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The Sony RSX-GS9 turns your car into a concert hall

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Author: Sony Europe
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There’s nothing more exhilarating than a live concert. The venue, the atmosphere, the joy of multiple musicians playing in unison; it’s an incredible experience when all of this comes together.

Now imagine being able to enjoy that feeling inside your own car. That's the level of satisfaction that we strived to achieve with the Sony RSX-GS9, our new high-end in-car audio system.

 

The GS9 is the world’s first in-car system to support native playback of DSD, a completely uncompressed format that takes the quality from a professional recording studio and delivers it right into your own ears. There’s also High-Resolution Audio support, which allows you to enjoy all kinds of other digital formats in the best possible quality, and the whole system has been crafted from a single block of aluminium for a truly luxurious feel. It’s so impressive that it even won an EISA award this year for best ‘European In-Car HD Player 2016-2017’.

“The GS9 allows all customers to experience the great sound quality that you’d normally expect from a proper listening room in their car,” says Hirokazu Hayashi, project leader and engineer of the system. “You don’t need to be technically-minded to enjoy the benefits. It’s just taking the sound quality that you’re used to in your home and putting it in your car.”

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Another thing you’ll quickly notice is that there isn’t a CD drive, and that’s because you simply don’t need it any more – DSD and High-Resolution Audio deliver far superior sound quality to that of its physical counterpart. The subtly placed USB and Micro USB ports allow you to plug in a music device or hard drive of your choice for quick and easy High-Resolution Audio listening, and there’s Bluetooth connectivity for those who would rather go wireless (there’s an NFC chip placed cleverly inside the large central volume dial). There’s even an AUX port for when those other options won’t do.

The GS9 is an unbelievable achievement, and as Hirokazu tells us, it took plenty of hard work to get there. “We spent twice the normal development time working on the GS9 from start to finish, and it’s been so hard! To develop a product with this kind of sound quality, we needed lots of time for testing and developing, which is why it took so long. There isn’t one simple solution to ensure that a product has splendid sound quality.”

Over this development period, Hirokazu and his team built six different prototypes, contrasting and comparing each version with the next until it matched the high expectations of every person in the room. In fact, they even pushed the production date back by six months to ensure that their standards were met. “We wanted to be 100% confident of this product’s sound quality before releasing it, and we wouldn’t release it until we were.”

High-Resolution Audio is a key feature among many of our audio products, but this is the first time that we’ve incorporated it into one of our in-car systems. Enjoying the superior sound of these file formats doesn’t require any technical know-how; simply load the files onto your device and press play just like you would with a regular MP3 - the only difference you’ll notice is in the incredible audio quality.

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Despite dedicating years of his life to the GS9, Hirokazu is still blown away every time he sits down to enjoy a High-Resolution Audio track. “The GS9 surprises me in that every time I listen to music on it in my car, especially when it’s a live recording, I feel as though I’m sat in the middle of a concert hall or a recording studio, and it’s a kind of experience that I’ve never had before. I’ve never felt that way before in a car.

“Sometimes on a Saturday night I go out in my car with High-Resolution Audio music, and I drive to a quiet area and just listen to my music and experience that concert hall feeling. I’m so happy that customers will now be able to get the same feeling in their cars. It’s one of the best opportunities I’ve had in my engineering life, to provide such a great product to customers.”

After days and nights of hardship, six prototypes and countless listening sessions, the RSX-GS9 is finally available for customers to experience themselves, and along with the EISA Award this year, it’s proving to be a smash hit.

“We’re definitely very proud,” says Hirokazu. “I didn’t expect that the GS9 would be able to get such a great award in Europe, so I and all the other engineers are so happy, not only engineers, but all other related sections too. All of us are so happy and proud. The GS9 is not just a product to me; it’s a member of my family. The GS9 is the best thing that I’ve ever worked on in my entire life.”

Find out more about the Sony RSX-GS9.

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