B&O Unleashed… the Worst of OEM Offerings

[RocketFistMooga]

Hey Rocket, its a heavy duty "Tar Paper" kinda that you adhere to the inside of the door or in many cases the floor of a car. Its used as a sound deadener for raod and engine noise, but in this case, because our doors are so thin the "box" the speaker utilizes is not ideal for the speaker. Putting the Dynamat in the door helps create a better "box" for the speaker.

(Attached is a stock photo.)

Thank you so much. I went on soundsgoodstereos website and they have these block off plates. Would something like this also work? Seams less messy?

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[JJSnell]

Butyl rubber, but close. It turns vibrations into heat and drastically changes the resonant frequency of whatever it's adhered to, particularly thinner metals. Turning 'tinks' into solid 'thunks'

Now, now I said Tar Paper kinda... not everyone knows Butyl.
With every Mustang Ive put this in and now this truck, I apparently have no pictures of any Dynamat installs.... ?

 

[JJSnell]

Thank you so much. I went on soundsgoodstereos website and they have these block off plates. Would something like this also work? Seams less messy?

That is on the other side of the door shell. Dynamat adheres to the actual doorskin alllowing the sound to 'bounceback' to the inside of the truck instead of 'disappearing outside through the thin aluminum doorskin.

(Again, not my photos)

 

[powerboatr]

I did both. I have a 7.2.2 set up at home. I upgraded the subs in my truck with the Unleashed system and I am now in the process of upgrading some of the door speakers and possibly amplifying them so that the mids/highs can keep up with the added bass. I like my music loud and crispy regardless of whether I am home or not.

Plus, the loud music pumping out of my truck is excellent for embarrassing my daughter when I pick her up from school playing my 80's music at full blast with the windows down while I awkwardly dance in my seat with my sunglasses on and an air microphone in my hand.

EXCELLENT love it
I showe dup at grand daughters work to pick her up with a big cardboard hand made sign... yes she loves me more after that. will do the thumping and ICE ICE BABY trick next time

 

[Caneman88]

This was in my 2016 my 2021 is pretty quiet and I love the Unleashed with Apple Music in high stream mode in surround setting.

 

[JohnMcClane]

I love it when threads get better as it goes along, I think my only complaint with the unleashed at this time is the unknown popping issue.

 

[JJSnell]

I'm dating myself here but this was too fun to pass up...

 

[amschind]

Audio is very much a game of diminishing returns. Car audio is a bizarre study in extremes because 1) road noise greatly hampers the value of higher end equipment and 2) OEMs have been aggressively putting garbage speakers in vehicles since time immemorial and 3) aftermarket speakers and amps have been both cheap and good for a long time. Further confusing the issue is the fact that cars have gotten quieter while OEMs have started to put fancy names on their crummy setups while up-charging MORE than what a far better aftermarket setup would cost. Let's take a relevant example with which I have recent and relevant experience.

The Ford Kicker branded subwoofer is a disgrace. The amp is awful, not adjustable, runs at "burn your hand" hot, produces distortion at any volume and cannot be tuned. If I wanted to go out and slap together COTS parts to make a bottom of the barrel sub and amp combo to slap a blue oval on and overcharge customers for, I would use a BETTER sub and amp because of the undue effort required to find components as awful as the ones Ford used. The sub was somehow made of paper in 2022, which is like finding a newly minted pure copper penny: not valuable, but kind of cool form a historical perspective. The box was actually pretty good, and with $300 worth of Rockford Fosgate components, sounds great. The top tier audio system in a Ford vehicle is the base Sync4, because it has the smallest number of garbage components to find and remove.

$1200 gets you to the point of RAPIDLY diminishing returns for car audio unless you want "rolling probable cause" levels of bass. I spent about $3k counting the full cab Dynamat and pro install, and I wouldn't trade my audio for Ford's top tier audio. After I get the heated wheel installed, the only thing I'm lacking is vented seats, which would've only been $700 more but I was worried about them breaking in a few years.

I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE to outdo Ford with aftermarket parts, minimal effort for half the cost.

 

[DrTone]

I put 3.5K into my 2011 raptor system and it's loud, hair blows on the back of your head loud. I was a little let down by the Unleashed at first. Once I turned off soundcheck in Apple Music, turned on surround and faded the music back to the front of the head rests I've been sufficiently happy with it that I have no intention to upgrade. I don't drive around with my windows open. I never listen to satellite radio it has brutal sound quality.

Sound coming from in front of me doesn't bother me, I have decent system at home and when I sit down to listen to it, the sound comes from in front of me as well.

 

[HammaMan]

The 14th gen has quite a bit of sound deadening on the floor itself. They've put .25" or so of sound deadening compound under the foot floor areas. The dynamat on the doors has great effect overall. It reduces flexing (more like flutter from the light metal) but doesn't reduce the flex itself. 14th gen already have an amazing sound deadening scheme from the factory, but placing dynamat or a quality equivalent really take it up a notch. Its delta is nowhere near what older vehicles get from it but it's pronounced none-the-less. It also helps bring the door closing sound to a more solid thunk. The MME on the other hand gets a big bump in sound quality. The doors sound like a cheap shitbox before adding in the butyl liner. The weak points in the F150 are in the area of the rear wall and the air escapement venting behind the rear seat. Those let in loads of noise -- don't block them up however. They've got what's essentially little rubberized plastic flaps to release the pressure inside when closing a door or using the outside air draw on the HVAC. Without them the air pressure would have nowhere to go.

 

[JimL]

I learned to drive on a '74 F150 with three-on-the-tree, and an AM radio with one speaker in the top of the dash. I don't need much and I am loathe to pay extra.

 

[JJSnell]

there are users on another thread have reported success with this USB CD player:

External Car CD Player Machine USB Vehicle CD Player, External USB CD Player for Car Android Navigation-Plug and Play(Android Version 4.4 and Above) https://a.co/d/cxfvR6s


I’ll personally continue to use the 200GB of Apple Music Hi Res lossless(over hardwired CarPlay) I have on my phone. I have mostly the same library on a 64gb flash drive from ripping my CDs and the Apple Music library is far superior.

LOL

 

[dwasill]

I bought the "Unleashed" upgrade solely for the OEM speaker locations as adapting dashes, headliners and headrest for an OEM-look speaker is a pain in the ass. Figuring I'd be swapping out the amplification and most of the speakers I started with re-amplification and a sub upgrade and it REALLY livened up the system.

 

[TexasLightning]

the 8-speaker B&O in my Lightning was hard to evaluate because it was fundamentally set up wrong from the factory. Seemingly everything came from the center channel.

Whatever is in the base model RAM 1500 was more enjoyable.

 

[JJSnell]

I have a question for those who have unleashed. I noticed the front door speakers are extremely muffled but the rear door speakers were not. Music overall is not muffled, just the front door speakers when you put your ear down to them. Is that how it sounds for y'all? Thanks!

Snake is correct. The front door speakers have no tweeters and are set for mids\bass. Considering the 97 tweeters in the dash, pillars and headrests, it makes sense. They really should offset with tweeters in the back at ear level, not just in the lower doors. Maybe thats what the headrest tweets are supposed to do, but lets all be honest... we cant hardly even hear those things. They are not powered... they run right off the APIM.

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