What's the news?

We're hoping to see the actual finished Volvo XC90 sometime within 2014, but until then we have to put up with the slow striptease the Swedes seem intent on. Latest bit? The new SUV's fancy stereo system.

Bowers & Wilkins, a British firm with five decades of 'pioneering research into loudspeaker design', will be providing the sounds for the occupants of the second-generation big SUV. Citing no less a venue than Abbey Road Studios (you should know who recorded there in the Sixties) as one of the world's most demanding acoustic environments used as a test-bed to hone the B&W kit over the years, the XC90 uses tweeter-on-top technology for the first time in a car, as well as low-distortion speakers, extended range aluminium tweeters and Kevlar midrange units. There's also a 12-channel Harman 1,400-watt Class D amplifier, a subwoofer that is integrated into the body of the car and air-ventilated, and a grand total of 19 speakers within the cabin.

This all-singing, all-dancing system will be termed the Premium Sound, while a 224W, 12-speaker alternative called the High Performance will be offered. And for Premium, the software from Dirac Research can even recreate acoustics from specific music venues of concert halls - such as Gothenburg Concert Hall - in the XC90. All of this is controlled by simple 'buttons' in the Volvo's central dash touchscreen.

Anything else?

"The XC90 uses our tweeter-on-top technology, which has a number of advantages in the automotive environment. Fundamentally it increases the ratio of direct to reflected sound, as more of the signal reaches the listener directly from the tweeter, rather than reflecting off the windscreen first. All of this means that the Bowers & Wilkins audio system in the XC90 sounds incredibly tangible and lifelike," said Stuart Nevill, head of engineering, Bowers & Wilkins, in terms that we sound system laymen can understand.