Harman Voyager Drive Portable Auto Audio System Preview

People are now used to taking their music with them wherever they go.  Almost everyone reading this article has a smartphone with at least SOME of their music either directly downloaded onto their phone or the ability to stream music through an app. With head phones you can listen to your music, but nobody else can.  If you stream your music to your car audio system, how do you take that music out on the beach?  Harman has answered these questions with their new concept in portable audio, the Voyager Drive. Debuted at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, the Voyager Drive is an ingenious full-range portable Bluetooth speaker system personalized to fit consumers’ on-the-go lifestyles in and out of their vehicle.

Designed for today’s always-connected consumers and music lovers, Voyager Drive is a unique lifestyle audio system that pops into and out of the vehicle dashboard to seamlessly follow consumers from their car, to the house, the beach, campsite, or anywhere else their journey may take them.  All that’s needed is a car company to go in with them for a production market vehicle.

Once you buy a car outfitted with a Harman Voyager in the dash or have the dashboard assembly added aftermarket, you simply pop in the portable saucer speaker, connect your smartphone via Bluetooth and the Harman Voyager is ready to play your favorite tunes through six in dash speakers.  Harman’s idea is to get the speakers out of the normal in door setup and place them more at ear level. Let’s face it; my ears aren’t in my ankles, so why should a car’s speakers be low down in the door.

Harman Voyager Connected Car Audio Concept CES 2016

In the back of the car the Harman Voyager can be expanded to the Voyager Drive+, a removable car bass box that fnctions in and out of the vehicle.   The saucer disk is a speaker itself that didn’t have exceptional sound, but when paired with the Voyager Drive+ Bass Box, the portable system sounded good albeit a tad on the heavy side.

Voyager Drive is designed to appeal to the fast growing segment of young consumers who demand portability and personalization without compromising quality. The Harman Voyager will also include built-in speakerphone functionality with advanced microphones and SoundClear echo noise cancellation technology designed so your calls come through loud, clear and hands-free.

Although as mentioned above, Harman is still looking for a car company to buy in to the technology as an add on for a production car, and the system is still in developmental stages, the system does have some real advantages.  We’ll be looking forward to reviewing one more in depth in the near future – Maybe in my next car.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.