When "Winter" from Vivaldi's violin concertos The Four Seasons played in the listening room, the violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harpsichord sounded as if they were performing from different positions. Switching to electronic music, the sound moved not just left and right and front and back, but even overhead. Activating the ceiling microphones turned the small room into a large concert hall with long reverberation.
I listened to the same track again inside the Genesis G90. It could not be identical to a perfectly controlled listening room, but the positions of the instruments, the center of the vocal, and the sense of space in the venue were largely similar. By feel, roughly 80% of the acoustics heard in the listening room seemed to be reproduced.
I visited Harman Car Lab in Yeomgok-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 21st. It is where Harman International Korea, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, creates and verifies the reference sound that sets the standard for in-vehicle audio systems. The work aims to transfer the "right answer" made in the listening room as closely as possible into the confined space of a vehicle.
The audio system installed in the Genesis G90 is a representative product Harman developed in this space. The high-quality acoustics heard in the listening room—such as the center of the vocal, instrument positions, and hall reverberation—were similarly reproduced in the Genesis G90.
However, precise tuning is done with the vehicle parked and external variables controlled. In real use, many people listen while driving, so with road, tire, and wind noise added, it can be difficult to perceive the fine imaging and reverberation at the same level.
There are also content limitations. While ordinary audio can be automatically expanded into a surround format, to properly render the instrument height and movement information intended by Dolby Atmos, you must choose tracks produced for it. This means that even if consumers opt for expensive audio options, they will struggle to fully enjoy 3D audio effects unless they find and play compatible tracks.
◇ ASE team involved from the start of vehicle development
Harman's Car Audio Acoustic System Engineering (ASE) team, which runs Car Lab, is not an organization that merely adjusts volume after a finished vehicle design. From the early stages of development, it designs the number and placement of speakers, amplifier output, the signal flow of the digital signal processor (DSP), and software functions to implement optimal acoustic conditions in the vehicle.
Harman sets the ideal sound of the listening room as 100 points, then defines and implements target performance based on segment, vehicle size, brand direction, and competitors. More than 100 ASE engineers across 12 sites in nine countries use similar listening rooms and identical reference systems for this work. The Korea ASE team has eight members.
Engineers repeatedly listen to evaluation tracks, measure frequency balance and the target curve, and compare the positions of vocals and instruments and the sense of space. While frequency and volume balance can be verified numerically, whether imaging forms at the intended position is judged based on the listening experience of seasoned engineers. Harman reduces evaluator variance by using the same evaluation tracks and internal standards and by having a separate benchmarking group re-verify results.
◇ The center speaker was off, but the voice came from the front
Inside a modular soundproof booth measuring 4.8 meters wide, 7 meters deep, and 3 meters high, two Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 50s and 11 JBL reference monitors were arranged. A 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos environment was set up with seven channels for left, center, side, and rear, one low-frequency channel, and four ceiling channels. The Harman ASE team uses the acoustics confirmed here as a baseline for vehicle tuning. Jung Sun-yong, director of automotive marketing & communications at Harman Korea, said, "This is a space where we accurately hear the sound contained in a track with external noise blocked and use it as a standard for vehicle development."
When a mono track (made with a single channel) was played in the listening room, the vocal sounded centered even though the center speaker was off. The "phantom center," created when the left and right speakers output the same signal at the same volume and timing to form a virtual image (the position where sound is perceived), was distinct. Changing the volume and playback timing of the left and right channels moved the image between the center and the left and right sides.
Choi Yu-seok, a professional at Harman Korea's car audio ASE team, said, "Engineers learn where the vocal and instruments are placed and how they are balanced in the reference tracks, then tune the vehicle so it gives the same impression."
Playing a Dolby Atmos track, the band sound and effects in the electronic music moved around the space and overhead. In classical music, rather than moving instruments to the rear or ceiling, it expanded the space by adding reflections and reverberation of the hall. If stereo placed sound on a front-facing plane, Dolby Atmos extended the acoustic field upward and to the rear.
When Harman's spatial audio feature, Virtual Venue Live, was activated, sounds from the speakers were captured by the ceiling microphones and replayed with long reverberation. Harman measures the impulse responses of actual venues (the characteristics of reflections and reverberation when a brief sound is produced), collects them as data, and applies them to in-vehicle audio.
◇ Hearing the listening room's "right answer" again in the Genesis G90
In the workshop next to the listening room sat a Genesis G90 equipped with a Bang & Olufsen Premier 3D sound system. When the ignition was turned on, the tweeters on both sides of the dashboard rose. Speakers were also mounted in the driver's headrest and the ceiling. There are 23 speakers in total and eight microphones.
With the default audio, the vocal settled directly in front above the dashboard, and the left and right instruments were distinct. Selecting "Boston Symphony Hall" on the vehicle screen gently lengthened the reverberation. Switching to "Wembley Stadium" and playing Queen's live "Bohemian Rhapsody" sent the band and crowd sounds surging from the front, back, and above.
If ordinary surround widened the spread of sound, Virtual Venue Live was closer to fitting the vehicle interior with the size and reverberation of a concert venue. The feature was first installed in the G90 in 2022, and a Wembley Stadium mode was added for the 2024 model year.
Moon So-yeon, managing director of Harman Korea's car audio ASE team, said, "Genesis is among the few top-tier systems when comparing in-vehicle audio across global automakers." Lee Jung-hwan, a professional at Harman Korea's car audio ASE team, said, "The most important things are positional sense and imaging," adding, "We check in the listening room where the images of various instruments should be, and we balance the system so they are heard from the same places in the vehicle." Asked how closely the G90 matches the listening room, Lee answered, "You can consider it nearly identical."
With the development vehicle parked, the ASE team connects a computer and repeatedly listens to the same evaluation tracks while changing the amplifier software settings. During the vehicle development process, they also check whether vibrations from the speakers cause noise in other parts, and they carry out additional tuning in the prototype and pilot phases. However, the core work of finely adjusting imaging and frequency balance is mostly done in parked conditions with few external variables.
This experience was also conducted with the Genesis G90 parked. Even with external noise limited, there was a noticeable gap between the listening room and the G90. In actual driving conditions, where road, tire, and wind noise are added, the instrument positions and hall reverberation perceived in the listening room can be relatively diminished. Even if vibrations and noise are addressed and supplemented in software, a gap remains between the controlled development environment and the consumer's actual listening environment.
◇ "Strength lies in a development system that takes responsibility from design to final verification"
You cannot reproduce listening-room conditions inside a vehicle merely by increasing the number of speakers. Seats, glass, and interior materials reflect sound, and space for components is limited. The ASE team coordinates speaker and amplifier placement with automakers from the earliest design stages. If it is difficult to place a speaker in the desired spot, they change the layout or compensate through software tuning.
The ASE team receives development vehicles from clients and repeatedly listens to the same evaluation tracks while changing software values. The total development period, starting from the beginning of vehicle design, is typically two to three years. Intensive tuning for a single model takes two weeks. Only after passing the final evaluation by a separate benchmarking group does the finished audio system reach consumers.
Moon emphasized that Harman's competitive edge lies in its development system, which transfers the acoustic standards set at Car Lab into actual interiors through vehicle design and multiple rounds of tuning and verification. "Harman is not a company that just supplies speakers and amplifiers and calls it a day; we build the car together," Moon said. "Based on the design and tuning know-how accumulated at Car Lab, our goal is to ensure consumers experience a high level of acoustics inside their vehicles."