Four-Wheeled Concert Hall: Audi Produces Concept Version of 62-Speaker Q7

You know that 19-year-old jack bag that drives around past midnight every night pumping bass from his piece of s ’97 Honda Civic? It’s time to embarrass the hell out of him. If Audi goes through with this project, you can roll right past him in a Q7 SUV and make his trunk-mounted Kickers sound like a cheap iPod dock.

Teamed up with audio manufacturers Bang & Olufsen and Bose, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, Audi has designed a prototype audio system for the Q7 that makes use of no less than 62 speakers. Called simply the Audi Sound Concept, the system uses 52 mid-range drivers placed in a circle around the cabin, five tweeters, four woofers on the doors and a 12-inch sub in back. In addition to the speakers, three computers control the system and an amplifier in the trunk delivers the juice. That’s a lot of capability.

So how’s it sound? According to Audi, the system delivers concise, uniform audio to every seat. It is also capable of playing 32 separate track simultanesouly (sure beats your 7.1 system at home), though I don’t really know why you’d ever need or want that many tracks in a vehicle.

We don’t expect to see an actual 62-speaker system anytime soon. So for now, Civic tool wins. [via WCF]