Planet 9

Just thought I would share my experience with today's upgrade attempt. My previous plan was just to add the FM modulator for ipod play on my CDR-24. Before my FM modulator came, however, I was able to track down a PCM unit on Ebay so I decided to give that a go as well. The PCM came with a CD changer and the bose amplifier, but the Changer didn't have all the hardware, so I thought I would defer that install for a later time.

So the plan was to perform the following:
1) Install DICE Universal FM-RDS modulator MSRP $129 (following the Iplug RDS article)
2) CDR-24 to PCM swap (following the PCM install article)
3) Bose Subwoofer Stuff upgrade (following the Bose amp article) - I was also planning to swap the amp to avoid any incompatibilities with the PCM.

The PCM unit I got came out of an 08 Carrera: Part# 997.642.143.10 [thought the date of manufacture is stamped "38/06"]



Here's the Dice kit:


It turned out I had the wrong Euro antenna changers, so I had to make a run to Fry's to pick up the right ones. The wrong ones are pictured above.

Here are the Dice contents (I put a ruler in the picture for relative reference):


The ipod Cable was too short to run to the cubby compartment. I might pick up a cheapo Dock Ipod extender from Ebay, and then retrofit to the back at a later time.

My first task was to upgrade the Bose Subwoofer with polyester stuffing and swapping the amp per the Bose article.



To my suprise, I could not locate the bose amp and subwoofer (and yes, this is a Bose unit). I spent several minutes looking everywhere, but couldn't find it. Here is picture where you can see where it should have been according to the article. Perhaps, the unit is located elsewhere on the 05 Boxster, but poking around everything I could peek, I couldn't find it. In fact, I noted that I don't even have the air vent piece next to the cig. lighter spot shown in the pic below:



After a while I gave up on the Bose (I'll check with the dealer on Monday regarding the proper location for the model year 2005). I proceeded to the Dice and PCM upgrade....

I started by wiring from the fuse box using add-a-circuit connectors for the switch power (C1 - row 3, column 1) and the +12 (D3 - row 4, column 3). The ground is connected to the bolt on the left side as shown below:



I tape bundled the wires and ran them up behind the dash and back down to the radio unit with a few occasional wire ties to keep everything neat.

I then removed the CDR-24 per the PCM upgrade article. Here is a picture of the allen wrench for biasing back the retaining clips. Without that article, I would have been at a loss for figuring this out.



The rest of the install was pretty straight forward. Here you can see the dice unit in the back. I used wire ties for holding the unit in place.



I plugged in the PCM unit and gave it a test run. It recognized that I didn't install the CD changer, but still functioned otherwise.

The rest of the install is pretty much according to the articles (thanks to those folks who authored them).

Overall, I'm happy with the sound quality so far. Mostly, I listen to podcasts or audio books anyway, so the main benefit of the wired FM modulator over the wireless ones I used previously will be reduced static and reduced cross interference from other wireless modulators around me...(yes, this does happen and is quite annoying). I'll be happy to have MP3 playback on CD and the utility features of the PCM. I may add the nav unit later if I find a decent deal on ebay. I'll probably install the changer at that time, or maybe just sell it off.

Just a few closing notes:

1. Since I disconnected the battery, I got a "PSM fail" indication when I first started up. It went away after a while, and there are a few posts to that effect here on the board, but I was a little worried at first.

2. I forgot to take the CD out of CDR-24 before removing it...so I had to reconnect it back up, eject, and re-install the PCM. Fortunately, I remembered to do this before I secured PCM back into its bay

Cheers,
Jon

You should really put this in the ARticles section under Electronics.

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K-Man S

Great article.

This is a boxster? If so, look over your shoulder & you should see the subwoofer

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'08 Boxster S. PASM, cayman 18s, sport seats, RS60 Pi-pipe, etc
'10 Audi Q5
'07 gx470

I wasn't sure if the write-up was article worthy. Is it possible to move this post over?

I did notice those ports. Does this mean the boxster bose amp configuration is different from the cayman? Would the amp be located back there or in the front near the head unit?