Bose vs Sound Package Plus - Page 3 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Hi All, thinking of swapping my Gen 2 Boxster (with Bose) for a Gen 2 Cayman with Sound Package Plus. Will I notice a big drop in sound quality? The Bose stereo in my Boxster is pretty good, not amazing, but I'm happy with it. I like my music and like it quite loud with zero distortion/door card rattles. Is SPP adequate in the Gen2 Cayman? Dave

SPP is pretty poor, to be honest. I understand that the Bose isnt great, but you shouldnt be under the misapprehension that SPP is "good enough". It is very disappointing for an expensive car.

Hi Dave, Sorry if this ends up confusing you, but I have a different opinion to ORD. I was thinking the same as you, so I did a back to back test at a Porsche dealer. My notes: 1) Basic stereo speakers. Terrible. Really terrible. Basically don't bother. Only really of use for listening to an incoming telephone call (if you have the mobile preparation) or the radio news. Otherwise turn off and listen to the engine. 2) Sound Package Plus. Big improvement. Decent volume and small cabin anyways means easily sufficient. Nice sound balance. Very good value for money. 3) Bose. More volume, but more volume wasted / not needed in the 981 cabin. Well, maybe in a Boxster with the roof off, but I doubt it / not if you don't want to be anti social and look like an idiot. Very bass heavy /boomy sound quality. Far too bass heavy to my taste. I think if you like rhythm and bass music, hip hop and such it could be worth spending the extra. But for the type of think that I like (singer songwriter, guitars, jazz...) I had to turn down the bass, make sure the digital processing was adjusted to turn "loudness" off. I was able to adjust to something more neutral, but it required lots of fiddling with settings and didn't offer much over SP+. It is not a huge extra expense, but I would not bother unless the car already comes with it. 4) Burmester. I didn't listen to, but then I did not want to spend over 2k on an upgrade over the cost of Bose. At home I have Naim hifi and high end Bower & Wilkins speakers, so I do enjoy listening to music and have spent some money on good hifi. All of my music files are lossless file formats, rather than compressed downloads. So having decent speakers in my car was important to me, but it was secondary to the engine tone. Sorry if this confuses your decision! My best advice is to do a back to back test at a dealer like I did because so much of this is subjective. Simon.

SPP is competent for a car stereo. It's not brilliant, but it creates an entirely listenable sound. I find it amusing that the speakers that came standard in my MX-5 to this day have never been surpassed on sound from a stock car stereo. Then again I had a drive of a Yeti recently and was impressed by just how much nicer specced (again as standard) it was than my Cayman. But that's just the way that Porsche roll.

I'm with ORD. I have SSP in my Spyder. It is adequate. Just. I used to have Bose in my 996 and that was better although the observations above regarding it being bass heavy are bang on the money.

I have no experience of the Bose setup in the later cars but I was able to substantially reduce the boomy bass problem in my gen 1 Cayman by stuffing the Bose sub woofer enclosure with wadding. This is a really simple, quick, cheap and very worthwhile improvement and seems to be a common DIY modification on the US Porsche forums.

Did Porsche improve SPP from the 987 to the 981? I find it perfectly capable in a 981, never driven a 987.

rob.kellock said: I'm with ORD. I have SSP in my Spyder. It is adequate. Just. I used to have Bose in my 996 and that was better although the observations above regarding it being bass heavy are bang on the money. I've got Sound Package Plus in my Spyder. I find it quite alright to be honest. I had Bose in a Cayman S and was never blown away by it. I did find it very bass heavy to the point I turned the bass right down. I am quite a dance music fan so bass is something i normally don't mind. However I did find the cayman cabin had weird acoustics and quite boomy.

458 Italia said: Basic system is unacceptable, really poor on a premium car. Sound package plus should be standard and as that it would be acceptable. BOSE is a bit better, but somehow it isn't quite right at higher volumes and boomy. Burmester is priced out of the equation. None of them come anywhere near to the systems from Audi with B&O, Land Rover with Meridian etc. You can really wind the volume up and enjoy those. I've ordered Burmester, it seems like I'm the only person to have ever done so in a Cayman. Did you listen to a Cayman Burmester system? I take delivery in a couple of weeks.

I would go down the premium sound option and then have speakers upgraded by a competent high end shop. Without going crazy with amps and other crazy suns a decent set of speakers to replace the crappy standard ones should already go a loooooong way to get some decent sounds without adding too much wait/drilling. And honestly a set of upgraded speakers if done well should be completely invisible and hence not affect warranty. Unless for a RMS issue they start opening door cards..

I have a CS with Bose... Got to admit I'm disappointed with it... Boomy. Bassy. And speed related volume control is all over the place. Maybe I need to spend some time setting it up but compared to my bmw with speaker upgrade it's poor.

All the factory fit options are dreadful (I have not tried Burmeister though). I got so fed up with Bose in the end I spent £2.5k on a new system. Where to start with why the standard systems are rubbish - PCM is terrible in every way, just a margin driver for Porsche. The wiring is all poor quality. The speakers are OK. The sub is poor. The amp is a cheap piece of rubbish. Most importantly the doors are not well soundproofed. The install I had is a Pioneer head unit that is light years ahead of PCM, much better amp & speakers, and loads of deadening in the doors. Night and day better than Bose.

Hmmm, so it sounds like SPP may be sufficient in a Cayman (which should be quieter than my Boxster anyway given its a hard top). I tend to listen to my ipod most of the time, but do like to crank up the volume so don't want lots of door card rattles/distortion. The stereo I used to have in my old BMW was much better than the Bose in my Boxster, but the Bose is adequate and I don't really want to lose stereo quality if I do plump for the SPP in the Cayman I'm looking at. Arrrgh, dilemma!

SimonOcean said: Hi Dave, Sorry if this ends up confusing you, but I have a different opinion to ORD. I was thinking the same as you, so I did a back to back test at a Porsche dealer. My notes: 1) Basic stereo speakers. Terrible. Really terrible. Basically don't bother. Only really of use for listening to an incoming telephone call (if you have the mobile preparation) or the radio news. Otherwise turn off and listen to the engine. 2) Sound Package Plus. Big improvement. Decent volume and small cabin anyways means easily sufficient. Nice sound balance. Very good value for money. 3) Bose. More volume, but more volume wasted / not needed in the 981 cabin. Well, maybe in a Boxster with the roof off, but I doubt it / not if you don't want to be anti social and look like an idiot. Very bass heavy /boomy sound quality. Far too bass heavy to my taste. I think if you like rhythm and bass music, hip hop and such it could be worth spending the extra. But for the type of think that I like (singer songwriter, guitars, jazz...) I had to turn down the bass, make sure the digital processing was adjusted to turn "loudness" off. I was able to adjust to something more neutral, but it required lots of fiddling with settings and didn't offer much over SP+. It is not a huge extra expense, but I would not bother unless the car already comes with it. 4) Burmester. I didn't listen to, but then I did not want to spend over 2k on an upgrade over the cost of Bose. At home I have Naim hifi and high end Bower & Wilkins speakers, so I do enjoy listening to music and have spent some money on good hifi. All of my music files are lossless file formats, rather than compressed downloads. So having decent speakers in my car was important to me, but it was secondary to the engine tone. Sorry if this confuses your decision! My best advice is to do a back to back test at a dealer like I did because so much of this is subjective. Simon. I think this is a fair appraisal of the two, in particular "it required lots of fiddling with settings and didn't offer much over SP+." I have SPP in my 981 - I ducked out of Bose due to a Bose system on a previous non-P vehicle (boom-tizz-boom-tizz). Having said that I've had a some loaners with Bose and done a few hundred miles listening to it. Lots of fiddling requried and I thought all Bose processing needed to be turned off, and the bass and treble turned down, in order to get a neutral sound. At that point I thought it was very slightly better than SPP. But slight, and not £400 better IMO. It's not that I think SPP is amazing, but just trying to explain what I think the difference is between SPP and Bose. I've heard the Burmester in a Cayman and it was very good indeed, although that was in a stationary vehicle. I would have considered it at half the cost, but at £2.5k or whatever it is I think it's nuts. JLR seem to have struck the right balance with the cost and performance of the Meridian systems. I use Meridian at home at it's a very different tech and philosophy to Bose. Hope this helps. S Edited by stevod on Monday 31st March 10:59

The Bose is great if you want to blow your brains out with Dutch Techno. However, for anything else you'll spend an eternity fiddling with the settings.

paralla said: I've ordered Burmester, it seems like I'm the only person to have ever done so in a Cayman. Did you listen to a Cayman Burmester system? I take delivery in a couple of weeks. Could I ask you to 'report back' on that when delivered? I'm in the process of speccing up a Cayman, but was unimpressed by the Bose option, so was thinking of taking the plunge and ordering the Burmester kit. Thanks, ian.

Id also be really interested in the Burmester setup in the Cayman. Bose has no midrange to my ears and SPP although tonally better was poor. Heard the Burmester in a 911 cab and it was an improvement but still seems to have been EQd by a teenage drum and bass fan.

Krobar said: Id also be really interested in the Burmester setup in the Cayman. Bose has no midrange to my ears and SPP although tonally better was poor. Heard the Burmester in a 911 cab and it was an improvement but still seems to have been EQd by a teenage drum and bass fan. Most car systems are over-processed/crappy to be honest. I would love to see ATC or someone like that enter the car audio market.

Krobar said: Id also be really interested in the Burmester setup in the Cayman. Bose has no midrange to my ears and SPP although tonally better was poor. Heard the Burmester in a 911 cab and it was an improvement but still seems to have been EQd by a teenage drum and bass fan. Given the amount of background noise I really can't see the point of spending much on a sound system - Bose certainly leaves a lot to be desired (clean bass to my ears) , so it's difficult to recommend it over SPP.

TB303 said: Most car systems are over-processed/crappy to be honest. I would love to see ATC or someone like that enter the car audio market. I know Dynaudio do car audio stuff. Can't see that being your usual crap.

I think the Bose system is poor - especially compared to the system in my BMW. I don't think the small cabin helps. I'm sure people are aware of this but there is a Sound setting to enhance the bass which is 'ticked' as standard. Unticking this improves the boominess without having to adjust any other settings.

Obviously there may be some bias happening since I forked out so much money for the Burmester in my 981 Cayman but for what it's worth I think its awesome. The highs are very clean and crisp, midrange for something like female vocals is spot on and the bass goes loud and low but without any boominess. I listen to it up loud on motorway journeys for long periods without getting that fatigued feeling like you do when you crank up a poor system. I've had loaner Cayman's from my OPC while mine has been in having work done (retrofit PSE, which also sounds awesome)and after a few days in a Cayman with SPP the Burmester is the very first thing (18 way adaptive seats are the other) I notice. It sounds so much richer, even at volume levels where you can easily have a conversation with a passenger. I have a GT4 ordered and I'd choose Burmester again if it was offered. I guess that says it all. Yes it's expensive but it is good. Could an aftermarket system sound so impressive for less money? probably. I plan on finding out when my GT4 arrives, I'll be replacing all the speakers and adding a small amplifier as soon as I get the GT4.

daveknott5 said: Hi All, thinking of swapping my Gen 2 Boxster (with Bose) for a Gen 2 Cayman with Sound Package Plus. Will I notice a big drop in sound quality? The Bose stereo in my Boxster is pretty good, not amazing, but I'm happy with it. I like my music and like it quite loud with zero distortion/door card rattles. Is SPP adequate in the Gen2 Cayman? Dave The OP is talking about 987's I assume? Not 981? My Boxster 987 had Bose - it needed it. My Cayman 987 had SPP as the weird design fault of the interior caused enough issues with out a bassey Bose. I didn't notice an dramatic loss in quality over the Bose in the Boxster. My 981 Cayman has the SPP only and is perfectly fine. The 981's don't have any issues with cabin pressure that the 987 Cayman had...I guess because they designed both the 981 Boxster and Cayman at the same time rather than the after thought that the Cayman 987 was. No weird acoustic weights hidden in the hatch of the 981!!!!

I've got Bose in my Gen2 CS, if I had ordered the car new that option wouldn't be ticked. There is too much base its nearly turned down to minimum to sound half decent but there is plenty volume and that's about it really. Look up some HiFi reviews of Bose equipment it's actually pretty crap and not looked on as quality at all.

Beginning to think the same; it annoys me that if you want CDR+ and Bose you end up paying for a Sound Pack Plus which isn't provided.

juansolo said: I know Dynaudio do car audio stuff. Can't see that being your usual crap. It is pretty awful in the VW Passat.

Klippie said: I've got Bose in my Gen2 CS, if I had ordered the car new that option wouldn't be ticked. There is too much base its nearly turned down to minimum to sound half decent but there is plenty volume and that's about it really. Look up some HiFi reviews of Bose equipment it's actually pretty crap and not looked on as quality at all. Assuming the Gen2 Bose setup is similar to the Gen1 CS, I recommend you try stuffing the sub enclosure with wadding. It made a huge difference. See my earlier posting in this thread. More info on Planet9.

I had Bose in my 987 and was not impressed. I swapped mine out as per the below post and the difference was dramatic. However many would not want to go aftermarket or spend too much, though you can get a very good head unit, amp and speakers for not far from Bose price and have something much better sounding. Somewhere like Car Audio Security can supply and fit - though I've never used them for fitting. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=112...

DRH986 said: Assuming the Gen2 Bose setup is similar to the Gen1 CS, I recommend you try stuffing the sub enclosure with wadding. It made a huge difference. See my earlier posting in this thread. More info on Planet9. Thanks I'll check that out...

DRH986 said: Assuming the Gen2 Bose setup is similar to the Gen1 CS, I recommend you try stuffing the sub enclosure with wadding. It made a huge difference. See my earlier posting in this thread. More info on Planet9. Got a link? Bose was ok in my RS4 but I find bass boomy and imprecise, any tips on settings? Does turning off loudness or the speed sensitive volume help? 997 playing mainly 320 MP3s Edited by Adam B on Thursday 16th July 23:23

Adam B said: Got a link? Bose was ok in my RS4 but I find bass boomy and imprecise, any tips on settings? Does turning off loudness or the speed sensitive volume help? 997 playing mainly 320 MP3s Edited by Adam B on Thursday 16th July 23:23 Here you go: http://www.planet-9.com/987-cayman-boxster-electro...

I recently brought a 2006 Cayman S with the SPP and PCM, it sounded pretty rubbish IMO with crap satnav and zero Bluetooth. So I lashed out £140 on this - Cost me £140.00 to have it installed using the Porsche Amp and now I have DAB, Bluetooth, IPod connectivity and miles better sound Didn't need Satnav as I use Google Maps on my S6.

I've just bought a Cayman S with Bose, because I couldn't stand the SSP and can't afford the Burmeister! If it's better than the sound system in a VW Golf, I'll be happy!

Ape50 said: Bose system - there is a Sound setting to enhance the bass which is 'ticked' as standard. Unticking this improves the boominess without having to adjust any other settings. Yes, I did exactly the same.

Krobar said: juansolo said: I know Dynaudio do car audio stuff. Can't see that being your usual crap. It is pretty awful in the VW Passat. Bit of a shocker that. Proves that what works in the home (their domestic and pro kit is excellent), doesn't necessarily translate to a car.

BOSE is ok imo take the tick out of base boost, put base on about -3 and treble on + 4 that sounds quite nice imo. BOSE is all boom other wise as are most car set ups.

Ozzie Osmond said: Yes, I did exactly the same. Yes, car stereos tend to have all sorts of crap turned on by default. The classic one was the "surround" feature in BMWs (I think around 2005 ish). It basically puts little delays on the speakers to make the sound bigger (crapper). Lost count of the amount of BMWs I've been in and turned it off... I guess it's a case of fancy specs/features to try and attract people. The best starting point is nearly always everything off, and then just a little bass or treble cut/boost to taste.

PorscheGT4 said: BOSE is ok imo take the tick out of base boost, put base on about -3 and treble on + 4 that sounds quite nice imo. BOSE is all boom other wise as are most car set ups. That was about right on my 987.

Just bought a Cayman S with the Bose system and I think it's fine - my car has sports exhaust, so I'm spending more time listening to that, than the radio anyway! I demoed a car with SSP, and that was awful.

TB303 said: That was about right on my 987. Better - but still absolute rubbish for the price (or even half the price for that matter). Just played some Queen (I watched a queen programme on tele last night) and compared to my modest 2.1 system it was lacking in pretty much everything. I did wonder, given some comments whether I was being unduly harsh in some of my previous postings - but I was being rather kind. If SP+ is significantly worse ( I haven't heard it) then ...

I need to finalise my spec on Sat and it is only audio I'm unsure of. Is sound pack plus bad? I haven't heard the SPP but I heard the Bose and Burm and both sounded overly sharp to my ears in default settings. Anyone here retrofitted? From other threads I gather the SPP is any easy retrofit as the amp is below the seat and uses two standard phono pairs to feed it, a few people in the states seem to have fitted Morel Elate 903 components.

bcr5784 said: Just played some Queen ... IMO if you're playing with car stereos it's better to use music recorded recently. You probably don't want a 1980s sound balance in 2015. Make sure you take some music along with you that is what YOU listen to. And don't let them rush you. The top and bottom is often turned up artificially high to make the sound "impressive" for a few seconds in the showroom but you probably don't want to listen to it like that.

juansolo said: Bit of a shocker that. Proves that what works in the home (their domestic and pro kit is excellent), doesn't necessarily translate to a car. Dynaudio in my old tigian was good, better than bose in the 987 and 997. Problem was the crappy plastic door panels rattling. Coukd have soent a weekend srmtripping and dynamatting the doors but sold the car instead. Meridien system in the Evoque we replaced it with is oustanding aand better than tge £3k system I put in the 997

anonymous said: [redacted] Yes, as per my posts earlier in this thread which include a link to Planet9 with more details. I did it on my 987.1 Cayman, it costs virtually nothing, took aboug half an hour and made a huge difference. Get on and do it, you won't regret it.

anonymous said: [redacted] Spot on my old friend, I have that system in my Evoque and it's exceptional. I can't imagine you're a fan of the throttle response however.

Unless your playing WAV or AIFF files you will be dealing with MP3 which are pretty compressed and not HIFI quality. Generally older CD quality is pretty poor due to over-compression. Cars are pretty noisy and not really conducive to listening to music other than as a background sound. Having said that I find the BOSE system in my 991 reasonable.

rbh said: Unless your playing WAV or AIFF files you will be dealing with MP3 which are pretty compressed and not HIFI quality. Generally older CD quality is pretty poor due to over-compression. Cars are pretty noisy and not really conducive to listening to music other than as a background sound. Having said that I find the BOSE system in my 991 reasonable. ^^^ Accurate analysis IMO. MP3 (and it's relations) are pretty feeble to start with and there's not much any system can do to improve that. I use AIFF.

Ozzie Osmond said: ^^^ Accurate analysis IMO. MP3 (and it's relations) are pretty feeble to start with and there's not much any system can do to improve that. I use AIFF. Not really true, you can set the bitrate to rip your CDs at for starters, and 320kbps is far closer to CD quality but most people never hear that as iTunes etc sells you files at 128kbps (last time I checked) to maximise download speed and storage space, iTunes also has a default bitrate for ripping CDs to your library of 128Mpps, it is this lower bitrates that causes very heavy audible compression and poor quality Most people in a car environment would not be able to tell the difference between a CD and a MP3 ripped at 320. Most people on any sound system would be able to tell 128 from 320 and that's what gives MP3's a bad name as so many files are encoded at a low bitrate. Obviously if you are an audiophile or are using a decent proper hifi at home you can differentiate but if the whole world used 320kbps MP3, the format would have a way better reputation for quality My friend spent £8k on a system for his SL55, it really was the highest end kit available, made me laugh when he demoed it to me using Spotify at 128kbps, he had np idea about the different bitrates etc. It's not the point though, because the faults with the SPP and Bose (which I have had & removed from 2 cars) are that they use underpowered amplifiers and in some cases poor speakers, they then overcompensate for this by whacking the bass up a bit to create some drama If you have a good ear, are into your music, or are discerning, none of these systems are up to the job, and only replacing the factory hardware will provide a good enough sound quality even if you are relying on an MP3 source Edited by jakesmith on Friday 7th August 12:04

jakesmith said: 320kbps is far closer to CD quality and I suggest that AIFF at 1,411kbps is a whole lot better again. Once you move away from the "everyday mp3" format I think you might as well go the whole hog. What I find annoying is having to maintain duplicate libraries in different formats. But life could be worse!

I'm considering between SPP with aftermarket upgrade or Burmester. SPP with aftermarket upgrade of JL Audio HD 600/4 and Morel Elate 903s with labour would cost about the same as the Burmester. Burmester sounded too sharp to me on first demo but I think I need to engage the soft mode and dial down the treble and bass a bit then it might improve. The advantage of Burnmester is 5.1 (I have around 50 DVD-As) and a whole load of suitable source material and no warranty issues. The JL/Morel setup will almost certainly sound plain better with stereo music.

Krobar said: I'm considering between SPP with aftermarket upgrade or Burmester. Depending how you specify your car, be careful about aftermarket upgrade. For instance if you have parking sensors you will lose the screen....

jakesmith said: Not really true, you can set the bitrate to rip your CDs at for starters, and 320kbps is far closer to CD quality but most people never hear that as iTunes etc sells you files at 128kbps (last time I checked) to maximise download speed and storage space, iTunes also has a default bitrate for ripping CDs to your library of 128Mpps, it is this lower bitrates that causes very heavy audible compression and poor quality Most people in a car environment would not be able to tell the difference between a CD and a MP3 ripped at 320. Most people on any sound system would be able to tell 128 from 320 and that's what gives MP3's a bad name as so many files are encoded at a low bitrate. Obviously if you are an audiophile or are using a decent proper hifi at home you can differentiate but if the whole world used 320kbps MP3, the format would have a way better reputation for quality My friend spent £8k on a system for his SL55, it really was the highest end kit available, made me laugh when he demoed it to me using Spotify at 128kbps, he had np idea about the different bitrates etc. It's not the point though, because the faults with the SPP and Bose (which I have had & removed from 2 cars) are that they use underpowered amplifiers and in some cases poor speakers, they then overcompensate for this by whacking the bass up a bit to create some drama If you have a good ear, are into your music, or are discerning, none of these systems are up to the job, and only replacing the factory hardware will provide a good enough sound quality even if you are relying on an MP3 source Edited by jakesmith on Friday 7th August 12:04 Agree - even though MP3/M4A is compromise, if you keep files at 320kbps you're not far off good CD quality, both at home and in-car.

Heard the SPP yesterday and decided for stereo sources Bose is not worth the money. SPP sounded fines once loudness was disabled and the treble trimmed slightly and didn't suffer from Bose boominess.

Krobar said: Heard the SPP yesterday and decided for stereo sources Bose is not worth the money. SPP sounded fines once loudness was disabled and the treble trimmed slightly and didn't suffer from Bose boominess. Fair enough. Maybe you'll grow to despise it over time though!

I'm happy enough with the SPP on my Cayman R. It's hardly an amazing sound system but I have one of them in my house - when I'm hooning I tend to be concentrating on more than the finer points of the mid range on my car speakers. I've experienced Bose in a few Caymen, a Boxster and several 911s and in all I've found it appalling. Maybe if you mess about with turning the bass down about 10 notches and then mucking about with other settings and filling the sub with you old pillows you can get it sounding decent but life's too short - even the least bassy songs ever written come out it like some dubstep track in a nightclub. If you want something that works out the box I'd go SPP, or if I had the money the Baurmester which is fantastic. Bose do great home hifi kit but utter crap car kit IMHO.

anonymous said: [redacted] Yep, and it needn't have been this way. It's just the way they did it in the UK.

AND it consumes MUCH more power than VHF.......so hardly efficient.....

anonymous said: [redacted] Classic FM used to be 192-256 Kbit in most areas but isn't anymore, most DAB stations in my area are 80kbit mono, even music ones! The new mini Muxes are slightly better for now with typically 128-192. Lots of good info here: http://www.wohnort.org/dab/ukloc.html Sound quality does not look like it is a priority but Ofcom are licensing a new national mux and considering the mini muxes which should provide a lot of choice.

Krobar said: Classic FM used to be 192-256 Kbit in most areas but isn't anymore, most DAB stations in my area are 80kbit mono, even music ones! The new mini Muxes are slightly better for now with typically 128-192. Lots of good info here: http://www.wohnort.org/dab/ukloc.html Sound quality does not look like it is a priority but Ofcom are licensing a new national mux and considering the mini muxes which should provide a lot of choice. Ideal for when you're eating some pick n mux