"Crazy" stacking of materials, the competition of car audio is still in its infancy

You have a car-mounted "digital concert hall", and I have a "4D audio-visual hall". The automotive industry has entered the era of electric intelligence . The "arms race" is rampant in every aspect of the vehicle, such as air suspension, refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas, and another example is the car audio system we are going to talk about today. Compared with the past, the car audio system has shown several major trends:

First, there are more and more speakers in the cabin, from the single digits in the era of fuel vehicles to more than 20 today.

Second, the power is getting higher and higher. In the past, it was tens of watts or hundreds of watts, but now it has risen to the kilowatt level.

Third, with the increase in the number and power of in-car speakers, tuning has become more and more complicated. Many car companies (especially new car companies) have begun to develop their own audio algorithms to take back the "tuning autonomy" from Berlin.

However, this kind of splendor built on the stacking of hardware is not necessary in the eyes of some industry insiders. In addition to stacking materials, the car audio system with outstanding tool attributes has more possibilities, such as making a fuss about intelligence.

01. Car audio, a new battlefield in the arms race among car companies

Recently, the 2024 China International Audio Industry Conference (GAS2024) was held in Shanghai Zhangjiang Science Hall. The car audio sector, as one of the themes of this year, attracted relevant business leaders of many domestic automobile companies to attend the forum and make speeches, and accepted media interviews after the meeting.

GAS2024 was held in Shanghai. One of the more interesting topics involved was the evolution trend of the car audio system in the era of smart cars , or the trend of the arms race. Specifically, there are several points that everyone can directly feel. Let's talk about it from the shallow to the deep:

First, the number of in-car speakers is rising, and low-priced models are becoming equal to high-priced speakers. Specifically, in the era of fuel vehicles, the number of in-car speakers also means competition, but it is more seen as the value overflow of high-end models. Taking 2017 as the boundary, the Mercedes-Benz S, which started at nearly one million yuan, had a standard sound system with 12 speakers (optional if you want more), and most other models were equipped with less than 10 speakers. But at this stage, 12 speakers are no longer good enough. For example, Ideal L9 has 21 speakers throughout the car; the cheaper Xiaopeng G9 also has 21 speakers, using the Dynaudio brand. The prices of these two cars can basically be ranged between 300,000 and 500,000 yuan.

The Ideal L9 has a luxurious audio configuration. For example, the models under 150,000 yuan that were launched two years ago, such as the Haval Kugou, have 18 speakers installed in the car.

Second, as the number of speakers increases, the power of the car audio system is also rising, from the common tens of watts or hundreds of watts in the past to the current kilowatt level. The aforementioned Xiaopeng G9 and Ideal L9 have a total audio system power of more than 2,000 watts, and the slightly smaller NIO ET7 is also 1,000 watts.

Finally, because the number of speakers in the car audio system has increased, the distribution options have increased, and the power has increased, the tuning of the entire audio system has become more complicated. Industry insiders told CyberAuto that OEMs are gradually tending to design their own car audio systems, making some of the things that Dynaudio or Burmester were good at in the past independent.

Of course, there are more independent choices in hardware, and the entire audio system supply chain has undergone certain changes, such as Consumer electronics Audio systems have entered the automotive field, and domestic white-label audio manufacturers that used to manufacture for branded audio have also gained more favor.

02. Why are car manufacturers so obsessed with audio equipment?

OEMs are engaged in an arms race on car audio systems. Industry insiders said that one of the obvious reasons is that they are easy to see and feel, and the relative cost is not too high. Taking car speakers as an example, a report by Guojin Securities shows that the number of speakers has increased from 4-6 in traditional fuel vehicles to 12-22, and independent amplifiers , subwoofers, etc. have been added. The value of the audio system per vehicle has increased from 100 yuan to about 1,500 yuan.

It seems to be several times the improvement, but compared with air suspension, or configurations such as LiDAR , or engine and motor modifications, the cost of upgrading the audio system is lower and users can feel it more directly.

Roll-up radar is not as good as roll-up audio. At a time when the configuration of the automobile industry is going up and the price is going down, it is obviously a more cost-effective business to add configurations with higher user perception at the lowest cost. In addition to the considerations of the car manufacturers, on the user side, a car company told CyberCar that similar to refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas, users have a long-suppressed demand for audio systems. In the past, in the era of fuel vehicles, due to the lack of intelligence in the cockpit and the lack of quietness in the car (such as engine noise) and other complex factors, users did not feel deeply about the quality of the audio system or downplayed such demands. However, he also said that even in the era of fuel vehicles, the most modified car is still the audio system, which shows that users still care more about this aspect.

However, with the advent of electric and intelligent vehicles, on the one hand, the quietness of electric vehicles allows users to directly feel the quality of the audio system; on the other hand, the multimodal interaction of the smart cockpit puts forward more requirements for the audio system.

The final result is that the previously suppressed demand for audio systems has been made explicit. Finally, the change in power form has made it possible to install high-power car audio.

Small batteries in fuel vehicles cannot meet the needs of high- power devices. In the era of working fuel vehicles, the car audio system is mainly powered by a small battery on the car. The power of this type of small battery is difficult to support the long-term operation of today's kilowatt-level car audio systems.

However, when the whole vehicle is electrified, high-power power batteries become the power source for driving the whole vehicle components . This is also the basic condition and technical support for the skyrocketing power data of car audio systems after the automotive industry entered the era of electrification.

With cost-effectiveness, user needs discovered, and technical support in place, it is understandable that car companies are working hard on car audio systems and viewing them as a major selling point.

03. Stacking speakers and increasing power, car audio has more imagination

Although there are many reasons for car companies to pile up materials in car audio, there are still different voices, believing that car audio has entered a state of volume for volume. For example, Yang Chunhong, chief engineer of car audio system of Zeekr Automobile , believes that the volume of car audio is more about the accumulation of quantity, which is reflected in the fact that many functions have few or no audiences, and the final cost increases but the gain is not enough.

Take power for example. With a total power of 3,000 watts, the car audio system consumes 3 kWh of electricity for one hour. In addition, more heat loss will be generated during the transmission process, which is obviously not cost-effective for electric vehicles. At the same time, for passengers, the limit of a few kilowatts of audio may be fully satisfied by a few hundred watts, and the same is true for the stacking of speakers. Instead of spending money on hardware stacking, it is better to make breakthroughs in other directions, such as the intelligent capabilities of audio.

In simple terms, car audio is becoming more and more like the state when car companies were crazy about installing laser radar at the beginning of intelligent driving . The past is gone with the wind, and in the new wave, it is enough to use it, and it is okay to reduce the configuration or not use it.

Some practitioners believe that the current car audio is still mainly a tool attribute, simply acting as a "megaphone", but as an important part of the smart cockpit, its capabilities and imagination should be richer. So, what should a smart car audio be like? In Yang Chunhong's view, it should have at least three capabilities: audible, playable, and controllable. The first is audible, which can also be simply understood as satisfying the most basic tool attribute of car audio, which can basically be achieved on the basis of stacking materials.

Smart car audio needs to match the different scenarios in the cockpit. It also needs to adapt different timbres according to different scenarios, such as how to calm the mind in nap mode, how to not affect the driver's attention in driving mode, and how to have more immersive sound effects in gaming mode...

Controllability is a higher requirement. As an integral part of the smart cockpit, the car audio system compensates for sound in different scenarios, such as noise reduction during high-speed driving, amplifying or shielding sound during calls in different audio zones, and so on.

Simply put, if the cockpit interaction system is regarded as a butler, then the smart car audio system should be the butler's mouthpiece that changes with the scene. But at present, the car audio system may only be audible and playable. After the configuration is completed, there are more valuable possibilities to work on.