Hey guys,

I have an '07 turbo with a Dension 500S BT, and I would like to make some moderate upgrades to the existing Bose system. I want to retain a stock look and therefore would like to leave the factory head unit in place.

I will be making a trip to my local car stereo place tomorrow, but I wanted to go in with some knowledge before they start feeding me potential misinformation.

Couples of questions - I have heard upgrading the front speakers is a good start, and that the rear (unless you frequently have passengers) is not as important.

I cannot find the exact speaker sizes/locations for the car, but would you recommend replacing both door speakers (ie. 4 total) and all three speakers on the front dash?

I know the system has a Bose amp. Does this power all speakers or only the subs? Is it important to either replace this amp or add-on to it? Do you have to replace or can you add-on?

Is it worthwhile to replace the subs or is it too much of a PITA for the gains?

Thanks again guys, just want to be informed going in before the salesman tries to sell me stuff that will only make a minimal difference.

Russell

 

This should leave you very informed. Don't believe everything you hear from your local stereo salesman:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...o-install.html

Happy to help with any questions you have after you check out my thread.

 

And when you want to be serious https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-complete.html and I agree with Ryem speak to us as we have experience with what works

 

Thanks for all the links guys. Is everyone in agreement that you should just disconnect the center dash speaker or does anyone replace?

Russell

 

Disconnect

 

Yes but. I just replaced the center speaker with another identical tweeter. Integrates perfectly and seems to improve the soundstage a bit. Rare case; I just bought a second set of component speakers to upgrade the woofers. The tweeters were icing on the cake and it just made sense to use one for the center.
Otherwise disconnect it. It will likely be much more efficient than the other tweeters and blare at you.

 

Great question.

I have thought the same thing. My question when I think of this operation, is "what damage am I doing to the car?" I thought of doing an install myself but, If I scratch one surface I would be constantly looking at it.

If you choose to do this, be careful on the personal that does the conversion. Converting from "bose" to a standard stereo requires many panels to be removed and additional wiring.

 

Just be careful. Chances of damaging a surface are actually pretty low. And a speaker conversion doesn't require any additional wiring.

 

I know that you want to keep the PCM but some of the new double-din units are so good that one would never miss the old school pcm user interface. I've just got the Kenwood DNN990HD installed with JVC amp and it is really good with wifi connection, email/sms reading capability, voice comments, 3-d gps maps, very useful online apps, etc. The large screen looks very close to the look of the original dash and when it is fired up, the screen is so cool. I had to pay for installation by a professional shop but I wouldn't be able to make it look this good myself.

 

So how much was it?

 

The unit itself is ~$1100 and with the installation, it ended up being around ~$1500.

 

any installed pics ? rear camera ? you in LA ? who did the install ?

 

Wow, seems pretty miraculous. I see the unit is like $1400 and I know the MOST connection interface is like $600. installation doesn't seem bad, but it shouldn't take more than a couple hours for a pro to install. I went down the road of the budget install because these head units are $2000 plus and then you're playing them through the incredibly bad stock speakers. I thought you also mentioned an amp, so I guess you're in for another $500 more. Right?

 

I got it done at "Find It All Audio" (http://www.finditallaudio.com) at Korea Town in Los Angeles and they are really really good. The installers are with the same owner for 10 to 20 years so they know what they are doing. I chose this shop because they had the most Yelp reviews and the best Yelp reviews. I didn't have to pay for the amp because the car already had the amp when I got it (It would probably cost around $500 if I had to buy it). My installation took almost 3.5 hours with two installers working on it (the shop closes at 6pm but they stayed until 8pm to finish the job). I didn't get a backup camera installed for two reasons: one option is to install a wireless camera which I was told that it takes approximately 4 seconds for the wireless camera to get activated and by the time it is working, I would be done with backing up and the other option is to have a wired camera but I didn't want to have a wire installed all the way to the back of the car where the engine sits. After all 911 is not a large car that one feels the need of a camera to back up.

 

The rear camera is worth it and I had one installed on my alpine unit the wire doesn't go into engine bay at all and the camera definitely let's u see everything when backing up