Bose sub stuffing

I did the Bose sub stuffing mod (stuff the bass port with as much polyester filling as you can) and it significantly improved the sound of the stereo, much tighter and less boomy. I highly recommend this inexpensive (~$5 for more polyester fill than I could use) and easy (15 min and 2 torx screwdrivers) for anyone who is not pleased by the Bose stereo , you will hear an improvement, still not great but much better. :beer:

I have to agree. The polyester stuffing really cleans up the bass sound of the Bose subwoofer . It is a very simple mod.

Anyone know if the bose sub is the same in both Gen I & Gen II. I have a Gen II and I consider my ears of 'audiophile' quality for HT & 2 CH music and to my calibrated ears the Gen II bose doesn't sound that bad and to me isn't worth stuffing...........I think they fixed this in Gen II. Anyone know if this is correct or had the chance to hear both to see the difference? Thanks

Fairly certain it's the same sub. Still has the 996xx part number too. I did the stuffing on my 2nd gen car and initially didn't like it (packed it too densely). I then removed some and liked it better. I think I was so used to the bloated sound, that after after stuffing it it sounded "off". I also consider that I have very good ears and the mod really makes a huge difference.

How does one do it in an 08 boxster s . Sorry if already covered somewhere else

I just did this stuffing trick also. Are only supposed to stuff the port (tube portion)? Or do you push it in to the box portion past the tube also? I stuffed the box a little, then filled the tube pretty tightly about 2/3rd of the way. It clears up some of the vibration noise coming from the box, unless I just did a better job of securing everything when I reassembled it! I did super glue the speaker wire to the box. Maybe that was part of my vibration issue as the old wire I think was wrapped in foam, doh! (I replaced the wire, when I connected it to my new amp, instead of the stock little BOSE amp ). The first thing you will notice is it sounds like you have a little less bass. But I definitely like the way it cleaned up the sound. When the bass hits, it snaps more. It kind of makes it sound more like a snare drum, instead of a bass drum. I like my bass to hit hard & clear and I think this helps accomplish that. I'm wondering what it would sound like if you unscrewed the port, and screwed a cover over the hole. I'm thinking it MIGHT give you a similar effect with out muffling some of the bass.

Did the same thing with my Bose a year ago. I stuffed the port all the way, with as much fiberfill as I could stuff in. Makes a big difference, though the bass can still be loud depending on the song. But it will be much crisper. The Cayman does not make a great sound theatre thanks to the engine 12 inches behind the driver's seat - the Bose back speakers have very limited frequency response (i.e., you can't hear much out of them and certainly no bass). But it does play well while parked and as long as you don't go crazy with audio pilot and surround sound, it can sound pretty crisp on the road as well. In general, those fancy Bose features might work nicely in a Cayenne but seem fairly useless in a Cayman . The Boxster has a different Bose bass amp location, behind the seats - and apparently from what I've heard not the same problem as the Cayman has.

Interesting, just did mine this weekend. I must admit it has reduced the overall bass reverb considerably but it has also reduced overall bass sound... I stuffed the box a little by removing the tube and then packed the tube TIGHT. Is it possible to over-pack these things??

Did my Gen II Bose last year, poly fill PLUS 2 layers of 1/8" inch Soundcoat inside most of the chamber. (search for thread on this) I think it is possible to overstuff, so when I remember AND find the time, I plan on removing some of the poly fill from the tube. Bass is definitely cleaner but is reduced perhaps too much. I can always re-stuff it.

I did the same thing (stuff + Dynamat ) and have come to the same conclusion about over stuffing. I have also noticed that what sounds good parked with the engine off is not the best sound going down the road.

If you are looking for more bass in your Boxster custom fit box. Fits behind drivers seat . PM me if you are intrested.

You would think that the Sound engineer from Bose and Porsche would know what is "clean" bass. I bet they never even make an effort on this so called premium sound system. Someone ought to be fired.

Can't say I've ever been impressed with Bose audio, not when compared to large speaker systems, but that aside... the Blose(TM) sound system in my 07 Cayman is just plain awful sounding. To be fair though I can tolerate it, and even sometimes enjoy it when playing CDs, but the FM radio sounds so bad though that I wonder at times if my radio is broken. How did they managed to make it sound so flat and lifeless? Must be more of that Blose(TM) technology (aka crappy/cheap electronics in fancy plastic boxes).

I did the stuffing hack a few months ago, but did not do a good before and after comparison. Simply from my ears' memory, it seemed to improve it. After living with it for a while, I was not happy with the bass, so I removed some of the stuffing. I had stuffed it way to tight to where it couldn't breath. In fact, I had to remove the speaker to take some of it out. I left in enough that I thought it would make a difference but not clog up the enclosure. This time, I did do a before and after comparison. I selected music I was very familiar with, in this case, Dark Side of the Moon SACD hybrid CD. Removing the stuffing helped a lot. The base still needs improvement but I can live with it - for now. I had been curious about replacing the speaker with one that would fire out into the footwell instead of down onto the floor. So I compared the enclosure in it's usual mounting with removing it from the brackets and aiming it outward with as much slack in the connector as is available. To my suprise, it really did not make that much difference, so I'll leave it as is.

I think we need a study on just how much stuffing is required. I removed some ( the cavity was totally filled) and it seems to sound a bit better. Funny you used the Dark Side of the Moon. That's my calibration too.

I think it has more to do with your age and possibly your smokes of choice in another era. I've got my original vinyl copy tucked away safely and only listen now on my Ipod in the Cayman . My Bose is stuffed and sounds OK to me, but in reality I don't much care I'm too busy driving.

I don't know how popular Floyd is now but back then you weren't cool if you didn't dig Floyd. :beer::beer::beer: and whatever:hilarious:

:naughty: I only have Floyd on vinyl, not on digital media. Call me old fashioned, but there is no other way to experience the album then in a college dorm room with your friends sitting in a circle, altering your minds. :naughty::crazy: Listening to it while, say, working out on a treadmill, leaves me cold. And to me, it's not really a car album. I think by the 90's the official Circuit City stereo test song became "Enter Sandman" (Metallica). It was my point of comparison when I modded the Bose system in the Cayman . I also use "Mysterious Ways" by U2 because that has a big fat bass line, and it used to distort like crazy before I did the subwoofer mod. It is now strong but clean.

As someone who is completely car-stereo-stupid, where does one find the stuffing material y'all used?

Any Target or Wallymart polyfill pillow will do

I went to a local hobby shop. Michael's. A big bag of polyfill stuffing was $5. Then the nice (weird) lady behind me tapped me on my shoulder and asked me if I wanted a 25% off any one item (printable) coupon. She had extras and could only use one at a time. I said sure, and got it for like $4. She was trying to be nice & help me pinch pennies! Or maybe she just thought I was cute. I am pretty hunky! And then I thought to myself as I'm walking out the door, "I hope she doesn't see me driving off in a Porsche !" lol

Funny story, what was the result after the stuffing? I have a gen 2 but can't really be bothered as I hardly listen to the stereo. So why did I opt for Bose :crazy:

Granted I haven't even had my car for a week, I've already put 750 miles on (525 was from the drive home after picking up the car, I don't drive THAT much usually ), so far the Bose sounds great to me even while playing hip hop where the bass hits hard often. What am I missing?

I spent the early part of my career as an audio engineer for Turner Broadcasting, so maybe I can shed some light on this. The problem with the bass, in my car at least, was the mid bass, around 300 - 500 hz. That's the frequency range your effecting with the stuffing (that's the "muddy" frequency range). Low bass, 50 - 200 hz, won't be effected as much because it is transmitted mechanically, ie through vibration, as opposed to acoustically. Essentially what is happening is the resonating chamber, the "box" if you will, is a poor design for the car. (if you want to see what I'm talking about, take a stereo speaker in your house and put it in a corner. The wall now becomes another "resonating chamber" via mechanical transmission, and the bass level will rise. The higher the frequency, the less it will be effected.) Therefore, essentially what you are doing by putting stuffing in the resonating chamber is tuning the acoustics of the box. So, yes, the amount of stuffing will effect how much damping you are adding, therefore a little experimenting would be in order to find the "optimal" amount of damping. Ideally, you would have an 21 band parametric equalizer that would allow you to tune the system electronically (the bass and treble controls in the stereo are very crude, and do not allow for adjustment in the effected frequency range), and tune it with a spectrum analyzer. Unfortunately there is no way to insert one into the system that I know of, so we're stuck with having to disassemble the sub and tune it acoustically with foam. IMHO, the system had potential in terms of capabilities, but it was not finished. An acoustical engineer from Bose should have altered the properties of the sub to the environment, then finished tuning the rest of the audible frequency range using circuitry that would have tailored the output for the car. One can only speculate as to why this was never done, but I suspect it was assembled using parts that were not designed for this particular application without ever consulting an acoustical engineer. It's a shame really, as I don't think it would add a lot to the manufacturing costs, and I would have gladly paid an extra $100 to the exorbitant $1K price to have a decent sounding stereo. Also, to not have completed the final tuning step of the system is very unlike Porsche , who tends to over engineer things. Sorry for my rambling on. I probably should have said yes, the amount of foam you use will effect how it sounds, so season to taste before buttoning it back up and left it at that.

It helped make my bass sound cleaner while overall curbing a little bit of the bass. With my Kenwood I have the option of setting the cross over frequencies. I believe I have my front channels set at HP 220Hz (dash & small door speakers), the rear (rear pillar) channels set at HP 220Hz (used to 180Hhz), then "sub" channels power the door woofers and footwell sub crossover at LP 120Hz. My 6-channel amp has high pass & low pass filters but I'm not using those. I wish I could control the left & right individually as I'd set the door woofers which are on the left channel to a higher frequency, probably up to 180 or 220Hz and the sub (on the right) to like 120 or 100. What I really needed was a 7 channel amp that could handle 1 Ohms. Then I could have had the door woofers on individual left & right channels. And then the sub on an independent sub channel. Right now I have it wired with the 2 door woofers in series to increase the impedence.

c-rizzle, I agree that if somehow one could install a low pass filter set around 120Hz to the sub, it would improve it quite a bit. Bummer that after spending $1K on the bose , you still had to go aftermarket to get acceptable. Fortunately, the car is so much fun to drive, I spend less time thinking about the stereo....

Another plea for a hint how to actively, rather than just with pillows, control energy to the sub's output. I have done the stuffing thing. Still too much <100Hz bass energy coming from it. I.e. the ratio between mid-bass from the door speakers and subwoofer is still off: to get decent mid bass on the sound control (-2 to + 2), the sub is still too dominant for me. And am not sure that jklotz's idea of a low pass filter will cure the volume issue. Has anyone experimented with an electronic solution to the problem, i.e. an in-line resistor before the sub's speaker itself, or an input attenuator at the input of the Bose subwoofer amp in the footwell? I am willing to experiment and come up with a balanced bass solution if someone can give me some starting points. (I was thinking of installing a 100W 1Ω resistor inline with one of the wires to the sub speaker, then listen). JM

Hi Guys, On my 2006 Cayenne turbo S, the subwoofer was not working when I bought it, got it opened and it only works when you push on the speaker. Does this mean the speaker has gone bad (loose connection) or can this be fixed? thanks, Riz

When I upgraded my head unit to pioneer , I was able to tweak the bass settings. Better now. In the end, with the motor growling behind my head, I have low expectations for any sound system. The Bose wouldn't be bad, except for the price of the option which is highway robbery.