words cannot comprehend just how jealous i am of guys with the B&O system. My car is a non-tech package car so i have a base, low grade, 3rd world country, childish hand me down, wouldn't wish on Bin Laden himself sound system that i have to crank to volume 18 just to get a slight sense of bass. The system is so bad my wife divorced me before we even got married. My dog packed a bag and took herself to the shelter to find a new home. My job fired me for being to primitive. I heard better sound from a walk-man in a homeless mans shopping cart, and that same homeless guy slipped me some change and told me to "hang in there". I had a guy in a wheelchair roll past me and flip me the bird. Satan himself told me to enjoy Heaven after i died since my speakers were punishment enough. Anyway, can't wait to follow to find a solution!

 

 

I guess I need to turn mine on and see what all the hubbub is about.

 

My stereo is not even something I give a second thought to. Honestly, my car could have been a stereo delete and I would still be enamored with it

If you’re looking to enhance it, just ask @Evolvd and @HVCalTech

 

@HVCalTech and I have both done extensive audio work in our Shelbys. The easiest and most expedient way to improve sound is to get the PAC Audio AP4-FD21 integration unit, a good 6 channel DSP amp (or 8 channel to run rears) and a quality set of three way components for the front and a good pair of 6.5” coax or midbass woofers for the rear deck.

To get more sound out of the rear you’ll need to punch out the vent holes in the carpet as it chokes off those speakers a lot. As for sub, if you want to save space but have more bass the JL Audio stealth sub is a great option. It replaces the stock sub with a 12” minute one. You’ll need an amp for that one as well.

But for starters, sound deaden your doors and trunk…it makes a huge difference.

 

Yes i know the engine sound better but once in awhile i would like to crank up the tunes and this system is so bad
in the car it's embarrassing. Mine is so bad it must be broken, i checked sub and its hooked up. There is almost no volume out of rear speakers, The stereo is a base model 2002 taurus sound better. No excuse for a car of this price to have such junk installed. Everything else about the car is incredible. The system in my c8 z06 will blow your head off, Loudest factory car system i have ever heard. without spending 6k on a complete system what can we do??

Hopefully you didn’t buy this car for its Soundsystem. I don’t think Ford gave two shit about the entertainment system in these cars. They were more focused on performance, attacking track/strip. The car could’ve came with no stereo and I would still be 100% satisfied with it.

 

Ford doesn’t give two shits about the stereo in anything it makes. Lol

 

Wasn't there a time a long time ago where B&O Bang & Olufsen was a high quality stereo system company?

y'know circa:

 

I think the only thing that is Bang & Olufsen is the logo through a licensing arrangement. There's nothing high end in any of these components.

 

I rarely play my stereo in the Gt500.

 

I don't listen to mine much but when I do I have not had any complaints with the way it sounds. I turned down the subwoofer as I thought it was too boomy at the default level.

 

@SSSSLOW - I did the same thing for the same reason.

 

I have a music studio in my house with $9k Focal monitors + sub and $5k worth of networked sound interfaces that will blur your vision, and guess what I listen to when I drive? Nothing. I simply don't listen to music much at all. Have the same B&O system in my Raptor and it's totally adequate when I need it IMO.

 

I keep the sound in the shelby pretty low too. I use the cars stereo mainly for navigation if I am driving somewhere and the music is more for background noise than anything. At this low volume I can't really tell the quality if the sound.

 

I am a tad embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t know my car had a CD player until I had owned it 18 months. I do believe the GT350 has a much better sounding system than the GT500.

 

I don't think a lot of people knew about the CD player. I remember I posted about it here and people were surprised there was one. I myself only found it by accident, I was inspecting the area looking at the buttons near it and noticed the slit and was surprised the car came with a CD player too.

 

I actually turned mine on today and it worked great. Made noises and even had some decent bass. I had it at 20 and I could barely hear the exhaust in track mode with Queensryche playing. Maybe I got a good one 🤷🏽‍♂️

 

Jet City Woman

 

The B&O system is junk. The speakers are the same terrible plastic frame, paper cone low rent speakers they’ve been using for years, and the amplifier is pretty weak. The only thing B&O had anything to do with is the factory DSP tuning that keeps the crappy Ford speakers from self destructing. The only good thing about the B&O system is it enables you to use the excellent Pac AP4-FD21 that @Evolvd mentioned. That gives you a low noise flat signal to drive your aftermarket amp/amps and has an optional optical digital upgrade that I would highly recommend. I don’t have any personal experience with it, but I’m pretty sure the base non tech package system is completely analog, so you’ll need to run line level converters at a minimum, preferably something like the JL Audio Fix 86 that will also sum everything together and correct the signal to feed an aftermarket DSP.

There are 1000 different ways to do an aftermarket stereo in this car. It all depends on what your goals are and what you want to spend.

 

I think my Shaker 1000 sounds pretty good. I'd like a nice EQ in it, but it cranks it out.

 

I think everyone is missing a key piece of information here. OP said he can turn it all the way up and talk to the passenger. He also said he checked to see if the subs were even hooked up. This sounds like a ground issue somewhere with the unit or some other failure internal to the unit. There is something else going on there that could be a really easy fix. My 98 Cobra had the same exact symptoms, ended up being a bad ground. After fixing that the Monsoon came to life and sounded great.

 

Right I knew about the HUUUUUUUUUGE falling out with Tate, his crooked wife and daughter cooking the books and then Tate spitting on Rockenfeld(sp) in Brazil after they canned his family?

Totally a classy move BTW



But you said "Origins" and I am all WTF????

 

Right I knew about the HUUUUUUUUUGE falling out with Tate, his crooked wife and daughter cooking the books and then Tate spitting on Rockenfeld(sp) in Brazil after they canned his family?

Totally a classy move BTW



But you said "Origins" and I am all WTF????

I actually saw Tate on a solo tour the weekend the news about Brazil came out. Made for an interesting couple of shows.

 

Just replacing the head unit and retaining the factory amplifier makes a world of difference. The subwoofer becomes useful again. You can retain all of the factory radio features using the iDatalink Maestro RR or RR2 and associated harnesses.