This new SUV's stereo lets you make phone calls your passengers can't hear

Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury vehicle division, just revealed a feature in its new full-sized SUV that can allow everyone else in the vehicle to keep listening to whatever they want while the driver takes a phone call and no headphones are needed.

It can be awkward to take a phone call while you’re driving and your family is in the car with you. If you’re listening to music it turns off and everyone has to stop and listen to whatever someone on the phone wants to tell you.

Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury vehicle division, just revealed a feature in its new full-sized SUV that can allow everyone else in the vehicle to keep listening to whatever they want while the driver takes a phone call and no headphones are needed. Only the driver can hear the call and the person on the other end of the call can’t hear the music playing in the SUV.

It’s the latest trick in the increasingly competitive world of luxury car sound systems. These days, there’s almost no luxury car company that doesn’t play up its high-end audio system with brands like Burmeister in Mercedes-Benz, McIntosh in the opulent Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV and Bang & Olufson in Bentley and Genesis cars, among others. For Klipsch, famous for its top-end hand-made speakers, this is only the brand’s second appearance in a vehicle. The US$87,000 Ram Tungsten luxury pickup has a Klipsch stereo as standard equipment but even it doesn’t have the Infiniti’s high-tech sound isolation system.

The system in the QX80, developed by Infiniti along with Panasonic Automotive and Klipsch, works through a combination of clever speaker placement and sound canceling technology. The driver and front passenger seat both have speakers mounted in the headrest. That’s not a new idea, but headrest speakers are usually found in convertibles where music, phone calls and navigation instructions have to overcome buffeting wind noise. They’re not usually found in large, quiet luxury vehicles like the Infiniti QX80.

Sound cancelling technology, in simpler forms, also isn’t new. It generally works by using speakers to create off-setting sound waves to deaden unwanted sounds. If you imagine sound waves as a line going up and down then imagine overlaying that with a second line that goes up and down in exactly opposite directions, you would end up with, essentially, a flat band. In other words, no sound.

Sound cancelling in headphones and car stereos is usually used to wash out continuous, droning background sounds like engine noise. It’s much harder with sounds like music, which changes a lot from moment to moment.