JoeO

For the past three years, my Symphony Bose sound system sounded superb. No complaints. It's the OEM Bose system for a 2003 A4.

Recently I noticed the quality sucks. It seems that all the speakers are working but the bottom door speakers overpower all the other speakers. The front dash and rear deck speakers are working but they appear faint by comparison. Even the upper door tweeters appear faint.

The whole system doesn't seem balanced or syncronized the way it used to be. It sounds like the acoustics went from a symphony hall to some open cave. I've fiddled around with the equalizer in the stereo but it doesn't improve.

I know the system problems are not my imagination because a month ago, the door speaker shorted out (no sound whatsoever). There's no doubt about that. I took it into the dealership and they insulated the door speakers better (some TBA bulletin supposedly). The speakers stopped shorting out but the sucky quality remained.

Today the car is at the dealership to repair the sucky sound quality, and they're saying they cannot detect anything wrong.

Help, is there anything I can do? Anyone else have this problem or know where the trouble might lay?

SouthboroAudiGuy

Does is still say "BOSE" when you turn it on?

avincar

He's wondering if your radio has switched to non-BOse mode and is processing the sound before it gets to the Bose amp, which then re-processes it.

JoeO

I don't know. It's at the dealership right now so I cannot check.

JoeO

That's kinda what I expected. To them, if all speakers are on, that's considered OK.

I asked if the wattage was measured at each individual speaker to what the OEM specs say they should be, and the service manager said "I ASSUME the technician did that. He did all tests possible." He didn't exactly answer my question.

The service manager says they'll continue to check it out. I'm not sure if he's really going to do anything beyond this point. I suspect not.

They didn't do a damn thing, and I have to tolerate the crappy sound. If that's the case, I'll probably give them a 0 zero rating when the AoA survey calls me. It just seems like they're not taking my request seriously.

SouthboroAudiGuy

You haven't answered my question yet...

JoeO

It's there for the second day in a row. I would hope the technician is smart enough to catch it if it's not on.

But if not, it will certainly be the first thing I check when I get the car back.

SouthboroAudiGuy

Oops. Sorry -- I thought you had gotten it back. "Patience my young padawan..."

JoeO

I picked up the car today and the dealership is saying all their tests say everything is working correctly. They're saying the wattage, amperage, etc, was checked.

I disagree with them. I was driving home and I still notice the poor performance. It's as if the front dash and rear deck speakers have diminished in output power. I used to hear them nicely, along with the other speakers. But lately the front lower door speakers seem to overpower all the other speakers. All speakers are working but all I really hear is the right lower door speaker and the left lower door speaker.

The sound doesn't suround my ears from all directions like it used to. I don't hear the sound coming from the front and back, even though they're on.

The funny thing is that I'm not some sort of audiofile like some people are. Somebody entering the car for the very first time wouldn't notice anything wrong. But I got used to driving my car for over 3 years (always with the radio on) and am quite sure that something is wrong. This is all very frustrating.

SouthboroAudiGuy

If the former, check the hidden eq settings (see my sig). May help things out.