Nissan’s New Audio Tech Is Extremely Brilliant — It Tunes Your Car to Your Ears

Audio By Carbonatix

Most carmakers talk about horsepower, torque and range when they roll out new technology. Nissan is doing something much more personal by rethinking how music and sound are delivered inside its vehicles. The Japanese automaker has introduced a feature called Personalized Sound, a first-of-its-kind in-car audio system that tailors sound to the unique hearing profile of each driver.

Interestingly, this comes as Mercedes-Benz discontinues a similarly innovative feature — MBUX Sound Drive — that synced music playback with driving dynamics (accelerating, braking, cornering, etc.). The German automaker notified customers that the system would be turned off on December 17, 2025, effectively bringing to an end a feature that was marketed as an interactive audio innovation.

So, while Mercedes-Benz is stepping back from its experimental music-syncing technology, Nissan is leaning into personalization—two very different philosophies about how sound should enhance the driving experience. It’s an interesting divergence: Mercedes-Benz tried to make driving change the music, while Nissan is making the music fit the driver.

If you think of most car audio systems as a one-size-fits-all setup, Nissan’s new approach is closer to having your own custom sound engineer tuning every track. The idea behind Personalized Sound is simple yet bold: no two ears hear exactly the same thing.

Factors such as age, exposure to loud environments, and natural physiological differences mean that the way you experience sound can be very different from the way your passenger hears the same music. Nissan believes its system can bridge that gap by analyzing those differences and automatically adjusting the audio to suit your hearing.

The technology works through an app available on the Google Play Store that runs on vehicles equipped with Google built-in infotainment systems. Once installed, the driver is prompted to take a brief hearing test while parked in a quiet spot. The test plays a series of tones at varying frequencies, from low to high, and the driver taps the screen each time they hear a tone. This simple interaction lets the system map out how sensitive your ears are across the sound spectrum.

Once complete, the system creates a custom equalizer profile using a 10-band setup that adjusts frequencies from roughly 50 to 1,200 hertz. This isn’t just about tweaking bass or treble. It finely tunes how sound is balanced across a range of tones, so the audio feels richer and more complete to your particular hearing. Nissan says this results in a noticeable difference for most users, with internal testing showing that 96 percent of participants preferred their personalized profile over the default settings.

An especially thoughtful feature is support for multiple driver profiles. If more than one person regularly drives the car, each can download the app and save their own audio profile. The system can then automatically load the right settings based on who is behind the wheel, making for a seamless and individualized experience every time.

The rollout of Personalized Sound includes a wide range of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles already on the road. Models such as the 2024 and newer Nissan Rogue, the 2025 Armada and Murano, and upcoming 2026 vehicles like the Leaf and Infiniti QX60 will all support the feature, as long as they have the compatible infotainment system.

This development is significant not only for everyday technophiles but also for people with hearing sensitivity or impairments. By optimizing sound for what you actually hear, the system can potentially make music and spoken content clearer for those who might otherwise miss certain frequencies. It’s a step toward personalization in automotive experiences that goes beyond seat position, steering feel, or ambient lighting.

The idea feels long overdue in a world where personalized technology is everywhere else. High-end headphones and earbuds have offered sound customization for years, using software to compensate for the wearer’s hearing profile. Nissan is now bringing similar thinking into the car cabin, where elements like road noise and speaker placement have traditionally been barriers to great sound.

Still, there are questions about how this tailored audio system will perform in real-world conditions. Road noise, different source qualities from streaming versus radio, and the challenge of tuning for multiple occupants in a moving vehicle are all variables that remain to be tested by everyday users. Nissan’s early adopters will likely be the first to discover how much impact Personalized Sound really makes once they’re out on the road with it.