LavaGTS

Curious on a little more input on the .2 being "tremendously better for some reason". I felt the same way after I bought a .1 and had extended drives in the .2.

Now that I bought the .2 I still feel as if the Bose system is very distorted and overall.. Crappy. The .1 is still in the family and they sound almost the same to my ears. The .1 suffers from a little more rattles than the .2.

jimmymoO

Anyone in the Bay Area have done the upgrades that I could meet up to hear the improvements? Appreciated!

whiteducktail

I have the tweeters + "center disconnect" mods performed. You're welcome to hear the difference in my car. The Bay Area is a pretty big region, though, when traffic is considered. What part of the Bay Area are you coming from?

LexVan

The greatest Group Buy in the history of GBs!

12v Nick

Nothing solid on that. Everyone's listening preferences are different, and with only Bass & Treble adjustments there's not a whole lot you can do to "shape" the sound. The last 991.1 I worked on sounded great with the Bass +2 and treble -1.

Pulling the fuse works, but I've always just unplugged it at the amplifier in the passenger kick panel. Same result, and actually your method is a bit easier.

We're not doing anymore group buys, but they're still available as a "built-to-order" status. Shoot me an email when you're ready to get a set! nick.akin@musicarnw.com

The amplifier in the .2 is more powerful and with different processing. They also added an extra pair of amp channels so the tweeters are on their own discreet output like the Burmester. Definitely an improvement, although the tweeters are the same exact part so there's still a lot of improvement needed there.

Hahah, thanks Lex – it's been a fun adventure for us!

LavaGTS

Installed these yesterday in my 991.2 and can definitely say it changed the BLose system for the better. Best way to describe it is that music is just more clearer/crisp/clean... Whatever you want to call it. I'm definitely hearing sounds/melodies again that were washed up before. Vocals are alot better and I keep the treble at 0 instead of 7. Bass goes anywhere from -2 to +2 but mainly stays at 0. Linear mode definitely the best sounding.

Was kind of skeptical about these at first but I'm on the bandwagon.. If you're into good quality then these are worth it. I've already found myself cranking the stereo often instead of keeping it low/medium.

minthral

Sound is subjective...call me a skeptic on this one.

I was pretty deep into HT audio and did plenty of tinkering... I have a high end system today that sounds great. Whats most important is components have to match and be setup correctly. The right gear in the right location, right environment, and right compatibility is what sounds best....even if its cheaper. A misplaced or mismatched high end speaker could sound like crap or a high end speaker with a low end amp and incorrect preamp EQ settings will sound equally bad. You need power to push bass, let you turn up the volume without distortion/clipping, or for more dynamic sound (volume up and down rapidly), yet speaker type, location, and room correction play a bigger role in how everything sounds. Poor quality amps can produce hiss or weird hum/electric noise with mismatched sensitive speakers. Pre-amps EQ / room correction is critical...it serves as a means 'correct' speakers which are never 'flat' (often intentionally by the manufacturer). Pre-amps/amps are setup to optimize a specific speaker/location and replacing that speaker with a high quality one will be unpredictable... likely making things sound weird or 'colored.' Eventually I realized that I like to listen to stereo music with as little DSP./modification as possible and 2 high end full range tower speakers with simple dedicated amps. Car audio is the complete opposite approach....compact cheaper speakers in odd locations, but lots of correction. Swapping the speakers out in this 'factory tuned' sound system will have unpredictable results...not necessarily bad though. The question is how 'unbalanced or colored' the sound will be and I'm not sure how the OP made the determination adding a dynaudio speaker into the system was a good idea.

I find that the bose system in my 991.2 actually sounds 'fine' after I turn linear/surround off, fade it to rear 4 (targeting center of car), and turn up the volume. This turns down the tweeters high freqs / subwoofer booms, which opens up the sound also because the driver side tweeter isn't overwhelming. Its obviously nowhere near my home setup, but don't get the vibe of 'my stock tweeters suck' like I did on my 981 (sometimes). I've owned a 981 boxster for a 3+ years with bose and it was much worse...definitely had that fatiguing sound people are complaining about. I had considered a 991.1 and found the bose was similar to the 981, but noticeably worse than a 991.2. I didn't tinker as much on the 991.1 though. I'm trying to understand if this mod is designed for 991.2 or mainly for 991.1. Reading most of this thread, its mainly .1 owners who had installed it. As mentioned, there were changes to the .2 system that clearly has to do with improving tweeters via dedicated channels, so in theory the mod will have a different impact. I wouldn't be surprised if DSP/EQ was recalculated too with the new system because it clearly sounds better to me.

Also what puzzles me is that linear mode is recommended with these new tweeters. This mode does some bad DSP in my testing and is really bad overall (of course people have preferences and it depends on content). Its hard to imagine that you can swap the factory tuned speakers with entirely different speakers and then an audio mode (tuned for factory speakers) makes it sound best. Very fishy indeed...I could be wrong though.

ECM

My car has the Burmester, however, I find its sound extremely honky in the midrange. Would changing out the tweeters alleviate this? What's their high pass filter crossover frequency and slope?

12v Nick

First off, thanks for taking the time to share all your thoughts and reference your experience in high-end audio to validate your opinion. Seriously, it's appreciated. Secondly, I agree with a lot of your points, but not all of them.

You're right, to have the best sonic results possible you need to control the environment, locations, and the gear. As great as it would be, we just don't have that luxury in an automotive environment. We're doing the best we can with the cards we're dealt and the budget we have to work with. If you have $30-50k to allot to your car audio system we can change a whole lot about all of those thing, but that's just not realistic for everyone. The whole concept of this modification was to improve your daily satisfaction with the sound system in your car in a way that makes sense – to us, this makes perfect sense.

The tweeters are the weakest point of the entire sound system in the 991 and replacing them with a suitable upgrade was a great way to improve the top end resolution and overall performance. I highlight the word suitable to reference your comment about getting "weird and unpredictable" results from changing the tweeters in a "factory-tuned" audio system. Well, I think you're giving Bose WAY too much credit for tuning the system perfectly to the car, and the argument is really invalid when it comes to the automotive aftermarket world. Porsche, just like every manufacturer, has limitations on what they can do out of the gate to keep the car and options at a certain price point. I know lots of 991 owners that have switched their tires out for better performance in the corners. They haven't re-tuned their car but somehow get better performance. It's the quality and the composition on the equipment that gives us the improved results.

By the way, it's not like there wasn't any testing done. We went through a number of tweeters to find the right match for that location and factory sound system. The Dynaudio drivers end up being a great improvement due to a number of reasons. For starters, the dome material is much better. Low quality materials can mask a lot of the detail in the music and limit the resolution. The diaphragm is also about 50% larger than the original tweeters, allowing us to hear more information in the lower spectrum of the tweeter frequencies and giving us more sound from the highest point in the car, ultimately raising the sound stage. Lastly, the new tweeters are actually slightly less efficient than the Bose versions. That means that the tweeters are now attenuated and more "balanced" with the rest of the speakers in the car.

The tweeters were originally designed for the 991.1 with Bose, but we've had improved results from every platform we've tested with including Sound Package Plus and Burmester cars from both the 991.1 and 991.2 system – Even the Macan, Cayenne and Boxster/Caymans benefit from the upgrade. They're all slightly different in the results, but nonetheless a noteworthy improvement. Don't get me wrong, this sin't a magical fix to instantly convert the system into a reference level audio system, just a more livable daily experience.

At the end of the day, we've built over 200 sets of these for Porsche owners across the globe and only had one client that didn't get the results they were hoping for, and that was a simple misinterpretation of what to expect(wanted brighter highs). Still skeptical? Buy a set. You don't like them, I'll buy 'em back from you!

–Nick


The tweeters won't really help with the "honkiness" in the midrange, unfortunately. The midrange provision in the 991 is actually a tiny sealed enclosure, and I've noticed that on certain songs the Burmester midrange will actually hit the resonant frequency of that chamber and cause that over-emphasis in the midrange. Never tried it, but you might get better results by drilling a couple 1/2" holes in the back of that chamber to change the resonant properties.

All that said, the tweeters would still improve the sound, just not in that particular category. Oh, and in most cases we're using a 6db/octave HP filter @ 6,000Hz.

–Nick

minthral

Fair enough. Wasn't aware that more went into choosing the speaker. Normally DYI people just slap something on. Still not clear if your testing was for the system in a 991.2.

Need4S

Do the same plates and tweeters fit the 2017 Macan Bose system? I seem to recall seeing it, but this thread has 565 posts and the search didn't really reveal it.

12v Nick

I understand – there's a lot of throwing spaghetti at the wall in hopes that something will stock.

Initial testing was for the 991.1, but when the 991.2 was released we tested the solution in there and had the same great improvement. In fact, they do a little better in the 991.2 since there's a dedicated amp channel with more power.

They do. The Macan takes a little more work on the install since there's a small piece inside the dash mount that has to be cut away. That said, they don't need the upgraded grilles so it's only $595 shipped for that kit.

flsupraguy

I have a "base" stereo in my 2017 GTS. Can I still use this to upgrade just the front speakers? Thanks.

12v Nick

They've been tested with Base Stereo and make a notable improvement in the audio quality. Let me know if you need a set! nick.akin@musicarnw.com

flsupraguy

Emailed you Nick. Thanks!