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Finally — Musicar Development for the Macan w/ BOSE
Hey folks!
If you've seen any of my posts in the other forum sections you know that Musicar has been building Porsche-specific plug-n-play audio upgrades for the past 7 years now. There's always been a good deal of interest in having us support the Macan since it seems to be the most daily-driven on the newer Porsche platforms. We already have the Stage One available(tweeter upgrade) and I know a good deal of you on here already have that installed. The BOSE system is by far the most commonly-spec'd and the configuration we see the most inquiries for, so that's where we're starting with the development process.
Later this month we'll be working with a '22 Macan with Bose. This is going to be for our Stage Two solution. If you're unfamiliar with our upgrade paths, that's going to include:
Premium Tweeter Replacement
Pre-Cut Acoustic Treatment for Doors
Audio Interface for BOSE® system
10-Channel Premium DSP Amplifier
The goals are in line with what we currently offer for the 911 and Cayman/Boxster — A healthy improvement to the detail, clarity, imaging, and dynamics of the sound system with a simple, non-invasive DIY installation that utilizes all factory locations. Everything we do is bolt-in and plug-n-play. No wires cut and no holes drilled. The feedback we've received from these systems in the other Porsches has been fantastic and the Macan has a lot of potential for being an even better platform, acoustically speaking.
Here are some photos of what that setup looks like in the 718 now:
I'll be keeping a log of our progress as we work through developing the mounting systems, wiring harnesses and tuning the sound processor for the Macan's acoustics. If all goes as planned we should have that process wrapped up by the end of the month. That puts production somewhere in the Late August/Early September timeframe.
I wanted to also use this post to gauge some pre-production interest and see who might want to get involved in one of these upgrades. We typically launch new applications with a group buy to help promote the new solution and help early adopters save some dollars on the inaugural build queue.
Let me know what you all think and what questions anyone has. Feel free to PM me with questions, but I encourage asking those publicly to help anyone else that might have the same query.
Looking forward to finally adding the Macan to the roster for our Stage Two systems!
Very interested in this! I have a Macan on order that will be here in September.
Glad to hear, and congrats on the incoming order! I'll keep the thread updated with our progress. Development car shows up on Monday!
Originally Posted by VAGfan
Price??
Tough to say where we'll be when we are still in pre-development, but the goal is to land somewhere close to our current Stage Two for the 718/911, which is $3,695 for the package(not installed).
Nick, do you guys sell the door insulation separately for those with Burmester in their Macan already?
We likely will, just like we have for the other platforms. I've received great feedback from fair amount of Burmester-equipped 718/991's that have done the "Stage One Plus" upgrade that includes tweeters and sound damping.
Originally Posted by ///Bruce
Why can I not find anything on this company or individual? Someone have anything to ensure we’re not getting ripped off for $3k?
Really? Not sure how your search came up empty considering Musicar's involvement in this forum specifically.
Our development car has finally arrived this week! She's a gorgeous Gentian Blue Macan S. I have to say, the bronze wheels really look great against this color and as much as I want to hate the gloss black interior panels, they sure look good clean!
Today was our first analytical day with the Macan. We started off by identifying channels, speaker impedance and electrical signals. We'll eventually be replacing the amplifier in this car, but for those interested in a Stage One(tweeters) or Stage One Plus(tweeters & damping), it's a good idea to know everything we can about the factory system. This also helps us strategize our upgrade path and determine where we have the most room for improvement. Not going to lie, the BOSE system doesn't completely suck in the Macan. It's marginally better than the Bose in a 911 and certainly better than the base stereo options. That said, they leave a lot of room for improvement in my opinion. Here are my thoughts after listening to the bone stock setup:
LISTENING
I always like to get a baseline on the factory systems performance, so I connected to CarPlay and listened to a few reference tracks I like to use that are available in Master quality on Tidal. I did all of this with the volume at about 65%, EQ flat, and all processing effects turned off. I did try using every one of the effects that Bose gives you and none of them(or any combination thereof) made a valuable improvement. In fact, they all seemed to make the performance notably worse. The most well-balanced response I experienced was with them all off — don't believe the hype on the "linear" option.
Watermelon Man Herbie Hancock
I chose a bit of a fun and quirky track to start off the evaluation. With a chaotic number of different instruments and effects playing simultaneously, this is a great recording to help determine how well a system presents the stereo image. We should be able to pinpoint the physical location of every different sound in the intro. I don't get any of that in the Macan's BOSE system. The imaging seems to be sucked to the far left and right extremes with only a bit of center info played directly in front of me, leaving a large gap across the right side of the stage. The instruments don't stand away from each other either which yields a smeared/homogenous sound that blends right in with the drum kit when it finally enters. It wasn't very fun listening past this point.
Line 'Em Up James Taylor
One of my favorite songs to listen to on a well-tuned system. The breathy male vocal over a romantic bassline mixes well with the subtly playful piano in the background. While I did get a decent presence from the vocals they didn't carry much body do it felt a bit boxy. This is also where I noticed the system seems to reproduce bass well but there's no life or presence to it. I was really hoping for more dynamics from a system with two 8" door woofers and a dedicated 8" subwoofer. No immediacy to the bass, just an anemic monotone note.
The Peppery Man Natalie Merchant
Another great recording for imaging, there are three male vocals in the beginning of this recording that sit at the left, center, and right of the stage. Surprisingly they were all placed exactly where they should be on the dash and Natalies voice was more center than Allan Taylors. However, her vocals were missing that same lower midrange presence and the top end of the guitar was shrill. There's also a woodwind(saxophone?) in that recording that doesn't have the wight I'm used to hearing.
Liberty Anette Askvik
This recording revealed a good amount of shortcomings in the systems ability to handle percussive instruments. The piano seems to resonate and distort the center channel and midrange drivers. The female vocal is also very forward and masks a lot of other information in the track.
Magnetic Lies Malia & Boris Blank
There's so much bass energy in this song that I can feel is there but is acoustically inaudible. There are some serious issues with energy loss through vibration in the doors or phase cancellation between the woofers and sub. On top of that, the female vocals and cymbals overtake the rest of the recording to the point that it loses its engagement.
I wasn't able to connect with any of these songs on an emotional level and I never found myself wanting to crank the volume any higher, even with some of my favorite "jam" songs. The top end is too bright, the bass is anemic and the midrange has no purity. Overall, the sound doesn't suck, it's just uninspiring. Car audio isn't that important, but listening to music is experiencing art, and that's very important. So, let's find out why it doesn't cut the cheese.
SIGNAL ANALYSIS
To better understand the factory sound and where we might be able to make improvements, we need to measure the original amplifiers signals.
We started this process with channel identification at the amplifier. We have 14 discreet channels powering 14 total speakers, and here's how everything stacks up:
Channels 1 & 2 — Front Dash Tweeters (4Ω / ~7kHz-20Khz) — This looks fairly normal for a tweeter signal though I am a bit surprised how high the crossover point is.
Channels 3 & 4 — Front Door Midrange(2Ω / ~200Hz-4Khz) — It's easy to see how the midrange is responsible for the majority of what we hear!
Channels 5 & 6 — Front Door Woofers (2Ω / ~30Hz-150Hz) — This is consistent with most of the Porsche platforms in that the door woofers play all the way down, even lower than the subwoofer.
Channel 7 — Front Dash Center(4Ω / ~200Hz-5kHz) — The center is a single wide-band driver so they limit the upper frequency range.
Channel 8— Subwoofer (2Ω / ~50hz-100Hz) — Very similar to the door woofers but the subwoofer actually doesn't play as low! Notice the rolloff coming earlier at around 50Hz
Channels 9 & 10— Rear Door Woofers (2Ω / ~50hz-20kHz?) — This is an odd signal to send to a woofer. I can't really explain what their logic is here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Channels 11 & 12— Rear Door Tweeters (4Ω / ~50hz-20kHz?) — This is also a little odd seeing how they play the rear tweeters down to 3.5kHz vs the 8kHz x-over in the front
Channels 13 & 14— Rear D-Pillar Effects (4Ω / ~200hz-20kHz) — These are a small wide-band speaker that's normally only utilized during "surround" mode and hard to really hear from the front seats without heavy processing power.
I lost my measurement file here, but they were relatively flat with a dip at 2kHz.
Here are a couple of interesting overlays:
Front Tweeters, Midrange & Woofers:
Front Woofers(green) vs Subwoofer(yellow):
Acoustic(microphone) Measurement of All speakers Playing at Driver's Headrest:
SUMMARY
Well, the electrical signals look fairly standard and the acoustic measurement isn't horribly far off from the house curve that we'd normally shoot for. What does this tell us? It tells us that the majority of our problems don't come from the overall frequency response. They could still come from a variance between right and left acoustic response, or phase issues theses charts won't show us. Knowing this I think that our next steps are going to follow in line with what we've done for both the 991 and 718.
Stage One — Tweeter Replacement — We'll replace the OEM tweeters in the dash with much higher performing versions. My hope is that this will soften up the harshness in the top end and help reveal a bit more resolution in the recordings. I don't expect a night & day difference, but I'm hypothesizing that this will make the system more tolerable, especially at higher volumes with more dynamic recordings. I'll also experiment with and without the center channel connected to see if we get better performance. In other platforms the center has been too loud compared to the rest of the system and that sucks everything in, damaging the soundstage.
Stage One Plus — Sound Damping — Once we get a chance to evaluate the tweeter upgrade by itself we'll also add strategic layers of acoustic treatment to the inside of the front door cavities. The door panels and sheetmetal seem to be absorbing a fair amount of acoustic energy from those 8" woofers. When that happens we get a lot of movement but no audible result. With proper treatment, we should have a lot more immediacy in the bass and better tactile control. As a bonus, we'll also be suppressing a little bit of road noise at the same time!
Stage Two — DSP Amplifier — Ultimately, if we want to fix these issues we need better control over the speakers and the listening position. BOSE wants the sound to suck equally in every seat so you're only getting about 25% optimization in the driver's seat. Since the Porsche is a driver-centric car, we'll tune the audio system to give you 100% of it's capabilities where you actually sit. Combining this approach with time delay and phase correction gives us the opportunity to get a vastly more defined stereo image with true depth and width. On top of the processing we also get a big improvement in the amount of available power and how that power is made. Quality amps have better dynamics which means more inspiring sound and a more believable reproduction of the original recording.
Everything will be as plug-n-play as possible along with utilizing only factory hardware points. No wires cut, no holes drilled. Since my ears are tired tonight, we'll get the tweeters in tomorrow morning and give it another evaluation. Stay tuned!
I know I said I'd have an update the next day, but COVID had other plans for me last week 🤒
The team installed the tweeters while I was away and today I got a chance to audition them and evaluate the difference. Before I get into the results, here are a few photos of what the new drop-in replacements look like:
To start off my listening experience I went back to a few of the original tracks and reviewed my notes. The female vocals were much less forward and the top end of the guitar had a sense of air vs the sharpness I'd heard before. I couple of noteworthy tracks revealed how well the new tweeters actually performed:
The Tennessee Waltz Allan Taylor The pick scrape in the intro was a bit grating and shrill on the Bose system. With the new tweeters I found it to be more detailed without the harsh overtones, and that carried into the guitar production throughout the rest of the recording.
Blue Bayou Linda Ronstadt I listened to this recording on the stock system and the sibilance drove me out of the car. Now, when the hook comes in and she belts out the vocals, it sounds do much warmer and sweeter — I actually want to turn the volume up a little higher than moderate, so I would certainly say they did their job here.
That last track also made me realize I need to try the system without the center channel. While I didn't unplug that speaker just yet, I did cover up the grille with a towel and a couple of books. Although the stereo image did suck to the left a bit, the response was improved phenomenally. The center just plays too much information and too loudly compared to the left and right.
Overall, the Stage One upgrade was a success. Again, not a monumental change, but enough that the system is more enjoyable, especially with the center delete.
We started adding sound damping materials to the doors today, so once I have a chance to evaluate the sound again with the doors back together I'll circle around with my notes!
Had the opportunity to do a bit more critical listening this morning after the sound damping was applied and the door panels were reinstalled. We used three different materials to treat the doors in this Macan. The first is a butyle-based damping that gets applied to the interior surface of the door cavity. It's applied in small tiles, making it easier to get proper coverage when working through the two larger holes in the door. We want to cover about 50-75% or the flat metallic surface to effectively deaden the panel. The next material is called SoundShield, and it's a hybrid media that incorporated a butyl base layer under a 1/8" closed-cell foam. This combination not only deadens the panel but also helps add positive pressure against the door card to suppress vibrations. Lastly, we use a few Blackhole acoustic tiles behind the woofers to help with mid bass cancellation within the door cavity. The sum of this combination is better acoustic response form the woofers and a bit less road noise induced through the doors.
Once we had the car put back together I hopped in a queued up a few more tracks in Tidal. The bass was much more solid and had better weight to it. I could also turn the bass up in the tone controls and actually hear a difference. I even went up +2 during listening and faded +4 to the front for a better soundstage. Here are a couple recordings that stood out:
Slang Brian Bromberg
Electric bass can be difficult for some systems to resolve properly, especially when they're as complex as a Brian Bromberg recording. With the added acoustic treatment, I had a much better sense of texture and depth in this track. The instrument sounds more realistic and full — A real joy to listen to this one.
Sex in a Pan Béla Fleck
More electric bass but this time with some heavy drum overlay. I could really hear the difference in amplitude when the more percussive notes were played, something that seemed to blend together in the OEM Bose sound.
Intro to Speakerboxxx Outkast
This has been a staple in my tuning library for a long time, and only because it's a really fun production. This is a synth bass with a lot of pitch fluctuation. With the sound damping I get more tactile feedback from the lower frequencies and the higher bass frequencies are much tighter. The rapid bass run in this track is well articulated and easily perceivable now. The system is actually a bit resonant on the highest note in this track, so I'm anxious to get in there with the new amp/dsp combo and do some EQ on the woofers.
Development on the DSP amplifier portion took a bit longer than anticipated, but the results are well worth the effort. Before I get into the performance results, let me share the design on the mounting system and wiring harness.
STEP ONE:Bose Amplifier Removal
This is probably the easiest amplifier removal of any car that exists on the market today. To start, there's a small finger-indention at the top of the rear left cargo panel that makes it easy to snap off and reveal the Bose amp — just pull!
Once we gain access, it's as simple as removing 3x 10mm nuts and two wiring harnesses. The main harness is also clipped into the top of the mount so that need to be popped out to get the assembly out of the car. The MOST optical connection need to be pulled first so you can pull the amp further out and only to the floor. The main connector has a swing-arm lock that needs to be disengaged and then slides right off.
STEP TWO: Mounting Template
We want the new amplifier and audio gateway to have a solid mount, so we won't reuse any of the original plastic Bose parts. Instead, we start with a chipboard template to get the proper angles and shapes. This is designed in CAD, laser cut flat and cut/bent into the proper shape to fit the car. Here's a test fit photo:
With the shape captured, we can transfer this to an aluminum prototype. Again, we cut the piece flat, bend it into the final shape and paint it black. After that's done we assembled the whole solution for a beta test.
The equipment itself is on the backside of the mount, so all we can see here is the main wiring harness that connects on the frontside. These next photos will show a bit more detail on how everything's spread out.
STEP THREE: Tuning
The final step before we can discuss a production piece is to make sure we're getting the results we expect(or better). That starts with setting up the DSP input/output routing, setting time delays based on the listening position and assigning initial crossovers to each speaker. In this setup we're playing the tweeters down to 3.5kHz, the midrange from there down to 200hz, the woofers from 200Hz down to 40Hz and the subwoofer from 50Hz and down. The rear speakers are set up as "effects" channels that improve the soundstage by making the acoustic environment seem larger, and the center channel is tuned using a "RealCenter" algorithm that enhances the stereo presentation rather than suffocating it like the Bose system.
I also have the microphone set up and connected to the Real-Time Analyzer(RTA) software. The tuning process is a bit too detailed to explain every aspect, but in short, we always start with the RTA. Measuring the response of each speaker at the driver's headrest helps give us a baseline to equalize the sound properly. With the DSP software we can adjust up to 31 different points of each speaker to correct the non-linearities and get a better final curve.
We're looking for something similar to the Harmon house curve that looks like this:
If you recall the original measurement I took of the Bose system, it wasn't horribly far off from that:
But, once we had more power and independent control over every speaker in the car we we able to get MUCH closer to what we like to see:
Keep in mind though, these are all just microphone measurements. We still haven't sit in the car to listen to music. Once we have a curve that's close to target, listening is the next step. At this point I hopped in the car and queued up a few VERY familiar tracks so that I could evaluate how close or far off we were to our goals. We were close, but there were definitely some elements that needed work. The RTA can't show you everything, so this is where the real experience and expertise comes into the process — Tuning by ear.
This chart serves as a good general overview of things the RTA doesn't do a great job of telling us. Listening to music and making adjustments is the only way to truly optimize the system. I did the final tuning in about 4 hours over 4 different sessions, that way my ears could rest for a few hours/overnight to prevent fatigue. Tuning a system any longer than 60min at a time starts to skew the results since your ears are acclimating to the new environment they're in, especially if the volume levels are cranked.
So, the end results? Astonishingly good.
I have unrealistically high expectations for these upgrades. I wholeheartedly believe that if I can exceed my own high expectation that there's little to no chance that our customers are going to be disappointed. This system certainly didn't disappoint. Going back and listening to all of the same tracks I played in the original evaluations, there was no question that the performance difference was night and day. The midrange had so much purity and presence that it was hard to believe I was listening to 90% factory speakers. The bass FINALLY had real weight and tactile force. Drums sounded real and bass guitar has incredible texture. I could also get up into the volume quite a bit without distortion or clipping from the bottom or top end.
Without a doubt, the best part was the stereo separation. Listening to complex recordings was exciting as hell. I could physically place every sound and instrument in the sound-field in front of me. The vocal image was perfectly center of the hood, 10ft deep and right at eye level. With the rear effect channels giving us the illusion of open space, it was an absolute blast to listen to every genre of music on this system.
Here are a few noteworthy recordings(I can't wait to audition this system for folks using these):
Whatcha Gonna Do? Pablo Cruise
The drums in this recording were almost non-existent in my original evaluation, even with more sound damping. I tried turning the bass up in the PCM and it just got muddy/boomy. With the new Stage Two setup the drums nearly kick me in the chest! Theres real immediacy in the response and I can easily discern between the snare and kick drum notes. The top end is also perfectly balanced and not overwhelming, even with the volume cranked to 11.
Japanese Roots TakéDaké
Wow — what an experience. The presentation of different elements in this recording makes it a journey in an of itself, and the Stage Two reproduces those emotions with impressive accuracy. There's a large drum that comes in about 1:30 that surprised me enough to plaster a smile from ear to ear. I think I actually laughed a little in excitement, haha.
Til The Dawn Sugafree, E-40, Bosko
I really wanted to put the bass response through it's paces with this one. The track starts out with a walking synth bass line that has a good bit of range. This sounded decent on the Bose system but has much more tenacity and authority in this setup. The real difference was in the kick drum that comes in after the into. Again, snapped in the chest with tactile feedback from the mid bass woofers. This was just a fun old-skool throwback jam that sounded great in this car.
Real Groove Kylie Minogue
Did you know she had a 2020 album? Yeah, neither did I until today. I figured I should test some pop/top40 music on this system and this randomly popped up on the Tidal Staff Master Picks. While the song doesn't do much for me. the vocals in the beginning do a great job of showcasing the rear effects channels and the pinpoint center image. During the intro, her voice has a precise location in the center of the dash, but the echo and reverb that trail off behind seemed to envelope me in a 360º pattern. It made me feel like the cabin was 30 feet deep and 20 feet wide.
Chocolate Chip Trip Tool
Tool is no newcomer to the audiophile jam playlist, but the Fear Inoculum album is a fresh production for them. The entire album is a blast, but this track in particular is a wild ride. There are so many overlapping layers of information that it's hard to keep up with the track. The kind of recording that would give you anxiety listening on a crappy stereo system. In the Macan Stage Two system, holy crap — every single layer is defineable within it's bandwidth and stage presence. It's hard to describe the experience beyond that, you'll just have to get the Stage Two upgrade and audition this track for yourself.
Summary
Overall, this is an impressive upgrade, and a with a relatively easy/non-invasive install, I don't see how we can't make a good value proposition here. I'll post up photos of our final concept/prototype mounting system soon, along with info on when well start taking pre-orders and how to get involved. I know a few of you have already emailed or PM'd me about getting set up, and I'll be sending emails out with some detailed info soon!
If you are the LEAST bit interested in audio systems that sound good - I'm certain you will want this. I had to cancel my Macan GTS order (temporary financial setback thanks to a big "oops" on track earlier this year) but I'll definitely have another order in soon and this is 100% on my list. The fact that the installation looks like a piece of cake (I have a Musicar Stage 3 setup in my 718 Spyder, which I DIY'd myself and did not find it difficult - but this looks WAY WAY easier) - this will be a no-brainer upgrade. Save the $5k on the Burmester option if you're ordering a Macan and put the money into this instead. Based on my experience with Musicar setups in my 718 - this Stage 2 will sound WAY better than the Burm!
If you are the LEAST bit interested in audio systems that sound good - I'm certain you will want this. I had to cancel my Macan GTS order (temporary financial setback thanks to a big "oops" on track earlier this year) but I'll definitely have another order in soon and this is 100% on my list. The fact that the installation looks like a piece of cake (I have a Musicar Stage 3 setup in my 718 Spyder, which I DIY'd myself and did not find it difficult - but this looks WAY WAY easier) - this will be a no-brainer upgrade. Save the $5k on the Burmester option if you're ordering a Macan and put the money into this instead. Based on my experience with Musicar setups in my 718 - this Stage 2 will sound WAY better than the Burm!
If you thought your Stage Two in the SPP 718 was good I can't wait for you to hear this setup once you get your Macan — Personally I think it's nipping at the heels of Stage Three!
07-14-2022, 10:01 PM
Finally — Musicar Development for the Macan w/ BOSE
