Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road Studios partner to launch unique collaboration with Volvo Cars that will transform in-car audio

• Bowers & Wilkins’ new Abbey Road Studios sound mode makes its world debut in Volvo EX90

• Sound mode is based on acoustics of the studios, tonality of the equipment and engineer expertise

• Presets are joined by a Producer Mode to give greater creative control to the user

September 4, 2024 – Worthing, UK: Coinciding with the global launch of the Volvo EX90, Abbey Road Studios and Bowers & Wilkins have revealed the newest phase of their partnership, alongside Volvo Cars. Together, the two iconic audio brands have collaborated on bringing Abbey Road Studios to automotive, launching first in the Volvo EX90 in 2025, and reimagining the automotive audio experience.

For over 92 years, Abbey Road Studios has been at the forefront of music-tech innovation. Meanwhile, Bowers & Wilkins has been perfecting the art of bringing leading-edge loudspeaker technology to the car environment with its automotive partners.

Now, the two brands have combined their expertise to redefine automotive sound quality and reimagining the in-car listening experience. The partnership between Abbey Road and Bowers & Wilkins addresses the acoustic limitations of the car environment, transporting the driver and passengers to new and more compelling listening spaces.

The new sound mode captures the unique characteristics of Abbey Road’s studio spaces, equipment and processes to create a new listening experience. The Abbey Road Studios Mode represents an evolution from feature-focused to experience-focused sound modes, allowing the listener to effectively engineer their own sound, using configurable settings developed directly with Abbey Road’s engineers.

The audio mode, inspired by the sonic DNA of Abbey Road’s equipment and spaces, emulates the unique characteristics of the recording studio environment, and with it the ability to adjust the sound to your own preference. This enables everyone to experience the unique sound of the studio environment, and the chance for music lovers to explore and create new ways of listening to their favourite content. The mode represents choice and creativity, offering the user a palette to explore spaces and sound character within the confines of the car.

The natural sound of the studios is captured using real measurements taken from several live spaces and control rooms, plus the tonality of Abbey Road’s unique EMI-era equipment and expertise of its engineers. In Producer Mode these components have been combined to give the user freedom to explore both the scale of the spaces at Abbey Road and the way in which equipment affects tonality – shifting the acoustic from a retro vintage to a deeper, modern sound, narrowing or expanding the stereo sound field, and adjusting the acoustic environment,
just as a producer or engineer would do.

For those less confident in adjusting the specific characteristics in Producer Mode, four presets provide a selection of sounds, optimised for different listening styles. Settings created in Producer Mode can also be saved as custom presets.

Together with Abbey Road, Bowers & Wilkins used the most innovative technologies and leveraged decades of experience working on both sound design and loudspeaker engineering to build a highly convincing 3D acoustic environment in a car. Careful measurement and modelling techniques have captured the essence of Abbey Road Studios, as well as the acoustic signature of the equipment used by artists and studio engineers for decades.

Debuting in the Volvo EX90, the Abbey Road Studios Mode is accessed via the car’s redesigned user interface, alongside more traditional audio settings. The mode will be available free of charge via an over-the-air software update in 2025 for all EX90s fitted with Bowers & Wilkins.

The EX90 features a highly advanced Bowers & Wilkins audio system, which includes several proprietary Bowers & Wilkins technologies. Seven Continuum cone midrange drivers and five Nautilus Double-dome tweeters are complemented by eight aluminium-domed headrest and ceiling speakers. The central Tweeter-on-Top on the dashboard is a further visible
embodiment of Bowers & Wilkins’ acoustic philosophy, also being used in their high-performance home loudspeakers, the most advanced of which – the 800 Series Diamond – can be found in use at Abbey Road. Each of the 25 speakers in the EX90 has been carefully positioned within the car’s cabin. The system has been developed and tuned by Bowers & Wilkins engineers in close collaboration with Volvo Cars’ own audio team and is also capable of playing Dolby Atmos content.

Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road have a long-standing relationship. In 1980, Abbey Road Studios started using Bowers & Wilkins 801 loudspeakers as their studio monitors. Today, over 40 years later, the latest generation of 800 Series Diamond loudspeakers have taken their place. Throughout that period Abbey Road engineers have appreciated how the clean, accurate and revealing nature of the speakers enriches the mixing and mastering process, meaning that music recorded in their studios is often first heard through Bowers & Wilkins speakers.

Dan Shepherd, Vice President, Licensing and Partnerships for Bowers & Wilkins says: “We are thrilled to work with Abbey Road Studios to elevate the in-car experience and bring drivers and passengers across the globe a new and exciting way to enjoy their music. I’m confident our combined expertise will prove to be game-changing for automotive entertainment.”

Jeremy Huffelmann, General Manager at Abbey Road Studios says: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Bowers & Wilkins to launch the Abbey Road Studios Mode. Through our shared passion for creative excellence and the highest quality audio, we aim to create the most authentic listening experiences possible for both artists and consumers.”

For more information:

• Abbey Road Studios – Murray Chalmers PR
• Bowers & Wilkins – Andy Kerr, Director of Product Marketing / M&C PR

About Bowers & Wilkins:

Bowers & Wilkins has been at the forefront of high performance audio for more than 50 years. Founded in the UK in 1966, the brand has designed and manufactured premium home speakers, headphones, custom installation and performance car audio products that set new standards for innovation and sound quality, earning countless awards and the endorsement of many of the world’s leading recording studios and musicians. Bowers & Wilkins’ reputation is based on the unwavering pursuit of the best possible sound and an unsurpassable music listening experience. Learn more at www.bowerswilkins.com

About Abbey Road Studios:

A global music icon and the world’s first purpose-built recording studio, Abbey Road Studios has been home to countless landmark recordings and pioneering advances in music technology for over 90 years. The studios’ phenomenal history encompasses celebrated work by artists from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fela Kuti, Kate Bush, Oasis and Radiohead to Sam Smith, Florence + The Machine, Lady Gaga, Frank Ocean, Amy Winehouse, Brockhampton, Little Simz, The Smile, Dave and Adele, as well as scores to films from Raiders of The Lost Ark, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy and many of the Harry Potter and Star Wars movies, to Gravity, The Shape of Water, 1917, Black Panther, Tar, Barbie and Avengers: Endgame. Since stereo was patented at Abbey Road in 1933, the studios have been home to numerous innovations in recording technology and continue to innovate today with Europe’s first music tech incubator, Abbey Road Red. Abbey Road Studios is part of Universal Music. Discover more at www.abbeyroad.com