What if you think the B&O Audio sucks?

[CougarCruiser]

I came from a 2016 F150 Platinum with the Sony audio. I'm a tinkerer by nature, and appreciate a well rounded, good quality stereo. I spend close to 3 hours a day commuting or running around in my cars.

I'm starting a little build log of some upgrades to the 2019 Expedition Platinum I just picked up... Hopefully it finds it useful.

I haven't really decided how far I want to go, but I I know I want to keep the factory Sync3 interface. I'm not digging into the dash.

The B&O is all in the back left panels of the cargo area. There's a product by Nav-TV called a "Zen" that is one of the few integration adapters for the newer Fords that have the digital signal back to the processor. I pinged them about the Expedition because their site says it works. However, they haven't had someone integrate yet, and couldn't commit. I'm working with them to hopefully figure out if it will.

That being said - I just wanted to pull the cargo panels back to see what's back there.

Just a little start. You want that panel to come off, you are removing the back storage tray, c and d pillar panels, and more. It's kind of a pain. but you have decent access back there. The third row seating does NOT need to come out.

 

[1955moose]

Their making it tougher and tougher to upgrade the head units and amps on the newest vehicles. Just for laughs and giggles, I was on Crutchfield's website about an hour ago. I keyed in a 2019 F150 Lariat, and hit replacement head units. It came back none. Apparently Ford's making it tougher to override their wiring harnesses. The 2018/19 has the Sony setup. Luckily most factory head units are pretty decent, and better speakers are usually what most change out. It's amazing what real high end 5 1/4 and 6 1/2 inch separates go for. A mid priced set is $2,000.00. The real high end stuff like Focal goes for $6,000.00 for a set of speakers with crossovers. And I thought $400.00 was a ton for a set of Ads 320I separates back in 1984! With inflation, they'd be around $1600.00 today.

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[dlcorbett]

I dont think the b&o sucks, bit i do think it's limited to its ability to relay different sound. at their appropriate levels. I feel like its too compressed and not dynamic enough, and there would be no way to fix it unless you changed the actual head unit. My 09 nav, every third gen expy and both fusions ive had(08, now 06 currently) did not have this problem, they were able to relay different sounds within the media at the appropriate levels: vocals, instruments, synthesized sounds etc. I do appreciate the clarity of the b&o though esp at higher volumes. Its also very balanced which is good and bad. The music sounds good, but i feel like im listening to it more than being absorbed by it like how my nav used to make my wife n i feel. The expy system is till world's better than many systems out there though.

 

[rumline]

Staying tuned for updates. I agree the B&O dynamics are unimpressive...my prior Jeep was noticibly better. With enough EQ from the source (my phone) I was able to get it to sound decent. Onboard EQ does not give enough control. I bet that upgrading speakers will give the most mileage for the effort / $$.

 

[MAXLiquid]

I did a complete audio upgrade on my 2018 back in September.

Took out the all of the B&O components and replaced them with the Nav-TV Zen A2B, JL amps and speakers. It sounds good but not great especially when compared to my 2007 Suburban with a Kenwood Excelon head unit.

I used a highly reputable car audio installer to upgrade the system and it took them 17 days!

Hindsight being 20/20 I would probably wait for something like the AmpPRO or some other interface that doesn’t require taking out the factory amp.

Keep in mind that no matter what you do if you keep the Sync 3 you are not going to get as good of an output signal as say a Kenwood head unit.

 

[Bonji]

I was unimpressed with the BO system, until I set it to "Surround" as opposed to "stereo", and made some tweaks on the equalizer. It sounds friggin great if you set it up properly.

It's built for lossy audio, as we lost the CD in 2019 models. Play it just right and you're good to go. Even my daughter's tunes streamed from the YouTube have the right balance of heft and brightness.

 

[1955moose]

Sad that a Stereo won't play right in Stereo! The same pretty much holds true on all the 7 channel and beyond home receivers. These companies concentrate on 7-11 channel movie sound, they left out the left/right ping pong effect of a quality 2 or 4 channel with sub stereo system. I've installed some pretty sweet car Stereo systems over the years. Nothing crazy like some guys with a wall of subwoofers and amps, but a nice 300 watt total system, that got you to turn up the volume. It's a shame with all the money for the stereo upgrade on these Suvs, it's still just an also ran, rather than a winner. What's really disappointing is Bang and Olufson, B&O is a premier home stereo company. I had one of their record turntables back in the early 90's, very open clean sound. It costs me $800.00, and sounded like it!

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[CougarCruiser]

I did a complete audio upgrade on my 2018 back in September.

Took out the all of the B&O components and replaced them with the Nav-TV Zen A2B, JL amps and speakers. It sounds good but not great especially when compared to my 2007 Suburban with a Kenwood Excelon head unit.

I used a highly reputable car audio installer to upgrade the system and it took them 17 days!

Hindsight being 20/20 I would probably wait for something like the AmpPRO or some other interface that doesn’t require taking out the factory amp.

Keep in mind that no matter what you do if you keep the Sync 3 you are not going to get as good of an output signal as say a Kenwood head unit.

Super cool to see the Nav-TV Zen unit works. It does force you to replace the amp all up, but did you have any issues with the zen unit? You got all the channels output? Are you wired into a DSP with a built in EQ, or just straight out to the amps? Using a DSP will go a long way for tuning.

 

[Dorzak]

My wife and I made a comparison between the stock speakers with playback on our 2016. We used satellite SiriusXM, app SiriusXM through CarPlay, Google Audio, and Apple Music with the same songs. We found SiriusXM had the least range. Point being don’t rule out the source as being part of the lack of dynamic range.

 

[MAXLiquid]

The DSP’s do help but the root of the problem is the SYNC 3. If you do decide to install the Zen A2B be sure and order an extension cable from Nav-TV so that you can place the unit where it is readily accessible. You will need to access this unit for the initial programming and periodic updates, don’t just run a usb cable from the unit. You must ground to the battery, very important! As previously mentioned, I had my system installed by one of the top car stereo shops in the DFW area and it took them 17 days, many of which were spent on the phone with Nav-TV getting the programming correct for the Expedition. If I had to do it all over again considering the money spent and the improvement gained I wouldn’t do it.