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mfspen

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What do people think of the Bose sound system ?

I have it on my car, but have been a bit disappointed that it doesn't really seem to sound any better than the standard system I have had on previous Audis.

Maybe it's the acoustics of the Sportback, or the fact that the sound is being drowned out by the thrumming and buzzing from the tractor engine ;)
 
I've got it fitted in mine and love it. For a factory fit it's not bad at all, not as good as having an amp and 10" sub but a very good compromise.

I can even hear it over the drumming of that tractor lump up front!

Might sound stupid but have you had it cranked up for a while. speakers do get better with use. Ido have mine set with the bass at 6 and the trebble at 3. On the default settings it is a little flat.

J.
 
OK, I'll give it a try with some more welly.

I have spent an obscene amount of money on my domestic HIFi system, so it may be that my expectations are unrealistically high.
 
I wouldn't be without it... Mines set at Base = 5 Trebble = 4 I think. Sounds pretty good from where I'm sat, and like MB sez it drounds out the diesel tractor engine under the bonnet and most creaks and rattles you may have when cranked up!

But yes give it plenty of use and it'll get better with age.
 
I recently traded my 3 door A3 with standard concert 2, to a sportback with symphony 2 & Bose and noticed quite a difference.
 
I went for it on the basis of a compromise.

For the money you could get a lot better aftermarket kit, but I didn't fancy the idea of my brand new car being hacked to bits.

And it's not to bad a sound either, a little bit lazy, but not bad.
 
I think the worst aspect of the Bose sound for me, is the bass, which I find has a tendancy to honk away with the same note all the time.

However, this may just be an unfortunate resonance in the Sportback cabin, and maybe the 3-door is better.
 
mfspen said:
I think the worst aspect of the Bose sound for me, is the bass, which I find has a tendancy to honk away with the same note all the time.

However, this may just be an unfortunate resonance in the Sportback cabin, and maybe the 3-door is better.
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Believe me, it's no better on a 3-dr. The bass is totally muffled and lacking definition.

The only real advantage of taking Symphony and Bose is that you don't have to do a double DIN conversion and all the wires are at the back ready for an aftermarket install :wink:
 
mine constantly hisses at me and is no where near as good as the last cars stock system (Lexus) so I would rate it as average
 
The bose isnt bad but as has been said the subwoofer is quite slow and not much good with fast paced synthetic basslines.

It has been setup in traditional home Hifi style to sound flattering in as much as the treble and bass are pronounced but the mid range rolls off all over the place.

For £350 what do you really expect, at this price I dont think its that bad at all.
 
the Bose system to me sounds much better, but it all depends on the model to A6 and A8 seem to sound better..well that is my opion..My Allroad didn't have it and when I borrowed Dealers demo which had it what a difference.
Got it in the RS and it dose sound good......Sad ******* me would rather listen to the engine and exhaust...I know I'm sick but true!
 
I think it's time Audi wised up and started working with a proper In Car Hifi company. Bose are at best average in pretty much everything they do (including their Home HiFi). It is more a testiment to the standard system being pretty awful that makes the Bose upgrade sound like an improvement.
If you look at Volvo, they offer 3 sound system upgrades developed by Alpine & Dynaudio, with a range topping 650w prologic MP3 system with 12 speakers and a 140w 8" sub. Ok it's a £1k upgrade, but Audi charge that just for a CD changer, iPOD connector & Bose, none of which actually gives you a decent system. I'm sure their are people on here that love it, but generally that's because they've never heard anything better. When you buy a £30k+ vehicle you really expect high performance in all areas, and Bose just isn't it.
 
It's also about time Audi recognised we're in the digital age & started offering DAB options. I mean, even Vauxhall is going that!
 
co55ie said:
The bose isnt bad but as has been said the subwoofer is quite slow and not much good with fast paced synthetic basslines.

It has been setup in traditional home Hifi style to sound flattering in as much as the treble and bass are pronounced but the mid range rolls off all over the place.

For £350 what do you really expect, at this price I dont think its that bad at all.
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Disagree, I'm with Andymac on this one. People don't just buy Bose, usually they get Symphony etc too, thats a £700 upgrade minimum. £700 buys you a damn sight better sounding system than the Bose system you get from Audi.

The Harmon Kardon system in the 1995MY onwards Range Rover sounds awesome because they obviously spent more than 10 minutes thinking about it. You get a proper sub box and good quality speakers all round. Even an average head unit sounds good with that setup. And it wasn't a hugely expensive option at the time
 
Covenant said:
Believe me, it's no better on a 3-dr. The bass is totally muffled and lacking definition.

The only real advantage of taking Symphony and Bose is that you don't have to do a double DIN conversion and all the wires are at the back ready for an aftermarket install :wink:
Click to expand...

Definitely agree on the lack of bass definition.

What is the main weak link in the system, amps or speakers ?

(I assume the front-end - tuner, CD player, etc, is OK)
 
The sub is the main culprit. Andymac has a conversion for the older chassis involving a new sub, box and amp which apparently tightens things up considerably.

The others speakers are not superb, but I'm assuming that if you take away the sub from the Bose amp you can balance the sound a lot better and get reasonable quality.
 
AndyMac said:
Bose are at best average in pretty much everything they do (including their Home HiFi).
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Hasn't the Bose home hifi stuff won a load of awards?

Anyway whatever I think for the cost of the upgrade it's worth it. I onoly ticked the bose option box on the hifi front so for £350 I think it sounds pretty good and offers reasonable value for money.

J.
 
marriedblonde said:
Hasn't the Bose home hifi stuff won a load of awards?
Click to expand...
I've subscribed to What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision for years, and Bose is not well regarded there.
 
Bose is a mainstream budget audio Brand.

I really dont know what people are expecting for £350 thats not even enough to buy a few metres of decent speaker cable :lmfao:
 
Budget audio brand? I wouldn't exactly call them cheap, £450 for a clock radio is hardly budget. If Bose are budget where would you put Alba or Goodmans?
They've probably won awards for innovation not SQ, and are good at getting OK sound from very small devices. Take their ground breaking 801 PA speakers, very powerful but light and small, used alot in nightclubs and conferences.
They never provided superb sound, just OK sound for the size of the unit.
They were also the first to introduce inconspicuous home hifi speakers, with the acoustimass system, - hidden subwoofer with tiny satellite speakers. Again nothing great about the quality just more about the size.
They're certainly not top of the line, and remember £350 gets you the upgrade, so you have to add the stuff you would have got for free in the standard system. So about £400 then.
 
The argument about all of bose stuff will go on for a long time.....

Personally I had to re-rip all of my CD's that were encoded at 192 mp3's up to 320 as I could tell the difference between them, and it was annoying me, on my Bose phatnoise combination.

My Saturday job was a Hi-Fi salesman, that was 10 years ago though, and for what they are the bose systems give a good sound (i.e. two small tweeter mids stuck up on the wall out of the way of the nagging one). For home audio they are a compromise. For in car they are what you pay for, £350 quid will not but alot and it is 8 speakers, one amp, microphone, electronic wizardry etc. I can remember replacing the speakers and installing an amp in my old MX-5 (cue the hairdresser jokes) with little change from £300 (a great pair of infinity mid/base and tweeters).
 
AndyMac said:
Budget audio brand? I wouldn't exactly call them cheap, £450 for a clock radio is hardly budget. If Bose are budget where would you put Alba or Goodmans?
They've probably won awards for innovation not SQ, and are good at getting OK sound from very small devices. Take their ground breaking 801 PA speakers, very powerful but light and small, used alot in nightclubs and conferences.
They never provided superb sound, just OK sound for the size of the unit.
They were also the first to introduce inconspicuous home hifi speakers, with the acoustimass system, - hidden subwoofer with tiny satellite speakers. Again nothing great about the quality just more about the size.
They're certainly not top of the line, and remember £350 gets you the upgrade, so you have to add the stuff you would have got for free in the standard system. So about £400 then.
Click to expand...


Audio Note is a premium Hifi brand a 20w amp can cost £100,000 this makes 450 quid seem like a good deal on clock radio to me :biggrin:
 
AndyMac said:
Budget audio brand? I wouldn't exactly call them cheap, £450 for a clock radio is hardly budget. If Bose are budget where would you put Alba or Goodmans?
They've probably won awards for innovation not SQ, and are good at getting OK sound from very small devices. Take their ground breaking 801 PA speakers, very powerful but light and small, used alot in nightclubs and conferences.
They never provided superb sound, just OK sound for the size of the unit.
They were also the first to introduce inconspicuous home hifi speakers, with the acoustimass system, - hidden subwoofer with tiny satellite speakers. Again nothing great about the quality just more about the size.
They're certainly not top of the line, and remember £350 gets you the upgrade, so you have to add the stuff you would have got for free in the standard system. So about £400 then.
Click to expand...


Audio Note is a premium Hifi brand a 20w amp can cost £100,000 this makes 450 quid seem like a good deal on clock radio to me :biggrin:


brillweb.jpg


My idea of real Audio equipment from a premium brand Chord Electronics
 
I think the bose is what you would expect in a car from the manufacture.
They don't want to put in system the world can here you coming down the road nor do they want to give you less space, my mate had a alfa 147 with bose and the boot was smaller due to the sub.

I still believe the sound is better further up the model range you go regardsless of engine size. The sound could be slightly richer and the bass slightly deeper but you are in a car with road, engine and wind noise, most of us run i-pods or phat noise which is files compressed so we lose out already so we can have 300 albums in the car!

I spent years throwing amps and speakers into cars wraped with neons, perspex, wood, fibre glass and carpet so me and my mates cars could be heard 3 blocks away and you couldn't sit in the car to turn the volume up, yes you had tons of power and control and the quailty was amazing but you had no boot 3 extra batteris speakers everywhere custom door panels etc etc....

Home system that is what it is all about

Audio note is one of the best and they are old school valve units my uncle has one and it is wicked you can sit there and watch the valves glow..perfect sound no tone controls pure sound and he will only use vinly

I will stand by the bose incar and for home ATC

Enjoy
 
You didn't answer the question
I'm not interested in what you consider to be a high end system, I asked what you considered to be budget.
You could spend £1m on a clock radio made of solid platinium and encrusted with diamonds but it doesn't mean its any good.
It's a sad day when you have to look at the price tag in order to work out if something sounds good or not.
 
I have no idea what it cost to upgrade, but if it cost £350 to do so then they take the price of all the other standard equip first.

THink this thread is going to go on and on and on..some will be over the moon with there bose others won't that is life.!!

Me I'am happy....

It is an upgrade which is factory fitted if not happy don't get it and get Hifi spec to sort out a system but fit it so it can't be seen.

yhst-87604201054931_1908_224739

now these are lovely speakers!! I love listening to these
 
I don't think the main criticism with Audi is Bose, Bose should be standard in a premium brand (e.g. I consider Audi further up the food chain than Volvo).
Obviously if all you use the car for is pootling to and from the shops then it's fine, but they should then have a proper upgrade for those of us who spend over 400 hours a year in the car (20k miles p.a.). To me the car is the perfect place to listen to music. I spend more time in my car than I do doing nothing at home and I can listen to what I like, at the volume I like, which is not always practical at home.
Because you have road/engine noise and you're only running off only 12v that is exactly why you need so much more power in a car system than at home. Obviously good decent sound definately does not mean speakers everywhere and a boot full of electronics, in fact usually quite the opposite.
And as for iPOD adapters, come on Audi, you get one free in a Ford KA for christsake!
When you consider the ludicrous options on most Audi models a top of the line sound system isn't really asking too much is it?
 
co55ie said:
Audio Note is a premium Hifi brand a 20w amp can cost £100,000 this makes 450 quid seem like a good deal on clock radio to me :biggrin:
Click to expand...

I don't know about everyone else on the forum mate, perhaps I am in a minority here, but my wallet doesn't stretch to £100K for an amp for the house...

Perhaps you need to visit www.Ihavemoremoneythansenseandfriends.com ;)
 
marmite said:
I have no idea what it cost to upgrade, but if it cost £350 to do so then they take the price of all the other standard equip first.

THink this thread is going to go on and on and on..some will be over the moon with there bose others won't that is life.!!

Me I'am happy....

It is an upgrade which is factory fitted if not happy don't get it and get Hifi spec to sort out a system but fit it so it can't be seen.
Click to expand...

Well said that man, I used to spend god only knows how much on orckford amps and infinity speakers. But got bored of ripping the interior of my cars out and loosing the boot.

Bose is not bad for the money IMHO. But as Andy says perhaps it should be standard fit in the Audi's but lets face it it's just another way to make more from us!

J.
 
I had to send my Veyron back as the HiFi sucked.
The mortgage repayments on my home HiFi got so big I'm now living in it!
 
AndyMac said:
I had to send my Veyron back as the HiFi sucked.
The mortgage repayments on my home HiFi got so big I'm now living in it!
Click to expand...


Actually your not to far from the truth. I do spend allday long sitting behind an SSL mixing desk which is connected to a sound sytem that cost more than your house :biggrin: But alas sorry to dissappoint I dont have a mortgage as it pays quite well.
 
audi upgrades
And yet you're sitting in front of a computer on Saturday night boasting about the cost of your sound system on an Audi forum?
How the other half live.
 
co55ie said:
Actually your not to far from the truth. I do spend allday long sitting behind an SSL mixing desk which is connected to a sound sytem that cost more than your house :biggrin: But alas sorry to dissappoint I dont have a mortgage as it pays quite well.
Click to expand...

Yawn, Yawn, Yawn!
 
I have to admit that, as a new Audi owner, I'm also slightly disappointed with the Bose. Like most peeps, I see Bose as a premium brand. Luckily my car is used and already came with Bose.
Some types and music do sound OK with fine adjustments on tone and the fader settings.

It's a shame there doesn't seem to be that many aftermarket double DIN headunits about.
 
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