Music producer Steve Levine describes it as the sweet spot, and he's not wrong. I'm stood in a recording studio, watching Ivor Novello award nominated Patch William perform 'The Boy with the Guitar' and my ears are being treated to the purest, most intense sound they've ever experienced. The sound is so crisp it's incredible; the tune itself is insignificant - but thankfully right up my street - the clarity of the audio so perfect it's difficult to comprehend.

So what are we doing in Mark Knopfler's money-no-object British Grove Studios with a new band, a Grammy-winning record producer and a bunch of audiophile writers speaking in what sounds like a different language? Well, there's a Range Rover in the garage and it has Harman Kardon's latest Logic7 HD stereo equipment in it.

The studio is to demonstrate how the sound can be engineered, and the band is here to make that sound. And it sounds fantastic. A quick recording, a super fast mix and we're no longer in the sweet spot in the studio, instead, listening to the playback in the Range Rover. It's great, if not quite up to the standards of the studio - though I doubt I'll ever hear audio as clear as that again.

What's deeply impressive is how faithful and crisp the sound is in the Range Rover. That's doubly impressive as Harman's Tony Haberman describes cars as among the most difficult places to fit stereo equipment. That's down to the variety of surfaces, the fact the car vibrates, makes noise itself and has to be so tightly packaged. He says that, if you asked a car designer to accommodate 19 speakers they'd say no. Likewise, if you asked a stereo engineer to pick the worst possible place to put high-end audio equipment it'd be a car.

But there are 19 speakers in this Range Rover, though you'd be hard pushed to see them all. To accomplish this, the stereo designers have to get involved very early in the process, Harman's people actually starting work at the 'clay' stage of a car's design. They take part in early testing too, particularly as the challenges get harder with every model introduced. Power is a commodity now, with stereo equipment needing to draw less than ever as the requirement for ever greener cars gains momentum. Harman is achieving that with technology like its Green Edge speakers, which are 50 percent more efficient than traditional speakers. Weight needs to be minimal too - again thanks to environmental concerns.

Yet many cite the car as the place where they can really enjoy music. According to Harman's own research about 65 percent of drivers always play music in their cars and demand for greater quality is increasing. It's unlikely that it'll ever reach the level of intensity I experienced in the multi-million pound, audio perfected sweet spot within the studio, but that the Range Rover's Logic7 HD system can recreate just some of that magic is truly remarkable.

Kyle Fortune - 29 Oct 2010