upgrade stereo - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I'd like to upgrade the stereo from the stock Bose system. I listen mostly to classical and jazz, but in a loud car like the Boxster, I'll listen mostly to jazz and rock. I was thinking about McIntosh, but I decided that would be over-the-top for a loud roadster, so I'm looking for something between the Bose and the McIntosh. I'm looking for quality, not quantity. Any suggestions for head units and amps?

As someone with a ridiculously high end install in my car (courtesy of a friend's shop who wanted to use my car for a show piece), I first thought "man this is really pointless, having all this gear in a roadster with a sport exhaust." But, after having driving the car now miles and miles, I can't tell you how much I enjoy the system in my car- for one major reason. I can turn it up to overcome wind and road and exhaust noise, and it still sounds glorious and smooth and does not fatigue at all. As to head units and amps, it doesn't really matter who you go with nowadays, as long as you stay with good gear. I am partial to Eclipse head units, but Pioneer and Kenwood is great too. As to amps, again, just stay with quality. I LOVE Audison personally but again, there are plenty of good brands out there. Zapco and JL are a great value. Unfortunately, to get the Box to sound decent requires ripping out pretty much everything that is there. You could keep the head unit if you wanted, but a replacement is cheap and a huge upgrade in terms of functionality. The factory amp is worthless, and the factory speakers are horrible as well. Once you go this far, you'll likely want a sub of sorts, so the fun continues

I don't have any first hand experience upgrading the Boxster audio system, but I have read a lot of threads on it. I would recommend you do a search here and on RennTech. There are lots of instructions on how to replace the speakers, and some discussion about what people replaces the stock setup with. The two most popular brands tend to be Polk and MB Quart. The dash speakers tend to make the biggest difference, with door speakers and a sub adding a bit more. Rear speakers help fill in the sound, which is great for topless driving. A hardtop will help make the car sound better too. I have to ask, has anyone seen a decent looking HU? Preferably one that matches the Becker, all the aftermarket ones tend to be chrome or something.

bmwm750: Thank you, I've looked into it and an Eclipse/Audison system does seem like a very good advice. Rick3000: Finding a conservative-looking HU is very difficult these days. It appears that most manufacturers think most of us want to, as the kids say, "pimp our rides". I don't want my radio to look like Time Square lit up at night. Unfortunately I seem to be in a lonely, quiet minority of people who feel that stereos should be heard and not seen.

hmmm yes I am looking for reasonable (under stated ) looking HU to replace the becker. I would be nice if it had a slide out screen and nav. as well as inputs for MP3 and hand held radio.....yes I want it all

My car has the Bose system with rear sub. The Becker head unit crapped out, so I replaced it with a JVC KD-AHD59 CD receiver for $180 from Crutchfield along with ~$300 total for Focal 4" coaxials in the dash and 6" Focal woofers in the doors and couldn't be happier. The factory amp and sub stayed. Lots of bang for the buck, IMO. As a serious audiophile (~$20k home system) it's very tempting to go nuts and spend big on a car system. Don't know about you guys, but I'm in my car to have fun driving, not do serious critical listening or crank my music up to "share" it with others. Any car, particularly a convertible, is almost always going to have a less than optimal listening environment, so my system objective was "more than good enough" and I think I achieved that without breaking the bank and ripping the car all apart. Built-in HD radio was a must have, so that significantly narrowed the choices. It's excellent. To my surprise all of the stations I listen to regularly broadcast in HD. The JVC isn't as busy looking as most and relatively easy to use; reception in my area (central NJ) is quite good - much better than the Becker. One very nice feature is the ability to change the color of the display to match your car so it doesn't look so out of place.

I am also a car audio guy, Patrick gave me good advice about a custom JL Audio-based subwoofer for the Boxster that works well in the passenger foot well. I normally like to travel with a GPS unit but dont like it stuck somewhere on the dash with wires around, so I am a big fan of a double din head unit that includes a GPS function. They are not bad to install and look like factory. As others have said, good amplification is important. I replaced my class AB JL Audio amps with Class D Alpine amps which are smaller, lighter, draw less current, sound great and fit neatly in the front trunk. Our cars audio systems can sound very good, but it takes some work and $. Ed :dance:

I have a 2004 Boxster with the cdr30 and I suspect the base speaker setup. Not great but okay though I do miss a better setup like what is in my Acura. Last weekend I took a new Cayman for a test ride with a supposedly high end sound system and to me honest wasn't all that impressed with it (even after 30+ years of flying quite noisy aircraft for a living which has affected my hearing so I am not an audiophile). Not sure what I should do with the sound system as far as upgrading goes. Dave