Honda Ridgeline Owner Buys Two More Chevy Vehicles And Classifies Their Sound Systems From Best To Worst

Car buyers don’t just care about horsepower, styling, fuel economy, and the like. Audio systems matter, too, as one Honda Ridgeline buyer who also owns a couple of Chevrolets shows us.

Let’s take a look at a Facebook post from a happy Honda Ridgeline owner.

Even Honda’s Basic Audio Earns Praise From Ridgeline Owners

It starts with this Honda Ridgeline owner. We’ve lightly edited the post for grammar and clarity:

“We have three vehicles purchased new. A 2025 Chevrolet Activ. A 2025 Chevrolet Trax RS. And a 2026 Honda Ridgeline RTL. None of the vehicles came with "premium" sound systems. The audio in the Equinox sucks. The audio in the Trax is ok.  However the audio in the Ridgeline is excellent and blows the other two away.”

It seems like he meant to say “Equinox Activ” and missed a word, but that’s beside the point. The poster is indicating that he didn’t splurge for uplevel audio in any of the three vehicles, and the basic factory sound system in the Honda is better than it is in two Chevys of recent vintage.

As is seemingly the case with Ridgeline owners, others chimed in with agreement.

Here’s one:

I was quite surprised by the audio! I had a vehicle with a Beats Premium Audio System, but this one sounds so much better. I have a TrailSport, but I believe it has the same system as the RTL. I know the BE has the better system, but this one is all I need. I was thinking it sounds so good because of the two speakers right above the dash.

And yet another:

The Honda RTL comes with a built-in subwoofer; there's no known information published about what brand speakers that they use. Even though their wattage is less on the RTL than what it is on the black edition the system is pretty decent for most people. I previously had a Chevy Colorado and I changed out the speakers. They were paper cone speakers about as cheap as humanly possible to put into the vehicle. I [did] a full system upgrade with a subwoofer, and it made a huge difference. I don’t think I’ll have to make any upgrades in my 2025 RTL either. I’m satisfied with it as it came. I anticipate your experience in the tracks is OK because it’s a smaller vehicle and it doesn’t have to work as hard in a smaller space. The equinox being a little bigger just doesn’t meet the mark. I couldn’t agree more.

There was one dissenter, however, although the trim level appeared to be a different one:

Y'all [be] glad you don't have that horrible early one on the RTL-T and up…Horrible layout. Sound is decent. But the layout is soooo bad.

Even The Little Things Help The Honda Ridgeline Gain Loyal Owners

Once again, the Ridgeline seems to be making its owners happy - so happy that they’re even saying that the prefer the audio system to comparable systems in other late-model vehicles.

It seems to show that Honda has put enough effort into the Ridgeline that customers aren’t just happy with ride, power, fuel efficiency, or towing capacity. They aren’t just happy with the historic V6 underhood. Or off-road capability. It’s the smaller things like sound-system quality.

And those things do matter to buyers, of course. Us vehicle testers might remark on sound quality during a review of a car, whether it’s based off of a press-launch first-drive or a week-long loan, but we don’t have to live with it if the sound system is bad.

Car owners do, however, have to live with it, and Facebook groups for owners can help you car shoppers see what the ownership experience is like, in a way that is not possible for us car reviewers who are just sampling vehicles on a short-term basis.

And, as we saw, not all Ridgeline owners were happy with the audio quality, so you can also see the negatives that car owners experience.

Images: Honda

About The Author

Tim Healey is an experienced automotive writer and editor from Chicago. He has covered automotive news at Consumer Guide Automotive, Web2Carz, AutoGuide, and was the managing editor at The Truth About Cars. Tim is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association. You can find him on Facebook, X/Twitter, and on LinkedIn.