Though the introduction of the 2021 Ford F-150 B&O sound test is plagued by the chip shortage, the new F-150 continues to impress with new innovative and comfortable features such as a retracting shifter to make for a flat work space on the center console with room for a laptop and front seats that fold flat for napping. Another one of those features is the introduction of the new 2021 Ford F-150 B&O Sound System Unleashed by Bang & Olufsen which replaces Sony configurations in previous models. Some say it’s better than the outgoing Sony systems and some say it’s not; we’re here to find out and let you experience for yourself if it’s for you! After which you just need to ask yourself if you want a hybrid powertrain, an EcoBoost V-6, or a V-8 along with a plethora of other options on the list of possibilities.
First, our Ford F-150 B&O sound test vehicle is equipped with an 18-speaker system putting out 1,080 watts of power. Speaker locations include headliner speakers and even some stuffed into the front headrests of this truck. You can configure the F-150 sound system to produce sound with fader and balance settings, tone settings for base, mid-range, and treble, speed compensation settings, and even a sound mode to control whether you want a stereo-like experience or surround-sound experience. Audio inputs include AM/FM/XM radio, Bluetooth, USB-A and USB-C ports, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto/Amazon Alexa support. There are no 3.5mm auxiliary jacks or a disc player unfortunately; sad day! Physical knobs and buttons on the steering wheel thankfully aid in the effort to quickly toggle between stations or adjust volume.
After our 2021 Ford F-150 B&O sound test, we found Ford, in our minds, to finally be taking audio systems like the Ford F-150 sound system seriously. Subjectively, we were impressed with the new F-150 B&O system and the 14-inch touchscreen being straightforward to use. Objectively compared with every other vehicle on the road, we gave the new Ford F-150 B&O sound system an 8.5/10, and compared to other trucks like the Harman/Kardon system in the RAM 1500, we award the F-150 sound system a 9.5/10! We felt it to be slightly inferior to the F-150 audio system though it is still a formidable system.
Click Here to See the 2021 Ford F-150 Sound System Unleashed Test:
Click to Also View Our Test of the Regular 2021 Ford F-150 B&O Test:
Also for added measure, here’s the base 2021 Ford F-150 Sound System Test:
How We Test the 2021 Ford F-150 B&O Audio System:
We take audio systems seriously here at Daily Motor. That’s why we take every vehicle, from a Ford F-150 like this to supercars like the McLaren 570S, and put them through our rigorous audio-system testing. We use the same lossless, uncompressed WAV audio files on a USB drive plugged into the audio system so that every radio we test starts from the same baseline. To provide a realistic example for the sound experience, we record with high-quality binaural microphones. We test every system with their sound settings set to their factory defaults, because that’s how the radio’s engineers designed it to sound, but we test all the sound settings on many different genres of music before shooting the reviews. After demonstrating the sound settings, adjustments, inputs, speaker locations, and Android Auto and/or Apple CarPlay functionality, we head out on the road to listen to our sample tracks at highway speeds. Most cars can sound great while stationary, but road, wind, and engine noise can deteriorate music fidelity. At the end of the test, we give an objective rating based on audio quality and overall system usage as well as a subjective rating factoring in vehicle attributes and price.
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