My radio (CDR-24 with
Bose
) is one flaky, poor sounding device. I have turned the bass and treble down and AP off to achieve mediocre sound instead of really bad sound with more “normal” settings. I’ve also adjusted the fader mostly to the front as the speakers behind the seats are extremely distorted and flat. To top it off, the radio will occasionally drop volume while I’m just driving along.
I’m trying to decide on next steps. I’m all for replacing the head unit to get
CarPlay
and Bluetooth streaming. The question is whether to keep the
Bose
(investing the adapters for the fiber optic cable) or just bypass the
Bose
and put in new speakers with the head unit? How can I tell if my issues are head unit,
Bose amp
, wiring, or speakers? I’m figuring it’s a best guess and roll the dice option but thought I’d reach out to this experienced team first.
Your advice and ideas are appreciated.
Hi Slip,
I felt the same way about the audio in my Cayman. I installed an Alpine head unit for
CarPlay
since it's highly focused on
iPhone
and Siri integration. Looks slick without knobs on the front also. However it does not have Bluetooth capability (was not an issue for my project).
Pioneer
makes a nice head unit that includes
CarPlay
, Bluetooth, and more.
I purchased and installed the most HUR integration kit to tie into the existing wiring harness... and personally the sound quality didn't do it for me. I ended up doing the installation one more time, but with a JL Audio 6 channel amp in the Frunk. This was a more difficult installation, but was well worth the effort. I kept all of the factory
Bose speakers
in place, and wired a 'bass knob' to the amp, to control the bass coming from the door woofers and passenger floor sub. Floor sub I had to re-wire the speaker with a standard speaker wire, and ran that directly to the JL amp. Having this adjustability was a good choice as my music library is diverse.
Im very pleased with this setup, and receive compliments on the sound quality and head unit integration. When the Cayman isn't making her own beautiful 'music' through the
Borla exhaust
, I'm glad I made the investment in an aftermarket head unit and amplifier.
Hope this was helpful,
Frank
Thanks Frank. This does help. I’m leaning towards the head unit (at least) and will now look in to the amp as well.
Slip,
I'm in the middle of exactly what you describe. Car's in the garage right now, half done. In my mind, if you're going to pull the CDR-24, might as well get rid of the
Bose
junk at the same time. And if you're doing the amp, those 1 and 2 Ohm speakers aren't going to work very well either. So I'm doing a full gut & replace, and adding a backup camera while I'm in there. I'll be starting a thread in the next couple of days to document the issues I came across, to help out the next guy...
-Jeff
Jeff,
You'd be be shocked at how great the stock
BOSE speakers
sound with a quality multi-channel amplifier (JL 6 Channel in my Cayman). Its also a much simpler install vs taking off the door panels and trying to access the rear speakers. Raising the OHM can simply be accomplished by wiring in series. Are you going to be at Werks Reunion in Monterey? If so let's meet up, I'd be glad to give you a test in my car.
Cheers,
Frank
I recommend you develop a budget first. You could easily spend $1500 to $2500 and still get a system that doesn't sound much better than a less expensive system.
I put a system in my boxster for about $750 and includes touch screen head unit Bluetooth, back up cam, navigation, new amp, harnesses, bezel...
Sounds great, phone connects and sounds great. I have specs on what I did in a previous post
Here's one thing I'll share...look at the Bose speakers compared to quality aftermarket speakers....
Rears
Door mid:
Door woofer:
That Bose woofer is an somewhat odd, ultra low profile, inverted speaker. Magnet and pole piece on the front side. Big tradeoff to try to get to 8" I guess.
