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Is it live, or is it THX?

CNET Car Tech attempts to shatter a wine glass with the THX audio system in the Lincoln MKZ.

Wayne_Cunningham.jpg
Wayne_Cunningham.jpg
Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
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Wayne Cunningham

Faced with the best car stereo we have ever heard at CNET Car Tech, we came up with a unique experiment to test it--we wanted to find out if we could shatter a wine glass through sheer audio force. The stereo that we like so much is the THX system in the Lincoln MKZ, an incredibly refined and well-engineered system that uses 14 speakers and a 600-watt, 12-channel amplifier. To break our wine glass, we first needed a tone at the glass' resonant frequency. We measured that by pinging the glass and recording the sound, then analyzing it with Audacity, an audio-editing program. Our glass' resonant frequency was 532 hertz, so we used Audacity to generate a consistent 532 hertz sound. We set the glass in the car, played our frequency through the car's stereo system, and?

Well, you'll have to watch the video to find out what happened. And read our review of the 2007 Lincoln MKZ for a full write-up on the test, complete with commentary by THX Chief Science Officer Laurie Fincham.