True. Never trust an audio company that will not publish the freq response of the equipment they sell! That's what they told me when I contacted them. That said, my ride has Bose. Doh! Next time it will be different!

 

That's what step 5 is for: Source set to AUX with nothing attached == Audio permanently off

 

Agreed. I was overcome with all the other features of the car to take note when I purchased it. After the second day and doing some reading online... I thought to my self, "crap, i hope I don't have the bose setup". Opened the door and... yep. Oh well. Next time!

 

Even worse, the Bose "upgrade" also gave us that hideous XM radio wart on the back, yet no online access whatsoever. This is really the most shocking part to me. A $120k car without either online access nor updates. I really wish someone had hacked the PCM already

 

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm surprised my car came with just the base head unit and the bose setup. I don't have nav, sat radio, ipod interface, bluetooth, or the CD changer! Why would you pay the extra for the bose crap but not get all the other useful options!!!! To add all those back in is rediculously expensive and I have to deal with bypassing the BOSE amp. It is like I have the absolutely worst combination. Stripped down radio with crappy fiber optic connected amplifier. I don't want to gut it, but it seems like my only option.

 

Guys,
I think the Bose system can be made to be decent. First step is to stop excitation of resonating frequencies from rattling parts. I am brining my car back to the dealer on Wed. Last week I spent some 'quality' time with the maintenance manager listening to playback of track 1 of the test disc I mentioned in my posts. It was obvious that something was either broken or loose inside the driver's panel. The passenger response was good enough. So, this Wed, the dealer will disassamble the driver panel and with the feedback provided by the test CD, they will diagnose and identify the problem. Once this is fixed, I plan to re-measure frequency response and determine next step.

 

http://www.stereophile.com/features/338

Track 1 - Play it loud...should be distortion free on both channels. If something is loose or rattling, it will help you localize the source.

 

My car also had Bose. The stereo is a Piece of ****. I had a B&O in the car I traded in and the stereo was excellent. Thank God for the sound of the engine.

 

Sorry, but if you have a North American/US car you have NAV and Bluetooth. They are standard equipment in ALL 2012 and later 991s.

 

Shumi, any updates?

 

You can get rid of the bass bias by activating 'Linear' under the options menu. I've tried that out by accident and found it less bass oriented, with clearer high frquencies.

Not that I would think a car - any car, that is - represents an audiophile friendly environment....

 

Dealer used the track from the CD to find the source of rattling while playing bass-heavy music. The adjustment button seems to be loose...repalcement coming from Germany.
We can stop the rattling by literally pushing down on the button. Right now I have it taped down with great improvement. Arrival Time for replacement part is ~ March.

 

This seems to be a common issue so far. My car was having the noise on the passenger side in the same general location. The dealership was commenting on other customers having the same problem.

 

Linear is definately the way to go..also, for best staging I highly recommend changing the fader setting to +1 (shifted towards the front).

 

Glad you had the CD, and found the source of the rattling. Great work!