Bose Speakers

Well, still struggling with a speaker upgrade from the standard spec that doesn't cost the earth or require rewiring the whole car. Having seen a few Bose speakers on Ebay, I was wondering if anyone had fitted these and if they thought the improvement in sound quality worth the asking price? Does the Bose amp need to be fitted as well? Or is it back to the drawing board and aftermarket speakers at a custom hifi shop? Best suggestion I have had so far from a custom place is to fit good quality 13cm component speakers in the doors with the associated tweeter in the dash, ignoring the small 10cm dash speaker and rewiring direct to the new head unit.

Hi Tim. Fitting the Bose speakers only, will make very little difference to the sound quality, I tried it myself.

Hi, I had the standard set up in my car and I fitted Alpine plate speakers, they are if I remember correctly a 4" mid and 1" tweeter, set in one rectangle plastic plate. I cut the plastic plate to make it fit the hole left by the standard and fitted them with the standard grills. The cutting to shape is a pain but the sound was definitely improved, highs were defintely better (especially as the standard install doesn't have a tweeter, even though the grill leads you to believe it has) mids wre also much better and the bass was improved but there is only so much a 4" speaker can do. But a relatively easy and cheap mod to do. I believe the plates were 6" x 4" in size. Cheers Stu

Thanks. I had hoped I could get the Bose speakers and put them in, but they are still ten year old technology. Also there is only so much sound you can get form a 10cm speaker, changing the door speakers is perhaps a better option as they are larger.

I would also say that even a true/full Bose upgrade was perhaps not as good as it could be. A re-fit using another manufacturers components might be a better idea.

Thought about up grades too... Talked to Four at Ragley .... See it wasn't a total loss!! lol http://www.four-online.co.uk/products_overview.html Sticking speakers in a door is similar to sticking speakers in a cake tin. As was explained to me! Before you read further go and tap the skin of your door panel! -------------------------- Very flimsy huh!! So you need to "reinforce" this with "stuff" in order to get a decent sound from a speaker. Or you wasting your money! The guy I spoke to had around £3000 worth of kit in a 964 and it sounded fab!! Bit out of my price range ut I will be going to see one of there recommended fitters and chat about exactly what I want. My budget, etc. I know I know enough to be dangerous so I'm off too see someone who knows what works well and what doesn't! Hope that helps!! All I originally intended to do was wire in an ipod!! Then I started chatting .. Oh well!

I think I saw the same guy. Spoke to one of their fitters up here, Warrington way, after Ragley and he suggested a 13cm component kit, split between the doors and the dash, rather than struggle on with the 10cm units which are really too small for good depth of sound. He did mention cladding the door as well, although he did say something about cabrio's and lousy acoustics![ ] Anyway, still waiting for him to get back to me with a price...... Like you, just wanted a decent bit of sound, but it looks like minimum of £150 for good speakers, plus soundproofing plus some rewiring to route directly to the headunit and bypass the amp, so add a few hours for labour. Probably wouldn't see change from £400.

Hi All, Interesting discussions about the hi-fi stuff. I had a play in one of my old cars and putting in better quality speakers will make a difference and also the sound deadening material as well (watch out for the price of this though!!!). The one thing that i found was that good quality speakers do not give the best sound unless they are driven better i.e. use an amp. The amp is not just there to make it louder (which it also does if you want) but it is there to drive the speaker cone better and i noticed a significant improvement from top dollar speakers when i added an amp, rather than running direct off the head unit. They really come to life and sound so much better, even at low volumes. I know it bumps the install price up etc but IMHO it would be worth a little extra. After all, you can buy good quality amps at not a lot of money these days.... Ian

Thanks Ian. The problem really is getting decent speakers into these small spaces and how to wire it all up. A couple of guys have suggested taking the 13cm bass units out of the doors and putting in a good quality 13cm component there with the matching tweeter housed in the upper dashboard, so working as a pair. Then, driving these either direct from a good headunit or from a better amp. The problem is the 10cm speaker in the dash is not very good. A replacement will still only give so much depth of sound due to the size of it. However, I'm not an expert at audio wiring and the guys from Fourmasters still haven't bothered to get back, so I will have to find someone else in the north-west. Any recommendations?

Ian's advice is spot on. When you get the new 'speakers you have to make sure they are compatible with whatever amp you use. If the 'speakers are a 'difficult load' (ie low impedence and/or with wildly fluctuating impedence curve especially in the low frequencies) then your amp will 'clip' and you will get distortion at low volumes as the amp just can't handle them, damaging the 'speakers and sounding awful. It's not as simple as just buying a speaker with good reviews, they have to match the amp and each other. A good installer should advise you. Getting a more powerful amp will help, and some go so far as to have a power amp driving each channel (usually situated under the seats) with a seperate pre-amp. But then you enter a whole world of financial pain![ ]