Our Limited has the more elaborate of the B&O rigs available. Instead, I was experiencing something called ECS: Externally Coupled Subwoofer, a patented feature shared by either of two B&O systems in the F-150 (also added to the Ford Mustang Mach-E). I investigated and did not find subwoofers sunk into the floor pan like our Best of 2019 Genesis G70 or the kick panel like the FrontBass system that debuted in the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class roadster - both of which were innovations of Harman Kardon, a sister brand of Bang & Olufsen Automotive under Harman International, a parent company recently acquired by Samsung. So when I heard, and felt, the bass in a 2021 F-150 with the B&O Unleashed system for the first time, then looked behind me to see an empty cab, I admit I was perplexed. The previous-generation F-150 offered a B&O Play system with a plastic subwoofer enclosure nicely hidden behind the rear seats that did a decent job, but it wasn’t - couldn’t be - big enough to deliver the goods. Pickup trucks like our Limited SuperCrew are roomier than ever, but they’re trying to maintain their capacity to work, so the same manufacturing restrictions apply here as in hatchbacks: The less added bulk, the better. What was always frustrating about this is that, by contrast, sedan and coupe manufacturers (or owners) could exploit one of the few examples of “free bass” by mounting a modest woofer or two in the car’s rear deck - a configuration that turns the whole trunk into a giant speaker enclosure and provides bass extension that puts the average SUV to shame.Īt this point, you may be fuming at me that the F-150 isn’t a hatchback or SUV, but it’s close in audio terms because it lacks the all-important trunk. They’re also typically made of injection-molded plastic, which is light and formable (thumbs up from weight-conscious automakers), but not very rigid (the last thing a respectable speaker designer would choose). The problem is that they seldom provide enough volume (i.e., interior enclosure volume, not audio “volume”) to deliver deep sub-bass. Instead, they steal whatever space they can with custom-molded subwoofer modules that usually nest in spare tires or the side walls of cargo areas, and these provisions do from very little to a surprisingly good job - for what they are. The reason is that deep bass frequencies generally require a combination of a large woofer (or woofers) and a sizable enclosure to do so, and automakers don’t want to give up much interior space to accomplish this. View all 2021 Ford F-150 models for sale near 60606Īs the staff fossil and a veteran of the late Car Stereo Review magazine, among others, I’ve been explaining in these evaluations how sound systems in SUVs and hatchbacks struggle to produce extended (deep) bass.
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