The other day Shane and the crew at Del Rey Customs hooked me up with the Focal ISN100 and ISS200 speaker swaps and we put Dynamat Xtreme in the doors for good measure. I work a few miles from their shop so they did a pro turnkey installation for me in a few hours.

As others have noted, the vastly superior drivers completely transform the stock Bose system with much better clarity and detail, punchier mid-bass, and higher volume levels without nasty distortion/clipping. I can literally turn the volume all the way up now and the system sounds really good.

Working with DRC could not have been smoother and I can definitely recommend this upgrade if you're unsatisfied with the stock system and don't want to go all-out with a full head, amp and speaker project.

I may DIY a sub driver upgrade next as the Bose box is definitely a bit muddy but for now it gets the job done.

 

Glad to hear it! Wait until they break in a bit! You would definitely appreciate the sub driver switch and it's pretty easy. Only costs $50.

 

So I did just order the Dayton DC130B's to try in the sub box. Is that an easy DIY and is there a writeup somewhere (maybe in this ginormous thread itself)?

 

Thread #388. Piece of cake, but use a drill driver or you'll kill yourself getting the 30 screws out of the sub. There is no special sealant holding the shells together, so reasonable force will gradually pull them apart. Good luck!

After you get them, you'll note that the bass response has gone down a fair amount. They need a fair amount of time to break in. Great combo with 8's in the doors for nice tight base and plenty of it. If you like your bass heavy and boomy, it may not be the solution. Definitely worth a try - let me know how you like the results.

 

According to Porsche/Bose, the enclosure is 14 liters, which is about .49 cubic feet. Considerably more volume than the prior estimate, although far from huge. I wonder how those calculations work out. Considerably lower than 70 Hz. The volume numbers seems about right.

 

cheapo alert: could I get away with replacing the door subs and tweeters with the Focal ISS 165 set and the mids with a Focal IC 100 pair and then just crank the fader to the front? I'm also aware that I should disconnect the center speaker if I do that (though it sounds tricky). I'm interested in doing this mod myself and I don't want to take on the challenge of the rears.

 

Nice try. Since there are 2 drivers sharing the same space, the volume used in the calculating the response curve is divided by 2. So we're now talking 0.25 cubic feet and a ballpark -3dB response of higher than 71Hz.

You just can't get achieve undistorted last-octave bass at a usable sound volume with 5" drivers. You can't cheat physics.

 

Amazingly detailed - thank you for adding such a content rich post!

 

Nope. You can't use the fader because you will also turn off the subwoofer! Try it now.
Instead you could disconnect the rears. Remove the cover, one screw and they come off. The rears are not that difficult given that you can install them without removing the rear panels.

Also, I really would not recommend 6.5s for the doors. They really don't compare to using 8s.

 

Thanks for the classification. Not sure how my system is generating bass, perhaps from the 8s in the doors. Still wonder if another driver choice would be better in the subwoofer.

 

3 reasons:
1) The cabin response of the car interior adds maybe 12dB/octave of bass boost. So, if your anechoic chamber response (the one you calculate) is -12dB at 40Hz, what you hear in the car will actually be "flat" down to 40Hz. Pretty good.
2) You don't need flat, undistorted bass down to 20Hz to subjectively hear good, punchy bass.
3) Yes, the two 8-inchers help.

Honestly, there will probably be an improvement in bass if you upgrade the drivers, but it's difficult to predict without trying it.

 

My Dayton 'subs' arrived today so I'll try to get them in the car over the weekend.

I figured I should remove the Bose logos at this point...

 

Very good, thanks. Bass down to 40Hz is quite decent indeed.

I just really like the system with this configuration. Not sure I'm going to bother messing with it anymore. Everyone loves more bass of course, as long as it is quality bass!

 

Nice!
The shielded version of the speakers are on sale for $20!

 

were if i may ask?