Sony Sound System Quality (Limited) | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Sony Sound System Quality (Limited)

Test your sound using your am/fm, get on a good HD fm station that you like for best results.

Sirius is not a good test subject as the signal is compressed beyond anything on am/fm.
I distinctly heard on Sirius last week a CD skipping 3 times in 1 song.
(Files may crap out, but skipping?)

Before that I swear Im POSITIVE I heard a tape playing - remember the tell tale signs of an older tape you used to play all the time?
The high pitched creaking of the cartridge wheels and the up/down of the mids and highs due to magnetization and heat/cold effects on the tape?

The difference between Siruis and HDfm is that HDfm 1000 times better - HDfm puts the satellite channels to shame, even normal FM sounds better.
Noticable drop in fidelity when switching from FM back to satellite no matter what channel,
-must increase volume approx 1/4 to hear ok by myslef, and if its talk radio on Sirius, must go a tad more than 1/4 to even hear at all.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





HD radio is somewhere between very scarce and non existent in Canada.:(

Peter
 






Bought a '15 Sport a couple of weeks ago. First thing I noticed after I got her home and really started listening to my own music (iPod classic via USB) is that there seems to be a distinct lack of SOMETHING. Can't quite put my finger on it yet. My best educated guess so far is that it's missing a decent amount of midbass and upper midrange presence. It might be a combo of missing frequencies and bad speaker placement (wondering if angling the tweeters back towards the driver seat will help?) I've got the bass turned up 3/4 of the way, midrange 7/8 of the way, and treble up to 100%. I also found that it sounds much better in stereo mode vs. surround (or whatever it's called). I'm going to run some pink noise through the speakers and test it using an RTA app on my Android and post the results here.

One of the worst OEM sound systems I've owned. (Bose, Infinity, B&W, HK, and even worse than the stereo in my '12 Focus).

Tony
 






I always thought this system was lacking bass. I don’t listen to it at a high volume and the bass is almost non-existent at the level I listen(1/4 to ½ if the windows are down). The front door speakers put out little bass and the sub doesn’t make up for it unless you crank up the volume. I have my settings full bass, middle mids, and full highs. I know with my old MazdaSpeed6, it had the Bose which was OK from the factory, but adding a homemade preamp to the sub made a huge different in the amount of bass. I would like to do that to my Ex, but I don’t feel like pulling panels off to get to the amp. My wife’s CX9 front door speakers put out a lot of bass, but they are something like 8-9” woofers(something odd like that).

The front imaging is not good either. All the sound is coming from below your ears(where the speakers are, duh). When I start to turn up the volume, it gets better. I like my wife’s CX9 with speakers in the dash. The reflection off the windshield enhances the sound from above(if that makes sense) and give a more even sound distribution.

If I could increase the bass a little bit, I would be much happier.
 






Sound system is very average at best. I'd have a stand-along woofer on each side as low as possible in the third row. I'd have a component woofer with teeter and separate mid-range as low as you can go in each second row door towards the front. I'd have mid-ranges as side kicks down by your feet in the front row and tweeters as far right and left on the dash as close to the window as possible with a super tweeter in the middle of the dash close to the window. Larger sub-woofer all the way back.

One key to good sound is having the speaker in the seat you are in as far from you as possible so you get quality stereo sound imaging by in effect making the speaker in the seat next as close to you as possible compared to the speaker of the seat you are in. Thus placing tweeters as far up and as far apart in the dash as possible and mid-ranges in the lower outside kicks by your feet.

Sound imaging issues can be resolved by "side-biased" balancing adjusting output so the speakers farther away form you have more output, but the Ford head unit does not offer this. My Pioneer after-market in my Saab has this, and it works great when just I am in the car, but messes up the listening experience for others. Thus, you want the speakers as far apart for all listeners and my Saab does this great also.

My Saab actually has the best speaker placement of any car I have owned. Blows away my previous BMW that had the "premium" sound system. The Saab is their top of the line Altec Lansing and the speakers are solid. Best factory set-up I have every had. Head unit was great and only replaced it to get touch screen and Bluetooth as the car is a 2005.

The Ex sound system is very pedestrian. Wrong speakers and bad speaker placement. However, I'm leaving it as is. It's OK and I just jump in my Saab if I want really good listening while driving.
 






As others have stated, what you are experiencing is sound compression or "soft clipping" at higher volumes.

I have tested the sound system using CDs. Some CDs were created from very high quality vinyl album recordings via a audiophile recording system. Others are DCC Gold CDs or something similar. I have noticed this sound compression on almost all of these, so the quality of the recording doesn't matter.

It's interesting that the Premium Sony sound system in my '12 Focus does not soft clip, so I can play music much louder with full dynamic range.
 






Play the actual music CD in your Ex and compare. I'm betting the CD sounds much better than the USB. If so, it's the quality of the 'rip'.
 






Bought a '15 Sport a couple of weeks ago. First thing I noticed after I got her home and really started listening to my own music (iPod classic via USB) is that there seems to be a distinct lack of SOMETHING. Can't quite put my finger on it yet. My best educated guess so far is that it's missing a decent amount of midbass and upper midrange presence. It might be a combo of missing frequencies and bad speaker placement (wondering if angling the tweeters back towards the driver seat will help?) I've got the bass turned up 3/4 of the way, midrange 7/8 of the way, and treble up to 100%. I also found that it sounds much better in stereo mode vs. surround (or whatever it's called). I'm going to run some pink noise through the speakers and test it using an RTA app on my Android and post the results here.

One of the worst OEM sound systems I've owned. (Bose, Infinity, B&W, HK, and even worse than the stereo in my '12 Focus).

Tony

I have since added a JL Audio Stealthbox with a JL Audio HD750/1 amp. This has allowed me to turn the bass down to 0 and this cleaned up the front speakers considerably. With less burden on the front speakers to produce bass that the stock subwoofer wasn't doing, the sound is much more balanced and natural. I've actually been enjoying the Sony stereo quite a bit lately. But it took some money to get there though.

Tony
 






I have also just resently purchased the 2015 Ex Sport
I have always been a dyi stereo guy and the Sony system is very disappointing.
The DSP amp is redistributing and capping power above 3/4 volume.
There is no way this stereo is even close to 390 watts. I have asked ford to provide proof of this 390 watt claim but of course nothing has or will come f it.
This is a clear case of false claims/ advertising.
 






Actually this happens with the EQ turned off on my iPhone, I've actually found that if use the EQ setting for "bass reduction" I can reduce the soft clipping a little bit.
This clipping also happens while playing music directly from a USB drive.

Then there's your answer. You're "clipping." The transient peaks of a dynamic, high intensity sound, not only take a burst of additional power, but also can put a hurting on the speaker. These systems are engineered to sound great in the see vehicles, but not to sound great to the neighbors. If you're wanting accurate reproduction at loud volumes you'll just have to replace everything.

I've found in my last 4 new vehicles that the factory system has a better overall sound quality. When replacing the factory setup you always lose content/detail somewhere along the way.

Try replacing the factory sub with an amplified bass cannon or something similar. But you'll probably still experience this, as it's most likely a function of the processor protecting the more delicate door speakers than the sub.

Also, check to make sure your automatic volume is turned off and see if that helps.
 






I have also just resently purchased the 2015 Ex Sport
I have always been a dyi stereo guy and the Sony system is very disappointing.
The DSP amp is redistributing and capping power above 3/4 volume.
There is no way this stereo is even close to 390 watts. I have asked ford to provide proof of this 390 watt claim but of course nothing has or will come f it.
This is a clear case of false claims/ advertising.

It could be 390 watts peak, total of all channels. Not 390 watts RMS per.
 






One of the worst OEM sound systems I've owned. (Bose, Infinity, B&W, HK, and even worse than the stereo in my '12 Focus).

Tony

I do agree that Ford's OEM stereos are usually pretty bad. But, there is some compression when a lossless .wav file (used on a standard CD) is stored in .mp4 or mp3 or .wma format. A better test might be play a standard CD in your Sport.
 






All my CDs are are store purchased originals
 






Back
Top