The Kia EV9 will be launched across Europe, Asia and the US for the 2024 model year. The immersive acoustic experience inside the vehicle is enhanced by a unique system designed by British pioneers Meridian Audio, following extensive research into the requirements in electric vehicles. The 14 speaker system employs a suite of proprietary Digital Signal Processing technologies optimized for this "surprisingly challenging" acoustic environment, as Meridian shares.
Ambitious vehicle manufacturers trust Meridian to support their audio system design, adding value to their most premium systems through the addition of the Meridian brand. The electric-only EV9 SUV is the third Kia vehicle to feature Meridian technology, following the K8 luxury sports sedan and the EV6 premium electric crossover. With prices starting above $80,000, the EV9 moves the ambitious global brand into direct competition with established luxury vehicle manufacturers.
"Based on the success of our current collaborations, Kia challenged us to engineer an immersive surround sound system that will enhance the luxury experience for all occupants," explains Meridian Audio chief executive, John Buchanan. "Kia wanted to retain the design purity of the EV9 concept car, so we worked closely with their design team from an early stage to ensure this could be delivered without affecting audio quality, cost or manufacturability."
"The challenge with delivering a fantastic audio experience in an EV isn’t the level of the background noise, it’s the complexity of noise sources and their frequency profiles," asserts Buchanan. "These are typically at significantly higher frequencies than in a combustion vehicle, which can affect our ability to perceive the position of sounds, and they can be more random, which makes the acoustic environment more difficult to manage with active noise cancelation."
The solution, according to Buchanan, is to move the focus from hardware to software, managing the acoustic environment through Meridian's proprietary Digital Signal Processing algorithms and then overlaying further DSP technologies to tailor the sound to the requirements of the specific vehicle and the tastes and activities of the vehicle occupants. Meridian typically re-invests around 15 percent of revenue in research, with a significant proportion focussed on software for optimizing and tailoring the audio signal in a given listening environment.
Meridian’s engineers have selected and tailored a suite of DSP technologies for the EV9. Meridian RE-Q intelligently and discreetly optimizes the audio system to the precise acoustics of the vehicle cabin, while Meridian Digital Precision maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio, preserving the natural rhythm of the performance.
Meridian Horizon, an upmixing technology, provides multichannel audio from both two-channel stereo and native 5.1 content, seamlessly delivering a surround sound experience complete with center image and ambience level controls for the user. Meridian Intelli-Q Data-Driven Equalization psychoacoustically optimizes audio playback by responding to the changing nature of the in-car acoustic environment as vehicle speed changes.
"Intelli-Q also allows us to manage the unique acoustic inputs of an electric vehicle," explains Buchanan. "Unlike earlier systems that simply increase the volume as a response to background noise, Meridian's proprietary technology reacts to the profile of the background noise, for example increasing the low and mid ranges as tyre noise becomes more prominent with speed or rougher road textures. This gives us a managed acoustic environment onto which we can build an immersive, captivating listening experience."
Meridian's automotive business is rapidly growing, benefiting from the company's consumer recognition in home audio. Although Meridian is best known for the hi-fi and surround sound cinema products chosen for some of the world's most luxury residences and super yachts, the demanding in-car environment is opening up opportunities for the company's expertise. Meridian focusses on pioneering DSP and other software technologies, supported by deep engineering capabilities in electronics, hardware integration and system tuning.
www.meridian-audio.com
