Food for the audiophiles. Overall, the reviewer was not impressed when compared to the competitive set. He mentions my biggest gripe with the system which is distorted bass. There's also a link within the link to a 2009 review.

http://blogs.insideline.com/straight...em-review.html

 

Being an audiophile myself with high end equipment at home and SPL meters with frequency response test discs in hand, I find the B&W system has excellent sound IF the user has tailored the sound system settings.
Std stereo, three channel, or dolby pro-logic for the different sources and
adjustment of the bass, treble, and subwoofer levels, as well as the surround channel volume. And don't forget the fade and balance adjustments!
If this article is to be believed and the author had any credibility, the author would publish the frequency response of the system instead of making comments based on personal taste.
What experience does he/she have in sound analysis? He/she may be a neophyte!
The folks at B&W build audio equipment for a living and make excellent equipment, does the reviewer have the same credentials?

 

I was a professional designer of high fidelity loudspeakers in the past (wish I still was but that is another story!!). The article is littered with technical terms and pseudo scientific assessment criteria which seems to be the norm these days.

The B & W system in the XF needs careful setup, as is pointed out by CashmereLeaper, but once set up correctly it is superb. I spend a lot of time (and sometimes money, but the two are not always related) getting good systems at home and in my car (my wife jokes that I once traded a car because the sound system was so bad - it was a BMW and they never really put any effort into good systems in their cars, although the current crop of premium systems are quite good).

I have listened to the other systems cited in the article and agree that they are good but I would put the B & W on the same footing as their top rated ELS system in the Acura, if not better.

I did read, but cannot find the article now, that one of the Hi Fi mags in the UK rated the XF B & W system as one of the best they had heard.

Anyway, as I always suggest to people with sound systems, go listen and play with it before you believe what I or anyone else says. Sound is perception.

 

One of the things I really like about the XF is the sound system. It makes the Blows systems in some other cars sound very obviously 2nd rate. My difficulty is that I listen to a mix of music - from jazz to classical to West African funk - so I keep fiddling with the system to try and find settings that work with that genre of music. I almost wish you could have multiple memories to suit different types of music that you create yourself, or find some "magical" all purpose settings that work well across all genres.

 

I cannot comment on the system B&W has put into the XF, but I can comment on past experience with B&W speakers. They are IMHO some of the best made. I have owned and sold their product line, and at least in the mid eighties they were top notch.

I must admit that past performance is by no means guaranteed for future products.

 

B&W's reputation is stellar but if I'm not mistaken this was their first stab at an in car system. I venture to say there's probably somewhat of a learning curve. And unlike with the new XJ, B&W weren't brought in early in the design process for the XF.

I've seen the positive reviews of the system as well. I agree that the B&W sounds very good notwithstanding its ability to handle heavier bass. I'm not talking about how loud the bass is but rather how crisp. I haven't listened to any of the other systems mentioned in the article so I can't compare to those. I would imagine the B&W in the XJ is noticeably better all around.

 

I would classify myself as an audio enthusiast, but certainly a far cry from esoteric. I've got a "decent" setup for the house (Def Tech Mythos 3 all around with SC Reference sub, all driven by an SC-07 Pio Elite). Like I said ... decent stuff but certainly not in the hi-end category.

I think the B&W when setup properly can sound as good (albeit the bass doesn't hit as hard) as my home system. I'm pretty pleased with it. While I havn't heard the ML system in the Lexus, the B&W is the best stock system I've heard in a loooong time.

 

What sort of music do you guys use to test your B&W systems? Are there any reference cds? Too bad that the Jag does not play audio dvds like my previous car did.

 

For me, this mostly falls back to tracks you know really well, and have heard on decent setups. One of my top reference CDs is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon - mostly because I'm so familiar with it.

 

As per vmaxxer, you need to choose something you already know and love and have heard on a good system or heard live. However here are some guidelines I use:

From a purely testing perspective solo piano music will find resonances and rattles without any trouble (e.g. Angela Hewitt). This will not test the full range of the system but will easily find resonance/coloration problems. Pianos are very difficult to reproduce accurately. I then move to jazz (e.g. Brubeck, Keiko Matsui whom I have both heard live) where the full range of the system will be heard and then move to more electronic music like Jojo Effect which has somewhat over emphasised bass but has a pleasant full range sound. Chorale and orchestral will tend to test the dynamic range of the system and see whether compression is being used. e.g. Vocalise by Adiemus.

As you can tell I am not a particular fan of rock music for testing - apart from seeing wether the system can handle the peak requirements of some good rock (but I do love Dark Side of the Moon and if I told you I had seen Pink Floyd live you could guess I am not that young either) since rock can hide resonances and rattles, but in the end it only matters whether you like it and not whether everyone else likes you system.

Hope this helps.