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39 Posts
Just thought I'd type this up as before I specced my car this was probably one of my biggest dilemmas and I couldn't find anything online to help me out, so hopefully this may assist someone somewhere! This is just my opinion on audio quality and not about software or any other usability features.
My previous car was a FL2 with the Meridian system which I loved, I spend a lot of time on my own driving on the motorway and quality audio is one of my must haves in any car. I've always opted in the past for the uprated system as the standard audio quality usually leaves a lot to be desired on most higher end vehicles - obviously with the aim of getting you to part with your hard earned cash for a decent system.
Due to a few dealer issues I ended up actually with a choice of 2 showroom vehicles, one with the standard system and one with the Entertainment package. Now forgetting the issues documented here with the EP software when I tried it out it was indeed full and rich and sounded just like the previous FL system I enjoyed so much.
Then I tried the standard audio and I was actually very surprised, compared to the frankly awful FL standard audio this was actually pretty good. Nice bass from the subwoofer and while lacking some of the refinements of the Meridian to my ears (and forgetting the extra bells and whistles) from an audio point of view there is no way £2.5ks benefit in audio on the Meridian over the standard.
If there'd been an audio only upgrade around the £500 mark then yes I'd have opted for it but if you're looking at it expecting a vastly superior audio experience then you're wasting your money.
The EP is nice don't get me wrong, REALLY nice but if you're worried about the standard system don't be - it's absolutely up to the job and blasting out the Black Keys today I'm a very happy owner.
My previous car was a FL2 with the Meridian system which I loved, I spend a lot of time on my own driving on the motorway and quality audio is one of my must haves in any car. I've always opted in the past for the uprated system as the standard audio quality usually leaves a lot to be desired on most higher end vehicles - obviously with the aim of getting you to part with your hard earned cash for a decent system.
Due to a few dealer issues I ended up actually with a choice of 2 showroom vehicles, one with the standard system and one with the Entertainment package. Now forgetting the issues documented here with the EP software when I tried it out it was indeed full and rich and sounded just like the previous FL system I enjoyed so much.
Then I tried the standard audio and I was actually very surprised, compared to the frankly awful FL standard audio this was actually pretty good. Nice bass from the subwoofer and while lacking some of the refinements of the Meridian to my ears (and forgetting the extra bells and whistles) from an audio point of view there is no way £2.5ks benefit in audio on the Meridian over the standard.
If there'd been an audio only upgrade around the £500 mark then yes I'd have opted for it but if you're looking at it expecting a vastly superior audio experience then you're wasting your money.
The EP is nice don't get me wrong, REALLY nice but if you're worried about the standard system don't be - it's absolutely up to the job and blasting out the Black Keys today I'm a very happy owner.