BMW M5, Active Sound Design technology, which artificially replicates engine noise in the cabin using the stereo system

The car’s performance skills will become impossible to forget in day-to-day driving, because of the Active Sound Design, which makes the sound created by the engine while functioning enter the cabin. This technology specially created for the new BMW M5 uses the car’s sound system to accurately reproduce the engine’s sounds.

The digital system exchanges data directly with the engine management, allowing it to reflect the engine’s revs and torque, and the car’s speed over the road.

For example, Ford includes a sort of sound pipe that channels induction noise into the Mustang's cabin. BMW, on the other hand, has taken a different approach with the new BMW M5's Active Sound Design technology, which artificially replicates engine noise in the cabin using the stereo system.

What BMW has done is link the BMW M5's car stereo system's digital signal processor (DSP) into the engine management system, which allows the audio system to simulate the sound of a twin-scroll, twin-turbocharged V-8 engine in sync with the actual 560-horsepower mill humming away in the engine bay. BMW says that its Active Sound Design system accurately replicates the sound of the engine over the full range of RPMs, torque loads, and vehicle speeds. According to BMW, the Active Sound Design control unit ensures an even spread of sound across all five seats of the new BMW M5, while observing the legal guidelines governing noise emissions inside and outside the car.

Future customers of the new BMW M5 generation will feel the engine and exhaust system closer to them thanks to BMW’s innovation that brings the sound of the V8 and the exhaust inside the cabin, playing it using the car’s audio system.

According to the German automaker, the new system can be adjusted with the Sport, Sport+ or M buttons, which besides sharpening the car’s performance will also improve the sound inside the cabin.