As you are massive music fan you will find either versions of the meridian audio a big let down. You might want to consider going to a reputable car audio outfit to have the system upgraded.
I had mine done and the sound quality is awesome and far better than the 380W Meridian that was installed by Jaguar.
There are 3 outfits in the south east that are familiar with the Ftype. You can find details in previous discussions on the forum.
Mine came with the 770 ... when not listening to the exhaust I run it in standard stereo as it creates lots of boom and distortion that I believe are known issues I have yet to make time to have the dealer rectify. Pleased I didn't pay the upgrade price to have it ...
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Mine came with the 770 as well, but I have no problems with mine. It sounds excelent - specially when set to DTS surround with balance in center, bass a few clicks down (from half), treble a few clicks up and the sub a few clicks up as well (a bit depending on the audio source).
I am very happy with the system, but I do know that many has had some different issues. Happy to say that I am not one of those
The 770W system is fine - It's down to 'operator error' most of the time. Because the cabin (certainly on the vert) is small, you need to be a bit clever with the bass and sub controls.
Balance and fade need to be fine tuned as well.
I run mine like many on DTS mode with the sub just on, and it's pretty damn good, but it takes some setting up with CD's and high bit rate sampled MP3's.
We has the 300 W system in the S, and it was OK, but at the end of the day, I like the sound of the pipes over any kind of music!
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If I go for the 380W then I'm probably going to miss the front speakers that I have in my TTS, because door & rear speakers are not going to give me that immersive experience??
So much to think about.
Godammit, why do F-Types need to be so gorgeous!!
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The 770W system is fine - It's down to 'operator error' most of the time.
I have to disagree with you there, Tel. Yours might be fine, many others are not, mine included. For the price it cost me, it's doubly shocking. Tweaking the settings merely pushes it from crappy to another type of crappy.
If I was speccing my car again to buy new, this is the number 1 change I'd make from last time as I'd leave this option well alone (and put the money towards an aftermarket install if I decided I wanted high quality sound at a later point).
Tel, I also have to disagree with you. Captainham is spot on.
I experimented with different genres of music (jazz, classical, pop etc.) as well as audio settings and the sound output was very poor. The speakers in the door and the rear are not Meridian but cheap paper speakers that even with a decent amp will not produce good quality music. Hence the numerous comments on this and the US forum on the poor quality audio.
I love my Ftype but based on what I paid for the car and the upgrade to the 380W system it is an outrage !!!. I had an XE as loaner while my car was being serviced and the base model hifi in it sounded miles better.