude

Audi S8: The imperial battle cruiser

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