The Maserati MC20’s Sound System Is as Impressive as the Supercar Itself

On the off chance you ever get sick of hearing the MC20’s V-6 race to its lofty 8,000-rpm redline right behind your head, Maserati has perfected an equally immersive soundtrack for your senses. To create a sound system befitting its new 621-hp mid-engine halo car, the masterminds in Modena enlisted the help of audio-obsessed paisans from just outside the famed Motor Valley.

Sonus Faber has been handcrafting some of the highest-quality speakers on the planet since 1983. Best known for small-human-sized, display-worthy tower units that cost up to $140,000, the company prides itself on reproducing the clarity, tonal balance, and dynamic range of a live musical performance. Indeed, when Leonard Coen’s haunting “You Want It Darker” played on the new line of Lumina V speakers at their headquarters outside the Renaissance-era town of Vicenza, I felt transported to a dingy recording studio, ready to bum a smoke from the gravelly voiced legend himself.

To approximate that audio alchemy within the tight confines of the MC20, the system (an approximately $4,000 option on the estimated $210,000 ride) features 12 channels amplified with 695 Watts of power and 12 specifically calibrated speakers. By using natural materials to reproduce sound—such as the silk used for the tweeters’ domes, which optimizes sound dispersion—Sonus Faber developed a transfixing addition to the already improbable capabilities of the MC20.

Small Quarters, Big Sound

Shoehorning speakers made for big rooms into a tiny car is like squeezing an entire tray of lasagna into a toaster oven. “If you think about it, the cabin of a car is a small closet,” Sonus Faber CEO Jeff Poggi tells me after our listening session. “It's really small as compared to a normal home space, so you're dealing with some basic physics challenges.” The goal is to create reproduced sound that has the broad dispersion and natural midrange of live music. “When you're sitting in the driver's seat, you should be able to close your eyes and see the singer in the middle of the stage, the bassist on the left, the guitar player on the right, and hear the separation of those instruments. We have a sophisticated equalization system, but it ultimately comes down to someone sitting in the car, listening, and fine-tuning everything by ear.”

Closeness Is Key