Spatial Audio in CarPlay Reaches the Volvo EX90, With a 25-Speaker Catch

The car is where a lot of people still listen to music on purpose. Alone, on a highway, with nobody interrupting and nothing else competing for the speakers, you hear the bass line in a way you never do at your desk. It's the closest thing most of us have to a listening room, and audio companies have been circling it for years.

Volvo is pushing Spatial Audio in CarPlay, powered by Dolby Atmos, out to the EX90 through a software update, and confirmed it in a press release this week. Back in July it named the EX60, EX90 and ES90 as the three models getting it. There's a catch, and it's an expensive one. The feature needs the optional Bowers & Wilkins sound system.

What you actually need

Volvo's wording is careful. "Spatial Audio in CarPlay requires a Bowers & Wilkins sound system to deliver a fully immersive experience, which is available to choose when ordering." That's a box you tick at order time. Volvo hasn't said what the standard stereo does with an Atmos track, or whether it does anything at all.

The B&W system in the EX90 runs 25 speakers on a 28-channel, 1,610-watt amplifier, with four speakers in the headrests and four firing down from the headliner. Those four overhead drivers are the ones that matter here. Atmos wants height information, and most car stereos have nowhere to put it.

Regular CarPlay, not CarPlay Ultra

These two get mixed up constantly. Apple's CarPlay page says CarPlay supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos so automakers can build it into their vehicles. CarPlay Ultra, the version that takes over the instrument cluster and the climate controls, still ships only in Aston Martins, with Hyundai, Kia and Genesis on Apple's announced list. Volvo isn't on either list. The EX90 runs wireless CarPlay on top of its Google-based system, and that's what got the update.

Volvo isn't first, either. Lotus switched on Spatial Audio in CarPlay across its cars last year, and Rivian, Polestar and Lucid models have had it. Apple's first spatial audio deal with a carmaker was Mercedes-Benz, in 2022.

The timeline is a little odd, too. Volvo's own EX90 release notes list the feature under software 3.0.18, dated May 18: "Spatial Audio support in CarPlay is now available, creating a multidimensional immersive sound experience that places music and vocals around the cabin." This week's announcement is mostly Volvo spelling out who qualifies.

Switching it on is vague

Neither company publishes a clean set of steps, which is its own small tell. On the phone, the Apple Music Dolby Atmos control sits in Settings, then Apps, then Music, then Audio, set to Automatic, Always On or Off. Tracks mixed in Atmos carry a Dolby Atmos badge in Now Playing, so at least you can tell what you're hearing. Apple's support document on Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music lists headphones, HomePods, TVs and receivers as compatible hardware, and doesn't mention cars anywhere. I couldn't confirm which iOS version you need, so I'm not going to make one up.

A car is a strange room

Spatial audio in headphones solves a problem you can state in one line. The sound is stuck to your skull, so Apple fakes a room and uses head tracking to keep that room still when you turn your head. A car hands you the opposite constraints. The speakers are real and bolted in place. There are up to seven seats, nobody's sitting in the same spot, and whatever sweet spot exists, one person is in it at most.

Then there's noise. Atmos mixes buy their sense of space with quiet detail: reverb tails, room tone, a hi-hat placed somewhere behind your right ear. At 70 mph, tire roar sits right on top of that. The B&W spec sheet for the EX90 includes something called Vehicle Noise Compensation, which suggests they know.

Does it sound better?

I haven't heard it, and neither has anybody reading a press release. The hardware gives it a real chance. Height speakers overhead and drivers in the headrests put the EX90 closer to a home Atmos setup than a phone or a pair of earbuds will ever get. The mixes are the wobbly part. Atmos versions on Apple Music are wildly inconsistent. Some are gorgeous, plenty push the vocal back and thin out the low end next to the stereo master, and speaker count won't fix a mix you don't like. The EX90 also layers Dirac Unison, QuantumLogic Immersion and a set of Virtual Venues modes on top of all this, and heavy processing has a habit of sounding impressive on the first song and tiring by the fourth.

Who it's for

People who already bought the speakers. If you've got an EX90 with the B&W system and an Apple Music subscription, take the update, queue an album you know cold in stereo, switch to the Atmos version and decide whether you prefer it. That's the only test that counts, and it's free. If you're still shopping and a salesperson leans on this to justify the audio option, push back. Buy the 25 speakers because they sound good, and treat spatial audio as one more thing they can do.

Volvo hasn't given a date for the EX60 and ES90, and the EX60 is only starting deliveries now. If you're waiting on either of those, ask before you assume.