After reading all the various threads trashing the Bose system in our cars, I thought I would take a moment and load an audiophile 24bit CD into the player and listen to it in the garage with the engine off.

I may be wrong but for a car system, it sounded pretty good to me. The voices were clear, crisp and with little distortion etc. I did not experience the rattles etc mentioned by others and I had the volume at different levels.

I may be an audio philistine. Sure it doesn't compare to the quality of sound from my home audiophile system (Naim) but for a car stereo, it is pretty damn good.

Am I missing anything? Or did my system get mislabeled at the factory? Would love to hear from other owners about their systems, good and bad.

 

I believe the more revealing test would be to test the system on the fly. It's much more difficult to get a good sound when there is competition with road and engine noise. Martin logan, Def tech, lexicon etc...

 

I too find that the Bose sounds great. I wonder if those who hate the Bose have not found the right settings. My iPhone music streaming thru Bluetooth sounds fantastic, I have tried rock, pop, classical, techno, and no complaints.

 

When I'm not downshifting or accelerating, I think my Bose system sounds pretty damn good. I'm a big music guy and I think it's a great system.

 

It's incredibly awful imo.

 

Would you care to elaborate?

 

There are a lot of people that trash Bose in general and without regard to the specific system being discussed. My first experience listening to anything Bose was in the 997 and I thought it was fine for a car compared to other car systems (mainly BMWs of all kinds) that I had heard. Could P have done better? Well of course they could have just like a lot of other choices they made- some very small, some pretty large. But it was what it was and I didn't see a need to replace it. I listen to music of all kinds a lot and on systems that are really "high class" and systems that are really "crap". So for those people that want to mod the audio system just like they mod anything else, more power to them. I do it on certain things with the car as well and life goes on.

The Burmester system is just flat out better than the Bose system in the 997 and 991. Is it worth the $ cost? Of course not. The component cost is no where near what they charge you but then again not much else is on the car either. So, as a matter of personal preference either system will work and either system will sound good. It is just like much else, one will just sound better.

If you have the Bose and it starts to get to you that you have a Bose system, rip the labels off and maybe you will feel better, Or replace it with something that sounds better than the Bose or the Burm. Or buy a whole new car with the Burm. Personally I would be happy with the Bose because it does sound pretty darn good and it is just ONE element of the P experience.

 

It is fine. Meets my wife's needs when she is riding shotgun. A bit boomy down low, but a car is a terrible place to judge low-end response (the freq wavelength is longer than the interior). Burm and big subs make an impact because they are higher compression.

Personally, I just wish it didn't have the little BOSE placards on the grill. Bose is all about marketing...and I am not of fan of marketing when quite is simply average.

 

Bose is well known for its design form but every audiophile knows it lacks clarity. Burmester is the much better setup, perhaps the best audio system ever put on a automobile as an oem, not aftermarket add on. Other system such as Bang & Olufsen doesn't come close in my opinion.

I opted bose for my car since they are not my main concern for purchasing 991. Sure it would have been nicer to have better audio system such as burmester but I have to draw the line somewhere to justified the purchase. I would seriously considered burmester if I were purchasing either panamera or cayenne.

Just to be clear, burmester is not the best audio system in the world, still far from what audiophiles are talking about. See here: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/arti...25k-and-above/

 

Martin Logan makes car speakers? Or do you have them strapped into the back seat?

I think we all have done the revealing test on the fly. Road/engine noise creates all kinds of conflicts. He was trying to isolate the sound without all that and found it's decent.

The noise would cause problems for Def tech, ML & lexicon too.

Macintosh, Sonus Faber, Rel

 

You're missing the point, I'm assuming Naim was used as a way of establishing credibility. No? Do you have Naim in your car? I don't believe they're in the car stereo business and I can assure you that Martin Logan and all are not. But you already know that. Bose is ok.The only thing we can hope for is clarity in a car system. Soundstaging doesn't exist and decent imaging is challenging at best in any car system. Bose speakers are only ok and their front end leaves much to be desired. Do you actually sit in your car with the engine off and listen to music? I don't, I listen to it while on the go and that's the way I judge a car system.

 

Naim was used to establish a baseline in terms of sound quality I have experienced outside of a car.

I left the 24 bit CD in and went for a drive today. Sound was clear and I had no issues and I really enjoyed the music. When I did switch to a regular CD, the sound was not quite as clear and crisp but that is stating the obvious. Like I said in my original post, to my untrained ears, the Bose seems to be a very decent car sound system. I guess in this case, ignorance is bliss?

BTW, the new Bentleys use Naim. http://www.whathifi.com/blog/can-in-...e-proper-hi-fi

 

Cheers

 

I went with the top of line audio system : PSE

 

...and I trust you were playing your system at 7600.