Datawiz

It's all relative. If you've heard better then it sounds pretty lame. My '02 Lexus GS430 had an awesome Mark Levinson system. It REALLY puts the vette to shame. I miss that stereo, but the Bose in the vette gets me by. I don't want to give up the factory NAV so I'm stuck with it.

shopdog

Except for the thumpers in the doors, the C6 doesn't use powered speakers. Unlike earlier Corvettes, there are no separate speaker enclosures either. The speakers are just stuck in cutouts in the body. (There's actually nothing wrong with that, infinite baffle design, but Bose used to crow about their specially designed enclosures to divert attention away from their poorly designed drivers.)

The door "twiddlers" (Bose's term), the rears (wired mono), and the center dash speaker (also fed mono) are just ordinary cheap 4 ohm paper cone speakers. The thumpers use cheap built in Class D amps that don't even have an output inductance to remove the switching transients. They depend on the poor frequency response of the thumpers to work. Note that the thumpers aren't musical, ie they displace air to create a thump, but they don't accurately reproduce bass notes.

The 3 channel 23 watt per channel Bose amp itself isn't high fidelity. It has a 12 dB per octave rising response (probably in an attempt to compensate for the fact there are no tweeters in the system). There's also a huge gap in the audible frequency response of the whole system between the midrange and bass, which makes male voices sound muddy.

The rears and the dash speaker are fed mixed mono, which badly trashes the stereo soundstage. There are no real tweeters, just overdriven 3.5s that make high notes sound shrilly distorted due to cone break up. Etc. In summary, the $800 Infinity system in a 1998 Dodge pickup truck has better fidelity. Much better.

Note that the base radio (non-Bose) does have the rears wired in stereo. But otherwise uses the same crappy speakers, which couldn't cost GM more than $2 each, even if they bought them retail from JC Whitney.

The HUs, either Siemens or Denso depending on which options you get, are pretty decent, and have 4 channel output. But the 3 channel Bose amp and the cheesy speakers are crap. Even very inexpensive upgrades will make the system sound much better.

I replaced the Bose amp in my car with an inexpensive 50 watt 4 channel amp, replaced the speakers with inexpensive Eclipse component speakers, rewired the rears to be stereo, and eliminated the center dash speaker. While still not an audiophile system, it sounds so much better than stock. There is now a well defined stereo soundstage, highs are crisp, and the gap between midrange and bass has been filled.

With the 10s gone, there is no ghetto thump, but for those who like that, a separate powered sub could be installed in the rear. (Originally, before I tore out the entire Bose system, I had a small Clarion sub in the back to add musicality to the bass. But after the other upgrades I did, I removed that as unnecessary.)

I probably spent a total of about $500 upgrading the system, including some trial and error. I paid retail, buying in unit quantity. If GM were to use the same components stock, the total cost wouldn't exceed $200 at wholesale in bulk, probably considerably less. That's likely less than the licensing fee they're paying for Bose's name on the doors.

webdzynes

Good post. Made me wonder however who pays who for the promotion. Would Vette pay Bose for the name inclusion (and logo on speaker panels) or would Bose pay GM to have the bragging rights of being the one selected to go in the vette and have the right to place their namesake there?

fastgts

Thanks for the info, shopdog.

Ken

vetracer

My gripe with the Bose is that the XM input isn't as loud as CD or FM. Since the original post related to using a CD, it probably sounded fairly good. There was a thread that forum member Ted G posted a few months ago where he talked to a Denso engineer and if my memory is correct the line level input for the XM was lower than that of the FM or CD, something that was overlooked by those who designed the system.

shopdog

Bose makes their money by licensing their name. They don't actually build much of anything for cars. God only knows which mud hut the speakers bearing their name come from, and the trashy amp is stuffed with third world parts. All Bose really has to sell is a reputation, and high end audio people have always known that reputation isn't good. Bose has always been about fooling the ear with cheap parts. They've never been about high fidelity sound. That's why their marketing agreements with retailers won't allow their home systems to be setup where you can A/B them against good quality stereo systems. If they were, you would hear how far from high fidelity they actually are.

Lazerwolfe

Depends on the day.

archtop

And the amount of alcohol consumed,

rrobert22

The stereo in my 2004 grand cherokee sounds better than the stereo in either my C5 or friends C6. BlOSE is known for "all highs and no lows", this does not mean that the highs are high quality, as they are typically laden with distortion. I have not found anybody that when demonstrated the difference between a high quality audio system and BOSE has not seen the difference. If you think their auto stereos are a rip off you should look into their home theater systems where they charge thousands for cheap paper speakers, and poor quality amps with pathetic sound reproduction. Look into any of the audiophile forums for the inside story on BOSE. They spend huge amounts on advertising. Note that these are not just snobs who debate esoteric differences in 70$/ft audio cables, but these guys/gals will admit when a cheaper product has good sound. BOSE is just the opposite.

2K14C7

Chrome trim rings on the control ***** is about it.

sjreeh

Whats the name of your album & group?

lager99

You've obviously never spent even a minute in a high end system...and your son's system wouldn't count. I have never seen Bose in a car audio competition, not that they don't possibly make high end product, but I've never seen it.

A high end system creates an equalization across the entire sound stage...from unaudible bass to pin drop treble. If your system is not balanced, you don't win..and a system can be VERY loud with all of this possible. When i competed pro I had a perfect score on the RTA and still hit 140db.

You should be able to close your eyes and see every instrument of an orchestra or band, not tell the bass is coming from the rear; bass is undirectional.

The C6 plays music, it's fairly loud...I certainly wouldn't call it "quality sound reproduction".

Lazerwolfe

lager99 vs. guitarstar: whose opinion should I trust? Sound off!

self1

shopdog.

read post #42

lager99

= Bose is teh suck.

Jbal

Love the audio system on the C6!
Although I admit, I am not an expert audiophile.
Just my 0.02 cents.

sjreeh

Personally I think the Bose system sounds okay except that max volume is not even close to what it should be.

Vette5.5

You've actually touched onto something here. Bose is a supplier to GM and everything is brought in at a cost. As far as Bose high end, there really isn't such a thing. Bose speakers are not marketed to the high end audio market. They manufacture innovative speaker designs for the mass market. Bose is a household name, mostly due to their large marketing budgets, reflected in high product margins. If you like Bose, thats fine. There are several article's mentioning Bose doesn't publish equipment specifications, because their target maket(non audiophiles) aren't interested in them. I really enjoy accurate music reproduction and don't think much of Bose's hyped up boom box sound, but understand It's market. I have Bose in my Vette and have added some tweeters to help it out, but don't use it much any way. I'm more into the cars mechanical music. Probably the biggest gripe would be, if the Vette is a premium car why not have a real premium audio option, instead of a mass marketed brand. The reality is, the supplier price problem. It might just be little more than an emblem on the speaker grill any way. If you really want excellent audio in your car, the aftermarket is the only choice. As for me, along with many. I don't want a non OEM unit in my Vette's dash.

JmpnJckFlsh

Something is definitely going on here...my system and another that responded are very loud at half scale. I can't imagine EVER needing the entire volume scale. Do you think the convertible is set up differently because of the top-down noise?

JR_C6