How one company started making more money from smartphones than Bentleys

You wouldn't think it, but the premium sound system in a Bentley, and the speakers in Xiaomi's and Oppo's phones have something in common.

Dirac, the Swedish audiophile company that's been tuning Bentley's, Harman's home cinema systems, and BMWs and Volvos for years, is now tweaking the sound you hear coming out of some of China's top smartphones.

The unlikely partnership between Dirac and its Chinese customers started out small, but is today found in some 200 million phones coming out of China.

It all started with a single Oppo model five years ago. Today, Dirac is enlisted to help flagship models such as Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2, and the Oppo R11, sound better — and just got world number two maker Huawei onboard last year. Read more...