Shaker vs. B&O system. How do they compare? Worth the money?

[Nickyweg]

Thinking about optioning my car with the B&O system. How does it compare to the old shaker systems ? Is it worth the $900? To me, the stock 9 speakers sounded like garbage.

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[Louk]

Thinking about optioning my car with the B&O system. How does it compare to the old shaker systems ? Is it worth the $900? To me, the stock 9 speakers sounded like garbage.

I’ve had multiple shaker systems from 05 to my 16. The shaker 1000 in my 05 was amazing
The shaker 500 in my 13 was great
The shaker(not shaker pro) in my 16 was absolutely trash, I had a single 10 installed in the trunk and that helped greatly.
The B&o in the Bullitt is very nice. Doesn’t hit as hard as the old shaker 1000 but it is definitely more refined. If you are big into bass it would probably be cheaper to just get the regular system and get a sub installed. I’m not an audiophile but the B&o seems well rounded and I enjoy it.

 

[Nickyweg]

I’ve had multiple shaker systems from 05 to my 16. The shaker 1000 in my 05 was amazing
The shaker 500 in my 13 was great
The shaker(not shaker pro) in my 16 was absolutely trash, I had a single 10 installed in the trunk and that helped greatly.
The B&o in the Bullitt is very nice. Doesn’t hit as hard as the old shaker 1000 but it is definitely more refined. If you are big into bass it would probably be cheaper to just get the regular system and get a sub installed. I’m not an audiophile but the B&o seems well rounded and I enjoy it.

Yeah I’m not really an audiophile. Just want something with a little more thump.

 

[Louk]

Yeah I’m not really an audiophile. Just want something with a little more thump.

I normally have the drivers side rear seat folded down and that seems to do the trick as far as the thump is concerned. Overall happy with the system.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

The B&O has a little clearer mids and highs, bass is a bit tighter (comparing the B&O in my '19 to the Shaker in my '16). For $895, it's way better than the 9 speaker setup. Now, I know some people will chime in about doing an aftermarket setup, and sure, it can be better, however, I look at it like this: ~$900 is a miniscule percentage of the overall cost of the car, it's a big improvement, it's covered under warranty, it doesn't require you to start pulling the car apart - and for a __car__ audio system, it's plenty good. I say the latter in the context of me having a convertible and doing any "real listening" at home in a proper environment, with decent cans, amp, DAC, etc.

 

[Stranger706]

It’s ok. Not great. Bass is muddy and unnatural. Mids and highs are ok. B&O has a great reputation but I think they phoned this one in. For $900 I could’ve done better with aftermarket parts myself. But the car already came with it so it’ll work for now. And truthfully I bought the car for the v8 and with exhaust installed now I won’t be messing with the audio.

The Sony system in our 2018 Explorer blows it out of the water in every metric.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

It’s ok. Not great. Bass is muddy and unnatural. Mids and highs are ok. B&O has a great reputation but I think they phoned this one in. For $900 I could’ve done better with aftermarket parts myself. But the car already came with it so it’ll work for now. And truthfully I bought the car for the v8 and with exhaust installed now I won’t be messing with the audio.

The Sony system in our 2018 Explorer blows it out of the water in every metric.

FYI - and I've been meaning to do this myself - apparently if you disable the center "voice" speaker, it clears up the highs quite a bit, and stuffing some polyfill in the sub enclosure is supposed to really tighten up the base. For a couple of bucks and less than an hour of work, I'm definitely going to give both a shot.

 

[Qcman17]

I only have the 9 speaker system but unplugging the center channel did wonders for it.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I only have the 9 speaker system but unplugging the center channel did wonders for it.

Dude, you have motivated me, doing this today

 

[Qcman17]

Dude, you have motivated me, doing this today

Theres a thread on how to do it. One way is to cut the speaker wire coming out of the amp another is to unplug the speaker in the dash which is what I did. I removed the chrome strip on the dash then popped up the speaker grill by pushing up on the front of it. Theres a thread on this process if you are interested....... totally worth doing though!

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/join-me-in-fixing-the-center-speaker-issue.125522/

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Theres a thread on how to do it. One way is to cut the speaker wire coming out of the amp another is to unplug the speaker in the dash which is what I did. I removed the chrome strip on the dash then popped up the speaker grill by pushing up on the front of it. Theres a thread on this process if you are interested....... totally worth doing though!

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/join-me-in-fixing-the-center-speaker-issue.125522/

Oh thanks! I was just looking for that. Hahahaha, it's like disabling a bomb in a movie "Cut the red wire or the green wire??"

 

[JCFoster]

I tried disabling the center speaker on the 12 speaker shaker and it didn’t sound right so after awhile I plugged it back in and like it better as it was. One of those threads you just assumed not read.

 

[Qcman17]

Oh thanks! I was just looking for that. Hahahaha, it's like disabling a bomb in a movie "Cut the red wire or the green wire??"

Cutting the wire is the easiest way but there wasnt a good consensus at the time which wire to cut on the 9 speaker. If you pull the dash be careful with the small black trim piece under the silver panel near the glove box I broke the clip wiggling mine and had to jbweld it back on lol. Expect to lose a few dash clips too i bought some on Ebay to replace the ones i lost down in the dash....

If you cut the red wire a round cartoon bomb displays on the 8 inch screen with a fuse that gets smaller until the car goes boom!!

 

[EvilMerlin]

Thinking about optioning my car with the B&O system. How does it compare to the old shaker systems ? Is it worth the $900? To me, the stock 9 speakers sounded like garbage.

I had the Shaker 500, the Shaker 1000, the standard Shaker now the B&O in my 350.

I had the standard Shaker in the 2016 GT, and the sound was... well shit.
My older 2016 had the Shaker 1000 and sound was good, not great but good.

The B&O in the 350 however is great. Its no custom install, but it hits... all the notes.

 

[Elp_jc]

apparently if you disable the center "voice" speaker, it clears up the highs quite a bit, and stuffing some polyfill in the sub enclosure is supposed to really tighten up the base.

Hey, please report back on both of those 'fixes' . The center speaker could mess things up, like others reported, so curious if that work. I thought about trying that when I had the dash trim out to swap the GT350 gauges, but forgot to do it. Ha ha. No way I'm taking that part out again. And probably neither anything else, since it's so freaking easy to break stuff on these stupid cars. Also curious about the sub fix, which should be easier to perform (at least less risk of breaking anything). Thanks brother.

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