Big Pimpin'

Does anyone have any good opinions of the Bose sound system? What do you like or dislike about it?

Turbo Joe

for what they cost, they really sound like crap. they are too harsh and just dont reproduce music to my liking. just my opinion though. i know tons of people who swear by bose.

BrunoTT

I have always been one to gut my cars and install a nice aftermarket system. I don't feel like doing this on my A4. Maybe its because its a lease but probably because the Bose is good enough. I have installed an amplifier (Orion 275SX) and a Kicker Solobaric 10" to fill in the bottom end and all in all this system will do me fine.

Just my 2 cents though

SMOKINA4TURBO

They're great for a stealth system(home audio), I think they serve a good purpose.

WJM

I just added a sub to it and it sounds pretty damn good now.
I'm happy with it. I prefer a nice stock unit to an aftermarker one. (a few exceptions of course)

-Will

Joe (zyxt)

I have a 2000 A4 Wagon with the Bose system. I've had it about 3 months now, and I have to say that I'm very disappointed with the Bose system. In my car it just sounds horrible.

The wagon is set up different from the sedan, though. I've never heard a Bose system in the sedan. (It might not be so horrible.) Here is the wagon configuration as far as I know:

4" mids and small tweeters in the front doors
6.5" full-range (coaxial?) speakers in the rear doors
8" (not sure on the size) sub and amp in the rear left hidden cargo bay

The biggest problem is that the sub is turned up *way* too loud. Don't get me wrong, I like good, clean, strong bass, but this is rediculous. I could probably get it to sound a lot better if I could control the sub level manually and turn it down a bit.

The front speakers are completely lacking any mid-low end at all, being that they are small 4" drivers. The rear door speakers provide more mid-low end, but lack high end.

Another thing I've noticed is that the drivers (up front at least) don't appear to have appropriate crossover settings. If I put in any music which has any significant bass, I can hear the front 4" drivers distorting slightly. This drives me nuts to no end.

There is a bass control **** on the headunit, but it simply turns down all the bass. If I crank it all the way down (which is where I usually leave it), it still doesn't turn down the sub enough, but it virtually removes the mid-low end from the rear speakers, completely messing up the whole sound of the system.

The sub and the rear speakers appear to be on the same channel. (rear) So fading the sound all the way to the front removes the rear speakers *and* the sub from the music. This is both annoying and useful. It actually allows me to turn down the bass a bit more by fading things more to the front, and then tweaking the bass **** appropriately.

Very soon I'm going to simply gut the whole worthless Bose system from my car and put a complete aftermarket system in. (except maybe the headunit... I'm going to attemp to use it, but we'll see...)

If you can avoid paying for the Bose system, avoid it. If you are at all interested in a nice stereo system, plan on doing a complete aftermarket setup.

Sorry to sound so bitter. It's just that I paid hundreds of dollars for the Bose option which is definitely *not* worth the money. (I didn't have much of a choice, though. It was either that or wait months to find a car in the same configuation without the Bose.)

Hope this helps!
-joe

eaimports

i spent all of my hard earned money on the ppi,jl audi, mb quart and the list goes on during high school. the bose is the best thing i've heard from a factory system. i like the "no highs no lows bose".

Uncle Don

The premium system in the wife's 528 cost twice as much and sound IS twice as good. The extra insulation also helps, alot.

rmlg was ruben g

I think the Bose set-up rocks! Anything louder, in my opinion, is just plain flambouyant.

Shoe

At first i didn't like it too much but it was a good improvement over the stock. After a few months i really am satisfied with it. I am pretty picky with stereo systems and this is one I can live with. i wish the BOSE had a some more power, clearer highs and mids. The bass is strong but not as tight as it could be. You probably can get a better system for $1000 but you would have to change all the speakers, you can't just simply add an amp...I tried.