Planet 9

I've been listening to the sound system plus for about a week now and
considering different audio upgrade options. I ordered the Dension Gateway
500 and I'm waiting for the dealer to enable the CD Changer support for me.
I don't have many of my CD's accessible any more because I've ripped them
all to a hard drive and put them in storage. So anyway, I've spent the week
with Steely Dan's Greatest Hits and it is starting to get a little monotonous
but I've come to some realizations that I'm interested in verifying when I finally get to listen to more of my library.

When set at bass 0 treb. 0 fade 0 this system sounds awful. Porsche should
really be ashamed. My first impression was just so bad that I thought
messing with the sound controls was hopeless. Now I'm not so sure and I'm
questioning my desire to upgrade. By setting Loudness off, treble to -5 and the bass to +4 or +5 and fade to 3 the whole thing is sounding surprisingly ok. I'm a little in-shock over it. Maybe it is just the Steely Dan, but at these
settings the bass is now punchy, the midrange well defined and present, and
the high frequencies are no longer shrill.

So, once I have the Dension unit working and can start listening to more
vocal and acoustic stuff, maybe I will change my mind again, but for now I'm
considering leaving the system as-is.

Steve

My patience wore out (the dealer still isn't ready to do the cd
changer enable on my car), so I burned a CD with some other music on it.
As I feared while Steely Dan was sounding fine lot of other stuff was not so
good. Having the bass at +5 was just way too boomy on a lot of other
material and most female vocals seem slightly muffled. So now I'm thinking
that maybe I can live with the speakers but what this thing needs is some
equalization.

Once I get the Dension working I'm going to try a Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2
and an outboard amp driving the factory speakers. If that doesn't fix it I can
always start replacing speakers.

When I get the equalizer unit in, I will be sure to post some graphs about what
the frequency range looks like coming out of the head unit. It either has to
be really bizarre looking or the speakers have to have grossly different
efficiency for it to sound as bad as it does..

It is interesting how Porsche can overall make the car so good, and yet the sound system is so very bad! With the totally base stereo, I am really feeling (hearing?) the pain...

The range of reactions to the Cayman audio system options on this forum truly range all over the map.

Some folks here think playing the audio system at all is not consistent with driving and enjoying their car. The track oriented folks think the audio system is useless weight but believe the system might serve a useful function as a boat anchor. The Boxster folks probably don't worry much about the audio system when the top is down. Since I use my CS for daily driving and an occasional road trip, I want a functional audio system that doesn't irritate me to use.

Others want an audio system but think the audio system options all sound awful. Everyone has seen these posts...."Porsche engineers wouldn't recognize an audio system if it slapped 'em." Speakers and electronics all need to be torn out and replaced "en masse." The Bose system represents a system that offers bad sound and is even harder to upgrade to something decent.

I'm not terribly worried about the sound produced by my audio system as long as I can get "something" out of it. I installed satellite radio because of the broad range of content it offers me including both music and information. Since I use satellite radio most of the time, I'm already taking a hit as to the fidelity of music coming out of the system. Lower quality compressed music in equals lower sound quality out. I suspect the same is true for those that use an iPod for their music.

My experience is that other vehicles that are in the same price range offer better audio systems than my CS. That said, how do I compare? Should I expect the CS system to be equivalent to an E class Mercedes or a 5 Series BMW? How about an SLK Mercedes with the top up? My answer to this is....no.

I purchased a sports car where Porsche has promised me a combination of sports car excitement and daily drivability. My suspicion is a better audio experience could be achieved only by impacting the sports car experience (added weight) and that isn't a trade off I am willing to make. I'd rather add some unsprung weight to get better tires for AX.

Sritacco, I'm interested in how you do with your mods in this area. Since you are in Florida, maybe I'll get a chance to meet you some day and listen to the difference. Good luck!

I also found the system to be terrible, I could not get it to sound right. The main problem is the base, which when set up to anything more than 0 was boomy. Members here then came up with stuffing the sub woofer modification.

Located here. http://www.planetporsche.net/cayman-...hing-else.html

I am now at least able to listen to the system without all that awful boominess.

__________________

Today, my friendly Porsche dealer helped me get the Dension working.
My first impression is very positive. On the CDR 24 I can use the iPod
itself for control and yet the CDRs knobs still work too (for forward and
backward on tracks). That is a really great compared to the Kenwood
iPod controller on my last car. The more I listen to music in the car, the
more I think that all it needs is some equalization. I'm currently thinking
the speakers themselves may be ok. So, to that end, I ordered the
Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2 and new amps. I'm hoping that I can just stop
there. I'm looking forward to playing with the 3sixty. For those unfamiliar,
it is a little unassuming box that you control over bluetooth. It gives you
31 equalization bands on the front channels and something like 27 on the
rear. It should be able to flatten out the most horrific response curves.

One important note for anyone installing the Dension: The dealer cleared
up some misinformation for me. There isn't anything in the car that needs
to be configured to recognize the Dension. My mistake was thinking that
I needed to complete the fiber optic loop that was already connected to
the CDR. The fact is, it was not a closed loop. The Dension simply needed
to be wired in and out of the CDR, the other fiber optics in the car were not
active. So, for those with CDR and no CD changer already, the fiber optics
just need to make a loop between the CDR and Dension, you can disconect
the other fibers going into the CDR. One other important thing. The dealer
told me that you need to connect the Aux. input to the Dension or it does
not work. I haven't confirmed this, but given that it has a bypass switch
on it, that sounds reasonable.

Now I am planning to get the dash (mostly)buttoned back up and wait for
the amps and 3sixty to arrive.

I spent some time debating what to buy for an amp and settled on two of
the Blaupunkt THA275. I wanted something that would fit where the Nav
DVD drive would go and this was the best solution I could come up with.
I'll be stacking the two of them in that space.

Should I be concerned about generating too much heat in that area?
The amps are Class D, so they shouldn't throw much heat.

Do you have the Bose system in your car?

__________________

No, the Sound System Plus.

While the sound system is worse than my wife's Impala, it will get better with time. The speakers need to burn in. You will find that the boominess will dissipate, then you can increase the volume or adjust it to your liking. To help the burn in process turn on the radio, base and loudness all the way up, volume low, leave it on for a few hrs at a time. Within a week or so, it will get better.

Sound will get better but, it is nowhere near optimal; sufficient to pass time while waiting for your better part in mall parking lot with the engine shut down.

won't the battery go flat that way?

fully agree on the bose system sucking - however with strong fader bias to the front makes it slightly better with less muddiness

I had it on for a number of burn-in sessions for a few hrs at a time, no problem.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The CDR-24 needs to be programmed by the dealer to recognize a CD changer (CDC) if you don't already have one. Other than that, though, you just have to attach the right wires and set the right switches on the Dension unit.


I wouldn't think heat would be much of a problem there. Be very careful if you try to drill into the metal to attach anything, though. The gas tank is underneath there and at a few spots, it's very close. If you search past archives, you'll find where another installer nicked the tank and had to replace it (it also had some photos showing details).

The dealer claimed there was no need to program the CDR-24. They told
me that by leaving the fiber loop connected and looping the Dension in
was why the Dension was not recognized as a CDC. They changed the loop
to just be two fiber strands into the CDR and the Dension. I'm just repeating
what they told me.

I'm really hoping not to have to drill anything. Isn't there an existing gromit
I can pass through?

For the short time I've had it working, I'm really impressed with the Dension.
It works reliably and sounds great.

Thanks for the insights and help!

The parts I've ordered have arrived except for the ISO connectors... so
I'm still stuck. I was hoping to do the 3sixty.2 and amp install this weekend.
I've been living with a disassembled center console for a week now but
enjoying the iPod and Dension on the CDR-24. I'm still fairly happy with how
the factory system sounds with +4 bass and -5 treble. If anything it is still
a little bright. I'm pretty optimistic that with the 3sixty.2 I will be able to
make the factory speakers sound acceptable.

It's hard to beat the iPod in the car. It's hard not to love having 300+ CDs
in Apple Lossless on something that fits in your pocket.

The connectors arrived and I'm neck deep in the install.

I contemplated having someone else do it, but all I had to do
was talk with someone that does installs and it cured me.
He probably would have drilled into my gas tank ;-)

He couldn't seem to grasp that the Porsche amp was already
accepting speaker level inputs so it would be ok to take the
speaker level outputs from the new amps and feed them to
it. He kept calling it "double amp'ing." :-)

So I went home and started building cables!

I'm planning to take some pictures.

Finally, I got everything connected tonight.

It all worked immediately! I love it when that happens.

Interesting, it sounded just like the factory system to me, so the amps
themselves made no significant difference.

So, then I started to play with the equalizer. First I did the OEM setup
which is supposed to flatten any equalization from the head unit.
Interestingly, it didn't have to do much, the output from the head unit is
actually pretty flat. I'll post a screen-shot soon. So, it still sounds pretty
bad and that means the blame goes squarely to the speakers as
configured. I don't think there is anything so bad about the speakers. It is
more the fact that they are grossly mismatched and obviously have very
different sensitivity and probably sloppy overlapping frequency ranges.

I started to twiddle with the equalizer bands and it became very clear,very
quickly, that it is going to be able to fix everything to my liking.
It only took me a second to find the bands that took the harshness out
of vocals immediately and a nice boost to the bass bands brought that
driver's volume up high enough to pair with the other drivers.

I do think the equalizer gadget is going to do what I want. It sure would
be nice to have a good microphone and a spectrum analyzer to make setting
the equalizer more straightforward. I'm going to see if I can come up with
some software and a mic that will help me really flatten the response out.

I downloaded a Spectrum Analyzer from TrueAudio and started playing
with it this morning. I'm just using the mic in my laptop, so I don't think it
is all that accurate, but I'm still making progress. To say the response
is peeky in some areas is an understatement. There is a resonance
somewhere between 100 and 200 Hz that is causing the "boom." There are
other areas causing the shrillness. My first pass with the analyzer still seems
a little deficient in bass and too bright but nonetheless 10X better than
what comes from the factory. The tweeters are more efficient than
midrange and way more efficient than the woofers. Clearly it is why the
system sounds like ****.

I'm still left with a project for this weekend. I have only stuffed all the
parts into the DVD space. I need to get that all mounted.

I've been driving around with a really good sounding sound system for over
a week now and what a difference! I'm not much of a shutter bug, but
I will get a few pictures to post today.

The 3sixty.2 equalizer let me fix everything that was wrong with the "Sound
System Plus." As suspected, it required the full +10 db to -10 db range. The
base system is just that far out of whack!

Using the spectrum analyzer software proved invaluable. I was able to set
everything to my satisfaction just using the mic in my laptop.

The sound quality is to the point that my only complaint is the occasional
bit of distortion I hear coming out of the iPod. I can hear this on headphones
too so the car components are not the problem. I suspect the bass is flat
to around 60 Hz which wouldn't please the big-sub crowd but is fine for me.

The Porsche sound system definitely requires the flexibility of the 3sixty.2
to fix the sound. The 3sixty.1 would not be able to do the job. I was able
to use the 3sixty as the remote turn-on for the amps which saved a run of
wire from the head unit.

Some discoveries:

Running the wires was much easier than I thought. The battery slides over
and makes for easy access to the passageway. The DVD/CD Changer
location is pretty perfect because the wire run from the battery and dash
is very short. It does get pretty hot up there, so I am trying to install
a 3" fan later today.

The speakers in the car are certainly capable of sounding good. The mistake
is that their efficiencies don't match and they aren't crossed over properly.
Certainly, the speakers in the back also mess things up. There were a
number of times with the spectrum analyzer that I had to switch over to the
rear speakers just to get the frequency band in range. I expected that they
were making the sound extra bright but I was surprised that a little bass
boost back there helped flatten things out when the front was already lifted
+10 db.

This was a little bigger project than I really wanted to get into but I am
very happy with the results.

One other tip. Don't forget, no matter how good your sound system is,
if the recording isn't well done, the sound system isn't going to fix it. There
were a few times when I was going through my collection on the iPod that
I thought something was wrong then realized it was just a bad recording
that I hadn't listened to "that up close and personal" in a while.

Porsche Sound Fixer Kit:

Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2
2 Blaupunkt THA 275 PnP Amp's
Male ISO Speaker Connector
Female ISO Speaker Connector
Lots of Speaker Wire
Power Wires for the Amps and 3sixty

Also, the Dension iPod adapter sounds and functions GREAT!
I'm installing the proclip USA iPod holder to keep the iPod in
a convenient location so that I can still lift it out of the
holster and use the controls on the iPod itself. This, to me,
is much better than any other method of iPod control in the
car that I have used. I'm using an iPod Classic so that it has
a nice BIG Screen and touch-ring.

I hope my experiences with this install will be of value to others
on this board. My install is pretty unconventional and it left
a few local installers scratching their heads. I'm very against
just ripping stuff up in a car and preferred a "minimal touch"
approach to improving the system. Most installers aren't
going to like that, but it was what I wanted, so I found
myself doing it all myself.

Steve

Thanks for the detailed write-up, sritacco! I look forward to the final touch of seeing the pictures. Maybe you would consider putting this as an article that section of the site?

Wish you were closer so I could give it a listen!

__________________

Still no pic's, sorry. I ran out of time Saturday and I still don't have
the equipment mounted permanently. I did manage to get the interior all
put back together and the ProClip attached. I think it is a nice solution.
It's a little sad for any passenger's left knee ;-) but not my problem.