Hi all,

I took a lease on a 2012 XF yesterday. I drive my car pretty hard and am thoroughly thrilled by the way the new car handles (pretty serious praised having come from a 328i with sport package). I had a question - does anyone know the specs for the stock stereo? The description online seems to be limited to "Jaguar 400W 10 speaker system." I'm a little confused because there seem to be 11 speakers visible (unless the center channel is just a grille). Any info or opinions on the sound quality are most welcome!

Thanks,
A

 

Great question. Does anyone know the answer to the question above for a 2009 320 W sound system? does anyone know the specs for the stock stereo?

 

I still don't know more about the stereo other than the fact that it sounds much better after having been run for a month. The bass still lacks, but it'll do!

 

Is it the Bowers & Wilkins system?

 

8+1 for base system.

12+1 for Bowers & Wilikins system.

Stereo requires an even number of speakers, plus a subwoofer if desired.

Euro systems tend not to be bass heavy, that's an oriental and American taste.

Classical music sounds really good on the XF base stereo. Criticisms of the stereo system seem based on the idea that if the bass is not loud it must be a poor stereo. Not true.

 

Standard audio 2012 XF = Base & Portfolio - Jagur Premium 400w 10 speakers / Supercharged - Jaguar Premium 600w 10+1 sub / XFR 1200w Bowers & Wilkins 16+1 sub (B&W is also an option on all )

 

@Jagular

Great point. The system is probably chosen and calibrated according to the typical customers' taste in music. Even my base system sounds great playing classical music. The clarity is pretty impressive.

 

For the model year 2010 the sound systems were roughly as follows:

1. The base system (Jaguar 320W Premium Sound System) has 9 speakers, two in each door (bass/mid with tweeter) and a sub woofer. The center grill on the dashboard has no speaker installed on the base system. Straight two channel processing with left/right and from/rear balancing. Not a bad sounding system. 320 watts power output.

2. The B & W upgraded system (Bowers and Wilkins 440W Surround) has 14 speakers in total. 3 in each from door (tweeter, mid and bass), 2 in each rear door (Bass/Mid and Tweeter), 2 mids on the real parcel shelf, 1 in the center dash position and a sub woofer installed under the spare tire in the trunk. Extended frequency range and better quality drivers and processing make for a better audio experience in my opinion. Increased power output to 440 watts.

Although Stereo is commonly referred to as a two channel system and more than two channels as multichannel, stereo is in fact more than one channel technically. The B & W adds Dolby Pro Logic II processing which adds pseudo surround sound which requires a front center channel hence the added speaker at the front.

With regards to sound quality, the B & W sub woofer extends the lower frequencies substantially, however the B & W drivers are considerably better than the standard system. The standard system has a colored and boxy sound in the mid range to me which I cannot remove with the standard tone controls. The B & W sounds much cleaner. Again personal observations, but to me clean and uncolored sound is much more important than 'lots of bass' and this is where the B & W system scores. However the B & W as fitted to the XF is not without its flaws, since it possible to excite a resonance at around 70/80 Hz which I find irritating and should have been filtered out in the processing.

Hope this helps.