"The Bose sound system"
06-21-2005, 10:32 AM
#1
AudiWorld Super User
Thread Starter
"The Bose sound system"
<ul><li><a href="http://academy.accessaudi.com/files/pdf/A3_2006Bose_Brochure.pdf">http://academy.accessaudi.com/files/pdf/A3_2006Bose_Brochure.pdf</a</li></ul>
06-21-2005, 11:36 AM
#2
Still don't like it (more)
Negatives:
1. Front stage is poor because the tweeter is too far from the woofer resulting in vocals coming from one part of the door and music from another + tweeter is much closer to the ears than woofers.
2. Center fill (midrange only)does not do anything important as the there is no tweeter to take care of the disbalance between left and right speakers (one speaker is always closer to the listener than the other). Treble is much more localizable (is there such a word?) than midrange so your still hear one speaker more than the other.
3. There is no way that a 5.25 inch woofer can produce bass frequencies (lower than 80 Hz) let alone sub bass frequencies (lower than 50 Hz) effectively.
4. Does not mention the RMS power. For the car about 100w x 2 (for the fronts) and at 300w+ (for the subs) are needed to make an effective system (setup for SQ)
Positives:
1. All 4 people in the car can listen to poorly imaged, bassless music.
2. Tweeters might not be that bad.
A good aftermarket system comprising of 2 6.5-inch woofers, 2 1.5-inch tweeters, 2 subs (10-12 inch)is still much, much better :-)
But of course screaming that your car has 10 speakers is much more marketable.
1. Front stage is poor because the tweeter is too far from the woofer resulting in vocals coming from one part of the door and music from another + tweeter is much closer to the ears than woofers.
2. Center fill (midrange only)does not do anything important as the there is no tweeter to take care of the disbalance between left and right speakers (one speaker is always closer to the listener than the other). Treble is much more localizable (is there such a word?) than midrange so your still hear one speaker more than the other.
3. There is no way that a 5.25 inch woofer can produce bass frequencies (lower than 80 Hz) let alone sub bass frequencies (lower than 50 Hz) effectively.
4. Does not mention the RMS power. For the car about 100w x 2 (for the fronts) and at 300w+ (for the subs) are needed to make an effective system (setup for SQ)
Positives:
1. All 4 people in the car can listen to poorly imaged, bassless music.
2. Tweeters might not be that bad.
A good aftermarket system comprising of 2 6.5-inch woofers, 2 1.5-inch tweeters, 2 subs (10-12 inch)is still much, much better :-)
But of course screaming that your car has 10 speakers is much more marketable.
06-21-2005, 01:56 PM
#5
Thanks.
I may not know Audis as I been driving my A4 only for the last 2 weeks, but I do know what makes a good system and I have yet to listen to a stocker that is actually worthwile.
I'm actually surprised that the system in my A4 is that bad - at least when compared with my SQ setup in my previous car (97 Camry). Preparing to upgrade the Audi in the near future.
I'm actually surprised that the system in my A4 is that bad - at least when compared with my SQ setup in my previous car (97 Camry). Preparing to upgrade the Audi in the near future.
06-21-2005, 02:31 PM
#6
AudiWorld Super User
Thread Starter
I think that...
<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/88350/a8_bose.jpg"></center><p>for the average folk (me) the sound system is not bad, now if we are talking about a virtuoso, then it's a different story.
What do you think about the A8?
What do you think about the A8?
06-21-2005, 04:56 PM
#7
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Re: "The Bose sound system"
The one in the B7 is light years better than the B5. Not sure if the one in the B6 is the same as the B7 but the centre fill in the front and the sub on the rear deck makes a huge improvement in sound staging and bass response. In the B5, there was neither of these two.
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06-21-2005, 06:01 PM
#9
A8 System - good, but...
Negatives:
1. Not enough power going to the speakers (25w for each). Remember what typical home amplifiers pump out? It's usually 100w for each speaker. Keeping in mind that a car environment is much noisier that a quiet room (don't matter if it's a Corolla or seemingly quiet A8 - it's still much louder), 25w for each speaker is nothing. For clarity and volume a high powered amp is a must.
2. Where are the tweeters? 2.5-inch is not a tweeter but more like a midrange. Not sure how the upper end of the spectrum will be produced
3. Too much sound processing (AudioPilot, DSP). I've listened to a similar system on a Lexus (makes in louder the faster you go to compensate to the added noise), I've found that it distorts the music too much to the point that it sounds unnatural. I turned it right off.
THE BIGGEST THING IS LACK OF POWER TO THE MIDRANGES/TWEETERS.
Positives:
1. 12-inch woofer, nice, with actually an adequate amount of power going into it (well, barely)
2. All persons in the car will hear an above average sound.
3. 8-inch woofers in doors, very nice, keeps the bass upfront where it should be (but with 25w? An 8-inch should be able to pump out 150w without any problems).
THE SYSTEM IS GOOD, BUT IN MY EYES OVER COMPLICATED. I BELIEVE, I WOULD STILL UPGRADE.
Overall, I dislike the push towards "surround sound" in the car environment i.e. speakers all around the driver. Let me elaborate - a surrond sound for movies is great for obvious reasons, but for listening to music? A good audio system tries to emulate a natural (live) music environment. During a live performance, the voice of the singer is heard only from him/her, not from all around you. Same goes for music. All musical instruments are to the left and right of the listener, not all around.
The only positive thing to having surrond sound in the car is that all occupants get to hear the music now just the driver. However, it is my firm belief that the audio system in the car should be made for the driver, not the occupants. The reasons are:
-person who paid for the car should have the best sound quality because, well he paid for it, not the occupants.
-when there are other occupants in the car, there is no listening to music as usually a conversation takes place.
-90% of people drive alone (not because they are loners, but because their better half usually has her own car) i.e. there is no need for sound for the nonexistent occupants.
Sure listening to music with speakers all around you seems like a good idea, but that's only until a proper setup is heard. Having a proper front biased sound stage and imaging will make you fall in love with music all over again.
A good audio system in the car makes driving it so much more enjoyable. That is the only thing that kept me going in a 2.2L Camry that weights as much as an A4 but has an auto and 132hp. After driving the Camry for several years, driving my A4 is like driving a really fast sports car (Camry 0-60 is 12 seconds, A4 is 8.1 s :-)
A good SQ system will let you hear every nuance and minute details of the song with your windows rolled down... all while crusing at 120km/h on the 401.
Now before you go and upgrade your Audi, keep in mind that car audio components are expensive (that is if you want to make it sound good) as well as the installation.
This is what I had in my Camry:
Deck: Alpine CDA 9515
Fronts: 6.5 inch Focal 165k (Polykevlar series) with 1.5 inch titanium tweeters.
Rears: None
Subs: 2 12-inch JL Audio W3V2
Amps:
Fronts - ArcAudio 2100 putting 110w x 2
Subs - RF Punch 500w x 1 (bridged)
Total system power was 720w RMS (actually I'm lying here as the car's alternator could not keep up with the demand). This setup while simple was above average in sound quality and cost me about $4500CAD.
People, please remember, that if a system is powerful, it does not mean that the end user listens to his music always loud, it just means that the clarity is much better on a powerful system than on a weak system.
Remember that when you double the power, the actual usable volume increased only by 3db.
Do not thing that is one system is 100w and the other is 200w that its twice as powerful - it's not. In order to double the volume you have to increase the wattage by a factor of 10. Meaning that to increase the volume of a car with a stock system of 200W, you need 2000W.
Please keep in mind that I've never heard the A8 system and the above are my opinions only.
Love A8s BTW.
1. Not enough power going to the speakers (25w for each). Remember what typical home amplifiers pump out? It's usually 100w for each speaker. Keeping in mind that a car environment is much noisier that a quiet room (don't matter if it's a Corolla or seemingly quiet A8 - it's still much louder), 25w for each speaker is nothing. For clarity and volume a high powered amp is a must.
2. Where are the tweeters? 2.5-inch is not a tweeter but more like a midrange. Not sure how the upper end of the spectrum will be produced
3. Too much sound processing (AudioPilot, DSP). I've listened to a similar system on a Lexus (makes in louder the faster you go to compensate to the added noise), I've found that it distorts the music too much to the point that it sounds unnatural. I turned it right off.
THE BIGGEST THING IS LACK OF POWER TO THE MIDRANGES/TWEETERS.
Positives:
1. 12-inch woofer, nice, with actually an adequate amount of power going into it (well, barely)
2. All persons in the car will hear an above average sound.
3. 8-inch woofers in doors, very nice, keeps the bass upfront where it should be (but with 25w? An 8-inch should be able to pump out 150w without any problems).
THE SYSTEM IS GOOD, BUT IN MY EYES OVER COMPLICATED. I BELIEVE, I WOULD STILL UPGRADE.
Overall, I dislike the push towards "surround sound" in the car environment i.e. speakers all around the driver. Let me elaborate - a surrond sound for movies is great for obvious reasons, but for listening to music? A good audio system tries to emulate a natural (live) music environment. During a live performance, the voice of the singer is heard only from him/her, not from all around you. Same goes for music. All musical instruments are to the left and right of the listener, not all around.
The only positive thing to having surrond sound in the car is that all occupants get to hear the music now just the driver. However, it is my firm belief that the audio system in the car should be made for the driver, not the occupants. The reasons are:
-person who paid for the car should have the best sound quality because, well he paid for it, not the occupants.
-when there are other occupants in the car, there is no listening to music as usually a conversation takes place.
-90% of people drive alone (not because they are loners, but because their better half usually has her own car) i.e. there is no need for sound for the nonexistent occupants.
Sure listening to music with speakers all around you seems like a good idea, but that's only until a proper setup is heard. Having a proper front biased sound stage and imaging will make you fall in love with music all over again.
A good audio system in the car makes driving it so much more enjoyable. That is the only thing that kept me going in a 2.2L Camry that weights as much as an A4 but has an auto and 132hp. After driving the Camry for several years, driving my A4 is like driving a really fast sports car (Camry 0-60 is 12 seconds, A4 is 8.1 s :-)
A good SQ system will let you hear every nuance and minute details of the song with your windows rolled down... all while crusing at 120km/h on the 401.
Now before you go and upgrade your Audi, keep in mind that car audio components are expensive (that is if you want to make it sound good) as well as the installation.
This is what I had in my Camry:
Deck: Alpine CDA 9515
Fronts: 6.5 inch Focal 165k (Polykevlar series) with 1.5 inch titanium tweeters.
Rears: None
Subs: 2 12-inch JL Audio W3V2
Amps:
Fronts - ArcAudio 2100 putting 110w x 2
Subs - RF Punch 500w x 1 (bridged)
Total system power was 720w RMS (actually I'm lying here as the car's alternator could not keep up with the demand). This setup while simple was above average in sound quality and cost me about $4500CAD.
People, please remember, that if a system is powerful, it does not mean that the end user listens to his music always loud, it just means that the clarity is much better on a powerful system than on a weak system.
Remember that when you double the power, the actual usable volume increased only by 3db.
Do not thing that is one system is 100w and the other is 200w that its twice as powerful - it's not. In order to double the volume you have to increase the wattage by a factor of 10. Meaning that to increase the volume of a car with a stock system of 200W, you need 2000W.
Please keep in mind that I've never heard the A8 system and the above are my opinions only.
Love A8s BTW.
