Deezenuts

I have the bose and I think not acceptable for a 100k car

I had a way better sound system I put together myself in a 88 mustang 20 yrs ago

I did add the sub woofer in the bose that helped but my plans are to gut the whole system and add this

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500INEZ...0957705&awdv=c

flyfisher

Among audiophiles Bose is considered a joke. They market to gullible, afflluent consumers who know nothing about audio, and think that Bose makes a good product. Everything they make is a gimmick. And expensive. Wave systems, Lifestyle systems, etc., they cost a lot an don't do much. So I didn't expect too much from a Bose automotive product. We have the Bose in our CD and it sounds okay, but we're not audiophiles. Is it worth the option price? Only you can decide. But with the quality audio solutions available today I can't see why Porsche decided to use Bose. I guess they didn't want a lesser system to compete with the Burmester.

grohgreg

Maybe in a 957, but no so in a 958. The MOST system is so intertwined with the rest of the PCM and CAN that aftermarket systems are both difficult and expensive to install. The answer is to get the best OE system that you can afford. Relative to your "mass" issue, it appears you were not impressed that the Cayenne is lighter than the X5 or the ML. Probably others as well, but those are the two biggest competitors in that market. If that doesn't satisfy you, the solution is simple; trade up to a 958. If you don't want to buy new, the number of CPOs is increasing daily.
See above. That said, the Harmon Kardon Logic-7 system in my E-class sounded better than this Bose in my Cayenne. But that may have something to do with interior acoustics. Specifically; filling a SUV-sized interior versus filling a sedan-sized interior.

//greg//

dryadsdad

I am impressed. What I don't see is a reason to cease continual improvement in that direction, that's all.

996FLT6

Drive my 6 for one hr then drive my wife's pepper thereafter Bose sounds awesome!!! Hahahaha. Mike

DWPC

Mediocre components don't magically become quality when bolted into a Porsche. If Porsche picked tires the way they picked the nav/audio system, they'd be sued into bankruptcy by survivors.

modifier

Dude. All I'm asking for is to listen to NPR without speakers sounding like they are broken and low voices sounding like a ghetto blaster with the base turned all the way up. I don't think I am being unreasonable.

CaptJim

I will try. Are you listening to NPR via satellite radio, or an AM radio station. Maybe you are simply dealing with an Amplitude Modulation issue. In the old days of analog station tuning you used to be able to adjust just a little to change the modulation. You could be having some simple analog to digital conversion issues in the radio itself listening to NPR via AM station?

dryadsdad

It's a reasonable request which is why I said to do that test to assist the dealer in rectifying the problem. I think you have a defect rather than a design issue.

RacerX5

Agreed.

My 2004 G35 came with a Bose system. Ultimately I replaced everything but the head unit, and the improvement is amazing.

I replaced the door speakers with top of the line MB Quarts. When you hold a BOSE system speaker in your hands, and compare it to a high end component, you will understand why the Bose sound like crap. Paper cones, and light weight magnets. Just cheap ****. One other thing that made another big improvement in sound was that since I had the doors apart anyway, I lined all the doors with Dynamat. I used an MB Quart component set that came with a crossover and a separate tweeter. For my rear doors, there was no location for a separate tweeter, so I used MB Quarts middle line that has a tweeter that can mount separately or in the middle of the driver. For the sub, I used a JL W7, and lined the trunk with Dynamat. Later, I upgraded from the factory 5 channel Bose amp to a pair of 300w JL amps. I know I could gain even more sound quality by changing the head unit, but integrating everything (steering wheel controls, NAV voice etc) is very tricky, and not too cheap. I could also gain more by lining the roof and floor with Dynamat...but both jobs are a major PITA. Not to mention that the car sounds amazing already, so I stopped there.

Before you think about replacing the door speakers, just check the Ohms, and depth and make sure you buy speakers that will fit, and are designed for the impedance the system puts out. As mentioned before, brands like Focal, MB Quart, JL, Alpine will put you into another category. Also, when installing new speakers, forget the factory wiring harness; run high quality heavy speaker wire from the amp to the speakers. If you think you may want to change the amp out, figure where the new amp(s) will go, and allow the needed extra wire when you do the speakers. Keep in mind that car amps have shrunk dramatically in the last few years. Dynamat the outer skins of the doors, and the speaker opening in the sheetmetal.

There are no shortage of high end car audio shops that could do this kind of work, but it does not come cheap. A pair of high end components for the front doors could be $750 or more. You can do this in stages, and doing the door speakers is probably the most DIY part of the job, and it may satisfy your complaints. Swapping just the front door speakers would make the most dramatic change. And as previously mentioned, Best Buy is absolutely not the place to go for work on a Porsche, and I don't think the sell too much high quality gear either.

philg3

Very good advice / guidance. It's hard for some of us to trust our Porsche dealer(s) to properly train / supervise their service personnel, let alone trust a sound store that probably has never worked on a Cayenne to do the job right. Might be hard to find a good place to do the mods.

The point is that for the BOSE upgrade (about $2K), it should sound $2K better, and it doesn't. The BOSE should be standard -- like it was on all the US 955's when they were introduced in 2003, because the BOSE sounds like a standard sound system with a 5 out of 10 rating, and then have a $2K option to boost the performance to a 7-8 out of 10. Many of us want factory installed systems.

In the home it's different, because most components plug into the wall and use interconnects; don't have to tear doors apart, or figure out how to get from the speaker to the amp. In my home I have a Meridian digital system, that is fairly complex, but it's workable with some knowledge, research, and experience. And I'm not dealing with a MOST architecture, that can mess something else up.

modifier

I have already been to the dealer service center with the problem. They found nothing wrong. If I had to try and reproduce it by finding it on CDs that could take weeks of trial and error listening to something I have no interest in. Ain't nobody got time for that. They used a sound generator that is designed to find such problems. Purportedly.

CaptJim, I'm listening to NPR on broadcast FM. Like I always do. My cheap as' 2001 Honda Accord has no troubles like this with it's stock system, on the same station.

gnat

But different cars have different antenna configurations and that will make a massive difference in quality and can cause issues like you are describing. The 996, for example, has it built into the windshield and is so horrible I didn't even bother connecting it the last time I had the head unit out for something.

Other than accidentally getting flipped over to the radio I haven't used OTA in the Cayenne so I can't speak to it's quality.

Any chance you have the ability to record a day of NPR at home and burn it to CDs or put it on an iPod or USB stick?

Sound and tone generators can find some problems, but more often than not I've seem them give false "OK" results when there are actually problems. Part of this has to do with where the problem might be (e.g. bad/crappy antenna, bad usb/aux interface, bad CD drive, etc..) vs how it was tested (e.g. aux in, cd, etc..).

It's true that you should be able to take the car in, say "I have a problem, fix it", and expect that they do what needs to be done to fix it. Unfortunately there are lots of reasons that doesn't happen so the more specific you can be, the easier it makes their job, and the more likely your problem can be fixed. This is even more true of the random/intermittent issues that they have little or no hope of experiencing themselves.

modifier

When I changed out the windscreen in my Audi the reception of the in screen antenna went from great to mediocre. I had problems with the Cayenne's windscreen electric heater and they changed out the windscreen. My reception went from great to OK. Not as drastic as the Audi but still not as good. I get twice as many stations in they Cayenne as I have ever heard. Before transplant it was that way all over town, now it only that way on the west side of town, On the east side I loose a few of them. I guess that could be related since I didn't notice this issue until after the screen was replaced. But try and tell that to Porsche. I doubt they can hook up a machine and get a read out for that.

dryadsdad

I doubt there is a performance claim on antennas.