Standard stereo or HiFi upgrade for new PF -m?

For what its worth, my take is its usually worth it if you will actually put miles on the car and use it and enjoy an involving music presentation. The cost to upgrade the standard radio after the fact with after market bits is usually several times the cost of the option and the results really not much better and sometimes require your returning to the shop to get it tweaked to taste. Also if there is a bad interaction among the electronics and then you are arguing with the dealer/ FNA? And that doesn't count the cost when you go to sell and people ask why you tore out the factory bits. My opinion is its not worth going with the aftermarket stuff in a Ferrari so I just check the box. JMHO YMMV

 

Buying preowned I always passed on a car without the upgraded system.

 

I hate to make assumptions, but without knowing what the PF will have I will just give you my 2 cents.
In my 360, 430, 458 Italia and 458 spider I never thought twice about speccing the upgrade. I am not always at WOT and enjoy the background music. In the Italia the JBL stereo upgrade was much better than the spider. Likely a limitation in design of car and stereo.
BUT, it was vastly better than the standard, no cost offering.
If I was ordering another Ferrari I obviously would do it again. The one thing I would pass on is the Apple Car Play IF $ an issue. 5k for stereo and 5k (for what is standard on virtually every other car in the universe that I know of!) is a bit much. Using a simple Bluetooth device you can use your iPhone through the stereo assuming you have the also exorbitantly priced iPhone cord.
Best

 

Worth it, is such an odd way to look at it. Is it actually worth the money? No, because it's a huge price for not a lot. However, is it needed? Yes, absolutely. The base systems are so bad, there is no way around it. From a business standpoint, Ferrari has been pretty clever, because they have made a base system which is useless. If someone says the base system is usable and not too bad, I would love to hear what their standard is for bad audio. Get the upgraded audio if you listen to musjc and radio, because the base system is just ridiculous. Have any of us heard the M system? No, but this is how Ferrari works, and it is the case for the 812, Lusso, F8. Porto, SF90 etc. Check the box and move on, no way around it.

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I got the upgraded system on my 812 and it is the best one I have had on a Ferrari but it's not as good as the B&W, B&O or Burmester I have had in other cars. As upgraded as my wife's Portofino is, it doesn't have the upgraded stereo. She says you should upgrade because the Burmester in her AMG GTC Roadster was better than what she has in the Portofino.

 

It took 2 amps, focal speakers and added a sub base to match the factory Hi-Fi option of my 430 to get good sound.
When I got my Cali T I felt like the sound system was good enough (not great) not to upgrade. (Turns out It is the Hi-power Sound System) with Carplay.
I say if you are spending $250-300K for a new Ferrari its worth the extra for the upgrade Stereo with Carplay. You can enjoy it while you own the car, and sell or trade faster and little higher when time to sell.

 

We didn’t get the upgraded stereo or Apple CarPlay. I thought $4500 for CarPlay was insane and $6500 for the upgraded stereo was not worth it.

 

always worth it for a GT - upgraded stereo and the carplay.

 

I've only had experience of the upgraded/premium stereo and would definitely recommend it for those occasions when you're on the motorway/freeway for a couple of hours and cant break the speed limit without getting a ticket! In terms of "what you get for the money",

• Standard stereo - has no separate amplifier, has 6 basic speakers, normal cabling
• Upgraded stereo - has a 1,500w amplifier with 12 channels, 12 speakers, Surround Sound QuantumLogic technology and uses fibre optics to connect components. The speakers are,

- 5 * 25mm ceramic tweeters, integrated in the dashboard, in the door panels and in the rear side panels
- 3 * 80mm Kevlar mid-range speakers, integrated into the dashboard
- 2 * 200mm woofers, integrated into the door panels
- 2 * 100mm Kevlar woofers, integrated in the rear side panels
​

The uplift in cost for the upgraded unit seems a lot but if you look at costs of components - £3,600/$4,600 for the amp alone, £85/$110 for the standard woofer versus £590/$766 for the upgraded woofer etc. the packaged price for the upgrade is relatively good value!

 

All things considered, how much is 6500 in the full picture?
Not much.
Will you wonder and possibly be annoyed that you didn't do it? Quite possibly. Is it too much for what you get? Yes. Can you be without? No.

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100% agree with Co-Pilota on this one. This is one of those options that you will always say, "Damn, I wonder what it would have sounded like with the upgrade". In my opinion, just go with it. Life is to short to have "what-ifs".

 

Forget all that. While those component speakers are better than the basic units, they are nothing special. They compare to entry level Focal stuff or entry level Gladdn etc. at best. Even if you do a mild upgrade of the drivers alone of the upgraded system using Scanspeak Silver series or Dynaudio Esotec, drivers, you get a system that will be on a very different level. Like with the Focal beryllium tweeters, those ceramic dome tweeters are ear shatterinly harsh. Hell the upgraded Ferrari system can be elevated significantly simply by installing Scanspeak Gold series ring radiator tweeters instead of those horrid ceramic drivers.

Why quantum.logic? If the speakers are good, why all the add-ons? A good system don't need thst kind of stuff to work.

My point is just that it is not worth trying to sell the system based on what a sales rep or brochure might say. It is a better system and one needs it because Ferrari has made the base systems so poor that you are forced to upgrade. But reality is, that the upgraded Ferrari system compares to a normal system in a Golf. Yes it has more speakers, but that is not important. Which speakers is used and what the manufacture do with them, is what matters.
It is like comparing B&O to Sonus Faber. Priced similar, but theøatter can do things with just a left and right channel speaker, B&O with all their gadgets can only marvel at.

As for upgrading the speakers in the Ferrari base system? Do 't bother unless you do a full build. The head unit amp is no capable of anything bu distorted noise.


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Very good information, thank you.
I know it may just be marketing but I now know what I am paying for and the cost is starting to be justified in my mind

Where did you find the specs?

 

And here you can see it.

All the stuff that says optional, is theupgraded stuff.

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The description came from the official documents from Ferrari (I only have a paper copy). I did a lot of background research before opting for the upgraded stereo


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I opted for the premium Hifi system in my 2020 PF. I have had issues with it being too much for the car and numerous ticks and reverberation rattled when the volume is anywhere above 12 (of 30). Look to have solved one noise on the drivers right door. Next to my right ear. Turned out to be junction between leather sections of doo ticked with each bass drum. I now need to turn bass right down (below mid point on equilizer) to avoid interior rattles etc. so on balance not a great upgrade option.

 

There are no right or wrong answers on options. It’s purely a personal decision and we all have our quirks about what’s important to us. I had no issue paying for $8k for forged diamond wheels (because they absolutely make the exterior) or $9k for ADAS (because I want all the safety technology), but there’s no way I was going to spend $6.5k on an upgraded stereo. But it’s all personal preference.

 

It is very personal. I have experienced several cars with ADAS, and when I specced my 812 GTS I opted out. Why? Because I have had two instances where the cars suddenly applied the brakes. Luckily nobody was behind be, had there been, it would have resulted in a crash. One was an ADAS system in a VW GTE and the incident was on a dry city street at night with little traffic at 50 kph, the other was in a Porsche Taycan Turbo S on the motorway doing about 120 kph.

These systems are not honed yet, and from my experience, it is not yet to be trusted. I'm definitely waiting a bit longer before I put my trust in Ferrari for this. No thanks.

 

As a proud owner of a portifino (which I drive daily). I added a sub woofer ($780 installed). Mounts in trunk on the back deck. Improved the bottom and mid range frequencies sunstantially. Well worth the small investment.

 

Interesting. It improved the base stereo sound?

 

I owned a 2012 Mercedes CLS 63S. One of the Options Packages I chose had Pre Safe Braking, which I had never even heard of. Anyway, about a year after I got the car I was headed to the train station to pick up my niece. I was doing about 25mph when a woman cut through two lanes of traffic and attempted to get in front of me. I couldn’t react quick enough, but the braking system did. It scared the crap out of me, but that’s why I spec’d ADAS.