Harlaquin

The perceived enjoyment of any audio system is of course subjective. To one it might sound like honey and to another it might sound like muddy water. But artificial? and no low end? Are you sure you have been in and listened too a premium system in the C8? Cause it can literally make the doors visibly vibrate and center the sound directly inside your skull as if it has no point of origin. All I know is after owning almost 37 cars in my life and being pocket picked for "premium" systems this one is hands down one of the best I have had in a car. Is it a audiophiles wet dream? probably not. Then again to an audiophile nothing is good enough and they will spend 20 / 30 grand or more trying to find perfection. but is it in the top of any other system in the class of car in its price range....... yes..yes it is.

Harlaquin

Its this thing that saves me space LOL I like to put 40k songs on a drive not 4 those FLAC files are murderously large LOL. but in reality I seriously doubt the cars system can adequately play a 1411 KBPS file any differently then it can play a 320KBPS file. Generally very expensive high end professional equipment is needed to even tell a difference. For most daily uses 320KBPS is more then adequate as most all streaming services barely go about 160 KBPS and most people think they sound great so any MP3 at 320 is more then double the rate and is more then enough for any car system.

Outlaw7

I agree. My Z4 M40i has a H-K system and it's much better than the Meridian in my last three Jaguars or the Bose systems I've had in other cars.

KCC8

this. My wife’s XC90 with the B & W is next level. Adjusting the settings is a PITA and cannot be done on the fly, but truly a great sound. Even my non-audio loving friends notice it.

thrilled

I have heard that it’s not good at all. With my age they all sound similar, That is probably the last reason that I bought the C8. I didn’t buy it for sounds. I guess I’m old fashioned. 14 speakers really?

Ken_C8

One fun thing I have noticed about the 14 speaker Bose in the C8 is that the "subwoofers" in the doors vent to the bottom of the door and if it's turned up pretty loud, my pant legs flutter.

Harry2

I agree, my music sounds great at 70 MPH with the HTC top down and in max Z mode exhaust volume, LOL!
Seriously, it does sound decent with the motor shut down and the music on for a few seconds before I open the door.

23/C8Z

Maybe vs the C8? But my buddy got the hybrid one XC90 whatever for his wife. 85k and we compared them with stereo in the wife's XT6 Bose concert whatever in there. I would say it's close but the Bose has more headroom and the reproduction was very similar. If you haven't sat in an XT6 and listened to the high end Bose in that car? Go do it.

His M8 system is good but again the newer Bose concert series I've heard so far is very good and definitely better than the system in that car as well. Maybe car vs suv.

C8forT

The C8 Bose system is good for those who like the bass loud and boomy, which probably happens to be most people. It is not so good for a critical listener that prefers an accurate frequency response, such as those accustomed to listening to high quality sound reproduction.

I found the best settings for me are to set the system to "normal" mode and drop the bass down 3 or 4 notches. It is fine for some music, but still is not very good at reproducing the vocals in some songs - the vocals sound suppressed. In some songs where the vocals should be front and prominent, they are drowned out to an extent. I especially notice it on some of the songs by Dire Straits and Chris Isaak, for example. In Chris Isaak's "Blue Spanish Sky" even the trumpet gets a little lost.

kbreese

Kinda like the Logitech 2.1 system I bought for my computer that had a big sub. It had great reviews, people loved it. It didn't last long at all before I gave it away and bought some JBL studio monitors to replace them. HUGE difference in SQ. Gone was the deep boomy bass, but it was replaced by clean, smooth, beautiful rich & accurate sound. Totally agree with you most people simply judge SQ but how loud it can play and how much booming bass their is. BTW, love Chris Isaak, and that song too.

C8forT

Yes. The majority of people want the audio system to be loud and to go boom, boom. And, the more speakers the better, right? That, to them, is high quality audio. GM/Bose designed the C8 audio system for those people, not for people who actually like accurate sound reproduction. Makes sense, though, since that probably is the vast majority of Corvette buyers.

That's also why Bose has been such a successful company over the years. There always have been much better sounding speakers at a fraction of their cost, but the typical consumer wants the artificial sounding boom, boom.

theclutch

I'm glad you like it. But clearly, you haven't heard much.

smb33076

who uses cd's anymore. everything is streamed by your phone!

Datawiz

I've had numerous Lexi and I like their Mark Levinson systems WAY better than the Bose in the C8. I'm still pleased with the audio in the C8, but it's far from "the best".

Majestic94

Anytime this topic comes up there’s always gonna be those that can swear they can’t hear a gnat fart in the Bose in a moving sports car over all the exhaust, traffic, wind and tire noise like they can in their home sound booth.

djkianoosh

In the 90's my brother got a new Lexus (forget the model) with a Nakamichi system in it, and it was quite awesome, at least that's how I remember it being a teenager back then.

I've had a Bose in my Audi and now in this one. This one is really nice and probably one of the better ones. Hard to say best though.

theclutch

Funny, that was just but one example that came immediately to mind. I'm still shocked at how great those systems were in a car! It also makes me sooo cringe each time people have the words "Bose" and "best" combined in any sentence that doesn't have the word "not" in it. But hey, if they like Bose, then great! Live and let live. If they are happy with the "blue" pill, then why should we mess with it. Otherwise, if they want to know better, the red pill would show them what "best" really would sound like and it will alter their perception forever.

LIE2ME

Guys, audio is so subjective. I don't think I would look down on most later automotive sound systems. Heck, the real soundtrack to a C8 is the car itself...

Majestic94

I think the whole Bose hate thing is what it comes down to. Audiophile snobs were taught by their peers a long time ago to hate on Bose, so even if it were the world’s best, it would catch flak from the Bose haters.

theclutch

I'm not a Bose hater at all and I have many of their products. Despite that, I absolutely recognize that they are far from the best for factory car audio. They're not even the best "bang for the buck" like the C8 is. I consider Bose to be the low end of the high end audio market. What they do have is a great marketing dept.

Just to give you an example, when I'm shuttling my kids around I am subjected to their music and them singing along to it. They have commented at how the singer's voice is sooo much clearer in the AMG's Burmester and Volvo's Bang & Olufsen compared to the Bose in the C8 and Porsche. These are 10 and 12 year olds hearing this difference. The Bose's bass is "boomy" and not tight like a drum compared to the others. Up until you hear these things back to back to back, can you only truly appreciate that this difference is not subjective. It's very objective. And then once you get to listen to truly higher end audio is when it becomes subjective.