Audio System - Volvo S80 V8

Studio quality sound from Dynaudio when you aren't listening to the glorious V8 singing.

Audio System

This car is a theatre on wheels! A nine-speaker system and four-channel amplifier provide enough wattage to deafen you at half volume. The surround sound can get a little flat compared to the three-channel setting and the standard setting, even with a high-definition digitally-recorded disc playing. This is one of the best car audio systems we’ve heard by far. It has a DVD player with an auxiliary input in the armrest, a six-CD changer in the console, and two headsets with individual volume controls at the rear. A tuner with AM/FM is present, but after you listen to a good CD – none of the 128kbps mp3 rubbish, mind – you’ll ignore the radio entirely, dig out the best music you have and listen to it in the car.

We really appreciate the sound staging – at the touch of a button you can configure the sound output so that it is optimised for either the rear seats, the front seats or just the driver’s seat. To put this into perspective, when you stage it for ‘driver’s seat’ you are literally surrounded by sound if you’re the driver. It sounds like you’re in the middle of the band playing the song! This is miles ahead of the Merc E-Class and BMW 5-series audio systems. It really makes the music come alive, provided you have a good enough CD.