Simple Audio Upgrade - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hey guys I know this has been brought up in the past, put I'd like the most recent info possible. I want to basically replace the audio system in my 2003 Boxster. Ideally, I'd like some speakers in the back, and some sort of subwoofer. The typical 6 speaker (2 small mids, 2 doors, 2 rear/surround, 1 amp, 1 sub). What is the easiest way to do this? Is this something Best Buy can do? Are there any smaller subwoofers that fit the Boxster well? Can you guys recommend any audio receivers ("decks" or "stereos") that look nice in the Boxster? I just want to be able to listen to music without it cutting out or popping... Any advice would be wonderful.. thanks guys!

what do you have now?

Run from Best Buy doing any work. Find a good installer who has worked with Boxsters in the past. Install depends on if you already have 4 or six speakers in your car. If you only have the 2 in the dash then wires must be run to doors and in the rear. I am having a 6 speaker Focal System put in my 03 next week. I went with a JVC deck to replace my factory noise maker. I put the JVC deck in myself and could put in the rest but prefer to let someone else do it in case something gets screwed up they can fit the bill to fix it. Fronts are 4 inch doors 5 1/4 rear can hold a 4 inch I believe with some modification on the kit sold on ebay. I decided on the Focals after listing to MANY other choices. For the $ nothing came close. Will

Currently I have speaker in the dashboard and speakers in the door. I have no idea what they currently are... I have heard people say that there are tweeters and regular speakers in the dash, and the doors are just small subwoofers... but I have no idea.

Simple audio upgrade... Singing! Cheers!

I've gone through 3 systems and $7k. There really is no simple way to get good sound out of the Boxster without spending some serious $$

You say you want to do a "simple" upgrade w/o breaking the bank. The poster below blew $7k on his system. Maybe to him that's reasonable. For me reasonable is $500-$600. You'll find no shortage of things to spend money, such as repairs, maintenance and other little mods. Bear in mind that whatever you do, while giving you a lot of enjoyment, will likely add very little value to your car. I paid only $16k for my car last year and kept that in mind when setting a budget, with my objective being sound that's good enough to be enjoyable. Serious listening for me is done at home; my car is for serious driving. My other priority was keeping the upgrades stealth, as much to not draw the attention of thieves as to keep from cutting/cheesing up the interior. Maybe we can give you some pointers on how to get the best bang for the buck if you share with us how many bucks you've got to get that bang. Otherwise we're just shooting in the dark.

I'm a big fan of keeping things looking discreet as well. It would be very hard for me to have some third-party audio receiver in there. I think I'm just going to stick with what I have, and as many others have said, just enjoy the Boxster's engine noise. I have an amazing home theater system that I can do my serious audio listening on. I just thought it would be cool to occasionally be able to crank some Rage Against The Machine during a long day of driving. In other words, I have decided not to upgrade, haha... it's too complicated and expensive with the Boxster. Thank you to everyone who posted or was willing to help.

My system is the Bose w/optional rear deck mounted sub. I replaced my stock head unit that crapped out with a JVC HD radio unit, $180 delivered from Crutchfield, and a pair of Focal coaxials in the dash, about $200/ pr . HD radio is great and the dash speakers made a big improvement. Both were very easy to install. Altogether great bang for the buck, IMO. I also bought a pair of Focals for the doors, which would have required surgery to install. There's no shortage of bass with the sub, so I'm thinking all this effort putting bigger woofers into the doors would be a waste of time and money. If you can find a way to add a factory sub for a $200-$300, that's worthwhile, although without it the system's not too bad. One word of caution on the dash speakers. Keep the depth to absolutely no more than 55mm or you'll have trouble getting the grills to fit, like I did with the Focal 100CVXs. The 100CA1 coaxials at 53mm deep will fit and are about $60-$70 less.

There is a ton of information on this site about upgrading the audio. Follow this thread. http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15893 I put in the double din, Avic D3 with DVD and Navigation. Head unit, install kit with instructions, new subs and new amp. I did it all for around $1,000 and it's been the best darn upgrade I made to the Boxster especially when I plug in a music video DVD. Good luck, -Steve

I've also been looking for a new receiver for my car. No issues with the Becker other than wanted it to be compatible with my iphone. I've decided onthis JVC unit which is completely touch screen and doesn't require a double din kit to install. I think it would look great in the boxster you can totally customize the background and color scheme to match the amber in the boxster $599 from Cructhfield but I've found it other places for as low as $430 D O O M ! :troll:

I've seen that JVC, and would never install that into a car. Touch screen might be great for some things, but I think it's terrible for something you fiddle with while driving as much as a car stereo. You can't even change the volume without looking down and trying to figure out where the volume 'buttons' are. Theres a good reason that most all touchscreen stereo's still have buttons or knobs for volume.

Do you guys think just replacing the head unit (audio receiver) would improve the sound quality/less popping and cutouts?

I agree with you for the most part. But my fiddling would be minimal as I usually just pop in my ipod/iphone and let it shuffle. The touch screen interface for this allows you to touch the screen anywhere and perform gestures. Like for volume control you can tap anywhere in the screen and dial your finger in a circular motion to turn it up or down. Next or previous track (or station) is a touch anywhere and flick left or right. You can also hook up a rear view camera. I have retro fit glass Robbins top and the window is pretty small. A rear view cam would be a big help for me when the top is up.

I've done a blog on this which might also help you decide. Take a look in my sig.

Without a doubt. I noticed a difference and I only have the two not so high quality dash speakers. And considering what they charge for a new Becker deck you have to wonder what is so great about it.

So, just to confirm, simply replacing the audio deck/receiver will improve the sound quality a bit? (At the very least, it would give me the ability to use my iPod with the aux input.)

Just double check if your system is using the M.O.S.T bus, it probably is being a 2003 model. You cannot just drop in a new head unit in and go as you will not be able to use the M.O.S.T. amp. Basically you have a fibre optic connection between the Becker head unit and the amp which is annoyingly incompatible with non MOST based head units. If you get a new head unit that isn't MOST based then you either need to wire the speakers directly into the new head unit assuming it has its own amp or get a new amp too. I mention all this in my blog. Anim.

Anim: Your blog is very helpful. I just wish Becker audio receivers were available in the US. I searched and could not find anything about Becker selling to the US. Appreciate your hard work!

Becker customer service is pretty non existent in my experience. They seem to concentrate on their Traffic Pro kit more than anything these days. Even the Becker Grand Prix stereo is now discontinued but still shown on their website in all its glory but not available to purchase which is annoying. Apparently their head units are of a very high quality.