BimPorDoug

I've only had my 997.2 for a little less than a year. I don't drive it as much as I'd like to. I'm still sorting out the PCM 3 Bose Stereo. When I first got the car it sounded TERRIBLE. I've never been a fan of Bose audio. I've been a Stereophile subscriber for a long time and I've NEVER seen a recommended Bose component. To me that says something.

I did a Factory Reset to the system and it cleaned it up a lot, turns out 3D Surround or some such was turned on and making the sound like it was in a cave. More playing around resulted in turning off "Linear" and "AudioPilot". The sound kept improving.

I discovered something old school cool. I've had iPods for a LONG time. The "Enhanced" Gen 5 (aka Gen 5.5) click wheel iPod Classic has a Wolfson DAC chip in it and sounds pretty good, especially "lossless" files. The 80 GB version is MA448LL/A and is circa 2005. I found a cable for it on a popular auction site. It has Porsche part number 000 044 901 78. I took a chance and purchased it. There's the OLD 30 pin iPod male "Dock" connector on one end and a 15 pin round serial connector on the other. The round one fits the "iPod" connector in the console of my 2010 997.2 C2S and the dock connector goes into the iPod. When connected it's just plug n play, ALL the controlling of the iPod is done through the PCM 3. The iPod screen comes up with a Porsche logo. Old school cool! When all the Bose Bogus Nannies are switched off and the iPod allowed to just play, the sound is finally to my liking - and more importantly, "acceptable" to my wife. I had to knock the treble down a notch or two (still too tinny for these old ears), but left the bass alone. Granted, it doesn't sound as good as the system in a 992 I once drove, but it'll do.

I had a hard time finding the iPod source input at first. I seem to recall I had to wake it up by inserting a CD into the PCM. Something else I found was that my mix CDs are not recognized by the PCM, only store bought CDs. No biggie because nearly all my mix CDs also exist as playlists on the iPod. I haven't tried a SACD or Audio DVD yet. So what does one connect a Gen 5.5 iPod classic to? An old Mac, in my case a refurbished Mini that's about as old as the 997.

I suspect that most any 997 with a PCM 3 and the round serial "iPod" connector in the console will work with this cable and click wheel iPod classics that have the 30 pin "dock" connector. This will include some of the early iPod touches too. My wife has a Gen 2 or 3 touch with a dock connector. I'll need to try it. One thing of note is that when the iPod is connected, it's also receiving power from the PCM and charging. So no anxiety about running down the battery in the iPod.

All this might be "Old Hat" to someone that bought their 997 new and still has an old iPod, but I'll bet owners like that are few.

Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S 200K miles

Some more tips besides turning off all the Bose enhancement crap...

The system will remember your tone control settings for each input so you will have to duplicate your efforts for each. This is actually one of the good features of this system.

I know nothing of Apple products because back in the early days of digital, Apple forced you into their proprietary file types and these were lossy. They would then state how great it all sounded. For a company and cult that built its brand on breaking the proprietary bonds of IBM, they behaved exactly the same way. Meanwhile, I started a seminal thread on the then-new Stereophile forum hacking Windows 7 to pass pure bit-for-bit streams to your outboard DAC. You could do it, but you needed to delete many Windows kernel files and make other configuration changes... this resulted in wonderful sound but a PC that was pretty much dedicated to only music listening. Anywho, that experience pretty much soured me to Apple and seeing their fans as a cult.

Instead of dicking with your iPod, you can just copy files to a USB stick which works really well. It will not play WAVs or some other types but will play MP3 320 files. Yes, MP3 are lossy, but if you rip them using a high quality codec like LAME, it is actually pretty good. If you organize your files on the USB stick with some thought, the Bose system actually makes finding and playing large libraries very easy.

Read more about MP3/USB playback here:
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...usb-drive.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...-and-pcm3.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...c2s-flaky.html

Try DVD A - wow, this is actually pretty cool. For some crazy reason, Porsche product planners thought putting in 5.1 channel DVD A is desired... I don't think anyone uses it but me. Try any DVD in your car... the audio is fantastic... well at least Bose good... You have to go into the menus once it starts to play and select the 5.1 stream... here it is cryptic and you must trust your ears to find it.... maybe not a Bose issue but more like how the DVDs were authored but it is worth the effort. I was just playing the movie DVD of West Side Story in the car... wow... too much dialog as it is the movie but the music and sound quality is pretty darn good.

Read more DVD A stuff here: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...-surround.html

BTW, audiophiles don't like Bose anything because their products generally are not HI-FI, although their marketing engine denotes so... it is this lying that really turns us off from Bose. However, for cheap stuff, their products are not all that bad... not great or even sometimes good, but better than most cheapie stuff out there.

Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

BimPorDoug

Thanks for the tips on DVD-A. I'll need to see if I can find a couple on fleaBay at least to try.

I don't mind using the iPod. Apple M4A files are pretty compressed, but I feel they're better than MP3's. Apple "lossless" files are only compressed 2:1 and sound decent but need to be curated as such when building an iMusic library. As you might guess they take up a lot more space. Surprisingly when I read articles in Stereophile, the editors invariably use Apple computers to feed files to their DACs. I think it's because Apple had the foresight to allow digital feeds of the files directly to their ports (from iMusic & iTunes) allowing users to use their own DACs. I'm wondering if there's a DAC in the PCM 3 and it takes a digital stream from the iPod or if all it does is stream the audio (post DAC) from the iPod. If the latter is the case, then using the Gen 5.5 Classic with the Wolfson chip will result in pretty good audio, as you say: "for a Bose system". I agree that it's audio for masses and not intended for audiophiles. If you're the latter and wealthy, order a 992 with the Burmeister option.

I have a Gen 6 iPod touch and I plug in the three-way photo adapter (Apple PN A1619). One side gets power from a lightning connector (thru the USB port) and the other is USB-A that feeds a digital stream directly into a Dragonfly DAC. There are now dozens of imitations of that DAC. That then has a 4mm jack that can be used to feed the Aux port in the console, or headphones. Using that set-up really boosts the volume and the Dragonfly produces pretty decent audio.

Another thing my PCM 3 came with is XM Serius. I've kept my account open with them and will need to try it in the car. I run it thru a BlueOS Node in the house.

Don't dis Apple for forcing you to use their format for audio files. Google channld Pure Music. I think you'll be surprised. At this point this is old school and had been replaced by Roon and high-end streaming services like Tidal & Qobuz. Newer Porsches will likely stream those.

BimPorDoug

I went looking on a popular auction site for DVD-A and DAD 5.1 "audiophile discs. They are HARD to find and were produced mainly for audiophiles back in mid-aughts. When you do find ones in good / new condition, they are NOT cheap. One other thing I might try is a Super Audio disc in the PCM. Those are MUCH easier to find (but expensive). I have a couple to try. Will post back with my findings.

jayzbird

You can use a 30-pin to lightning adapter to connect up a newer iPhone. Not sure about the newest usb-c ones. Also, the PCM3 dvd will read cd-r and dvd-r burned disks. The latter will hold about 50 albums. If you add a usb hub, you can do the phone/iPod, disk and a memory stick. Get a fast memory stick since it indexes it every startup, and can be painfully slow with a large slow one.

997.2GTS

If you still seek a DVD-A, I recommend Blue Man Group as being one of the best test discs I have used. My Acura played DVD-A so I ended up with a few discs, and by far the BMG one was the called-on demo. I would not expect earth-shattering results over CD, the system is BOSE-compromised, although it can be slightly de-BOSEd.

BimPorDoug

I tried some discs I burned with my Mac Mini and the PCM 3 would not lite them up. I put in a commercially produced disk and it worked fine. Maybe now that I woke it up I might try one of my "mix discs" again. I like the comment about de-bose-ing. It's a matter of picking the right settings. I CANNOT wrap my head around how someone could think the Bose 3D surround sound is a good thing. I typically don't use memory sticks. The vintage iPods will be OK for us boomers with old toys. We're planning a 1,600 mile road trip so tunes are essential.

jayzbird

Reading data dvd/cdr definitely works on my 2010. I wonder if it makes a difference if you have Nav (mine does) since it has to read data dvds for updates.