Car is back. Verdict: meh. It is different. The volume control is vastly different (now 15 is about where 25 was before). Bass still sounds poor.

 

I guess it depends what your expectations were. Before the update, the bass frequency response on my stereo was absolute garbage because the bass was being sent to the wrong speakers. With bass it sounded worse than pretty much any car stereo out there to the point that I didn't listen to music on it. After the update, the bass frequency response was greatly improved but I would still describe it as muddy by audiophile standards. For me going from garbage to muddy was a huge difference. If you play around with the different audio modes and settings you can get it to sound OK though it's still far from being audiophile quality.

 

Speedski, Thanks for the update. My MY17 is going in for a variety of repairs soon and the audio is one of the issues. Based on your experience would you think that the speaker upgrades from the Rover and XJ would be the step to take it to an acceptable level? Does it have better separation do you feel? The speaker upgrade is about $700 without a solution for the ones behind the seats. Thanks for any insight.

 

Honestly, I have not heard of any speaker upgrades for the 2017 F-Type. In the states, I believe all 2017s came with 770W Meridian stereo, even my base F-Type. My recommendation would be to have fix applied and see if makes the stereo acceptable to you. If not, then I honestly am not sure what the next best step would be since I haven't heard of anyone putting aftermarket stereo or speakers in the F-Type.

I guess my recommendation at that point is to listen to the active exhaust instead of the stereo, which is what I do most of the time I am driving my F-Type.

 

Like you, I was underwhelmed at first. But after playing with settings and living with it a while, it definitely seems better. To the point where sometimes I turn it on after driving another car and think, hey, it sounds pretty good.

 

What settings do you use?

 

Could you let me know what settings you went with? After playing a bit, I just went back to flat (all settings at default).

Side note: It sounds way worse on satellite radio.

 

Do you use Dolby, DTS or Meridian in the setting?
I prefere Dolby or DTS (which sounds rather similar after the software upgrade). The Meridian setting lack bass and is very front speaker related.

 

 

Many of us have agreed that the F-type (at least early MYs) has a worse satellite radio implementation than other cars.

 

 

There are oem speaker upgrades that I have done and that are documented earlier in this thread that I believe is a significant improvement.

 

I have the 770W system and have never had any of these poor sound quality issues.
My car was originally a dealer demo so it may have had the fix applied, but there is no paperwork or electronic history showing this and I will never know.
I have it set to Meridian and I get great sound from all sources, including MP3s on a USB and DAB radio (is that the same as satellite radio?).
The only time the sound is less than great is if/when I play a low bitrate track on the USB, and that is obviously down to the relatively poor source in the first place.

 

Does this bulletin apply to the 2014 770W system?

 

I don't think it applies to the vert.

 

I'm actually talking about a coupe

 

Then I think it should apply.
Mine is a MY2015 made in 2014, and it did apply to mine. Made a nice improvement.

 

Didn't realize you were non-US. Thought you had an MY2014. No coupes built that production cycle (4/2013-3/2014).