- 22 speakers and 1,800W of amplification
- Personalized audio for each individual passenger
- A full Dolby Atmos experience inside your EV
Don't let Denon's slightly bland PR photos fool you: its new in-car audio system is seriously exciting, but all the best bits are invisible.
The new Denon Car Audio Concept System for EVs packs a whopping 22 speakers and 1,800W of amplification into your vehicle, and that's not even the most interesting bit.
The concept also brings similar personalization tech to the system in Denon's PerL headphones to each passenger, tailoring the audio to each person's hearing profile. Denon's going big on it too, offering demos at CES and calling it "a glimpse into the future of personalized in-vehicle audio".
If you're not familiar with the PerL Pro headphones, they use a range of tests to analyze your ears and optimize the audio accordingly. We've experienced the results (which deploy exciting otoacoustic tech found initially in the NuraTrue Pro) and we were very impressed, so it'll be really interesting to see – or rather, hear – how well the tech works for optimizing in-car audio.
Smarter sound for every EV
There are a lot of big ideas here, including hidden audio exciters from Sonified. Exciters make audio tracks sound more expansive and lively, and in the concept Denon has hidden a whole bunch of Sonified's mid-range exciter speakers in the trim materials and headrests. Other speakers are by high-end audio designers Tymphany.
The concept also ensures that most of your audio stays in the car, which is bad news for boy racers and great news for everybody else. It's been designed to minimize external sound radiation to keep your neighbors sweet.
The heart of the concept system is a 1,800W Dirac-optimized Dolby Atmos system with up-firing speakers and headrest-integrated channels too. Despite that massive potential power output Denon promises "efficient power usage" as well as a relatively small footprint for the system.
If you're lucky enough to be at CES the demo car is in the west hall until January 11, but we'd expect it to go on tour after CES is done.
TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.
And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!
You might also like
