The stock audio system is great, actually. Here's why.

[Toddman45]

The stock system is horrible whether it's from an XL XLT or lariat with the b&o. Almost any $60 aftermarket speaker Will sound better than what comes in the truck.

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[jonshep]

I like my stock sound fine. I have upgraded car stereos since the late 1960s. I have old but very good audio in my home. Now that I wear hearing aids....I just don't give damn.

 

[bckrupps]

I thought it was trash. Put about $500 into it and it sounds 5x better or more than the B&O upgrade.

 

[Toddman45]

I thought it was trash. Put about $500 into it and it sounds 5x better or more than the B&O upgrade.

Same, actually 510.00. Alread had the 10" sub and mono amp. Replaced front doors with 6 & 3/4" components and rears with 2-way 4".

 

[SLINGSHOT]

It's a truck. If I wanted a juke box, I would have bought a Wurlitzer.

 

[Jah.]

Good enough for me . listen to PBS jazz station here in Orlando FL area . Not in it enough to care that much about sound quality . 8800 miles in about 3 years .

 

[Toddman45]

I find it overly laughable anybody would call these great sounding... I've got bigger magnets on my refrigerator holding papers then the oem speakers use.

 

[Tom 71 Maverick 24]

I specialize in audio engineering for high-end small spaces, including compact home theaters that have won national awards, and did this analysis work on my Tremor, as documented in my build thread.

TLDR: The stock Maverick system uses multiple DSP tricks to make its parts-bin components sound acceptable to most people, in most scenarios. The tuning is actually better than one would expect for a bottom-end vehicle and not bad at all for its cost. Subjectively, you can love or hate it. But using industry-standard quantitative measurements, it's not a great system at all and there is tremendous room for improvement.

Stock: System begins to run out of headroom at about 75dB.

After installing a modest aftermarket system. This is capable of holding the response cleanly to the limiting factor, which is excessive vibration in the rear cab wall and window assembly at 85-95dB.

Very interesting - charts and graphs that we don't seem to see any more. I have the B&O system in my Lariat, and while I do get some bass below the 100 Hz "male voice" range, you just know that there is significant rolloff below about 60 or 50. Which is probably fine in terms of protecting the equipment that comes with the truck. Trying to spit 20 Hz out of a 6X9" infinite baffle subwoofer without launching the cone is next to impossible.

I've been reading all these threads with interest, thinking about improvements that can be made to the system. But realistically, I'd give the B&O system a B or B+ for sound quality.

I'd like to see a similar chart for my B&O to see how it aligns with my perception of how it sounds. In particular, the bass response, and that slightly pesky "strident, forward" sound that I attribute to the center front speaker being slightly over-eager to make its presence known.

We should be happy that we don't have a mid-trim level Mazda-3. My friend replaced her older one with a new one of the same trim level (select) and unbeknownst to her until after the fact, they had downgraded from a decent Bose system to a stock 6-speaker system that didn't even have rear door speakers. The woofers are reportedly 4" diameter. Not a lot of woof available there.

Her mother commented that it sounded like a "transistor radio", comparing it to those little handheld radios of yesteryear with their weak little 500 mw output and 2" speaker. Fortunately for her, Mazda does include a multi-band graphic equalizer and she doesn't play her music too loud, so she can get acceptable sound from it.

 

[mfergel]

I expected a lot more from the B&O, especially after having a 2006 Mustang with the Shaker 1000 system. What sucks with the B&O is how they integrated the power amp into the system making it near impossible to swap it out. Not sure if the amp from the Escape B&O is any better or if it can just be swapped. While I've got hearing issues of my own, I can tell the system seriously lacks upper high end frequencies and punchy lows/mid lows.

 

[SLINGSHOT]

Good enough for me . listen to PBS jazz station here in Orlando FL area . Not in it enough to care that much about sound quality . 8800 miles in about 3 years .

Ahhh . . . gater bites and swamp cabbage.
I lived in Kissimmee for 21 years.

 

[colinl]

I expected a lot more from the B&O, especially after having a 2006 Mustang with the Shaker 1000 system. What sucks with the B&O is how they integrated the power amp into the system making it near impossible to swap it out. Not sure if the amp from the Escape B&O is any better or if it can just be swapped. While I've got hearing issues of my own, I can tell the system seriously lacks upper high end frequencies and punchy lows/mid lows.

honestly, I expected more as well, but still felt very confident that for MY22-24 it was a no-brainer for me to get adaptive cruise control and the sync3 infotainment instead of the base stereo.

the Bronco Sport and Escape both have almost the same system we do except they have 6.5" in the rear doors instead of freeair 4" in the rear pillar. (I wish I could go back in time to the Maverick interior design team who chose a map pocket in the lower rear door instead of a 6.5 and yell at them.) if you're talking about a current-gen Escape that's the only difference. all 3 vehicles have the miserable 6x9 'sub' in a small infinite baffle enclosure. in the BS and Escape it vents through the rear corner cabin vent. (if you are unaware, all vehicles have air pressure equalization vents. suvs and cars usually have it in the rear quarter panel area, and trucks including the Maverick have it low on the floor under the rear seat.)

infinite baffle increases the sensitivity of the sub but dramatically reduces the power handling and spl. especially spl, because the rear wave coming from the cone goes outside the vehicle. I am highly confident they chose this design because of size and power. no space, and now they can (actually, *have to*) use a low amount of power on the sub channel so we get a smaller, cheaper amp too.

man. I didn't mean to write that many words, so I'll stop here with a final thought. any year of Maverick - and yes, I know I haven't heard MY25 B&O yet but I expect no changes in performance - will benefit from replacing all the speakers and installing a powered sub or discrete sub and amp. a big difference, though, is that non B&O is so much more viable now that every Maverick will have Sync4a infotainment.

 

[mfergel]

honestly, I expected more as well, but still felt very confident that for MY22-24 it was a no-brainer for me to get adaptive cruise control and the sync3 infotainment instead of the base stereo.

the Bronco Sport and Escape both have almost the same system we do except they have 6.5" in the rear doors instead of freeair 4" in the rear pillar. (I wish I could go back in time to the Maverick interior design team who chose a map pocket in the lower rear door instead of a 6.5 and yell at them.) if you're talking about a current-gen Escape that's the only difference. all 3 vehicles have the miserable 6x9 'sub' in a small infinite baffle enclosure. in the BS and Escape it vents through the rear corner cabin vent. (if you are unaware, all vehicles have air pressure equalization vents. suvs and cars usually have it in the rear quarter panel area, and trucks including the Maverick have it low on the floor under the rear seat.)

infinite baffle increases the sensitivity of the sub but dramatically reduces the power handling and spl. especially spl, because the rear wave coming from the cone goes outside the vehicle. I am highly confident they chose this design because of size and power. no space, and now they can (actually, *have to*) use a low amount of power on the sub channel so we get a smaller, cheaper amp too.

man. I didn't mean to write that many words, so I'll stop here with a final thought. any year of Maverick - and yes, I know I haven't heard MY25 B&O yet but I expect no changes in performance - will benefit from replacing all the speakers and installing a powered sub or discrete sub and amp. a big difference, though, is that non B&O is so much more viable now that every Maverick will have Sync4a infotainment.

Yeah. I totally understand them going with the option they did with the infinite baffle setup. I do plan on swapping out all the speaker, most likely with the Rockford's that most others have been putting in. I have a 3D printer and the files to print out the adapter for the subwoofer. I won't go as far as creating a box, at least for now. Like you said, I doubt Ford is doing anything different with the 2025 B&O. One can always hope that one of the vehicles will get an upgrade that can be used.

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