Well, I'm totally disgusted. After replacing the front door speakers with decent ones... after replacing the Bose "amp" with a real amp... after much tweaking and hand-wringing, I finally did the right experiment. I took a boom box and played a CD straight into the amp in my trunk. Guess what? It sounds great! Nothing like the garbage Blose P.O.S. in the dash.

I love my car, but had I know it was going to cost $3000 to make the stereo acceptable (and I don't mean "rocking the block", I just mean "pianos sound like pianos"), I wouldn't have bought the car. I had a mid-80's GM Cavalier that had a better stock sound system...

God I'm pissed.

Anyway, try that experiment if you've added an outboard amp and a battery-powered music source. Yeah, you may have to go to Radio Shack and buy a headphone to RCA adapter. Worth the $6 to find out. (Incidentally, DO NOT try this with an AC powered device. You'll get a screaming amount of feedback, due to a lack of common grounds. You have been warned.)

I think the folks posting about adding an equalizer are on the right track. The Blose head unit clearly isn't flat, as my experiment will readily demonstrate. An equalizer might fix it, at the expense of loss of signal-to-noise ratio.

As for me, I'm going to scream bloody murder at Infiniti, and buy the double-DIN kit.

Pertinax

P.S. And why isn't the sunglasses holder actually big enough to hold sunglasses???

 

Did you actually take the bose amp out? or did you just a LOC from the bose amp outputs? I replaced my Bose amp. and its very flat now.. And yes im also convinced that the Bose is nothing more than an EQ for the fronts and an amp for the subs only.

"Dont start none, Wont be none"

 

I have LOC's from the HU, then an Alpine amp. It is NOT flat. It's about as unflat as you can get. Still has the screechy highs. I measure a high/low spread of 17dB between 250 Hz and 6K Hz. Then it drops about 20 dB at 10K and above, measured at the driver's head position. Ugh.

In all fairness, I am a bit of an audiophile, but I'm just trying to get it to sound decent-- not perfect. Right now, it's unlistenable, and makes me cringe everytime a female singer makes an "s" sound.

I'm going to try a 30 band EQ before I shell out for the double-din kit (though I suspect I'll still end up doing that).

 

Hmm, I dont know what to tell ya. What speakers are you running? Maybe if your tweeter has an adjustment on the X over you can tone that down? I would like to know what your results are with an EQ also.

"Dont start none, Wont be none"

 

Get the AudioControl DQS with DDC. Hook up your full spectrum analyzer and go to town. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

DQS: 31 band\6 channel digital eq with 2 band parametric +/- 12db 1/12oct-3oct per channel eq
DDC: Full in dash eq control

 

P.S. And why isn't the sunglasses holder actually big enough to hold sunglasses???

My sunglasses holder seems to hold my sun glasses just fine...I've heard other members complain of that, wierd....

 

...and those are hardly weird/strange/unexpected items to own.

The designers goofed.

 

Yea it may be cuz their Oakleys...Mine are Kenneth Coles, really thin...

 

Oakleys wont fit...not even the really small wire frame oakleys. I got them thinking "oh, these are much smaller than my old oakleys..they will be sure to fit"

WRONG

My advice: replace the headunit and take that blose amp into a field and shoot it repeatedly with a 30-06 rifle. I'm also a bit of an audiophile. I'm a DJ and I listen to house music. Before you start thinking "boom, boom, boom" and nothing else, i'll point out that my type of house is very intricate in the mid and high range and most of the bass is 80hz or higher...no ultra low "BOOM" like hip hop.

I fought and fought with the stock unit. Stock was under powered and tinny. Aplification and subs only highlighted that horiible fidelity. I tried an EQ but that seemed to only be able to adjust from a tinny source...it didn't get much better.

SO I ripped it all out, added a DVD/NAV headunit, EQ and replaced all of the speakers. Now it sounds perfect. WHen the rapidly decending piano chords from Miguel Migs' "24th street sounds" hit, you can hear every note...clearly!

 

The bose HUs definitely have EQing built in. It's a dynamic EQ - it changes based on the volume. I don't have any fidelity problems with mine (using Ven4 LOCs direct from the HU, to an Alpine EQ). I even tried the A/B test with my old Kenwood HU and there wasn't a worthwhile improvement in sound quality. I have a 2003, and I know the 2004 bose is a bit different (2004 sounds better with the stock speakers but perhaps that was due to some additional high boosting in the head?). And I'm a DJ too, there's plenty of house music that requires a sophisticated system to properly articulate.

I'm 100% satisfied with the fidelity now that I got rid of the bose speakers and amp. I just need to fix these damn rattles!