sound of the sound pkg plus

the sound is low grade to say the least, has anyone done any mods to it? did it help?

I take it you have not looked at the "modification forums" or done any searchs on exhaust or any other homework? Or did you have something else in mind?

santa fe, i'm talking about the sound of the music system, not the engine note, the latter is music to my ears.

Sorry Z-man. Then take a look at the few topics where some have added amps. I though I was into the music system until like you I found the engine note more appealing. I cannot remember the last time I used the Bose....

i wonder if i should've went with the bose, but maybe an amp & couple of jl audio speakers to replace will do the trick. thanks man.

suneet will be along soon with better suggestions I bet.

Very difficult to add amplification to the sound package plus... There are two amplifiers that feed the 9 speakers, 6 (mid's and tweets) get fed from the headunit, the door-subs and center have an amp in the trunk. You need a whoooole lot of wire routing or two amps to try to amplify the sound. I decided instead to just add a subwoofer to take strain off of the mids and door subs, and other's have added better subwoofers that take up much room. If you don't mind losing the headunit, a system upgrade is easy as pie... or if you dont mind running new speaker wire and changing some speakers, you can keep the headunit and stop using factory speakers. You can PM me if you want a wiring diagram of the whole set-up but it's pretty damn confusing. The sound package "plus" is just that, a ridiculous afterthought of speaker level amplification resulting in sub-par sound. - SS

if you do a search, i posted some pics of my added system including JL audio 12" woofer. i had all the wiring in the front trunk since everything is there, signal and power, no need to touch the head unit. and just one speaker wire to the rear for the subs.

Newguy did you do the wiring yourself? Where the heck did you tap (switched) power and signal?? I think I might ditch the kenwood and go for a infinity basslink.

hey suneet, i pm you wiht my number, i can give you the details over the phone, is a little hard to explain everythig over writings...

Sorry newguy, I re-read your earlier post and it said front trunk... I thought I read you tapped stuff in the rear hatch. While I could fathom getting signal from where the back speakers get fed, I didn't understand the power part. Thanks, SS

the way i tap it from the front, i am able to actually control the subwoofer base from the head unit base level. maybe is the same from your way. hey by the way, i been noticing alot of you guys are really young cayman owner, what do you guys do? or how do you guys afford this car at such young age? i would love to know.... when i was 19, i was still fixing up my honda.. haha..

Newguy, among a lot of IT stuff, I sell cars full time during the summers and by appt. during fall and spring. I work for the local MB dealership, Duval Motorcars. I bought mine used from another owner at the end of last summer, could never afford a new one this early. - SS

Added Kenwoods KSC-SW1 As per Suneet, I've added the Kenwood KSC-SW1 150W subwoofer and it made a world of difference. I'd say 200% better. With my MP3 player, it sounded better then the Bose in my old 350Z. I strongly reccomend it as a cheap upgrade that is removable after all is said and done. -Stevie

So, if one didn't mind losing the head-unit, upgrading it to something like the Pioneer AVIC and adding an amp would be better than, say, getting the Bose, sound-wise? Thanks.

Just leased a 07 base cayman with the "sound package plus", it's not great. Any slick way of hooking in the mp3 wihout a bunch of wires? I would like a low tech solution to some better sound..........thanks

I think low-tech you might consider one of the FM stereo integrators. It certainly won't improve the sound, but it'll get your iPod hooked up. That's about the easiest solution I know. I think I'm going to downgrade to the sound package plus so I can do the after market AVIC install. I'm not an audiophile and don't care as much about the sound quality as I do about iPod integration. The iPod integration with the AVIC systems is done and works and people (suneet?) have done AVIC installs on cars with the sound package plus without problems. So that seems the way to go.

I havn't done the AVIC install on my car, I've seen it done on a 2006 997 at a local stereo shop; and the connectors are all the same because the wiring diagrams I have for the 987 and 997 are the same. It's pretty easy to do. For a low tech solution, I'd try a Kensington FM transmitter, if that doesn't give you good enough sound, then hardwire a modulator in, only 3 wires, two antenna adapters and a power wire.

If you're willing to spend about $2500, www.reusaudio.com is the shop you should talk to. They are known to be one of the best when it comes to high end exotics and to fiber cable based electronics.

I'm planning to do a full reinstall as well. I'd have it done already, but I bailed on an AVIC-Z1, as the AVIC-D3 they released at CES suits my needs far better (Plus it's $1200 cheaper!!). As soon as D3s start showing up here, I'll get my install done and post pics, details, etc....

I definitely understand the price difference as being a good reason, but, just curious, are there features of the AVIC-D3 that you want that the Z1 doesn't have, or is it just that the D3 has all the features you want and the Z1 would then be a waste of money? Thanks!

I think I saw a post on installing the ipod in another disscusion group, I'll look there also. Do you typically power the Ipod from one of the power outlets, maybe the one on the passenger side. Is the FM stereo integrator you mentioned a docking station concept? AS you can see most of this stuff is over my head.

You should do a search for the product mentioned by suneet on Amazon or your favorite electronics site. It will discuss the features of that product. I've never had one so I don't know if they have charging options or not. I have an integrated solution from DICE in my M3 and it charges automatically (I think it has three settings).

Objectuser, Like Swancoat, I've been waiting for the D3 as well. IMHO the D2's screen and design (and button size) flow better and I like the dual optical drive set-up a little more than the hard drive set-up. I would've gone with the D2 but it lacked decent bluetooth and ipod support. The Z1 is a feature powerhouse, but I'm not someone who would ever rip music to their Z1's hard-drive and I think the huge screen and very little buttons look awkward. Also, since the D3 isn't a motorized screen, it's much easier to make a very flush plate to go in front of and around it to make it look more OEM for the car... I just hope we can get some of that volcano gray paint. If you get an FM transmitter (wireless), most products will charge the ipod as well, and they plug in to the 12v socket in the car. The wired FM modulator is hardwired but doesn't have a charging solution built in to it, you have to get a separate charger and plug it in the 12v socket. You can buy the Harman Kardon Drive+play which gives you a joystick, screen, charging solution and wired FM modulator all in one system (plus the wired FM modulator accessory). That system will allow you to hide the ipod in a glove box and let it charge while you use the joystick and screen for control. If you want to have a "dock" in your car, you can get a plastic dock from 2point5.com (spec.dock), and wire it in with an FM modulator (+charger) or the denison unit, but typically this product goes in the ash-tray spot and is a little awkward to access on our cars. - SS

Do you have any info on the NEO or Solisto? The later seems easy enough to install. It says that it plugs into the existing CD Changer cable located in the front trunk. It uses typical USB sticks for music storage. I was searching the NEO page and it was not clear if they offered a Cayman interface

Solisto's solutions seem to stop at older Becker radio's such as the cdr-22. Denison has long made ipod adapters for these older Porsche radio's because they dont use the MOST-fiber bus that is so expensive to develop products for. In fact, I'm surprised Denison actually took on and completed their venture to bring digital aux-in functionality to Porsches. I'm finding Neo's web presence to be a little hard to navigate, but I'm sure they also have the same issue with the MOST-bus incompatibility. I wanted to post this picture of another avic-z1 install I found in a Boxster done by Al & Ed's Autosound located in Costa Mesa, CA. They were featured on TLC's show Rides, and I've made an attempt to contact them asking how they got the interior trim panel to match so well. - SS

Also, Suneet, that link doesn't work, and now you got me all curious about that matched panel.

Also, I hate to be the bearer of bad news... but the D3 has only a SINGLE optical drive. (remove CD, load nav disc, map route, remove nav disc and replace CD...) This isn't an issue for me, as the high speed iPod interface should keep me covered, but I can see it being an issue for some people.

Swancoat, you're right I saw that... I just didn't bother to change the post, you nitpicker . I don't care that much about the loading thing, I'm used to doing it in my dad's Cayenne which has the older cd based PCM. The link works fine over here... let me put it on my own server though... - SS

Well, now that we've fully hijacked into a D3 thread... Seems like everyone is pretty interested in the Bluetooth functionality. What I really want is for my installer to forgo the included mic and use the Cayman's built in mic for the PCM and tap THAT for the D3. (Little screens on either side of the steering column). Anyone have any thoughts, or knowledge on the viability of this? Please say it's not tied into the MOST system or some damn thing.