Coming from my 2017 into a 2018 I can say for sure that the B&O stereo is a huge upgrade over the Sony product. I listen mostly to Texas & Red dirt country and the crispness of the new speakers is outstanding. My wife has BMW X5 with Harman Kardon (who owns B&O) and it is on par with that product. I can compare the 2017 and 2018 pretty effectively being that I owned both inside a 2 week span. I haven't listened to anything with a ton of bass yet so I cannot comment on sub woofer but will at a later point in time. You 2018 owners will be happy if you pick 802A and stereo!
Safe to assume that the engine sound is still coming through the speakers? Also, is the head unit the same in both 17 and 18? If so, maybe the speakers and amplifier can be switched to B&O? Other aftermarket options available as well.
Head unit looks very similar to the sony. From what I can tell the speakers and power of the unit are different than the 17 so not sure how easy it'd be to swap out. I never turned off the engine noise on my 17 as the fordscan didn't work on a mac and I wasn't going to go buy another computer to do it. I haven't gotten around to checking the fake engine noise on my 2018.
I'd love to hear about the subwoofer and if it's worth paying the extra $695 for it. I am ordering a 2018 SCREW (used to have a 2013) and was just going to add my own amp and subwoofer to the system. Not sure if it will be possible to fabricate a box to fit behind the rear seats or if this particular sub is the only fit. It only looks like a 6" (maybe an 8") max sub from the pictures. Can you elaborate on sound quality and thoughts?
You are going to have a pretty hard time fitting a sub behind the rear seats due to limited space. There just isn't a lot of room there. I was driving home from work yesterday listening to some Ryan Bingham and turned the bass up. I think the sub sounds pretty good and the overall quality is on par with premium HK stereos I have had in BMWs.
The sub is an 8" and I agree with Greg^ that the sound is comparable with the HK sound in premium brands. Not on par with the B&O put in the Audi RS7 though.....but that is an expensive add for sure. Play with the EQ and the sound is acceptable for sure. I did disable my fake noise too -
Yeah it won't be on par with that one, but that one is ridiculously expensive. A friend of mine has the Volvo XC 90 with the Bowers and Wilkins stereo and that one is pretty nice. I think that one was $3,000+ option on the suv over the stock so significantly more expense that the 802A or whatever we added on our trucks. Anyone in Houston want to help me turn off fake engine noise?
I just finalized arrangements to have Noah from the Car Stereo Company come to my shop to do a pretty sweet installation. I will prolly do a thread to show what we do and the process. This shit can get entirely out of hand real quick !!
I always upgraded my systems. This new b&o is actually quite cleans and the bass hits pretty good to the point that I'm not going to upgrade. If the base is not enough for some I'd recommend waiting for JL to make a box to swap out with the og as they do a great job with their custom fitting. One thing that's weird is the Bluetooth while on the phone volume is not as loud as sony's was. Anyone know what's up with that? I have to max out the volume to hear clearly when going 60+. Hmmm... could it be the feedback If too loud??
I agree the B&O is a very solid OEM system. It was just missing some bass and this is what I added to mine. The JL stealth box which fits under the back seats and a JL 600\1v3 amp to run it. If you get the stealth box make sure you run it with a very good amp because the 13-inch sub will not like a cheap under powered amp.
I don't have any instructions. I had a shop do the work for me. This setup with installation will run you about 1900. Very nice addition you won't be disappointed.