BOSE - 2nd review

In all fairness, I feel that I need to make a new post on this topic, since my first review was a rather harsh on the BOSE . After making a few adjustments, specially turning surround mid to low, put more fader weight on the rear speakers, lowering bass and setting treblle all the way up the system improved a lot I must say. Not the best of the best, but I think for the money $ its a good deal. I think no matter what system is, competing with the engine sound is going to be very hard and thats probably why you need to get used to the set up and compromise. Anyone else has a perfect setting? Care to share? COCO Edited by - Cocodrilo on 05/30/2006 09:59:06 AM

http://www.planet-9.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1624&FORUM_ID=18&CAT_ID=1&Topic_Title=Bose+settings&Forum_Title=Cayman+Electronics Sounds good enough to me with similar settings to yours but as much as I try to listen to music I almost always wind up turning it off and tune into the engine sounds.

coco, thanks for the info on adjusting the bose , i will try it. I mostly drive with the windows down and between the engine sounds and wind i have not tried listening to anything much. I will get the adjustment done so i will be ready when the really hot days and nights arrive. a lot of humidity here later in the summer.

its a fantastic system as far as i'm concerned. i had low expectations in the first place to be fair given its OEM origins - have to say that changed as soons as i cranked up the CD (took mea month before i could be bothered and i think u all know why!) all in all great value and no after market install worries/gremlins/horror shows to boot!!! Martin.

Martin/SantaFE, agreed. I guess we are all too busy driving the car that little or no time is left to fiddle with the buttons. Time to read the owners manual.....COCO

I'm happy with the Bose . I haven't tried adjusting the music to the back or adjusting the surround to low. It sounds good to me as is. This is how I have mine set up: Surround: standard (in the middle) Fade: Normal Base: +3 or +4 depending on the song Trebel: +3 I keep CDS and Surround ON. Sounds fine to me. Shane

Speakers do take time to break in so use your system a lot and I am sure that the sound of the system will improve. I was not impressed with this Bose system at all initially but the more I used the system the better it sounded.I have a fare amount of experience with Bose ,in home and auto, and there is definitely better equipment to be had. However, if you give this Cayman sytem time time to break in and adjust it properly for your car I think you will end up happy with the sound it puts out.

Sound like a good advice, but please not another break in !

Speakers have to break-in? What? This is new to me? Are you sure you have to break speakers in? Shane

Had to have my Bose replaced entirely. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The aftermarket MB Quart system in my 911 beats it by far!

Speaker break-in? News to me too!

How about replacing the back speakers? We can probably fit a nicer PRO set 2 way, any audio experts here?

Speaker break-in is well known to audiophiles. Google it and you'll see lots of referrences. Here's a good review: http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/loudspeakers/SpeakerBreakIn.php . On the other hand, the Bose is far from 'audiophile' quality.

Agree with the setting. Especially setting fade +2 to the rear over the front. Makes a big difference. Still having said all of that it is not a good sound compared to many systems Ive had before in my BMWs. I'm thinking of replacing the speakers - the amp seems OK on power

This could be a fantastic new MOD if someone manages to do it. I think we can get much better speakers, like JBL PRO and stick em in the back. The amp seems OK. I am sure there are much better options, the JBLs are the ones I saw the other day and they are terrific. I am willing to spend the extra $, but where I live there arent too many options. So if someone does this MOD PLEASE gives us some guidance as to size, what to expect etc..maybe even add a tweeter, I think the car lacks a bit of the highs.....thanks...COCO

Bose settings have been discussed before and this is basically a re-post.To me the stock system suffers from a few notable flaws.First, I think there is too much mid bass boom. Second, there is a lack of midrange clarity. Third, I don't like the surround mode as it distorts many of the sounds, particularly snare drum and cymbals. Finally, the rear speakers aren't just weak, they also suck. It seems they are the source of the mid bass boom and lack of midrange clarity. So I currently have surround off and the fader set at plus 7 (toward the front). That overaccentuates treble, so I turned treble to minus 1 or 2and bass to plus 2. I now have clearer midrange, no bass boom with deeper bass, and just enough from the rear to fill out the sound without muddying it.

'Speaker break in' [/quote]Allow me to comment on that one… Its another one of those exaggerated issues for whatever mileage / reason / agenda or recognition someone has to push. <o ></o >[/quote] <o > <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">It is true that a few mechanical parameters , shall we say called 'Speaker break in' do occur in practice. However its relevance tends to get lost in the practical sense. In this case, some of the mechanical properties of the speaker cone change with use and time. It is fairly minimal in good quality products but there is a small change in the flexibility or stiffness of cone itself and the roll surround (part connecting the cone to the frame). Using the appropriate test equipment, you can measure this small change such as the free air resonance freq. At the end of the day the difference would be undetectable by the ear. In computer simulations you can “see” the tiny difference, big deal! Bear in mind same model speaker to speaker variations could be anywhere from 2-10% in difference. Add to that the fact that the speaker is also a very inaccurate transducer in the first place. So the change fades into insignificance. An “audiophile” may be better referred to as a boffin in my book. End result, so what. just ignore it.[/quote] </o >[/quote]

I agree with you completely, my settings are very similar to what you have here. but please keep in mind that even a great system, perfectly tuned is not going to sound right in this car. The chamber is not well suited audiophile level quality. :beer:

I used to hang out in audiophile territory and I must say, they even sense huge differences depending on solid state equipment temperature (gotta warm up the amp for 6 hours...), oxygen free wires, and I like this one, power cords! You mean you change the last 6 feet of wire going to your power supply and it corrects or improves the prior 60 feet of 14 gauge in your walls and all that 'non-audiophile' wiring back to the gensets at the power station. Whoa Nelly! My local dealer has $125,000 record player! Talk about where objectivity stops and subjectivity starts.....these guys are in another league!:crazy:

Break in your speakers????? I have never heard of this before. Where did you hear that this is something that needs to be done?

I'm going to throw in one more affirmative for "yes, speakers need to be broken in." I have some DynAudio mids in my truck, and they have only gotten better with time. That being said, personally, I don't have a whole lot of respect for Bose stuff. Somewhere in the back of my head, I'm thinking that it isn't easy to replace JUST the speakers in a Bose equipped car. Similar to the HK system in the E46M3, you can't really do it part and parcel. If you want to do it right, you gotta rip the whole damned thing out. Not quite sure that's worth it (to me) in a car like the Cayman .

There's a resistance problem in just replacing speakers; the Bose speakers are 1-2 ohms, off the shelf speakers r 4, that means you'll have half the power going into the speaker or less, and probably get piss-poor audio since it's only 25 watts a channel anyways at that low resistance. Possibly will cause heat problems at the amp too. - Suneet

Yes, and that is exactly what happens in regard to speakers. You force the user to take it easy for a while. In that time, they become familiar with the abilities of the product, and accustomed to a lower level of performance. This way, when they finally can let loose, they are impressed with the added untapped performance and they keep it under the limits. It helps reduce returns and improves customer satisfaction at the same time. One could argue that this is the intention of the US break in procedure. To force a new owner to become familiar with the braking and handling limits before experiencing the full output.

it doesnt matter how u set the audio... bose in cayman s sux... its even worse than the one in the vette...(c5 i had back in 2002)... but engine sound makes up for everything. i dont even listen to music since i got the car. engine makes the best sound u can get out there!!

Even if you are a music freak like myself, I'd pass on the bose with a new purchase now that I have had the chance to listen to it. I think back to all the wasted time debating the bose issue. Turns out I got it with the used CS I bought and I don't even listen to it. The midrange is horrible and it frustrates the he!$ out of me that I can't adjust it. It only sounds good cranked, with sound pouring out of the car. So I resolve to listen to the engine. Poor me! Ah, but such a sweet sound it is. I can't get enough of that tune!

What are your settings?

I agree with Cocodrilo. You need to get the system dialed in. For me, I like these settings: SURROUND 'OFF'. Anything more does add nice fill, but it makes the upper midrange harsh and annoying. Even with the Surround OFF the mids are a bit harsh. . FADER set to the rear 4-6. The mid woofers on the doors seem to work regardless of fade position, unless you are at the far extremes. But by fading to the rear a little, you can attenuate the mid range drivers on the doors, which further removes the upper midrange harshness. . AP OFF. If you are looking for pure sound, turn off the AP. It not only raises and lowers the volume, it also re-equalizes the tonal curve to overpower road noise dynamically, kind of like a variable loudness. You will get the purest most linear sound with it off. . BALANCE in the middle. The sound stage and imaging are quite good. . BASS and TREBLE to taste. I usually leave my TREBLE around 3 or 4 (I like bright). I do find that I need to adjust the BASS depending on what I am listening to. If I'm listening to RUSH, Donald Fagen, Mark Knopfler, Dave Grusin, or the Eagles, I crank it up to 7 or 8 and it sounds incredible. If I am listening to Nelly Furtado, I need to dial it back to 2 or 3 or it sounds ridiculously boomy.

I usually find the reviews/advice on this board accurate but on this one I have to ask - what are you guys smoking?! I have tried every setting possible and I have mine set like scopathetic. No matter how positive we want to be on the car the Bose is a very poor audio system compared to what can be had in most new cars. I am a weekend car audiophile and for half what the Bose cost I could install a system that would blow you away. Having done several installs - I am just not up to the time it would take to do it right - Replace the head unit, amps, subwoofer and speakers, taking the interior apart plus doing all of the sound deadening and installation (which is what separates good sound from great sound). I doubt replacing the speakers will make a big difference but even a marginal change would be worth it. If somebody wants to try improving the sound perhaps an alternate approach would be working on the install - Install sound deadening and seal off the speakers in the door to get the best sound out of what we have. I would also look at the rear - I bet they are just simple speakers bolted to a plastic grill - perhaps sealing or stuffing them would help.

In case you havent seen my writeup: http://www.planet-9.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=141&cat=5 I found this worked better than ANY variety of system settings. Stuff your sub, then fool with the fader a bit worked well for me.

Before stuffing my sub as detailed on this forum, I couldn't stand to listen to my system, now afterwards it is not half bad.