Possible to upgrade a 2024 Lariat Stereo

[trock85]

Hi Everyone

I def do not want to come off as a snob here, please don't think I am in anyway all that put off by this, its def just me lol

I, on the side, write and record music in a home studio and have done so for decades, basically music and sound are my passion and by god if it were the 80s again i would have made it! lol i can still shred! lol

that being said i think the B&O 10 speaker/sub system is good, decent. its decently loud and the Bass is good. i set the EQ to where I liked it or as close as i could get and i have experimented with STEREO and SURROUND. even though all the files I have or play are mixed and mastered to STEREO i find the surround actually sounds better and spaces sound out more

So I have seen some people here completely re do their systems. i am not interested in doing that, nor do i have the know how.

I am curious about a couple of things

1) all Speakers will break in and loosen up, has anyone heard an improvement in the B&O 10 speaker/sub system over time? right now all of it just jumbles up in the middle so to speak.

2) i am actually content with the bass, its the whole separation and decent sound of a song and soundscape that isn't there for me, so has anyone done something more for the ability to clarify the music and get the mess of bass, treble and midrange out and make is so parts can be heard better? tweeters and speakers i would imagine that could be updated? and if so do you need to repoint or retune them? can an amp be added for more power? i am asking if this can be done easily

3) do you recommend soundproofing the doors etc.?

thanks for any help, i am sure the B&O is awesome for many, but i would very much like a much better overall sound and a little more loudness. even if i could load up an eq plugin like i use in the studio or compressor etc that would allow me to tweak many different bands i could separate the sound alot better than the built in 3 band

Ok, thanks for any help on this! and if not or its way to much work i am fine with that as well. i get it is a truck lol

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[tubingchamp]

I find it's good in some situations, but it tends to get "maxed out" with the midrange.. Or treble? Seems like a little too much distortion?

The bass is fine, honestly, don't want any more bass otherwise it will introduce a ton of rattles.. I'm in the same boat as you.

Looking for more of a euro car audio experience if possible, without ripping the entire interior apart. The distortion / clarity is the only thing that bothers me.

 

[hand-filer]

Another audio guy here that spent way to much money on audio equipment back in the eighties. I still run a nice little 2.1 system in the garage that utilizes a tube preamp.
My experience with the B&O system is that the 5.5'' base driver in the plastic housing adds most of the distortion to the sound. Also I find the center dash speaker a bit overpowering and that kind of messes up the soundstage.

I tried the surround mode but that didn't do it for me.
What did help is having the treble and midrange in the default setting and the base turned down to second lowest setting. That seems to have dealt with most of the distortion.
Why did Ford bother with that puny subwoofer when they have 6 x 9's in the front doors?

Everyone has their preference and perception of what is good and not so good when it comes to audio systems.

I'm in the process of compiling components for an under the rear seat sub and amp installation similar to what can be found here:
Subwoofer Installation
I'll remove the factory sub box and mount the amp in it's place.
?

 

[dard6555]

The soundstage in the Ranger pretty much sucks. This is compared to a 1997 Lexus I owned and a 2017 Buick Envision. Its muddy. This is with classis rock, older 90's country and classical. I'm not sure why everyone goes to upgrade the sub first, because it would be more prudent to work on the door speakers first. This would probably tone down the boominess of the mid bass and help in the mids. I can't say just yet, but I will be doing that next winter. I'm working on a rack and accessories before the sound system.

My two cents.

Cheers.

 

[Arsenall11]

i think the reason most of us have added the keyloc and powered subs is you can dial back the bass on the rest of the system, cleans up the sound.

 

[maus92]

The soundstage in the Ranger pretty much sucks. This is compared to a 1997 Lexus I owned and a 2017 Buick Envision. Its muddy. This is with classis rock, older 90's country and classical. I'm not sure why everyone goes to upgrade the sub first, because it would be more prudent to work on the door speakers first. This would probably tone down the boominess of the mid bass and help in the mids. I can't say just yet, but I will be doing that next winter. I'm working on a rack and accessories before the sound system.

My two cents.

Cheers.

I'm not diggin' the B&O system in my 24 Lariat, particularly the center channel in the dash. The best factory audio system I've owned was in my 21 Tesla MY - I never thought about a need to mod it.

 

[trock85]

I find it's good in some situations, but it tends to get "maxed out" with the midrange.. Or treble? Seems like a little too much distortion?

The bass is fine, honestly, don't want any more bass otherwise it will introduce a ton of rattles.. I'm in the same boat as you.

Looking for more of a euro car audio experience if possible, without ripping the entire interior apart. The distortion / clarity is the only thing that bothers me.

Def, bass is very good for me, honestly looking for more clarity and separation s I can hear parts better and clearer. I’d be good volume wise to if someone said hey, you can add x speakers and its much better. I know and amp can have a lot to do with quality as well but that may be beyond me and my tech abilities lol

but yes I def agree with what you are saying!

 

[trock85]

Another audio guy here that spent way to much money on audio equipment back in the eighties. I still run a nice little 2.1 system in the garage that utilizes a tube preamp.
My experience with the B&O system is that the 5.5'' base driver in the plastic housing adds most of the distortion to the sound. Also I find the center dash speaker a bit overpowering and that kind of messes up the soundstage.

I tried the surround mode but that didn't do it for me.
What did help is having the treble and midrange in the default setting and the base turned down to second lowest setting. That seems to have dealt with most of the distortion.
Why did Ford bother with that puny subwoofer when they have 6 x 9's in the front doors?

Everyone has their preference and perception of what is good and not so good when it comes to audio systems.

I'm in the process of compiling components for an under the rear seat sub and amp installation similar to what can be found here:
Subwoofer Installation
I'll remove the factory sub box and mount the amp in it's place.
?

That is awesome if no and I couldn’t agree more, you nailed it the console center speaker seems to overwhelm the rest and pull it all up right smack there

the surround, didnt fix it for me, it just separated it out more then the stereo setting.

i think you are totally right to about the sub, while I am find with the bass I think that might be contributing to the overall sound distortion

first world issues I know, I just love my music though and this is actually CLOSE which makes it even more of a want lol

 

[trock85]

The soundstage in the Ranger pretty much sucks. This is compared to a 1997 Lexus I owned and a 2017 Buick Envision. Its muddy. This is with classis rock, older 90's country and classical. I'm not sure why everyone goes to upgrade the sub first, because it would be more prudent to work on the door speakers first. This would probably tone down the boominess of the mid bass and help in the mids. I can't say just yet, but I will be doing that next winter. I'm working on a rack and accessories before the sound system.

My two cents.

Cheers.

Awesome info as well

thats where I was coming at this from, are there better quality speakers that would help, or can we load plugins into the software with more eq bands, or compression etc

its almost like they didnt shoot the car out and just dropped speakers in it where they thought it made sense

Again, not at all trying to be a music snob, I had an Acura mdx with their system, and they had hired a pretty famous music producer to sit in the car and shoot it out with a mic to define the sound characteristics of the interior of the car, then built the system into the car based onmeasurements

lol I know I sound totally daft here with all this

if there was a better quality speaker or tweet or both that you could just dropped speakers in and improve the over sound quality that would be great

 

[pablo94sc]

Even after disconnecting the center, the image is off. The tweeters should probably be in the little sail panels covering the side mirror mounts instead of the a-pillars. That's how it is in my Focus with the 6 speaker factory setup, and it sounds very good.

That said, with no center the crossover point becomes apparent. Like, you'll hear the mids drop off and kind of shift between the doors and tweeters. I think that maybe Ford is using the center as a midrange and the doors more for midbass. If not, then it's likely the crossover point is simply set too high for the doors to handle properly.

 

[josephp732]

I am an audio snob. My 2-channel home system cost more then my Lariat. Now, the good is that the Sync 4 system can handle high resolution flac files. I currently have a 1tb usb thumb drive loaded up. The system indexes quickly and you have to love the fact the Sync 4 asks if your the passenger and doesn't completely lock out the screen when the truck is in motion. Well recorded source material sounds ok - but as others have mentioned - I hate the fact that car manufactures push so much of the sound stage forward and bounce all the highs and mids off of the glass.

I am just starting this journey but I am not inclined to do a massive audio upgrade - I am too old and have done so many it's getting tough to get excited about tearing apart a car. I will do some sound proofing in doors and speaker upgrades. To help solve for the front stage issue - without pushing all the systems power to the rear (using the fader - which kills the door mid-woofers) I will replace the front tweeters and center channel with high quality but low sensitivity speakers (86db) - while replacing the front door mid-woofers and rear door coax speakers with high sensitivity speakers (93db). That should give me ~6/7 db reduction in the front soundstage. If that still doesn't pull down the front soundstage enough I will play with adding a high quality metal cabinet resistors inline to increase the impedance and lower the volume of the front speakers.

I will post back once I start this project.

 

[Mp3sgt]

I went from a 2021 with B and O to my current 2025. Maybe the 2025 is more solidly put together and thus less rattles but the bass is lacking. The bass in the 2021 was pretty apparent on USB or FM stereo even with quieter tracks/songs. The 2025 does not really do much except for limited bass lines of some hip-hop songs or some specific frequencies in songs. The 2025 seems like I have to be really high volume for anything to the point where it feels that the subwoofer is not tuned properly and does about nothing until volume 15. Any input for this? Can the subwoofer be upgraded to maybe a larger unit without a significant change of other equipment?

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