Audiophile – or: Many roads lead to sound design

Wolfram Jähn on his start in sound design: “I put together my first speaker system in my bedroom when I was twelve; I’ve always been fascinated by technology. And music, because I took piano and trombone lessons at a young age – that was sort of my artistic entryway into the subject.

For all that fascination with technology, the most important thing for me was always how sound and music could have an emotional impact. That’s still my guiding principle today: everyone listening to their favorite music in our cars has to be so touched and excited that they just don’t want to get out again.

As far as what drives me personally, I tend to be a perfectionist. My aspiration is to carve out the thing that’s particular in every sound and the beauty in every piece of music. Because I can describe precisely how it needs to feel on the basis of one example: A while ago, I was on the road in an A8 while there was a live broadcast of the Festival in Bayreuth on the radio and I got goosebumps: the sound was better than on-site. And I’m really able to say that because I’ve seen concerts there live. That was an overwhelming feeling of happiness and I want to make that possible for everyone who drives an Audi.”

Profile of Wolfram Jähn
Wolfram Jähn came to Ingolstadt and started working for Audi in 1999. Before that, he developed sound systems and loudspeakers for the automotive field as an audio engineer at Nokia, the market leader at the time. While he was studying electrical engineering with a focus on communication engineering in Regensburg, he specialized in acoustics. He keeps up to date with constant continuing education, including on specialized topics like signal processing. Wolfram Jähn is a music lover, plays several instruments, and sings.