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Future Tech

Harman's new audio system puts speakers in the seat base

It's called SeatSonic - not a new video game character, but a 'new audio experience'

Published: 08 Jan 2024

Harman has added an entirely new meaning to the term 'subwoofer', because its new SeatSonic audio system puts speakers into the base of the seat itself.

Showcased at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the new tech integrates the speakers and subwoofers from the doors, floors and boot into different areas of the seat, because why the hell not. It's not the first time Harman has put speakers into a headrest, but it is the first time it’s placed a personal sound unit in the backrest of every passenger seat, complete with a spangly blue light.

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It's said to deliver a ‘flexible, lightweight and energy-saving’ solution, apparently, while also freeing up space inside the cabin so interior designers can sculpt slimmer, minimalist door cards.

Indeed, Harman’s long been obsessed with avoiding mega sound clashes between the kids’ Bluey show in the back and your phone call up front. Using ‘specially designed near-field transducers’, everyone in the car can listen to their own thing without conflict. Harman also says the bass unit kicks in nice and hard around the lumbar support, giving you a very different kind of massage seat.

Now part of the Samsung family, Harman’s tech underpins almost every brand of automotive audio suite out there – Bowers & Wilkins, Mark Levinson, JBL, Harman Kardon and Infinity, to name but a few. Its HaloSonic technology – showcased almost a decade ago at CES – created noise-cancelling frequencies to combat engine and road noise in the cabin, and has been used in various car brands including Lotus and Hyundai.

Ready your finest seat-speaker based puns below...

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