The best audio system I've ever heard in a car also sounds amazing at home by Matthew DeBord on Dec 30, 2016, 11:27 AM Advertisement
 The Naim audio system in the new Bentley Bentayga is the best I've ever heard. I took it out of the running for our Audio System of the Year for 2016 because we experienced the winner, Bowers & Wilkins, in more vehicles. But goodness, what a magnificent system Naim has developed for Bentley! I heard details in music I have never heard before — in songs and compositions I'd listened to many, many times. Now Naim, a British company that has a stupendous reputation for high-end audio, has created a special collaboration with Bentley to introduce a sort of All-England brand mashup that you can enjoy in your home: Naim for Bentley. There are two choices, both borrowed from Naim's pricey, but impressive Mu-so lineup. "With a striking new design, including delicately patterned aluminum skin and a knurled volume control reminiscent of classic Bentley styling, the new Naim for Bentley Mu-so and Mu-so Qb are packed with all the features any music lover could demand," Naim declares. Naim let me borrow both the Mu-so and the Mu-so QB to check them out. I set them up at home and compared them with my own Sonos setup. Here's how it went: SEE ALSO: Bowers & Wilkins is Business Insider's 2016 Car Audio System of the Year The Bentley Bentayga, a long-awaited SUV from the luxury brand. We sampled it earlier this year. 
The interior is full-on-Bentley, quite luxurious. And due to the SUV's size and dimensions, it's an amazing place to to listen to music piped through the specially designed Naim Audio system.  According to Naim, the company's sound engineers developed the 32-bit digital signal processor (DSP) for the all-in-one home wireless speaker systems, based on the work they did for Bentley's in-car audio setups. This was the challenge I set out for the home systems: Would they sounds as good as the system in the Bentayga? I'm not an audiophile, but I do listen to a lot of music, at home in the car's we test at BI. So I felt that I was reasonably qualified to make a judgment.
So, to the homefront. The Mu-so can be had for about $1,700. Yes, that makes it a very pricey choice for multi-room home audio — you have to spend a lot to get a second speaker — not to mention a Bluetooth capable system.  The original Mu-so is completely crammed with advanced audio technology. The total power output is 450 watts. The systems utilizes six speakers, each powered by its own 75-watt amplifier. Managing it all it is, according to Naim, a "32-bit digital signal processor capable of millions of calculations per second." At base, Mu-so is a versatile unit. You can stream audio using various formats, but you can also plug straight into an aux or USB port, and you can pair up using Bluetooth. You can also establish a home wifi network with multiple Mu-so units to have Sonos-like multi-room audio. The original system can also be customized for its aesthetics. It's an exquisitely crafted hunk of fiberboard and aluminum, with impeccable finishing. Yet it's relatively compact. It fit neatly on several small tables and a cabinet in my house, and it could be located easily enough on a shelf.
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