VW has been relying on Fender and Panasonic for their sound systems since 2011, when the first Fender Premium system debuted in the Beetle, Passat and Jetta GLI of that era.
That system featured 400 watts and nine speakers, providing VW with so-called “concert-quality sound” inside of their models. That same formula was then applied to the 2020 Atlas Cross Sport – however, it did require some tweaking.
“The Atlas has three rows and seven seats, which gives the vehicle a large cabin space,” said David Ernst, Panasonic’s senior acoustics engineer. “The Atlas Cross Sport has two rows and five seats, so we had to pare down the design of the Fender Premium Audio System for the smaller model without taking away any of the quality.”
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In order to make that adjustment, Ernst and his team tested the system with focus groups and people at events and concerts. The team even had musical artists sit in the Cross Sport and listen to their own music.
“We did a lot of fine-tuning to make sure the product would be perfect for passengers, whenever they sat inside the vehicle,” added Ernst.
The sound system inside the Atlas Cross Sport comes with 12 separate Fender speakers. There’s an 80-mm front-center channel speaker, two 200-mm dual voice coil woofers in the front doors, four 60-mm soft dome tweeters in the first and second rows, two 168-mm speakers in the rear doors and two 80-mm wide frequency speakers in the D-pillar.
Last but not least, a 168-mm subwoofer sitting in a 12-liter enclosure in the back of the crossover. All in all, the system pumps out 480 watts of power.
