Bose System Worth It?
 

hey guys, got an 05 coupe with Bose speakers. I really don't mind the sound quality however at higher volume it does get a slight distorted.. would a new head unit with an equalizer and after market amp help with this? Yes I know you cant compare Bose to aftermarket but if i can keep them without blowing more money that is preferred. Looking to get a new head unit and throw in my 12in sub and amp. Need some advice if I should look into new speakers, like I said I don't mind the Bose speakers, just wondering if a new head unit with an equalizer and amp will boost some power to them and help with quality.

A amp running your Bose speakers will clean up the distortion....

sweet, thanks for your response!

Bose system comes with an amp.. The stock bose is garbage, just put in aftermarket speakers..

The biggest difference will be your headunit, second get some good speakers. I have some Boston Acoustics and love them. I wanted to keep my stock HU and tried a few things but it was a waste of money. I have a Kenwood DX418 and LOVE it. You can get those for pretty cheap now.

Of the three components of the bose system (headunit, amp, speakers) the speakers are in the middle of where the blame lies.

The signal from the bose headunit is very clean, but is a differential-balanced signal, and the speakers are medium-quality. The amp is by far the worst thing. It's weak and introduces a lot of equalization to try and compensate for its weakness.

If you get an amp that takes differential-balanced signals (JL Audio all do this, there are a few others that also do, but it's not a common feature) to replace the bose amp, you'll get a pretty significant gain in quality. Once you have the aftermarket amp in there, you're free to chance out the bose headunit or speakers at your leisure. If you do not want to deal with finding an amp that takes differential-balanced signals or paying the JL Audio premium price, you'll want to do the headunit and amp at the same time to avoid the balanced signal incompatability.

I see you don't recommend the LOC option?

1. Line Output Converter (LOC). This device simply has speaker wires coming out one side and RCA jacks on the other. After splicing into the appropriate input wires coming from the stock HU, you will be able to connect the RCA jacks on the LOC to the RCA input jacks on your amp using a standard RCA interconnect cable. NOTE: If your amp does NOT accept differential-balanced input signals on its input jacks, you MUST get a LOC that is capable of converting the differential-balanced signals in the G35 to the standard single-ended signals the aftermarket amp is expecting on its input jacks. Soundgate makes an amp that does this.

no don't do a LOC unless you already have an expensive amp that doesn't accept it.

I'm leaning towards a new amp to go with the DD unit I'm putting in.. I'd like to keep the bose speakers (for now) -- like I've mentioned before I'm 95% sold on the avhp8400 (i want to play videos and have the usb/sd slots) -- which amp would you guy suggest? I'm just going for works well, inexpensive.

It's a hassle, but worth it. I installed a JBL amp and replaced my front speaker with Boston Acoustic separate components(enormous sound difference).
If you want to replace the rear speakers and the CD player(which eventually you'll have to do), it's an entirely different story, that's another couple grand but worth it.

I have a Rockford Fosgate Punch 600a5 in another car, I was thinking of bringing over.

Can't find any info on it, as it's way out of production.

A little google goes a long way.

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftec...ultich_MAN.pdf

Damn you, I did google! Only brought up a lot of shopzilla, epinions, nexttag., etc.

Even did a search on Fosgate's site.

Thanks tho, appreciate it.

I'll read the .pdf but I assume it's not a diff-bal signal amp?

I see that Balanced Inputs is - and not X :(

Bose is so over rated and over priced. Go after-market everything and it'll sound 5x better. Probably blow you away with the sound quality. Pioneer deck, JL amps.... NUFF said