haha, I noticed that too but people will resurrect old post without realizing it. They search for 'Bose' then reply w/o looking at the post date. I don't think it's that bad, a lot better than the HK system in my Benz. I'm surprised by the couple of replies that they like the HK system better. Nothing will beat aftermarket. I used to be a huge car audio guy back in the mid 90's, when speakers were made out of paper. Car audio has gotten a lot better.

 

I'm glad the post got resurrected or I would never have known my BOSE cd player could take mp3 cds.

Argh! All this time I've been swapping out CDs (no ipod connection in my 08 997.1 C4S) instead of just creating 100 song list mp3 cds from my itunes collection.

Burning a disc right now to go try it!

 

The Bose system adds $1200 to the price.

What I'm curious about is how the OP got a barebones C2S up to $105. I just ran the numbers for a C2S with nothing but PASM and got $87,500. Besides Bose, you should probably tell us where you're spending the rest of that $17,500 because I would list a passable sound system along with comfortable seats as the two essentials for having affection for any car that must carry you through those automotively terrible hours between exciting drives -- like traffic on the way to your favorite mountain road or race track.

Honestly.

Gary

 

Note to self: Check the damn Date-Time-Group before banging on keyboard.

 

i like the bose, sounds great even with the top down.

 

The sticker on my 996 Turbo X50 was $150k. Yeah the X50 added 18k, but the rest of it was appearance and comfort options. Stitching, aluminum trim, crests, nav, disc changer, painted to match Turbo logo, and lots more. It adds up quick! That's about $20k in appearance options on my car.

 

Oh, it certainly does. I think our own car has about ten k in appearance and comfort options. My question was prompted by the OP saying he wanted to configure a "bare bones sports car" and then complaining that he was having trouble getting the price under $105k. That one I configured was an S with PASM which isn't really bare bones as a starting point.

I think a serious attempt to build a bare bones Carrera would come in around $75 tops. All the prices I'm talking are at market obviously, not 'suggested' so it could be the 'market' was a lot higher five years ago when he posted that original note.

Gary

 

In a word, no.

 

I have found the upgraded Bose system in my '09 one of the better factory spec'd systems of any Bose-supplied car I've owned. The last one I had was in a C-6 Corvette and the Bose system in these cars was universally hated. Trust me, it was worse than the stereo in my wife's Dodge truck. However, it's hard to blame Bose for everything we think is wrong with their systems since they design their products based on the car manufacturer's requirements; no more, no less. Be thankful that Porsche has higher audio standards than GM.

 

Bose is smoke and mirrors! Just extra midbass that makes you think it sounds good. It gets very tiring to listen to, and all tunes sound alike. Stock sounds way better. Waste of money in MHO. Google it. Poor quality product with a great marketing team behind it.

 

Ah well, to each his own opinion. I've never had a quality problem with a Bose system and I always find their sound acceptable, which is saying something since they've always been in cars that are acoustically challenging. To say the least.

Gary

 

The STD stereo in the 997.2 is quite good. Wide-range, dynamic, quite musical. Rather than discussing Bose, just listen to the STD and see if you like it. I do.

 

Gary,
you are right.. To each his own.
As an avid audiophile I will never consider any Bose products as a good quality audio system.Do some research and you will learn that the materials they use are just cheap, mass produced, and how they trick an average listener into believing that it sounds realistic, good, refined or whatever you wanna call it.
CZ looks like a diamond but it is NOT a diamond.

 

Right on!

 

Well, I especially will not deny an enthusiast his opinion on his topic of enthusiasm. That notwithstanding, please consider my perspective. I have an excellent audio and video set up in the living room with a comfortable chair at the sweet spot. In my sports cars... well, in the first place I'm distracted by the lovely engine sound and the opportunity to stir the transmission periodically. In the second, simple prudence dictates I pay some attention to the other cars. Meanwhile, I'm making noises entirely out of sync with the music and the drive train is contending for acoustic energy transfer with the speakers. Contending quite effectively in the case of sports cars.

I seriously doubt I could tell the difference between a CZ and a diamond in the middle of a fireworks exhibition. Something that looks like a diamond is quite adequate in that situation. I'm not an audio engineer, but one of my guys at JPL was in that specialty. When fancy audio systems began to gain popularity, he gave me a long lecture I'll spare all of you that amounted to this. "If Bose can find a way to make it sound like I'm hearing decent music in the ****pit of an M3 crossing the Angeles Crest and also make the components light enough to suit a Germanic hot rod, then I ask nothing else. I do my serious listening at home and in concert halls."

The smoke and mirrors of a Bose high-end system are evident during set-up, at least to a computer engineer, but they are the whole point of the exercise you see. The environment is acoustically terrible, so the only hope is make my ears perceive something acceptable. Whether it really is what we would consider well-reproduced music in a better environment makes no difference. In fact, the real thing to me -- good sound reproduction that is -- is nearly intolerable because the background keeps crapping all over it and you skip backward to replay passages you missed when the engine passed five thousand leaving that stop sign. And so forth.

Someone who really wants high quality sound on the road should buy a Bentley or its ilk and pay an expert to tune the system for his seat in the back -- which they are to acoustically isolate from the tawdry rude noises made by the driver in negotiating traffic. Because even in a Bentley, you can't drive properly and listen properly at the same time.

You really cannot match a home audio system in a car designed for sports car performance. I have heard that the Lexus and some Audi systems are superb, but they don't offer the driving experience my Carrera does. I'm happy.

Incidentally, I know ADias agrees with the keep-it-simple approach. The reason we differ on ordering the high-end Bose system is that I don't want the simple direct good sound of the basic system. It is an honest if naive "good fellow' if you like. What I want is a charlatan. I want to play around for a few weeks after I buy the car, arranging for smoke here and positioning some mirrors over there, creating an acoustic imposter that masquerades successfully as pleasant music while I'm driving.

Gary, who understands that others will disagree
but he wouldn't spend $3k for an audio system
in anything that moves except perhaps a yacht