Bowers & Wilkins Spiral Diffuser, Taking Car Audio to the Next Level

Filed under: Car Audio



Bowers & Wilkins wasn't content with the sound they were getting from automobile doors in testing for the new Jaguar XF audio system. No surprise as doors are known to create a whole gamut of problems when trying to get good sound quality in a car. According to B&W, the doors were causing unwanted coloration because the sound from the rear of the speakers was bouncing around inside the door enclosures and creating resonant noise.

In their home audio speakers, B&W uses long tapered tubes behind the drivers to reduce coloration. Unfortunately, in the automobile environment the door cavities are just too small to employ that method.



Luckily, B&W had some smaller sound diffusers that are used in their flagship CT800 home theater system. The use of the existing spiral diffuser in automobiles was a perfect fit due to its small size and light weight plastic construction. The patented diffuser breaks the sound down into six channels, one for each part of the spiral. The different channels absorb the unwanted sound energy and minimize the resonant noise. B&W also mentioned that the diffusers are even small enough to be used in A-pillars.

Thanks to Lucette Nicoll of Nicoll Public Relations for the info.