12v Nick

*** THIS GROUP BUY IS CLOSED. ORDERS CAN STILL BE PLACED WITH A 1-2 WEEK LEAD TIME. FOR MORE INFO, SEND EMAIL TO: porsche.audio@musicarnw.com ***

*** THIS GROUP BUY IS CLOSED. ORDERS CAN STILL BE PLACED WITH A 1-2 WEEK LEAD TIME. FOR MORE INFO, SEND EMAIL TO: porsche.audio@musicarnw.com ***

The time has finally come — we've just finished the final development on our performance audio system upgrades for the BOSE-equipped 992 platforms. If you're not familiar with our outfit, we specialize in designing high-quality, plug and play sound system upgrades for late-model Porsches. No holes drilled, no wires cut. The installation can be done in a few hours as a DIY project or handled by a local audio shop. This group buy will run through the middle of December and orders will ship by the end of the year(barring any unforeseen supply issues). We're not going to put a limit on the number of orders, but at a certain point we will update with a second phase if shipping all orders in the allotted time becomes unrealistic. That said, here's the info on what we're offering for the BOSE 992:

STAGE ONE

HIGH-END TWEETER UPGRADE

When designing these upgrades, we're evaluating the weakest points in the factory system and developing strategies to make improvements in the most problematic areas first. In the 991, this was the tweeters, and the 992 doesn't stray from that shortcoming. Due to their low-quality composition and small diaphragm, the factory Bose tweeters sound tinny and harsh — especially at higher volumes. We can turn the treble down in the PCM, but at that point you're also muting the top end information and sacrificing resolution.

Replacing these tweeters with a higher-quality driver allows for a more enjoyable listening experience at all volumes. The larger(28mm) soft-dome diaphragm of the Morel Elate Carbon tweeter has a much more linear response curve, yielding a more natural sound. We are also installing a less efficient driver, so it's actually a bit less output at the same volume. This reveals more of the bass and midrange for a balanced listening experience. That said, this isn't going to net us an "audiophile-like" experience from the Bose system. We're still using factory power and all of the other original speakers. If your main complaint on the Bose is the overly-bright top end, this is the perfect solution.

Of course, we're engineered the retrofit to be a drop-in, plug-n-play installation. The factory Bose tweeter mount does need to be clipped out to allow for the Burmester style mounting solution we implement, but the car can still easily revert to factory with our adapters(sold separately). The install is fairly simple and takes roughly 45min per side if you're taking your time.

STAGE ONE PLUS

ACOUSTIC TREATMENT / SOUND DAMPING

The acoustic environment is an important element in a car audio system, and before we get into upgrading the processing and power, we should make sure the larger speakers have a more optimum enclosure. Damping the door cavities does a few things for us. Number one, it adds mass and lowers the resonant properties. This helps improve the bass response of the speakers by reducing the amount of energy loss in lower bass notes. If the door vibrates when a lower note is played it actually absorbs and cancels out part of that sound wave instead of reflecting it, resulting in bass loss. This also works from the exterior in, suppressing road noise entering the cabin through the doors.

On top of that, we use a material called SoundShield that not only adds mass, but also has a closed-cell foam to isolate the panels from each-other. This means less rattles and audible vibrations in the doors. All of our damping materials are pre-cut for the 992 doors, so all you have to do is clean the surfaces with alcohol and peel/stick the media in it's respective location!

STAGE TWO

PREMIUM DSP AMPLIFIER

The single biggest improvement we can make in this system comes from power and processing. The original BOSE amplifier is underpowered and under-processed. The DSP(digital signal processor) inside that amp just isn't powerful enough to equalize each speaker independently with the precision needed to correct their response in the car. On top of that, they try to create an equal experience for both driver and passenger, which means there's no true optimization available for the driver. By replacing the original amplifier with our well-tuned DSP amplifier, we're effectively doubling the power and improving the processing power ten fold.

More power means better dynamics — Dynamics are responsible for our ears perception of amplitude. If we look at the strike of a snare drum in a response chart, it starts with a loud, impactful strike and then trails off on the tail end. The same is true for every percussive note and most instruments in general. Vocals often also fluctuate in amplitude depending on the inflection and tenor. Without proper power, the initial impact of the notes isn't much greater than the resonance they leave behind. That's why the BOSE system fails to invoke an emotional reaction, even to well-recorded music. With 75 watts to each midrange/tweeter and 180 watts to each door woofer, this upgraded amp has plenty of room in the tank to resolve those notes with the tenacity the recording intended for you to experience.

That said, power without control is a recipe for questionable results. Having a powerful DSP chipset within the amp allows us to equalize each speakers response to compensate for their shortcomings and that of the car's acoustics. Using a special microphone, we measure the response of each speaker at the listening position. With those measurements we can adjust the equalizer of every speaker in the car to get the most accurate response the system is capable of. We can also delay each speakers arrive by milliseconds, which aligns their phase perfectly at your headrest. That yields a true stereo presentation on the dash and a sense of imaging — the audible/visual mind-trick of placing the vocals and instruments on the stage in front of us.

All of this comes together for a sound that's more impactful, resolute, detailed, and emotionally captivating than the BOSE could ever accomplish.

Our new amplifier installs under the passenger floorboard in the same position as the OEM amp. It's a bolt-in plug-n-play setup that requires no running of wires or cables. On the board with the amplifier is a fiber-optic interface that converts the factory MOST150 signal to a usable toslink digital output that our new amplifier can use. Because of this, we do lose fade, but not balance.

STAGE THREE

HIGH-END FRONT STAGE COMPONENTS

Now that we've handled the tweeters, damping and power/processing sections, it's time to improve our overall response by replacing the other core speakers responsible for the sound we hear — the midrange and woofers in the door.

The midrange speaker is arguably the most important in the whole system. Our ears are most sensitive to this range of frequencies when it comes to the discernible sound quality in a system. In the Stage Three configuration, we upgrade that to a carbon-kevlar version from Morel of Israel's Elate series. That speaker maintains a much more linear response than the factory versions, so we get a more detailed and natural sound without having to apply as much processing. The result is a warmer and more full-bodied sound. Building on these principles, we also upgrade the 8" door woofers to 9" carbon-kevlars from Morel. These have been custom-designed to take full-advantage of the available power from the amplifier, and the results are a more textured and detailed bass response. We can truly hear the lighter plucks of the bass guitar and the subtleties in the lower vocal range.

Just like everything else up to this point, these are designed to utilize factory hardware and locations as well as direct-fit wiring harnesses. True plug and play.

*** NOTE *** These speakers are still in development and may be changing in the near future. If that happens, the pricing will remain unchanged for the group buy but might increase in the future depending on the final design.

PRICING

GROUP BUY DETAILS

This pricing will be available through 12/15/22 and orders placed before 11/30 are expected to ship before the end of the year. Here is a detailed list of the pricing and what's included:

STAGE ONE | $679

• High-End Tweeter Upgrade

STAGE ONE PLUS | $995

• High-End Tweeter Upgrade
• Acoustic Treatment for Doors

STAGE TWO | $3,795

• High-End Tweeter Upgrade
• Acoustic Treatment for Doors
• Premium DSP Amplifier

STAGE THREE | $6,295

• High-End Tweeter Upgrade
• Acoustic Treatment for Doors
• Premium DSP Amplifier
• High-End Midrange Drivers
• High-End 9 inch Woofers

*** HOW: To secure a spot in the group buy, we're asking for a 50% deposit. Please send me a PM here or an email at musicarnw@gmail.com to start that process. If you have questions about the solutions or the group buy, PLEASE ask them here. There's a good chance your question will help others and save me some time responding to multiple PM's for the same inquiry.

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We also have this setup available for the Macan platform, so if you're interested in that I'll be cross-posting the link to that thread next week when I make the announcement.


-Nick

Jbravo23

Awesome! Will there be instructions on how to remove trim, paneling etc?

12v Nick

Absolutely. I have all the photos of the process and I’ll have a post here detailing all of that out. It’s a very simple process for everything and shouldn’t take more than about 4 hours for Stage Two/Three.

AlterZgo

I've been looking forward to this for a while. I have a Musicar level 3 systems w/ subwoofer in my F80 M3 and it's been running trouble free for over 7 yrs!

I have a few questions for what you're offering for the 992:

1. How does the stage 2 or stage 3 systems compare to Porsche's Burmester in terms of bass output and overall sound quality? I picked Bose hoping there would be a better aftermarket upgrade path that provided better SQ than Burmester... did I make the right decision?

2. Is there a significant difference btw stage 2 and stage 3 systems in terms of bass performance - both how deep and how loud it gets? Or is it really just a more refined sound with stage 3?

3. If I get the stage 3 system, would it still be available before year end? If not, when do you anticipate the prototype speakers being available?

4. If I get the stage 2 system now, is there an upgrade path to add the stage 3 speakers later? Would I have to ship the amp/DSP back to you to tune for the stage 3 speakers?

5. Can you recommend an installer in the greater Phoenix AZ area? Preferably in the East Valley (Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale)?

Thanks Nick!

acr89

Will you be offering any improvement packages for Burmester?

Dr. G

@12v Nick I’m in. Email sent.

Stoney901

Anything in the works for the Base system since you cannot option a Bose in a base Carrera?

Kram

Just to get an idea, those of you opting for one of these upgrades, which stage are you considering and why? I think I'm going to head with stage 1+ as for me it seems less strenuous to upgrade at a fair price point. Looking forward to your responses!

OliverK68

Hi Nick, do you ship to Canada?.

aquatone

Ditto for me. Would be interested if a competent installer in AZ could be recommended.

GT3Laguna

Nick,

I'm in! I'm going with just the tweeters for my GT3 to start, so Stage One. I will send you an email. I'll likely upgrade to Stage 2 or 3 at some point, but can't decide right now which way on that front and would like to hear the system with just the tweeters first anyway. I know we emailed back and forth a little bit before, but I'll ask here some of the questions I asked you there (and comment) because, as you said, others may be curious too:

• I'm curious what kind of sound difference there is between the Dynaudio and Morel (specifically for the dash tweeters)? I did your tweeter upgrade on two 991's with Bose before. What a difference that made. It was astonishing to me how big an improvement just two dash tweeters made to the overall sound quality. As much as your workmanship, packaging, and help is great, I'm sure you'll be the first to concede that a large part of the sound improvement is the driver itself. How are the Morels different/better, because I loved those Dynaudios.
• No giant surprise that the Bose system seems to start breaking up and distorting, or at least starts to sound pretty muddled, at higher volumes. I'll call it volume at 33 or so and above, at least on my car. It's seems to happen at too low a volume. What's causing this? Normally I'd blame this on a crappy and/or under powered amp, but - as much as I'm sure the amp is not great, it doesn't sound like that's what it is to me. What's interesting is with the stock Bose in the 991 I don't recall this happening. You seemed to already answer my question about what I'll call impedance mismatch concerns. Sounds like you think the stock Bose tweeters are not only crap : ) but also set up too bright/loud. So you've effectively turned down the new tweeters (less efficient). But would you say that higher volume muddled sound I hear is more the tweeter or the mid in the door? I suspect tweeter and you said tinny and harsh, so would you say the new tweeter (mostly) solves this? This is important Nick. With the windows down, and the GT3 engine roaring I still want to hear my music!
• What are your recommended settings for the Bose System? First stock (until the tweeters get here), and then with the new Morel tweeters? I find I like the sound best with all the Bose sound settings off (Linear not checked either), and with just +1 on Base.

Thanks!

A little context for those who are curious: I'm a track guy, who happens to drive his car as a daily (13K miles and multiple track days already in my 2022 GT3 Touring). And a lot of window down driving here in SoCal. So drive feel/engagement/fast turns is #1, but I love listening to music when I drive. I fully acknowledge that a GT3 is not the place to aim for audiophile sound. Especially listening to Sirius and Apple Music as I do. BUT I disagree with those who say you can't hear - and enjoy - a better sounding audio system. And, while sacrilege for some, I thought the GT3 was too loud inside going 85 down the freeway (particularly the drone), so I already had full sound deadening installed throughout the car. And thus I have a more music friendly environment (and one that highlights the Bose's shortcomings more readily).

ecpchris

Is it possible to only purchase the precut sound dampening?

Rxpert

Very excited, I’ve been looking forward to this post!!! I have a couple of questions as well & some have been asked by other members:

1) Will you ship to Canada?

2) Your thoughts on Dynaudio vs Morel? I always thought Dynaudio was top of the line for car audio, but have they been passed by Morel now or was it a cost factor to go with them?

3) I have a GT3 and am concerned about the added weight of sound deadening. I know it won’t sound as good, but would you sell a Stage 2 or Stage 3 kit without the SoundShield?

4) If I go with a Stage 2 now, will you have an option to purchase the Stage 3 drivers in the future and would the DSP unit need to be retuned for the different drivers?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Rxpert

If I buy a kit I’ll gladly sell you mine as I don’t want the sound deadening material at all. If Nick can’t accommodate our individual requests maybe we can work something out between us.

Jbravo23

stage 3. The Bose in the 992 to me is not as good as it was in the 991. I don’t like it at all.

Love the fact that it is plug and play. At this point the less hands touching the car the better. So it will be a nice weekend project. Not really concerned about the extra weight. Seems like it’s just the door cards and door. Anything that reduces potential rattles I’m ok with.