STG

The $7K increase is pretty much just their normal MSRP inflation bump. The accounting dept looks at new increased costs like the new engine, etc. and they tweak certain options and packages to get the necessary profit margin.

One thing holds true, MSRP $ never goes down with Porsche year over year.

shewu

Probably to also pay for dieselgate costs

STG

Ha ha. These prices were set already before that.

Porsche charges how much they can for A, B, C, D., as opposed to what makes rational sense sometimes.

The ala carte build your own model is a very profitable one.

Scottish Pete

Now that someone else has admitted listening to NPR . . . is there a good setting for the Bose System for listening to talk shows or the Sirius comedy channels on the radio? It is pretty harsh sounding and the volume needs to be too high to follow what is being said. Base and treble settings or some of the other setting options I don't understand, etc?

trysixty

and the bean counters break into a big smile as they realize how big the NA profit margin is with the EU at 1.07 to the US$ (1EU=1.07US)

TheEngineer

For Sirius my settings (Bose unit) are:
Bass -2
Treble -3
Fader 3 toward the rear
Surround off
Linear off (on the option page)

This is for a mix of music and comedy/CNBC. If I was not listening to any music I might bump the bass up to -1 or 0. Also, when I had the car in for service in June, the dealer downloaded the then latest PCM SW (4.73), which fixed a bluetooth issue I was having and also seemed to slightly improve the sound quality on both FM and Sirius.

Even with the tweaking, the sound quality is so-so compared to my Range Rover Sport or even my former car - 2012 Mustang; so 90% of the time I listen to music from an iPod.

MJBird993

True that, except remove "sometimes".

As to the OQ: the base stereo sucks, so if it has less power, it will suck less, right?

fbroen

Problem w/ Sirius...is Sirius. HD FM sounds miles better...but content....

Four Ring Circus

Having had two Bang and Olufsen systems in my last two Audi A8s I can tell you that the return on paying for a high end system on a car when trading in is probably 20 cents on the dollar. Don't buy a high end system that you don't want because you think it's needed for resale.

chuck911

Asking an audio question on a car site? Oh well.

Where to begin? Watts simply do not equate to sound quality. Not at all. For starters, even at high volume levels the vast majority of what you're hearing is 1 watt or less. One watt in a car gets you about 95 dB which is a good satisfyingly loud level for most folks. Ten watts at the same sensitivity is 105 dB, enough to cause hearing damage if done too long. But, the 235 is even more misleading, as its usually the sum of the output of who knows how many amps, which is just a truly stupid way of measuring- that works because people know next to nothing about audio.

But its not like power is irrelevant. There was a time, way back, 1970's or earlier, when even a watt or two (as currently measured) was hard to come by. Unless you had ultra-efficient horn-loaded speakers you simply weren't going to get decent sound at more than conversation-level (70 dB) output. (But, even then, if that one watt was some nice tube gear it was gonna sound great. Which is why even today people fall in love with 2 watt Single-Ended Triodes.)

Nowadays (by which I mean, for the last 30 years at least) its common and easy to make 30 to 60 or more nice, clean, musically enjoyable watts. Which is plenty. Even carmakers could do it- if they cared. Which they might- if customers would only listen. Which, unfortunately, precious few do. Listening takes time. So much easier to compare meaningless numbers.

Even so, if the numbers did make any sense (which they don't) then lets say the 991.2 is 3dB more quiet than the .1. Which since 3dB is widely held to be the smallest increment most people reliably hear (which if you're a decent listener is probably more like 1, 1.5, but that's why its "most people" not decent listeners) then if people notice any improvement at all its probably more than 3dB. But never mind. Take 3dB. Then since sonic power is logarithmic, so that each 3dB increment requires TWICE as much power, then in this case 3dB down from 235 is 117, which is less than 150. So relative to its new, more quiet interior the new base stereo is actually proportionally more powerful than before.

Except, remember, its logarithmic. The 33 watts between 117 and 150 is (no, I'm not going to do the math!) some tiny fraction of a decibel. Its nothing. Utterly meaningless. Just like this whole watts game they love to keep everyone playing.

And, let me assure you, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The more you dig into it, the less you will care about watts. (Assuming of course the stereo is intended for music, and not another item of BSD-dom.)

The only reasonable answer then is it has nothing- NOTHING!- to do with sound. Its pure marketing. And that's a whole different rabbit hole altogether.

LexVan

Not so fast there, STG991. The first model 996 was less expensive than the last model 993 (1998). But then you had to live with those gawd awful headlights.

The New 911

The only real way to tell the radio's apart is to listen to them back to back. Base, Bose and Burmeister with proper music such as Classical. One of my favorites would be to listen to bits of Star Wars or Indiana Jones themes. Both should give dynamics in pitch and Volume.

Hurricane

Okay, I chuckled....

c_Gio

Aye, and the new 993 was less expensive than its predecessor.

LexVan

Didn't know that. Really, a 1995/1996 series 993 was less than a new 964?