Disappointed in B&O Unleashed

[Bexiga]

I have noticed some random blown speaker sounds from the one in the roof above my head, but its never consistent. Can't figure it out...

I thought I heard the same thing couple times, But it was just radio static. I've listened to a lot of different types of music at high volume from my I pod, sounds great. No issues at all. The few times it sounded like one of the speakers were blown, was always when I was listening to the radio. fyi

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[SpaceWhite14thGen]

Ford Sales Rep here. The B&O Unleashed system needs to have all software implementations turned off to both sound good and get very loud. For example I had similar problems as the rest of you- distortion, low volume and seemingly a few blown speakers.

It turns out all of these problems were due to post-processing in 3rd party apps. For example: HD radio sounded much louder than Bluetooth/Android Auto using Spotify because my phone was trying to make every song have the same volume level. That basically means take your quietest songs make them louder and take loud songs and make them quieter( distortion and lack of power)

Max volume I can withstand after proper settings is 26 (good quality music files) with ZERO distortion... 26-30 i cant even hear myself scream or think for that matter. After being thoroughly disappointed I am now blown away and every person who hops in my truck is floored by the quality and loudness.

 

[DBL R]

Out of the box I wasn’t too impressed with the unleashed system. It was no highs, no lows, typical Bose. All the sound came from the front main speaker. However using the suggestions from this forum I turned off the volume leveling on my phone, changed the sound setting in the dash to surround rather than stereo, moved the fader to behind the rear cupholders but in front of the rear seats, and set treble/mids to 80% and bass to 60%.

the system bumps now. Sounds very good. Clean directional audio is supported in higher bit rate music. Most listening is done around volume 8 and the highest I’ve taken it to is volume 16. Anything higher than 16 and your neighbors will be listening to your music with you.

I also had a weird scenario where the music from my phone came over Bluetooth rather than Apple CarPlay. Sounded terrible, less than phone call quality. But now that music is coming through the CarPlay setup I’m very happy with the system….just takes some adjusting to get it right.

 

[SonnyDigs]

Ford Sales Rep here. The B&O Unleashed system needs to have all software implementations turned off to both sound good and get very loud. For example I had similar problems as the rest of you- distortion, low volume and seemingly a few blown speakers.

It turns out all of these problems were due to post-processing in 3rd party apps. For example: HD radio sounded much louder than Bluetooth/Android Auto using Spotify because my phone was trying to make every song have the same volume level. That basically means take your quietest songs make them louder and take loud songs and make them quieter( distortion and lack of power)

Max volume I can withstand after proper settings is 26 (good quality music files) with ZERO distortion... 26-30 i cant even hear myself scream or think for that matter. After being thoroughly disappointed I am now blown away and every person who hops in my truck is floored by the quality and loudness.

Good tip that's been mentioned some time back.
I'm blown away by mine also.

 

[starock]

Out of the box I wasn’t too impressed with the unleashed system. It was no highs, no lows, typical Bose. All the sound came from the front main speaker. However using the suggestions from this forum I turned off the volume leveling on my phone, changed the sound setting in the dash to surround rather than stereo, moved the fader to behind the rear cupholders but in front of the rear seats, and set treble/mids to 80% and bass to 60%.

the system bumps now. Sounds very good. Clean directional audio is supported in higher bit rate music. Most listening is done around volume 8 and the highest I’ve taken it to is volume 16. Anything higher than 16 and your neighbors will be listening to your music with you.

I also had a weird scenario where the music from my phone came over Bluetooth rather than Apple CarPlay. Sounded terrible, less than phone call quality. But now that music is coming through the CarPlay setup I’m very happy with the system….just takes some adjusting to get it right.

Going to try this as I’ve been disappointed with B&O unleashed. I feel that my Kia Telluride SX sounds much better and I think it’s a 10 speaker HK (the cabin space may be making the difference tho).

 

[euchre_u]

Just needed to post this - I have a MY21 F-150 B&O Unleashed (Limited pkg) - I was listening to SiriusXM this morning (Ch.25) and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne came on the station. I turned the radio up to around 15. It was LOUD, and I heard parts of that some I had not heard in 25 years. The first 45 seconds of the song sounded great. Left-to-right and back-to-front was fantastic - others have posted various songs that bring out the high / low ranges in the various “Unleashed” speakers. I highly suggest this song using the settings that others have mentioned in this thread.

I am very well pleased with this stereo system - way better than our other two Lexus systems that we currently also have.

Thanks . . .

 

[ZOSICK]

I ordered the "unleashed" system. Like everything, some will love, and some will hate. I guess it all depends on the person. I sat in two Lariat's. One was a standard and the other was a mid with B & O (8 speaker). Believe it or not, I thought the non B&O sounded better lol. However, I thought they both sounded good. I'm sure I'll be happy with it, at least I hope so lol. I can't wait either way.

 

[DBL R]

Its probably your headrest speakers. Mine distort above 25 volume level and sound like someone is crinkling a shopping bag behind me....

Just had this start happening. There was a weird screeching sound through Sirius and now my passenger headrest speaker is making distorted sounds. Clearly something weird happened which caused the speaker to blow. Fun times.

 

[AAWhyte]

The first month with the "unleashed" system was a huge disappointment, but after messing with the settings, getting my phone sound and Spotify sound settings all dialed in I am pretty happy that I went with the upgrade. It's a marketing joke calling it "Unleashed". But the sound quality and volume I expected are good now.
The first thing I always did when I bought a car was rip out the crappy stock stereo and build a new system. that included two 12s or 15s that would move a lot of air. Once you experience that with the music you love, it's really hard to go backwards. It's like being in the front row at a concert, you FEEL the music. If it's not there it's almost like you are missing part of the sound experience. Doesn't matter if I listened to Bach, Mötley Crüe or Jonny Cash, I always got more out of the music with great strong bass. Infinity speakers throughout the cabin also helped. The reason I bring these items up is because I was running mostly, two amps, one for the subs and one for the infinities. I never had, even adding the two amps together, over 800 watts, and with that I could make my ears bleed with these systems. 1060 watts, I call bullshit. Sounds to me more like 200 watts at best.

Right now with everything set up the way I like it, I am happy with it. I'm older now and the last thing I wanted to do was rip apart a 70K interior to upgrade the stereo, again. Or pay a shop to do it and damage something.
So bottom line, could it be better, sure but it is actually better than what I expected for a "factory" system minus the marketing gimmick of "unleashed and 1000 watts".

 

[JIMFOUNTAIN]

The first month with the "unleashed" system was a huge disappointment, but after messing with the settings, getting my phone sound and Spotify sound settings all dialed in I am pretty happy that I went with the upgrade. It's a marketing joke calling it "Unleashed". But the sound quality and volume I expected are good now.
The first thing I always did when I bought a car was rip out the crappy stock stereo and build a new system. that included two 12s or 15s that would move a lot of air. Once you experience that with the music you love, it's really hard to go backwards. It's like being in the front row at a concert, you FEEL the music. If it's not there it's almost like you are missing part of the sound experience. Doesn't matter if I listened to Bach, Mötley Crüe or Jonny Cash, I always got more out of the music with great strong bass. Infinity speakers throughout the cabin also helped. The reason I bring these items up is because I was running mostly, two amps, one for the subs and one for the infinities. I never had, even adding the two amps together, over 800 watts, and with that I could make my ears bleed with these systems. 1060 watts, I call bullshit. Sounds to me more like 200 watts at best.

Right now with everything set up the way I like it, I am happy with it. I'm older now and the last thing I wanted to do was rip apart a 70K interior to upgrade the stereo, again. Or pay a shop to do it and damage something.
So bottom line, could it be better, sure but it is actually better than what I expected for a "factory" system minus the marketing gimmick of "unleashed and 1000 watts".

Could you give a quick summary on your phone and Spotify dial in procedures? Thanks.

 

[AAWhyte]

Could you give a quick summary on your phone and Spotify dial in procedures? Thanks.

Everything that has been discussed in this thread is what I had previously worked out/set up on my phone and Spotify. Wish I had found this thread a while back, would have saved me a ton of "messing around". Check that all the volume levelling items off, make sure phone volume media setting was all the way up, phone equalizer for me set to normal, etc. I think the biggest change I found was turning off the volume normalization in Spotify helped the most. Make sure the "very best" options are selected in Spotify for the data rate for the music.
When I put songs on a USB stick and played it I was so surprised how good it sounded, so from that point on I started going through my phone sound options and Spotify's options to try to match that level and sound quality. I have always ripped my CDs at high bit rates so when I tried the USB drive in the truck it was very good sound level and quality.

 

[Tremor 1]

This might sound strange but I opened the speaker test that was described in this post let it run than came to a screen with different things on it and the third one down I opened were there was another speaker test I ran that and while it was running I turned the volume knob up for each speaker and all of a sudden it opened up the whole sound stage now my system sounds 100 times better don't know what I did but it worked

 

[SonnyDigs]

Everything that has been discussed in this thread is what I had previously worked out/set up on my phone and Spotify. Wish I had found this thread a while back, would have saved me a ton of "messing around". Check that all the volume levelling items off, make sure phone volume media setting was all the way up, phone equalizer for me set to normal, etc. I think the biggest change I found was turning off the volume normalization in Spotify helped the most. Make sure the "very best" options are selected in Spotify for the data rate for the music.
When I put songs on a USB stick and played it I was so surprised how good it sounded, so from that point on I started going through my phone sound options and Spotify's options to try to match that level and sound quality. I have always ripped my CDs at high bit rates so when I tried the USB drive in the truck it was very good sound level and quality.

Where does a memory stick plug in.
Guess I've not known it had that
Available..
Thanks

 

[BMWtoF150]

Where does a memory stick plug in.
Guess I've not known it had that
Available..
Thanks

In the usb port in the front storage compartment

 

[SonnyDigs]

In the usb port in the front storage compartment

Thanks, never crossed my mind I could plug a stick into it..

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