Anyone upgrade speakers in their B&O system?

[BroncoBill44]

Got rid of all the factory speakers, and the factory sub. Soooooooo much better.
I added a ZEN-A2B / DSP12A-A2B for my amps, and a sub control knob.

I see these at a good price... the 4". If I just swap out my Front, Center, Rear, Kicks with these and no sub... do I need bass blockers? Do you think Id notice a difference from what I have with the B&O system? I know only the 2 front R/L are upgraded speakers and the other 5 are stock.

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[Mmart]

Good morning all,

New here, but I have a 2 door Outer Banks with the B&O. Like everyone else has stated, the system leaves A LOT to be desired. I upgraded all of the interior speakers (minus the sub) with the Focal ACX line. $500 later, I can confirm that this will be a great improvement over the paper stock speakers. I purchased directly from Crutchfield. The configurator will state that these speakers do not fit, but the advisor let me know they are extremely conservative and she has them in her base 4 door, so she can personally confirm they do as well. While Crutchfield does not have the wire harnesses for the dash speakers, Amazon does. The entire install took about 2 hours (if you are mechanically inclined). Crutchfield will supply the harness for the kick speakers. I would recommend starting here before dumping loads of money. For many, this step will do the trick. My next step is unplugging the god-awful sub as all it does is rattle and plays much higher than the rest of the system. I’ll be replacing that with a downfiring enclosure in the hatch anyhow. I’m happy to share any details to walk folks through each step.

Link to the Amazon connectors?

 

[BigJ2]

Link to the Amazon connectors?

https://www.amazon.com/Bronco-Speaker-Wiring-Harness-Adapter/dp/[banned vendor link]

 

[TheKim]

I see these at a good price... the 4". If I just swap out my Front, Center, Rear, Kicks with these and no sub... do I need bass blockers? Do you think Id notice a difference from what I have with the B&O system? I know only the 2 front R/L are upgraded speakers and the other 5 are stock.

Just note that the kick panel speakers are 6", and not 4". The pods in the rear, and other speakers are indeed the 4".
Yes, these are much better than the stock B&O, IMO. Much more crisp sound, and less muddled. Now, I did use an amp for the speakers, so I'm not making any promises that the stock head unit will be able to push these to their potential, but you'll likely still get a decent improvement.

 

[BroncoIcon]

Ok... I've tried to look through this thread for my answer but didn't see it or I missed it. I've swapped out my 4" dash and pods over my B&O and it is a lot cleaner and somewhat louder.

So now I've purchased a skar audio 8" sub to replace my B&O sub but it requires RCA inputs. Has anyone simply swapped a new sub in the factory location yet? And if so, what wiring harness adapter did you use and where did you find it?

 

[crimsonhokie]

Just note that the kick panel speakers are 6", and not 4". The pods in the rear, and other speakers are indeed the 4".
Yes, these are much better than the stock B&O, IMO. Much more crisp sound, and less muddled. Now, I did use an amp for the speakers, so I'm not making any promises that the stock head unit will be able to push these to their potential, but you'll likely still get a decent improvement.

@TheKim What amp did you use for your speakers given there's 7 channels (FL, C, FR, KL, KR, RL, RR)?

 

[TheKim]

@TheKim What amp did you use for your speakers given there's 7 channels (FL, C, FR, KL, KR, RL, RR)?

KAC-2404S - spliced front speakers/kick panels.

 

[mbagne]

So now I've purchased a skar audio 8" sub to replace my B&O sub but it requires RCA inputs. Has anyone simply swapped a new sub in the factory location yet? And if so, what wiring harness adapter did you use and where did you find it?

So no one has answered this over two months? It's a great question and you would think someone has experience with this.

Did you discover if there is a good option out there for merely replacing the factory sub? I imagine it would require an additional amp to fit behind or to the side. I recall sometime last year there was a thread in which someone stated that there were no choices (or good choices) for an aftermarket sub that would fit nicely into the Bronco sub enclosure without modifying/shaving the cover, or leaving the sub exposed which sounds less than desirable.

 

[texasmark04]

This particular model is 12 channel. Just be careful on where or who you buy it from, there are some that are only 6 channel. I've currently got all channels working great. Notice the one in the Tremor forums said DSP6A and not DSP12A. Sounds like they just bought the wrong one.

From the item description: "The Nav-TV ZEN-AUDIO DSP12A-A2B processor seamlessly converts 2018+ Ford factory A²B® (Automotive Audio Bus) to 12-channel analog RCA and TOSLink output. Adding aftermarket amplifiers to the OE B&O or Revel amplified SYNC3 system has never been so simple."

@TheKim question on the ZEN-A2B/DSP12A-A2B that you used. I have a 2022 OBX with B&O. Can I use this Audio Interface with the 2022 model? I believe the 2022's are running SYNC4 systems, so wasn't sure if this would work at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I already bought new 4" and 6" for dash, kick panels and rears (went with Hertz speakers, was thinking of going Focal but on the audio compare on Crutchfield, liked the way the Hertz sounded over the Focals). I want to run a proper amp to these speakers, and I know I will need to invest in the Audio Interface to bypass the crappy factory B&O amp, so that's why I'm looking at the ZEN product.

 

[horseplay]

Ok... I've tried to look through this thread for my answer but didn't see it or I missed it. I've swapped out my 4" dash and pods over my B&O and it is a lot cleaner and somewhat louder.

So now I've purchased a skar audio 8" sub to replace my B&O sub but it requires RCA inputs. Has anyone simply swapped a new sub in the factory location yet? And if so, what wiring harness adapter did you use and where did you find it?

@TheKim question on the ZEN-A2B/DSP12A-A2B that you used. I have a 2022 OBX with B&O. Can I use this Audio Interface with the 2022 model? I believe the 2022's are running SYNC4 systems, so wasn't sure if this would work at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I already bought new 4" and 6" for dash, kick panels and rears (went with Hertz speakers, was thinking of going Focal but on the audio compare on Crutchfield, liked the way the Hertz sounded over the Focals). I want to run a proper amp to these speakers, and I know I will need to invest in the Audio Interface to bypass the crappy factory B&O amp, so that's why I'm looking at the ZEN product.

Link to the Amazon connectors?

Just ordered Focal speakers to replace the 5 B&O dash & roll bar speakers. Can anyone offer advice about using foam speaker baffles? Worth it?? Is bass reduced?

 

[TheKim]

@TheKim question on the ZEN-A2B/DSP12A-A2B that you used. I have a 2022 OBX with B&O. Can I use this Audio Interface with the 2022 model? I believe the 2022's are running SYNC4 systems, so wasn't sure if this would work at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I already bought new 4" and 6" for dash, kick panels and rears (went with Hertz speakers, was thinking of going Focal but on the audio compare on Crutchfield, liked the way the Hertz sounded over the Focals). I want to run a proper amp to these speakers, and I know I will need to invest in the Audio Interface to bypass the crappy factory B&O amp, so that's why I'm looking at the ZEN product.

As far as I'm aware, it should work great. It does require some tuning (the ZEN unit), which I didn't do any of personally, because I had it installed at a local car audio place, and they took care of everything. One thing to be aware of, if you've got Sport mode and the B&O stereo, you're probably going to lose that sweet piped in exhaust sound
It filters it out. You might also not hear your blind spot indicators as loudly unless you have the Zen unit tuned to have that input turned up.

 

[texasmark04]

As far as I'm aware, it should work great. It does require some tuning (the ZEN unit), which I didn't do any of personally, because I had it installed at a local car audio place, and they took care of everything. One thing to be aware of, if you've got Sport mode and the B&O stereo, you're probably going to lose that sweet piped in exhaust sound
It filters it out. You might also not hear your blind spot indicators as loudly unless you have the Zen unit tuned to have that input turned up.

Thanks @TheKim ! I went ahead and purchased the ZEN unit, talked to them over phone and they said it will work with 2022 Bronco with SYNC4, so should be good. I plan on having local sound shop do the full install (just labor), I have purchased all of the speakers myself online. Replacing all the 4" (front and rear) with Hertz DCX 100.3, and the door kicks with Memphis MJP6 6.5 woofers. Since I can add amplification with the ZEN unit, just need to decide with amp to go with for all of these speakers. May also need to see if they back factory sub can be swapped out, but I don't want a custom box taking up my back space area, so has to be a 1:1 swap (using same back space enclosure).

 

[22Badskwatch]

I’ve upgraded the rear speakers and the subwoofer (swapped the 8” stock for an 8” Rockford Fosgate in the stock location). The front 4” and the kicks seem solid to me, though I may replace the center-front speaker as I understand it’s just a standard speaker and not the B&O upgraded speaker.

I’ll do a walkthrough thread on the subwoofer swap with some pictures in a day or two…

did you end up doing a post about the sub install? I tried looking and can't find it.

 

[kvec]

I just tried three different brands of 4” speakers to replace the front and rear 4” in the bronco.

all three of them were TRASH…. And I broke the clip that holds the speaker cover on the drivers side rear just to add to my dismay.
I’m beginning to think all 4” speakers are shit as they are simply too small to be good

Same experience. I suggest you replace the corners with tweeters and the center with a real component center channel.

 

[Hossfire]

Has anyone used https://plugnplaykits.com/products/axxess-b-o-a2b-dsp-pkg-w-amp-bypass-harness-ford-2015-up for their A2B interface? I like that it has a built in DSP.

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