Do you need an amp for the stealbox? Or can you just replace the b&o sub?
The boot / trunk has a lot of road noise coming into it. Agree sound deadening makes a big difference to both overall noise and audio quality. I went for a simpler car underlay that works well for me.
Worked like a charm for me.The 10" OEM sub in the B&O equipped cars is generously described as low quality ! It is nothing more than a $12 paper cone speaker and is a huge weak link in the standard system with a horrible boomy muddy bass that overwhelms everything else. I have played around with settings and added polyfill but it is still pretty woeful.
Replacement using the original OEM box is the obvious solution that I wanted to try to main as near original look as possible. The 10" sub enclosure is both bigger and different shaped to the Shaker system in pre 2019 cars so the first think was to define the space available. The speaker orifice is 230mm which is pretty standard for a 10" sub but be aware that some speakers are bigger and modifying the hole would be a pain. The maximum depth is 146mm although it would be easy to achieve 160mm by shaving off some ribbing internally. The maximum external diameter (trim ring) is 266mm if you want to fit inside the ridges (see later) or about 275mm if you are happy to dremel them off. Nothing bigger than that will fit the OEM box which does rule out some speakers without a spacer which would be a fiddle.
I settled on the Pioneer TS-A250D4 10" subwoofer (TS-A100D4 in the US). This will fit the box almost perfectly, is dual voice coil, 4 ohm and has a relatively low sensitivity of 77dB which helps to overcome the bass heavy settings Ford use. At this point I should say I am NOT looking for a thumping bass but a musical well controlled base. In the UK this is around £65 so is not an expensive speaker. There are very few other speakers that will fit this box without significant modification so be warned - it is not as easy a swap out as with the 8" box in the Shaker system.
First picture of the woeful OEM sub - seriously Ford why bother !
Next the Pioneer TS-A250D4 10" subwoofer which at least looks half decent !
Remove the trim ring - you will not need it. Remove the small lug on the OEM box as it gets in the way - this is the only thing you need to remove.
If you offer up the speaker to the enclosure you will find the holes are almost in the right place but not quite. I drilled holes just to the inside of the originals.
Remove the plugs from the original wires and strip back to expose the metal. The black and purple wires are negative, the green and yellow wires are positive. I added the sealing strip to the enclosure rather than the speaker because it is a lot easier.
Once all connected and polyfill added I fitted the speaker with two of the screws directly - I did it this way to get a good seal with the box. Leave the others for the moment.
There is enough adjustment to then use the new fitting screws with the OEM grille for the remaining 4 screw holes. The OEM screws will not fit.
Finally refit the trim ring (that you probably broke when you removed the original speaker) and refit in the car.
So finally how does it sound ? Night and day better ! The bass is now controlled and tight as well as not overpowering and at the same time the OEM look is retained.
The rear deck speakers actually do very little, just a bit of rear fill in. On 2019+ cars they are not bad quality if you look at them.
I have seen them. It's not about looks, its the sound.. They are flat crummy speakers and sound like turds and are damaging to the whole sound image.
Are the coupe rear deck speakers the same as the convertible? Maybe it’s just placements but in the vert the rears sound good.
If B&O I am sure they are the same. The coupes acoustics have a lot to do with the rear sound being flat.
On second thought, I think you are correct. Adding higher quality speakers means nothing, If I don't add an amp and before I know it, I will be chasing moderate improvements on sound. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
Really? flat crummy turds???? They are no better or worse than any of the others and their impact (and sound output) are minimal compared to the rest.
