If the listening experience inside your car just isn’t cutting it, perk up your ears: a UK-based hi-fi audio company has returned to its physics textbooks to build a new speaker system that makes your music sound like it’s playing in a space 10 times bigger than the cabin.
The bold claim comes from Warwick Acoustics, which makes super high-end headphones and amplifiers for discerning audiophiles – we’re talking around US$S50,000 for a pair and a companion DAC.
It specializes in electrostatic speaker technology, where you’ll see an ultra-thin, electrically charged diaphragm sandwiched between two perforated metal plates that act as electrodes. When an audio signal passes through these plates, it creates a varying electrostatic field that pushes and pulls the diaphragm back and forth, producing sound waves.
This sort of speaker can be much thinner than conventional dynamic speakers that have cones and voice coils. In fact, Warwick’s approach for automotive audio involves speakers that measure just 1 mm in thickness, and are said to weigh 90% less than regular ones. The housing adds a bit of thickness, but even so, they’re basically just flat panels.
Interestingly, electrostatic speakers don’t contain any rare earth elements, and Warwick says it makes its speakers entirely from upcycled and recycled materials – so there’s a small sustainability win there. Warwick says it’ll be the first to produce an automotive speaker system using this tech. The company’s been working on this specifically for cars for years now, and it’s close to production.
So where does the magic of this 10x soundstage enlargement happen? First, we’ll need to understand in-car audio a bit. As soundwaves travel through the air, they flatten and spread out, and the human ear can perceive where the sound is coming from – and from how far away. With conventional speakers in the confines of a car, there’s not a lot of room for the sound to appear to be coming from anywhere but your immediate surroundings.
Warwick Acoustics says its slim speakers generate planar, or “near-flat”, sound waves that initially sound flat – without soaring highs or booming bass. “We then perceive this as a sound that has begun further away – in some cases up to 30 m (nearly 100 ft) – from our ears, and thus representative of a venue much bigger than the physical size of the car cabin. The speed and accuracy of Warwick Acoustics’ electrostatic speakers also reduces the need to manipulate sound using digital techniques giving the potential to reduce the size, cost and energy consumptions of the digital signal processing (DSP) components,” explains the company’s CCO, Ian Hubbard.
Along with this, the tech allows for the flexibility of placing the speakers at or above ear level, such as in the A-pillars and the roof lining. This further enhances these electrostatic speakers’ ability to mimic the experience of listening to music in a large hall.
That all sounds like a treat – and remarkably different than the descriptions of audio systems for most cars on the market today. We won’t have to wait long to hear this in action: Warwick says its tech will feature in a vehicle from a “global luxury car maker” sometime next year. My ears are ready.
Source: Warwick Acoustics

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