billp16

I have a 2008 997.1 CS2 with optional Bose system and single CD player. I had the dealer install the OEM accessory last year (way $$$) to plug my iPhone or iPod in for music through the system (through a cable in the headphone jack, not Bluetooth).
It recently occurred to me that all of those speakers around the interior are probably designed to work in a multi-channel, 5.1-type audio environment, far beyond the simple two channel, left and right outputs from an iPhone.
Am I really missing out on great audio sounds because of this? I gather from the various threads that there are several system upgrades to get backup camera and navigation abilities, as well as contemporary Alpine and Kenwood systems in the 997.1, but do they take advantage of this multi-channel audio capability?
Thanks!

ADias

"... There was a time when “sports car” meant a car designed for sport, that is, a car whose primary, and often singular purpose was the sport of driving. Carrying groceries or kids was secondary, and the idea of integrating a purpose-built receptacle for your beverage would have been laughed at.
Over the years the sports car has evolved, or more accurately, devolved, into a comically over-engineered, overweight, luxury status symbol whose list of design goals place things like iPhone connectivity and multi-zone air conditioning systems above driving pleasure. Hence why so many of us have turned to vintage cars to get our excitement out of driving. How else are you going to feel connected with the road, the car, and the elements? Some of us still enjoy the sense of danger that comes with pushing a purely mechanical object to its limits and those of our own. ..." in Petrolicious - click for the reference article.

billp16

Which is why I ask this question after driving this car for the last two years. I prefer the sound of th carnever use the radio. However, my wife and I drove the Skyline Drive last weekend and she asked about it. And it got me thinking how this digital music thing may have made all of these multi-speaker systems a thing of the past, kind of like radar detectors as so many cars have side scanning lane scanners, etc.
I looked at the PCM manual for the first time this morning and it made me want to take this all out of the car, as it is so full of technology that is all but gone.

ADias

My point is not "technology that is all but gone". It is too many gizmos with no place in a sports car.

Side note: Radar detectors still work with lane change scanners... they just need to be updated.

dasams

In order to have great sound, the auto must first have great sound insulation. And since this adds weight, Porsche chose to use a minimal amount in the 911. Having said that, great sound can be had when the car is parked and the battery tender plugged in. This is how I listened to the Grateful Dead shows from Soldier Field via Sirius/XM

Bruce In Philly

What PCM system did they install in your car? PCM 2 or 3.

I have 3 in my 2009 and it decodes 5.1 DVD audio among others. I think 5.1, given good source material, sounds pretty darn good in the car. The amp in general is not a good one and sounds hard and transistor-like, but good 5.1 can sound amazing.

One of the big challenges is finding good 5.1 DVD A. There are other 5.1 formats that this will not play so it has to be DVD Audio (or awful DTS, keep reading..). The used prices of the hottest (coolest sounding DVD A 5.1) that are out of print are going for astronomical prices. If you are into downloading bit-for-bit copies of out-of-print titles, you can find them out there but you will need DVD authoring software and a DVD A burner to turn them back into DVD A discs.

I tried to improve the sound of my system by replacing all drivers with Focal drivers and it did improve the sound a bit... it was also a big project as I had to use a Dremel and make brackets etc.... but the biggest bang for improving sound is replacing the whole sucky head unit. But..... when you do that, you will lose the 5.1.... and I have yet to pull the trigger on that one. A friend has a 2009 like mine and he just replaced the head unit with an Alpine and left the speakers alone... wow, way better than mine where I replaced the speakers. I now have first had experience and can say flatly that if you want to improve the sound quality, keep the factory speakers and install a new head unit and don't do what I did in keeping the head unit and replacing the speakers (common ignorance of audio systems is that people think the speakers make the sound, therefore better speakers will equal better sound.... nope sorry, doesn't always work that way.) If you have Sport Chrono, you will lose some of the comfort feature settings that appear in the PCM system menus with an aftermarket head unit. Not so if you don't have Sport Chrono.

Anyway, the owners manual of the unit they installed will tell you what formats they support so check it out and report back. By the way, the PCM 3 supports DTS (Digital Theater Sound) which is a multichannel format but the sound quality is really poor. I have some of Paul McCartney disks done in DTS and while they are 5.1 and create crazy sounds all around you, the sound quality is really poor sounding like you are listening to speakers 20 feet away from you.

The coolest sounding DVD As include Queen A Night at the Opera and the Doors box collection.

If you are serious about this.... and I mean serious as this is a technical journey, PM me and I can help... but only if you are a geek and can tackle hard to use authoring software.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

JCGMS

I would hate to be all trapped like that and have to listen to Phil singing, much less on the awful compressed XM feed.

Bruce In Philly

I violently agree that XM quality is poor.... but I listen to it quite often. The programing is the best going as radio sucks now that the FCC allows a few big companies to own many stations. They drove the diversity out. XM is the only place unless you are into internet radio and again, sound quality sucks worse than XM and I can't get it in my car anyway.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

JCGMS

To my untrained ears internet radio (KEXP app at 128 Kbps) or Spotify (on highest settings) both sound much better than XM, which often has a tinny compressed sound to it. That being said I don't ask for much from my stereo considering the compromised environment it's been placed in.

billp16

Thanks, Bruce. You answered my question.. 5.1 is what I thought it was in this car. Dumbing it down to two channels from an iPhone is not very good.

tritonic

I think you've got it wrong. You *may* have 5.1 in the car. The ONLY way to take advantage of this is with special DVD-A discs which are rare / expensive (or you know how to illegally reproduce).

The large majority of albums only exist in stereo so you could only take advantage of the 5.1 on a few like the Queen album listed above.

ru'

PCM3 can "create" 5.1 surround from stereo. Obviously it's a just digital effect, but will use all of the loudspeakers if you really want it to; check the settings.

tritonic

My understanding is all the 997.1's came with PCM 2.0. Only the 997.2 (2009+) came with PCM 3.0. A whole bunch of speakers or Bose doesn't indicate PCM 3.0. Is this correct?