Planet 9

My new-to-me '06 Cayman S has the $950 Bose surround system. I don't listen much, preferring the sound of the Six-Cylinder Symphony (as someone here called it, and for which I thank you very much), but when I do, I find the system very thick sounding, with way too much upper-bass and lower-midrange energy. With the bass control at --, male voices sound VERY heavy and even female voices sound too 'rich', so I always have the bass cut, sometimes to -9. An Audi enthusiast told me that the Bose systems in Audis and VWs have some sort of equalizer built into the nonconsumer menus of the unit. Anyone know of such in the Cayman system?

A lo-tech-but-effective solution would be to add to the bass driver a low-pass inductor with a filter point of about 50HZ, but that's a last resort.

I just got an '06 CS with bose too.

Try this link: Bose Sound System - My Articles

You need to find a bag of poly pillow batting. I think my wife got it a Jo-Ann Fabric store. Or maybe a craft store. A bag of it is about five bucks.

Then, remove the center slat of the "vent port of your sub on the passenger's side of the floor. Pull up on the middle bottom part. It just snaps in and out.

Then follow the instructions. It's simple and it solves the Bose problem. It's a pretty nice sounding stereo after you do this.

Bose put a version of accoustic wave in a plastic box down there. The fix is that you stuff the box with the batting to kill the mucked up bass which kills the sound. The guy who came up with this is some sort of sound engineer. He even says to put a cap over the thing, but I think it sounds really good with just the batting. It takes 20 minutes once you have the tools (a ratchet, an extension and two small torx bits for them, and the batting.

Seems the Bose unit was designed for the Boxster with the top down or something. This fixes the problem. I like listening now. You can put bass and treble flat and turn on Surround and AudioPilot and crank it. Music is just MUCH better with tight, controlled bass that lets the other sounds come through clearly, for under $10.

-Six

Nah, the Bose unit in the Boxster is located up on top of the engine. The location used in the Cayman is the same as in the 911 and 911 Carerra.

Bose just did a crappy job. I hated the way my system sounded when I got the car. Had Reus Audio fix it.

Elsai:

Reus looks like a quality house and I'm sure they do excellent work. Don't mean to take anything away from that, but a little pillow stuffing in the sub makes a huge difference in the standard Bose system.

It's not high end audio but very listenable for those who's budget has been used up buying the car. This fix only costs about $10 and that's if you don't already have the stuffing.

I would love to have one of their systems in my car, but it's 2500 miles from here and I think I can now get by just find with the Bose...at least for a while.

I've got the live Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" CD that I would never have tried on the Bose before this. It sounds terrific now. Makes the drive into the city a lot more fun.

-Six

Have you turned off the surround sound and audio pilot? I find the Bose system sounds much better with these gimics turned off, especially the surround sound.

__________________
’08 Cayman S, 6 Speed, PASM, Sport Chrono, Sport Seats & Steering Wheel, 19” Carrera Sport Wheels, PCM, Bose, Xenon, plus some other stuff not worth mentioning

Guys:

Your living in darkness!!! If you have to turn off Surround, it's obvious to me that you haven't tried stuffing the subwoofer. Doing that makes a remarkable improvement. Read the procedure. If you don't feel confident mechanically to do this, find a friend or tech to do it. It really makes a very big difference.

-TB

The subwoofer reads Carrera 911 Cabriolet and was designed for the larger cabin of the 911 and in this case the cobvertible. Muff the Bose - you are gonna like compared to dropping big bucks to replace the system alltogether.

__________________
VIDS
Cayman Turbo 520HP

You can get Acousta-Stuf at PartsExpress.com for about $20 including shipping. I've found, in stereo systems I've installed, this works better than pillow stuffing at extending deep bass response and cleaning up muddy mid-bass. It's fine to just pack it (loosely but firmly) into the subwoofer enclosure. This will also work on a Boxster, Carrera, or any other vehicle with a subwoofer.

Here's the link: Parts-Express.com:*Acousta-Stuf Polyfill 1 lb. Bag | sound dampening sound polyfill fiber enclosures enclosure dampening cabinet_damping

Best of luck!