What might I be looking at for a overall sound upgrade on stock Bose system..?
speakers
amp
sub...

Have about $500, which i know is not a whole lot, but the sound is not very impressive at stock level..
thank you

 

I'm not an audio buff by any means but I'm sure you could get a nice little upgrade all around for $500...not including labor. Would you do the work yourself?

Am I the only one who thinks the stock Bose system is pretty solid??

 

The stock Bose was decent if you don't crank it to much but windows down mountain runs were its downfall for me ... Check the marketplace for some great deals , and honestly internet prices on audio equipment are very nice these days I built an entire Pioneer system brand new for under $900 I'm sure you can find a good system for your budget

 

The stock non-bose is better than the bose.

Anyway, start with this post that is at the top of the forum:
https://g35driver.com/forums/audio-v...-stock-hu.html

If you're up to replacing the headunit as well, check this one, also at the top of the forum (seeing a pattern?):
https://g35driver.com/forums/audio-v...urce-list.html

And if your pockets run deep, here's yet another post from the top of the forum you'll want to check:
https://g35driver.com/forums/audio-v...o-systems.html

 

With 500, I'd probably sound deaden the doors, trunk, and rear deck. Adequate sound deadening is usually the weakest link in these setups. It's amazing how just sound deadening(properly) a factory system can improve the sound quality. The processing in the bose eq/amp is also a weak link.

 

I'd put sound deadening second behind putting some properly amplified components in the front doors in terms of sound quality increase in our cars. If you don't have the bose amplifier, it'd probably come first in my upgrade order, simply because it lays a foundation for hearing everything better, ESPECIALLY when the car is in motion.

Remember, if you can reduce the noise floor, you're effectively increasing the perceived volume of whatever speakers/subwoofers are in the car. Adding decibels and sound quality up top costs more and more money the louder/clearer you want to go, but removing decibels of noise at the bottom has the same overall effect on how you hear your music (and is safer on your ears), it carries over to any future upgrades, and is usually cheaper to remove 6 decibels of noise (or more) than it is to increase the volume of the speakers/subs 6 decibels.