Dirac said it will demonstrate its automotive audio software with industry partners Audio Foundry and Pioneer at CES 2026, highlighting how software-based processing can be integrated into different in-vehicle audio systems.

The demonstrations are scheduled for the Audio Foundry booth (#7330) and the Pioneer booth (#3527) in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Dirac will present its AudioIQ optimization suite and Dirac Dimensions spatial audio technology in two separate vehicle installations.

At the Audio Foundry booth, Dirac is participating in a concept demonstration developed with Tymphany and other partners. The system is installed in a modified Karma Revero and uses nontraditional speaker locations, including speakers mounted in the headrests and other experimental placements. Dirac said its software is used to align and tune the system so the speakers function together despite their locations. The demonstration also uses Dirac Dimensions to process stereo content for playback across the full system.

Here’s the CES preview video:

“Audio Foundry exists to push boundaries, and Dirac gives us a platform to do that at a fundamentally new level,” said Matthew Marchese, automotive business unit leader at Tymphany. “Their processing stabilizes acoustics that would otherwise be impossible, letting us prototype architectures that point toward an entirely new design standard for future vehicles.”

In a separate demonstration at the Pioneer booth, Dirac is showing its automotive software integrated into Pioneer’s Integrated Sound Platform, an amplifier and signal-processing architecture. The system is installed in a Volvo XC90 and includes Dirac processing at the amplifier level. According to the companies, the setup is intended to show how audio correction and spatial processing can be embedded directly into vehicle electronics rather than added later in development.

The Pioneer demonstration also includes a system design that does not use a dedicated subwoofer. The platform combines Pioneer speakers with digital signal processing and Dirac software to reproduce low-frequency content using smaller speaker elements distributed throughout the cabin.

“Pioneer and Dirac share a belief that the next breakthroughs in automotive sound will come from intelligent collaboration between hardware and software,” said Werner Koestler, executive officer at Pioneer. “By embedding Dirac’s processing into Pioneer’s ISP, we’re demonstrating how amplifiers can become computational platforms.”

Dirac said its automotive technologies are currently used by several vehicle manufacturers, including Volvo, Polestar, Genesis, NIO and BYD. The company said its CES demonstrations are focused on showing how software-defined audio systems can be applied across different vehicle designs and supplier platforms.

CES 2026 runs Jan. 6-9, 2026, in Las Vegas.