Bose w/Nav options
 

Been a while since I was here, I've moved back to Mississippi with my 370 and now it's time to start looking at sound options. I got the upgraded bose with the nav when I bought the car, little did I know that would be my downfall when deciding the stock sound was crap and I wanted more.

Now alot of you audio gurus have had a chance to check out the car in it's many forms, what would you guys suggest for upgrading sound. My biggest complaint right now would be that thing in the trunk they are calling a sub, as far as I can tell it's just a really pretty spare tire holder.

Since I use this as a DD I just cant bring myself to pull the spare tire, I have every type of insurence and road side assistance there is, but being stuck on the interstate at 5pm rush our traffic waiting 3 hours for the AAA guys to show up is not my idea of a good time.

I don't have a budget, but I do have a wife so try to be reasonable. I am not looking to win any competitions, just want some nice clean bass. In the Jeep I sold I just had 1 12" kicker with a 1200 watt amp, all the other speakers were replaced but no extra amps on them. That thing would rattle your head off. I'm looking for something about that strong, but cleaner hopefully. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I saw the zenclosure boxes and they look great, anyone got feedback on if you lose any of the little visibility you have from the rear window or if the box is low enough not to interfere.

Thanks
-William

So you did realize that the system lacks a lot. So I have a few questions for you before I start recommending things. What kind of music do you listen to? What are you looking to achieve from your upgrade? Are you afraid of losing your factory nav? How comfortable are you with taking things apart and finding wires to cut? After I get these answered I can start pointing you in the right direction.

Also are you comfortable with locating and drilling a hole threw the molex connector in your doors? The reason I ask these questions is the bose system is a big PITA to upgrade but it can be done as long as you take your time.

One more thing, you will not be doing any upgrades if you just upgrade your speakers. The bose system has a signal possessor that fades out certain things in teh music before the signal is sent to the speakers, so even if you jsut upgrade there speakers that will not help your problem.

I'm fairly comfortable doing mods and locating wiring. While I know as much about car audio as you happen to know about the layout of my house (yeah that little =) with decent instructions I'm fairly comfortable taking care of it. I dont mind drilling holes (as long as I know the location and why).

As for what I'm looking for, I listen to alot of everything. Anything from pop/rap/rock/techo.. really anything. I'm looking for something that has good sound quality but enough bass to where I can feel it nicely when it hits. Right now I think the highs in the car sound ok.. Not great but not horrible either.

Thanks for the quick response and for giving out your trade secrets

-William

Missed one question, I would rather not lose my Nav.

Alright now I can help you out a bit. Head unit I would look at a kenwood 6140 or if you are trying to keep your nav in tack get something like a alpine 9886 single din head unit. This will help you out very much as the bose system will be totally bypassed and you can start fresh.

Speakers

For what you like I am the same way a bit of everything. I would look at either a set of Image Dyanmics CTX 6.5 components.
CTX65CS - Image Dynamics 6.5" Component Speaker System

Or a set of Rainbow SLC's
SLC 265.25 NG - Rainbow SLC NG 6.5" 2-Way Component System

Both will give you clear sound for what you listen to.

Sub now if you are looking for a budget sub look at this kicker vx
06CVX10-4 - Kicker Comp VX 10" 1200 Watt Dual 4 Ohm DVC Subwoofer

If you want something a bit more SQ than I recommend the Image Dynamics Q sub
IDQ10V3.D4 - Image Dynamics 10" IDQ Version 3 Subwoofer

The sub box I highly recommend the Z enclosure as it works and fits very well.

Amp
There are a few ways you can go about this the best way is a small alpine 5 channel amp for everything.
PDX-5 - Alpine 5 Ch 600 Watt Digital Power Amplifier PDX5
Or you COULD run the speakers off the head unit but they would sound better with an amp.

And than run your sub off a amp such as this
T500-1BD - Rockford Fosgate Power Series Mono Amplifier

As far as wires you will need a kicker hyperflex 4 gauge wire and stinger rca wires also speaker wire you do not need anything thicker than 16 or 14 gauge, except a small piece of 12 gauge for the sub.
http://www.amazon.com/Kicker-05PK4-4...1748527&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-Pro-Ch...1748556&sr=1-3

Almost forgot the spacer rings for the speakers get them from z enclosure as well. Work well the biggest inside space is the ones I have gotten.

I am not doubting what you are saying (I am no expert) but why would BOSE put in a processor to degrade the signal? Are they doing that to protect the cheap speakers they use? Or are they just using a bad chip to save .50 on their system cost?

Nailed it right on the head. What it dose is it knows what the bose speakers are capable of handling and it looks at the volume and what is in the music and fades out what will make them distort. A normal system dose not do this.:shakes head:

Thanks for all the information and links, now to beg and plead with the wife to let me start buying. If anyone has a good link for how to make that work let me know haha.

Just so I'm clear on 1 thing though, just by replacing the head unit I've bypassed all the bose setup? Like I said I know NOTHING about how all this works, but I thought the reason you couldn't do partial bose setup was because bose runs on ohmz and everything else uses watts (and I could also be talking out of my *** here, forgive me if I am). If I am correct though does it not matter that the head unit is using watts after replacing?

Ahh this is a whole new world, sorry for all the questions.
-William

Welcome ot the world of car audio. LOL the bose used speakers at a ohms rating of 2 ohms if you were to connect those speakers directly up to your new head unit it would fry it. Yes you are bypassing the entire setup when you do this, also your nav will probably not come out of the speakers saying what to do and all anymore. "unless I find a way to integrate that I will look into that" Do not feel bad if you still are sketchy on some stuff. You will understand it soon.

If he replaces the bose stock unit wont he lose the function of his nav? or am i missing something

As I said above yes he will.

I've got the Bose system too (product of wanting leather seats) - but I don't have nav. I don't really care to have nav, but, I've already considered yanking the system and putting in something that has a lot more oomph to it.

It sounds better than any OEM system I've had, so to that end, it's not high on my list - lol...

Yes you can basically fallow the same steps he is doing as both bose systems are about the same.