Dolby Atmos Mercedes-Benz review: "an invisible conductor waving each instrument to life in astonishing clarity"

Dolby Atmos comes to Mercedes-Benz' top car models. Music producers can now enjoy the ultimate 'in-car' test for their latest mix, while passengers enjoy a premier immersive in-car audio experience.

After a Dolby Atmos Music listening experience at a nearby recording studio, in a UK exclusive, Headliner is chauffeured to the slick Mercedes showroom in central Munich, where a white EQS and an imposing silver and black Maybach S580 are ready for listening...

A natural extension of the luxury experience Mercedes’ customers expect (before they anticipate this need even themselves), the Dolby Atmos experience has been built into the cars’ optional Burmester high-end 4D and 3D sound system, and at the time of availability next summer, will be integrated into the Mercedes-Maybach and shortly afterwards in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

As to adapting the carefully positioned speakers of a cinema or studio into a car environment, Headliner is assured that Atmos adapts perfectly to its playback environment.

“In the case of the car, you have a known environment,” Javier Foncillas, VP commercial partnerships, Dolby Europe tells Headliner directly after the Atmos recording studio demo. “So you can actually fine tune it to that experience. Mercedes have done a really good job of adapting it to the car. It’s when you play it back that you adapt to whatever the environment is that you're playing it back on.”

Headliner points out the obvious opportunities Atmos in a car presents for the all-important ‘car test’ that producers and artists ritually perform to listen back to a new track.

“So one of the challenges is: how do you bring that experience to the playback?” answers Foncillas.

“The good thing about the car experience is we're getting as close as you can possibly get to that experience for an average consumer. In this case, we're starting with a very high end car, but that proves that you can translate the studio experience to get that same feeling when you're in the car. The car is one of the places where people listen to the music the most.

“People working in studios traditionally find that the first thing they do with a new record is take it to the car and see how it sounds. So we finally have that; we can go from the studio to the car to feel how it sounds. I hope when you experience the car, you'll agree with me that you actually get that feeling that you have in the studio.”

“This is relevant,” agrees Frank Schweickhart, head of sound and isolation, thermodynamics and airflow, R&D at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“I speak to the producers and also to artists, and this is a known secret. What artists are doing, is once they produce a song in the studio, the first thing they do is go to the car and listen to it. So for them, [Dolby Atmos Music in Mercedes] will be great because they can listen to it more naturally now. There's no better place to listen to music than in the car. It's the perfect scenario, and especially in a Mercedes because the noise in these cars is very low – we put a lot of effort in bringing the noise down.”

Listening Session

It was time for the demos: a particularly effective way of showing the power of Atmos in these models is achieved by playing the stereo version of a song versus the Atmos mix – it’s like night and day. We are whisked through the handful of songs mixed in Atmos they have available, although it doesn’t require many tracks (or even seconds) to see what the system is capable of.

Headliner is shown into the driver seat of the futuristic-looking EQS first – and spends more time in there than the Maybach – learning that the all important “sweet spot” in the studio environment is replicated within the car thanks to two modes: one that can ensure all passengers are benefitting from the optimal immersive listening experience, and the VIP mode – where the driver or front passenger gets the full force of the system.

There are 15 speakers within this car, including subwoofers by your feet, two 3D speakers by the rearview mirror, a speaker in each door, two at the back – powered by a total of 15 amplifier channels.

First to be fired up is Imagine Dragons' Believer – the bass-heavy tune is perfect to show what the Atmos system can do (the punch of the low end is very much at your feet during this one), and when compared to the stereo mix, the depth of the recording is immediately apparent. In Atmos, you hear every detail spring to life around you – stereo is immediately disappointing by comparison and strips out all the detail you’ve just been treated to in the Atmos mix.

Elton John’s Rocket Man is another Atmos Music demo hit (and one which Headliner also heard on the Dolby Atmos Music-optimised PMC 9.1.4 system in the studio earlier that day).

Just like the studio playback session, the track’s Atmos Music mix in the car elicits an involuntary smile you can’t suppress, particularly as the “ooohhs” kick in during the chorus and surround you, the main vocal crisp up front and centre and the harmonies in play all around you – an invisible conductor waving each instrument to life. It brings out elements of the song, instantly familiar as it is, that Headliner has never heard before – it sounds that good.

There’s no getting away from it, these cars have sound systems in them better than in most houses, but once you hear Atmos Music in one, you won’t want to go back.

A few genres are demoed, showing the system’s versatility at adapting to anything thrown at it: Billie Eilish’s Therefore I Am (bass-heavy and woozy), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 (sublime!), yet one of the surprise standouts is Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the track – it’s radio-friendly and inherently inoffensive, but it doesn't immediately strike you as an obvious choice to convey what Atmos can do. How wrong Headliner was – in Atmos in the EQS, the vocals are defined, the nuances of the instruments come to life all around you in astonishing clarity as the layered harmonies wash over you. It’s the perfect sound capsule; Headliner didn’t want to get out.

Maybach S580

When it’s turn to test out the Maybach, Headliner is shown to the back seat (likely where its owners are accustomed to sitting) to feel the force of the luxury car’s 39 speakers, which are given a further boost with the inclusion of 4D audio – simulating cinema seats that react with vibrations along with the music and action.

We don’t have as long in the Maybach, but it’s more than enough time to feel the difference 4D audio makes in this model, and the additional speakers when compared to the EQS give it much more potential in the upper layers.

Imagine Dragons’ Believer and Billie Eilish’s Therefore I Am have the seats rumbling off the Richter scale (Eilish’s delicate vocal is crystal clear and intimate) the transparency of sound in Elton John’s Rocket Man is phenomenal, and close your eyes and you could almost be at the recording of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s Shallow.

The Maybach is one of the first cars in the world and the first model in the Mercedes-Benz line up to offer this superior, multidimensional sound experience, which utilises a Burmester high-end 4D sound system.

“What we get from Dolby and from the guys who produced the music is the full information about all the channels,” Schweickhart points out. “So we always have the full range of experiences from which to make a setup.

“You've been in the studio before, so you’ll know a sound engineer recording music hears about 100 channels – maybe 200, and has to bring all this info into two channels. Stereo means it’s always a compression of everything. It's like taking 20 different colours, putting it into one pot and at the end of the day, you cannot separate them from each other. With Atmos we are using eight channels, so the producer can separate the instruments etc, and you can put it into different channels which you later on can use with much more freedom – you can play with all the colours and give them back to the listener.

“The first time I listened to an Atmos song... you adapt to it very quickly! It's like...I don't want to say a drug, but you get addicted to it; you cannot downgrade anymore," he grins.

The Dolby Atmos integrated in the Mercedes-Maybach will be available starting summer 2022 and will be offered for other models shortly thereafter equipped with the new MBUX system introduced with the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

“It's at the very beginning,” says Foncillas of the potential implications for transforming the automotive experience. “It's going to be a really important milestone for us. Mercedes is our first luxury partner, and we're really proud of that. We have big hopes for it, but this is just step one.”

With Dolby Atmos making huge leaps from movie theatres, to home cinemas, Atmos music, streaming and cars in a few short years, who knows – the sky might just be the limit for the revolutionary immersive audio format...