Well your truck must be a one off with custom made speakers and amps as it will be the first time i ever heard a factory system sound as nice as the 09. I have yet to hear one owner of a 04-08 that bought an 09 say that there last system was better. I would get your mates audio checked out because if it sounds worse than your syste then there's something wrong with it.

 

My truck didn't quite make it to my dealership on Friday, so it'll most likely arrive Monday so I'll prob pick it up Tuesday. When I get it I'll throw down in this audio system war, as I've yet to hear the '09 audio in action yet, but have always enjoyed my '04 system (the long flat sub under 2/3 rear seat puts out a lot of bass - really shakes your seat and you can even set it to different seating positions - driver, rear seats, all seats, etc)! Hard for me to believe the '09 would be worse, but honestly can't say until I get mine and play around with it.

No idea what this smilie means, or what MROOF stand for, but it's the only new smilie in 6 years on this site so I'll use it -->

 

To bad it didnt turn up comet. At least it's not long away. WHat i find funny with Ford is they cant track a truck on there system work 40+k but UPS can tell me where my $5 parcel is and what day im going to expect it lol

 

I look forward to your opinion on the Sony. I have not heard the premium sound system on the 04-08, but absolutly love the system in my 09 Lariat.

 

Alright, I consider myself a slight audiophile... but due to lack of management's approval, namely my wife and kids, I typically stick with stock units. I had Ford's Audiophile systems in my 05 and 08 and my 09 has the Sony. The 05 Audiophile had the best balance, in my opinion, good bass, but not too much, good mids, but only fair highs. The 08 had WAY too much bass. Ford, or Visteon (the OEM manufacturer), must have made some tweaks to the systems between 05 and 08. On the 05, I would turn on the "compression" setting for CDs and satelite to get an increased bass response that I thought sounded really good, on the 08, I turned setting that on and it actually decreased the bass. Sitting in the back seat of the 05 and 08 was a little hard on the ears due to the sub being fairly overwhelming.

So, as of now I have 2500 miles on my 09 and have "excercised" the Sony system to say the least. In my opinion, the new Sony has the best sound stage and best high range sound of all the stock units I have owned. At very high volumes, the highs get a little "tinny" and can overwhelm the mids and the sub tends to distort or lose power, not sure which, during prolonged low tones, I never had a sub woofer distortion issue with the Audiophile systems. That said, at normal and low listening volumes or non-rap music (my favorites are country and rock so I am happy), the Sony offers a very balanced sound and the smaller sub sounds very good. For a good Van Halen jam, the Sony is definitely up to the task.

I am really happy with this new Sony system, and I would rate it Very Good. I think the Sony is a capacitor short of a GREAT unit. I think a larger cap would allow the sub to hold lower tones for longer times without allowing distortion.

One more slightly disappointing thing to note, apparently if you don't get the Nav system, you cannot access DVD audio discs or any other true surround sound formats. If someone has done this, please let me know how you got it to work!

 

Thank you johnyb, that sounded like a fair review from someone who knows their S&%t; unlike myself. All I know is that its sounds pretty damn good.

 

Hey johnyB thats almost exactly how i feel about the system. I have tried DVE dvd edition on the system but didnt have much luck with the sound formats running correctly. I then grabbed my DTS and DD test dvd and Treid both Formats and was very pleased with the outcome. What i was amazed with was how well balanced the system was in 5.1 dts. The sound stage was awesome and i was supprised that i got as good seperation as i did for how close the speakers are to each other. I like the way the sub is set up in this setup as it dont boom too much. They balanced the speakers and sub very well this time around. I have been running some VBR mp3 tracks and the system loves them but anything below 160kbps dont sound very good. Almost as bad as sirius to be honest. But you use VBR or 192kbps+ tracks then the system sounds great. If you can get Stars wars the phantom menace and check out the pod race scene.