BTW, the majority of us back then agreed that Bose car audio is substandard compared to other stock car audio setups and the majority of people agreed that, although Bose home stuff is decent, its still overpriced and substandard compared to even cheaper home theater/speaker setups.

Bose does great marketing to convince the public that paying more for speakers or components translates to superior sound quality and that a cool looking cube system is great for home theaters...

 

I had a Bose system in my 1995 Q45 and it sounded just fine. Not as good as the Nakamichi in my Lexus SC400, but perfectly fine nonetheless. But the Bose system in the G35 bears no relationship to either of these. It just sounds strange. And because a big part of the problem is the EQ in the head unit, there's no easy fix. I took mine to Sound Advice in Mission Viejo, CA and would highly recommend these guys to anyone in SoCal.
In my opinion, the Bose home units do not stand up in side-by-side comparisons with ordinary systems costing much less. Notice that they are always displayed solo -- never anywhere where you can do an A/B. The marketing is outstanding, however.
Bose seems to sell most of their merchandise via magazines and TV ads, to people who are afraid to go into a Good Guys.

 

The EQ in the head unit does stink, but I was able to do some adjusting with my amplifiers to help compensate for the horrible HU. I would eventually like to replace the HU on my car and go with a REAL Clarion (been a Clarion Fan for years) but I am waiting for Clarion to come out with a HU that will play DVD+/-R. Like I said in my original post about BOSE, the one nice advantage that they have is how user friendly their home systems are. Great for someone who is intimidated by electronics. It's funny when people come over to my house and try and watch TV. You need 3 remotes just to turn it on
For the average Joe who doesn't really car about high quality sound, just wants something to listen to, the BOSE system in our caars is fine, however I don't think that Infiniti should consider it a Premium System. I haven't listened to the stock g35 stereo, how does that sound compared to this so called premium system? My mother bought an I30 when they first came out in '95 and that was when BOSE really started to make the push to get into car audio systems. Her car didn't sound half bad, that is until I built a system in my '98 Dakota.

 

What if I replace the HU... I heard the HU is the thing that makes the whole system suck... I wanted to put in the Kenwood 7015... or 7017...

 

You can replace the HU but it takes time and a little for money that most cars do to the whole DD conversion. If you are for sure going to buy the car, In a week or so, I'd go ahead and order the parts for the conversion now, because it does take a couple of weeks because of the fact they are coming straight from Japan.

 

Going slightly off on a tangent, but I checked out the new sound dock for iPods that Bose makes. Its okay I guess, but I think the little JVC sound stage I bought is way better (and cheaper).

Okay, back on topic... I like the Bose system in my car, although I do notice the bass is not as impressive at higher volumes. I would look into buying a box with 2 decent size subs (maybe 10"), but it probably will take up my precious little trunk space I have.

 

The stock Bose HU in the '05 sounds fine if hooked up to an aftermarket amp powering better speakers. The only problem is that it does not keep memory of your settings that a few people have noticed. After having driven a loaner car without the Bose setup, the standard sound system does sound better to me. It's strange but the music was clearer than a Bose equipped car.

If you were to replace the stock HU, you will eventually have to replace the stock speakers too. They're made of cheap cardboard/plastic materials that won't last with an aftermarket HU or amp. It will sound good for a while until the stock speakers wear out and sound flat. Do yourself a favor and replace the speakers and amp first, then a HU.

 

rcdash - I appreciate your defense of the Bose system - but I disagree about the "correstion" in the electronics. A sophisticated frequency response correction algothrithm can do wonders (look at the upcoming SOCS system for the Perpetual Technologies P-1A digital interpolation engine), but the Bose systems don't do anything sophisticated. All they do is adjust the basic bass and treble balance and toy with the crossover design to TRY and flatten out the FR from their junky parts. As many Bose owners will tell you - it doesn't work very well. They just pump up the bass, then pump up the mids even further to try and compensate... yech.

I love audio, and fully admit that a car is a TERRIBLE listening enviroment (that's why I have a nice stereo at home and a stock car system), but the Bose system isn't really doing anything to make it up. I wish that it was possible to do a side by side comparison of the Bose setup and the stock stereo - I'm willing to bet that the Bose system isn't really preferred in a blind test!

 

If you do one thing to mod a G blose stereo, that should be to get rid of the crappy components in the doors. They are such poor quality, there is nothing even a great HU and amp can do to make them sound good. This was the first mod I made with my sytem, and it made a quantum leap forward in terms of performance.

I stuck with the stock HU in the end, because I got to a point, ($2,000+ later!) where I was very satisfied.

 

man, i didn't know that bose suck that bad.......now i have to rethink, maybe i should replace them speakers and upgrade.....what are good replacement??

 

Something must have changed from the 04 to 05 speakers... I remember listening to radio on the 04 at volume 9 or 10... now I have tu crank it up to 14 to get the same volume level as I did on the 04 when I had it on 10. Im not much of a sound fan, much less of a car dismantling. I barely set my volume level to 14 so I guess stock BOSE is all I need.

 

its all preference i think....sure if u like bose? good for u....if not? well good for u 2

 

well i not going to be blasting this system and setting off the car alarms around me... i just want somethign that plays decently... not sh|tty.. but idk, normal maybe

 

Bose does not make our stereo systems guys. Clarion does. Clarion made it per the specs of Bose and that is all. This is why the systems do not sound like Bose. They don't have real bose components, but Clarion components.

 

oh... how bout home systems? that clarion too or bose?