Naim's work with automotive

Well that’s definitely one for our moderator Richard Dane, Naim ambassador for Bentley cars relationship. Richard the floor is yours.....

Thanks Gazza...

Tom, if you are after specifics then you would be better asking one of the engineers involved in the Naim for Bentley project, such as Steve Sells or Roy George.  However, in essence the system is made up of Naim's custom DSP and the amplifier is actually multiple amplifier modules which each actively drive the individual drive units.  Hopefully this cut-away picture (thank you cnet) that I found on the 'net of the original Naim for Bentley 1,100 watt amplifier shows what I mean;

The amplifiers themselves are Class D for best efficiency and power while taking up minimal space.

As for the battery...  well, there are two in the Bentley; One for starting the engine and running essential electronics.  And the other for the Naim system.  It means that if you run the battery down while cranking up the system listening to tunes then you'll always be able to start up the engine, so you shouldn't get stranded thanks to overindulging on the Naim system.

As Richard said, Class D amplification. The reserve battery is nice and I suspect there's a hefty alternator as well. Class D amps for cars are routinely available in the 1500-2000-watt range for as little as $200 - not to suggest these compete with Naim's output quality in the Bentley.

I suppose Naim have an exclusive contract with Bentley for producing auto stereo systems, but wouldn't it be interesting if Naim systems were sold on the car stereo aftermarket? I wonder what the price would be and how many would pay it for the right to install a Naim system in their non-Bentley cars.

Focal makes aftermarket car stereo systems ....

I guess if Naim audio is still using a similar technique in 2030, the two batteries certainly makes sense... or you might find yourself juddering to a halt on the motorway if over indulging on the Naim audio.

Thanks for the info Richard. Do you know if the amps are available for sale separately as Joerand suggests?

Tom, no they aren't.  The partnership with Bentley is an exclusive relationship.  As such, you can only have a Naim in-car system in a Bentley.  

The system, and in particular the DSP, and the car are designed around one another, so just offering an in-car amplifier on its own wouldn't be so clever.

On the face of it a car is a fairly hostile environment for a high quality music system; you have all kinds of noise and vibration, from engine, wind noise, tyre, suspension, road noise.  On top of that you have limited space.  You also want to keep things as light as you can.  And then you have large openings such as doors, boot etc.. You can't put the speakers exactly where you want - indeed, quite often they have to fit into a space where you really wouldn't want to put a drive unit.  

On the plus side, a car offers you a defined space, so you know just what you're dealing with and can this design the system to make the mot of what you have.  And the big advantage of a car like the Bentley is that it's beautifully and solidly made with the highest quality materials.

At the outset of the Naim for Bentley system development, Naim were told that the structure and position of everything in the cabin was basically nailed down and so there was very little room for manoeuvre. However, we immediately realised that the best way to improve any system immediately without any other changes was to minimise any sound leakage through the doors.  So Naim asked Bentley to make changes to the way the doors sealed.  They agreed, mainly because it not only made for a better music system, but also a better car overall.

Furthermore Naim realised that putting bass drive units in the doors was a very bad idea.  Doors are far from rigid - they are designed to open and close easily and are generally secured via a pair of hinges and a latch/lock.  As such you'll only find mid/upper bass drivers in the doors and the low bass is fed through to subwoofers situated as close to the structural centre as possible (in fact just behind the rear seats).

However, none of the drive units are positioned in an acoustically ideal position.  For example, the front HF units are tucked within the dash area, midrange is down by your legs.  So what the DSP allows you to do is to effectively "bend" the sound in such a way as all the many drive units gel together as a whole and it create a realistic phase coherent soundstage with a seamless tonal range.  The DSP also allows you to ensure that the sound remains consistent regardless of road conditions, speed etc.. The default "best" DSP setting Naim call "Naim Audiophile". The DSP also enables you to do some rather cool stuff like shift the soundstage within the car to better suit certain conditions such as if you are driving alone (centralises on the driver), you're being driven (shifts back to the rear), or you are driving with a full car (best soundstage for all).  There are some other options too in the DSP - you can tailor the sound for particular genre such as Classical or Spoken Word, you can also use it to try to flesh out MP3s.  It's all pretty cool without being overwhelmingly complicated.  Most will just go with the default Naim Audiophile setting.

So you can start to understand why just offering an in-car amplifier wouldn't begin to offer what the Naim for Bentley system as a whole gives those lucky enough to afford the wrapper.

Wow. That is very impressive. I can imagine the sound quality must be pretty peerless. And I love the innovative thinking employed.

Who would I speak to about the possibility of utilising that technology for something other than Bentley? Do you think it might be an option? It wouldn't be mass market, more of a bespoke offering, and not automotive.

Thanks

Much of what Naim learned in developing the DSP for the Naim for Bentley in car system was what made the big sound from a small box of the MU-SO possible. 

To get the DSP right takes a lot of time - hands on listening and adjusting. It's very expensive time. But if you wish to bankroll Naim's R&D for a particular (non automotive) project then I guess there's no harm in asking them, although it's likely that the answer will be "no", not so much because they don't want to do it, but more because they have so much that they are already working on.

A very interesting read Richard - thanks for posting. 

Yes Richard, thanks for being so open and forthcoming. And on a Saturday too. The reason I ask - I have a 46 speaker array with 5 subs, integrated within the structure of a geodesic dome. I'm positive it isn't calibrated anywhere near as well as naim's Bentley system, but we get a pretty good tune out of it all the same ; )

Ever since I began developing it I have always leant more towards automotive audio than professional. Mostly because I started out with car speakers from a junkyard (it was what I could afford - please don't judge : )) but also because I am fascinated with the fact that the amazing quality and output of high end automotive (such as your Bentley system) can run on a battery. Amazing to me when you consider the huge power supplies required for Pro systems. It's one extreme to the other.

Obviously, the fact that cars require a relatively small area to be addressed makes a difference. I have that luxury. Each speaker only needs to get as far as the centre of the dome (3.5m) so relatively low output, but the overall effect is huge. Choir-like, and definitely greater than the sum of its parts. And overall very low-energy draw.

My dream is to have amps (like yours) and a battery (probably a UPS which they use to backup data centres and hospitals etc) so that SOUNDOME is truly mobile - forest, beach, wherever you want. Hence my post. I hope I'm not too off-piste. I did place it in the padded cell section after all!

Thanks

Forgot to mention and ask - we use reaper software to address the 46 speakers through 16 channels. This is run through a digital mixer rack. Is your DSP the same? Do you have a separate unit? 

Richard Dane posted:

 

As for the battery...  well, there are two in the Bentley; One for starting the engine and running essential electronics.  And the other for the Naim system.  It means that if you run the battery down while cranking up the system listening to tunes then you'll always be able to start up the engine, so you shouldn't get stranded thanks to overindulging on the Naim system.

Pretty certain the Bentley has two batteries irrespective of whether you have Naim upgrade or not.

It's quite common for cars to have two batteries if they've got a lot of gadgets to run. Our 2003   Merc 500SL's also got two, one to run engine functions, the other for the electronic gubbins.

jon honeyball posted:

Richard Dane posted:

 

As for the battery...  well, there are two in the Bentley; One for starting the engine and running essential electronics.  And the other for the Naim system.  It means that if you run the battery down while cranking up the system listening to tunes then you'll always be able to start up the engine, so you shouldn't get stranded thanks to overindulging on the Naim system.

Pretty certain the Bentley has two batteries irrespective of whether you have Naim upgrade or not.

Yes, of course, it's not something that's exclusive to the Naim system. However, for the original NfB system the electrical system had to be different to the standard one - it was the main reason why you couldn't upgrade a non-Naim system car to a Naim for Bentley system as the entire electrical system had to be changed over too.

Makes me want to buy a Bentley