If luxury cars and high-end hi-fi are two of your favourite things, then Bentley’s latest offering should get your engine revving.
The Crewe-based car manufacturer has just unveiled its new Virtuoso collection, three exclusive, curated themes available across its range of luxury cars.
Virtuoso is available in either Soprano, Tenor or Bass form and sees the use of more refined materials, unique embroidery and champagne gold details “inspired by high-end music craftsmanship”.
The main highlight for audiophiles, though, is the 18-speaker Naim for Mulliner sound system, which comes as part of the package.
Naim for Mulliner was originally designed for Bentley’s coachbuilt £2,000,000 Batur model, where it had an option price of £25,000, and now it’s been distilled for Bentley’s, dare we say, standard road cars.
The limited collection is available across Continental GT, GTC and Bentayga for now, with Flying Spur to be added at a later date
The system has been developed with Dolby and supports Dolby Atmos to give a more immersive listening experience.
Naim provides much of the hardware, but the system also uses speakers derived from Focal’s Grand Utopia high-end speakers (don’t forget the two brands merged back in 2011), including two upgraded drivers originally developed for Batur, which offer a 20 per cent increase in cone movement thanks to their unique ‘M’ shape.
They’re light, rigid and damped and claim to have “greater articulation” and “broader dynamic range”. The system also features aluminium/magnesium tweeters, which also use the patented ‘M’ cones, which help to deliver an ”extremely linear frequency response with a low distortion rate and better sound dispersion”.
These drivers combine with newly designed speaker grilles that give a claimed 26 per cent “greater acoustic transparency”.
Bentley’s audio engineers also used Frauhofer Symphoria rendering technology to set the soundstage for each model in the range so driver and passengers can get the best balanced sound throughout the vehicle.
There are some neat small details, too, like the use of soft Dinamica inserts placed inside the door panels to reduce unwanted vibrations and frequencies. The thick Mulliner overmats also handle sound absorption duties.
The three styles of Virtuoso available are Soprano (Linen and Gravity Grey hides, Portland Dinamica fabric and Open Pore Crown Cut Walnut veneer), Tenor (Stratos and Brunel hides, Ceramic Glaze Dinamica fabric and Piano Gravity Grey veneer), and Bass (Gravity Grey and Beluga hides, Beluga Dinamica fabric and Open Pore Black Crown Cut Walnut veneer); but of course, as is the case with Bentley, you can work with its Mulliner division to create your own unique style should you wish to.
Unsurprisingly, pricing is only available on request.
Naim and Focal merged way back in 2011, but more recently, it was announced that their parent company, VerVent was being taken over by Belgian firm Barco, so it’s an interesting time for both brands.
MORE:
Read our Naim for Bentley premium audio system (2020 Bentley Continental GT) review
And our Naim for Bentley premium audio system (2020 Bentley Flying Spur) review
7 things I’ve learned testing in-car hi-fi for a decade
I spent 24 hours immersed in Dolby Atmos Music – these are 8 key things I learned
